Last year, I published a blog post requesting feedback from contributors on how to improve the contributor journey of WordPress. The post, which garnered insightful feedback, was followed up by an innovative session on Five for the Future at the recent WordPress Community Summit. What follows below are actionable recommendations for our program based on Community Summit discussions to achieve our collective goal of making the WordPress contributor experience the best it can be.
Effort Impact Analysis
In view of our contributors’ precious volunteer time, we can only implement the most impactful ideas from Summit Discussions. Experienced Five for the Future contributors @nao and @jeffpaul joined me to find answers to this problem by diving deep into the Community Summit Discussion notes and dividing them into four sections as the first step: increasing program awareness, matching contributors with projects, improving participation, and addressing problems. We then rearranged the discussion points based on these action items in the following Google Doc for clarity.
Next, we further divided the ideas into four discrete categories: Process Improvement, Visualization, Sponsorship (of contributors by companies), and Mentorship. We then listed all the ideas (and their corresponding categories) in an ‘Effort Impact Matrix graph’ with ‘Effort’ on the X-axis and ‘Impact’ on the Y-axis. Last, we shortlist a final set of action items that are impactful, actionable, and can be achieved successfully in a shorter timeline. You can find a visual representation of our Effort/Impact Analysis in the image below, where different action items are listed in boxes on the quadrant where we felt they would best fit. The boxes with thick blue borders are the action items we identified as most likely to have a significant impact and are achievable in 2024. You can also find the source slide of this matrix in the following link.
Final List of Recommended Action Items
Here is our final recommended list of action items as depicted in the list below:
Process Improvement
Implement the Make/Contributor Tool into contributor recruitment for Five for the Future.
Establish constant communications with current and new pledgees to help them stay active (automated email check-ins for existing pledges and email onboarding for new pledgees)
Improve Onboarding Processes for Make/Teams – Identifying and sharing impactful projects for teams, standardizing handbooks, simplifying team handbooks, and onboarding.
Treat 5ftF Sponsorship like WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. sponsorships with similar benefits.
Sponsorship
Task-based or project-based contributor sponsorships, where companies sponsor contributor time for a certain task or project in a Make/Team.
Project/release-based contributor sponsorships where companies could sponsor external contributors for a limited time as they work on specific projects.
Visualization
Create team health dashboards for all Make/Teams, which help contributors identify impactful projects and areas that need help (Already underway).
Mentorship
To Provide dedicated mentoring and onboarding for Five for the Future companies and self-sponsored contributors.
Helping companies set up contribution teams and onboarding sponsored contributors to Make/Teams
1:1 or group mentorship to help self-sponsored contributors onboard effectively.
Next Steps and Request for Feedback
Our next steps are to incorporate feedback to refine Action Items, publish a program direction page on the Five for the Future website, and recruit contributors to focus on these items.
We would love to have your feedback before we finalize these action items and proceed toward implementing them in 2024.
Do you have any feedback on the recommended action items for Five for the Future implementation?
Which among the suggested ideas could have the highest impact, in your opinion?
Are you interested and available to help with any of the recommended action items?
Your feedback goes a long way in improving our project’s health and long-term sustainability. Please leave your comments on the post by February 7, 2024 February 16, 2024.
I am thrilled to announce the successful conclusion of the Initial Cohort of the Experimental WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program, which commenced on July 12th and concluded on August 9th, 2023. Organized by the Contributor Working Group of the WordPress Community Team, this four-week pilot initiative marked an impressive milestone in fostering the growth and involvement of contributors within the WordPress project.
The inaugural cohort had a group of 13 contributors who were selected as mentees from a pool of around 50 applicants. Out of this group, 11 contributors completed all the required courses, interacted with their mentors to learn about the program, got onboarded to Make/WordPress teams of their choice, and made their initial contributions to the WordPress project. Please join me in congratulating all our mentees who have graduated from the program!
Our mentors, mentees, and facilitators joined forces in a dedicated SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel in the Make/WordPress Slack. For the first two weeks of the program (July 12th through July 25th), our mentees learned about the project, by taking certain courses and through support from their mentors. For the next two weeks (July 26th through August 9th), they attended onboarding sessions of different Make/Teams and made some initial contributions to the WordPress project. In between, mentees also got to see a bird’s eye view of how a WordPress release works, through our dedicated shadowing and onboarding sessions supported by our facilitators and Make/Team representatives. More details can be found in our launch post.
Achievements from Our Program
Our mentees did a fantastic job as part of the mentorship program! Overall, they were quite active, going the extra mile to complete their required courses, and attending onboarding sessions, with many folks even shadowing the WordPress 6.3 release and attending team chats! Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of achievements from our cohort members.
Two members gained CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Contribution badges (@prikari and @josepmoran). @benniledl submitted his first core patch as well!
Suggested 400 translations in Danish and got involved in WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Denmark (@risager)
Actively participated in forums with 51 replies (@benniledl)
Suggested over 1200 translations in Catalan, and multiple bug reports on Learn WordPress (@josepmoran)
Suggested translations to WP 6.3 in Brazilian Portuguese (@jonnps)
Reported a Photo Directory bug and suggested 200+ translations (@necobm)
Contributed to the Documentation Team by updating a screenshot for WordPress 6.3 (@prikari)
Several contributors contributed to the Make/Training Team – @cnormandigital provided validation for two Content Feedback submissions and submitted their work too.
One of our big wins from the program was how we tried to broadcast the same towards a broader audience in the #contributor-mentorship channel of the Make/WordPress Slack, where several contributors followed-along the progress of the events and participated asynchronously in the mentorship program. The channel will continue to remain active, and we plan to use it to facilitate more public mentorship opportunities for contributors!
This program was a true group effort, with members of the WordPress Contributor Working Group working hand-in-hand to make this pilot program a reality. We faced a lot of challenges, but we all worked together to ensure a smooth contributor experience for our mentees.
Big thanks to everyone involved in making this program a huge success!
We will be asking our mentees and mentors to fill out a survey to learn about their experience participating in the program. The working group is currently working with our mentors to help mentees optionally create a contribution plan to sustain the momentum they have gained from the program to keep making ongoing contributions to the project. The working group also aims to check in with mentees later this year to see how they are doing with their contributor journeys.
Our work is far from over. The contributor working group will continue its monthly chats, and will continue its work on improving the contributor pipeline for WordPress. Going by the success of this cohort, we also aim to start working on the next iteration of our program. Stay tuned for more updates!
TL;DR: This proposal suggests establishing a Make Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (“DEIB”) team within the WordPress community to enhance and support the existing DEIB initiatives. Building upon the tireless work of fellow community members, this new team would provide a more structured and coordinated approach towards ensuring that all community members feel valued, included, and able to contribute to their full potential within the safety of our code of conduct.
This team aims to be a shared resource to all other Make WordPress teams. The team’s roles and responsibilities include broadening representation, cultivating an inclusive culture, promoting equitable opportunities, facilitating collaboration, and continuous assessment and improvement. The team will work towards clear objectives and tangible outcomes, such as increased representation, improved inclusivity, and increased access to opportunities.
Update
As we work towards establishing an official DEIB team, a new channel on Making WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. serves as a collaborative space for all members of the working group.
Whether you’re here to contribute to the ongoing efforts or simply to observe and learn, we’re glad to have you with us.
Please join #deib-working-group and collaborate on GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/DEIB Project Tracker
The Why
As an active contributing member of the WordPress community for over a decade, I have witnessed the need for a more structured approach to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) within our community. Although my background doesn’t include formal academic training in DEIB, my extensive firsthand experiences and keen observations have shaped my deep understanding in this area. I have faced setbacks, and seen fellow community members experience discrimination and ignorance. These experiences have motivated me to develop this proposal.
While several teams within the community promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), there is a need for a more structured and coordinated approach to these efforts in support of the whole project. A formal DEIB team would provide this structure, enhancing the existing initiatives and filling gaps where needed.
Acknowledgements: Before delving into the proposal, it is important to acknowledge and thank all the community members who have dedicated their time and skills to raise awareness and educate about DEIB. Their tireless work has laid a strong foundation for the generations and iterations to come within the WordPress community. Thank you!
The How: Proposed Role and Responsibilities
The Make DEIB team could become a shared resource to other Make teams, and could include the following roles and responsibilities:
Broaden Representation: The DEIB team would work to ensure that all members of the WordPress community, regardless of their background, have a voice and feel included. This could involve outreach to underrepresented groups, efforts to make the community more welcoming and inclusive, and initiatives to promote diversity in leadership roles.
Cultivate an Inclusive Culture: The DEIB team would work to create a culture where everyone feels valued and included. This could involve training and education on DEIB issues, efforts to promote respectful and inclusive communication, and initiatives to celebrate the diversity of the WordPress community.
Promote Equitable Opportunities: The DEIB team would work to ensure that opportunities within the WordPress community are accessible to all. This could involve efforts to make training and education opportunities more inclusive, initiatives to promote equitable access to resources, and work to ensure that all community members have the opportunity to contribute and participate.
Facilitate Collaboration: The DEIB team would work closely with other teams within the WordPress community to coordinate DEIB efforts. This could involve sharing resources, collaborating on initiatives, and promoting DEIB across the community.
Continuous Assessment and Improvement: The DEIB team would implement regular assessments of DEIB initiatives and make necessary improvements. This could involve collecting and analyzing data on DEIB efforts, seeking feedback from the community, and making changes based on this feedback.
For a more detailed discussion of these roles and responsibilities, please check out the white paper for the proposed Make Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (“DEIB”) Team by clicking the button below:
Enhancing and Supporting Existing DEIB Initiatives
The DEIB team would work closely with other Make WordPress teams, working groups, and initiatives that touch on DEIB topics, and leverage existing work to support the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project.
Objectives and Tangible Outcomes:
The DEIB team would have clear objectives and tangible outcomes, particularly regarding the identified gaps and overlaps. These could include:
Increased Representation: Measurable increase in the representation of underrepresented groups within the WordPress community, particularly in leadership roles.
Improved Inclusivity: Measurable improvements in the inclusivity of the WordPress community, as indicated by community surveys or other feedback.
Increased Access to Opportunities: Measurable increase in the accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) of opportunities within the WordPress community, such as training and education opportunities.
Effective Collaboration: Evidence of effective collaboration with other teams within the WordPress community, such as shared initiatives or resources.
Continuous Improvement: Regular assessments of DEIB initiatives and evidence of improvements based on these assessments.
Mid-Term Strategy for the DEIB Team:
Over the next 3-5 years, the DEIB team will focus on several key strategic initiatives to achieve its mission and vision:
Develop DEIB Guidelines: We will develop comprehensive DEIB guidelines for the WordPress community. These guidelines will provide clear expectations and best practices for promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within the community.
Implement DEIB Training: We will implement and enhance existing DEIB training for all members of the WordPress community. This training will educate community members about the importance of DEIB and provide them with the tools and knowledge they need to promote these principles in their work and interactions.
Establish DEIB Metrics: We will establish clear metrics for measuring the success of our DEIB efforts. These metrics will help us track our progress, identify areas for improvement, and ensure that we are effectively promote DEIB within the community.
Promote Diverse Leadership: We will launch initiatives to promote diverse leadership within the WordPress community. This could include mentorship programs, leadership training for underrepresented groups, and efforts to ensure diverse representation in decision-making processes.
Enhance Community Engagement: We will enhance community engagement by creating opportunities for all community members to contribute to DEIB efforts. This could include community forums, DEIB working groups, and opportunities for feedback and input on DEIB initiatives.
Collaborate with Existing Teams: We will work closely with existing teams within the WordPress project to coordinate and enhance DEIB efforts. This will help to ensure that DEIB is integrated into all aspects and that our efforts are aligned and complementary.
By focusing on these initiatives, the DEIB team can help to ensure that the WordPress community is a place where everyone feels valued, included, and able to contribute to their full potential.
By establishing a formal DEIB team, the WordPress community can enhance its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, ensuring that all community members feel valued, included, and able to contribute to their full potential within the safety of our community code of conduct.
I invite all community members to provide feedback, thoughts, and suggestions on this proposal. Your input is invaluable as we work together towards a more inclusive and diverse WordPress community. Together, we can achieve more. Please leave your thoughts and feedback as a comment on the proposal below.
Update: The Contributor Mentorship Program Pilot is no longer accepting new applications, since we are past our June 30th deadline. We received an overwhelming response for our pilot, and the contributor working group is extremely thankful to all our contributors for this response. We will be reaching out to all applicants over the course of the next few days!
Interested in contributing to WordPress, and want to start your contributor journey with the help of veteran contributors? Join the brand new WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program to gain the necessary skills and guidance that will help you become a successful contributor in the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project!
Participants (mentees) will asynchronously work together in a cohort with a group of mentors to build a strong foundation in the WordPress project and make initial contributions to the contributor team of their choice. This will be made possible through cohort-based and personalized 1:1 mentorship, guided courses, and live online workshops. The program aims to:
Inspire you to contribute your talents to WordPress.
Help you navigate the ins and outs of the WordPress project.
Provide you with the necessary guidance to thrive in your contributions and careers.
Ensure you are aware of opportunities, limitations, and tasks within the various WordPress contributor teams.
Upskill you through hands-on experience with open source contributions.
Enhance your career prospects by fostering networking, mentorship, and open source contributions.
Connect you with a global network of talented contributors, fostering friendships and professional relationships.
Provide you a chance to directly support more than 40% of the web. 😊
Here is a flowchart that briefly explains how the program looks like:
Sign up now!
This program is open to everyone, irrespective of your skill-level, knowledge, experience, or any other socially identifying criteria!
Want to participate in this mentorship program? Fill out this form to express interest in joining our first cohort which starts on July 12th, 2023 (Wednesday)! Application Deadline: June 30th 2023 (Friday), 23:59 UTC. Sign-ups for the pilot program are now closed, since we are well past the deadline. Selected participants will be informed over email by July 5th, 2023.
But wait, there is more! Read on to get all the details about the program and find out how you can participate along with other details about the program!
I’m excited to announce that the contributor working group has now prepared a first draft for a project-wide mentorship program! Read on to find out more.
What is the Contributor Mentorship Program?
The Contributor Mentorship Program aims to provide cohort-based and 1:1 mentorship to new and aspiring contributors. The program is intended as a pathway to help new contributors find their way into WordPress contributions.
It aims to set new contributors up for success by providing them the necessary guidance, skills, and knowledge around the project and helping them make their first contributions.
In its ideal form, the program will:
Help and inspire its participants to make ongoing contributions to the WordPress project
Explain the different areas of contribution in the WordPress project to participants
Help participants to successfully select their area of participation in the WordPress project
Provide necessary guidance and community connections that will help participants be successful with their contributions
Help participants find success in their career through successful open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. contributions
A Brief Overview of the Program Plan
The flowchart below offers a high-level pictorial representation of the program flow, which I have tried to explain in brief through this post. A detailed description of the program can also be found in its white paper prepared jointly by the working group.
A call for mentees (participants) goes out and from the pool of applicants, 10 mentees are selected (primarily new contributors). Mentors are handpicked from a pool of experienced contributors and working group members. Selected mentees and mentors answer a pre-event survey to gauge their knowledge, interest in contribution areas, and confidence-levels. Mentors will receive specific guidance on guiding mentees through the program.
We invite all Make/Teams to take active part in this initiative to bring contributors to their respective teams. Interested teams can propose their team members as mentors to the program.
A short cohort of new contributors (not more than 10 mentees) and experienced contributors (not less than five mentors) are to be brought together in a dedicated space (potentially a SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel in Make/WordPress) to work together for a certain period (about four weeks or one month)
During this time, mentees will learn pre-prepared training material (existing contributor courses in Learn WordPress).
Each mentee will be assigned a mentor depending on multiple factors such as their locale, time zones, contribution interest, etc. Mentors and mentees will have at least two 1:1 mentoring sessions (over text chat and/or video) throughout the course of the mentorship.
Additionally, the group will have at least three group mentoring sessions on broad contribution topics (over text or video). Each week, mentees will also report their progress in the Slack channel and will have the space to interact with each other too.
Once mentees are done with the broad contributor training courses in Learn WordPress (ideally in the first two weeks of the mentorship program), they work with mentors to identify contributor teams of their choice (if not clear already before joining the program) and go on to make a certain number of contributions (depending on the team they select). They will have completed these contributions by the end of the mentorship program. Optionally, should they wish to, mentees will create a three-month contribution and learning plan with their chosen mentor.
Once all the courses and training sessions are complete, and once mentees have made their initial contributions, they graduate from the program, and the mentorship program wraps up. Mentees will be recognized for their contributions in public on an official WordPress space.
Once the program concludes, Mentees will continue working with the Make/Team(s) of their choice, and will be connected to multiple team members from their chosen team for ongoing guidance as they continue their contributor journey.
Post-wrap-up, mentees can continue to reach out to their cohort and mentors for ongoing guidance and support.
To find out about the proposed mentorship program in detail, please check out its white paper by clicking the button below:
The program will be considered extremely successful if:
At least 80% of the participants of the initial cohort graduate from the program (they complete the course, required lessons, make their initial contributions, and create their three-month plan)
At least 50% of the participants make ongoing contributions to WordPress as per their contribution plan, three months after completing the mentorship program
Other areas to measure impact:
Improved confidence after the mentorship program (measured through surveys)
Improved knowledge after the mentorship program (measured through surveys)
Feeling of belonging and commitment to WordPress (measured through surveys)
Action Items and Request for Feedback
Request to Make/Teams: The contributor working group invites Make/WordPress Teams to join our pilot program as mentors. If you contribute to a Make/Team and wish to be involved in building this program, please express your interest in the comments.
First of all, what do you think about this program in its current form? Please share your feedback in the comments of this post.
You will notice that this post only explains the program in brief. The working group has prepared a white paper that explains the program in detail. Please review it and share your feedback – either as comments in the document or as comments on this blog post.
Does this program excite you? Would you like to be a part of building a mentorship program for WordPress? We could use your help – Join the WordPress Contributor Working Group – participate in one of our mentorship chats, comment on this post expressing your interest, or pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” me in Make/WordPress Slack (I‘m @harishanker over there).
Big thanks to all members of the contributor working group in helping draft this proposal!
In January 2023, I published a blog post requesting feedback from the community on the contributor journey for the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project. There was extensive feedback from contributors around the world who identified gaps in the WordPress contribution flow. Upon analyzing the comments, two major action items stood out as potential solutions to fix these gaps:
To improve the overall onboarding process in the WordPress project
To offer more mentorship opportunities in WordPress
WordPress is an open source project that relies heavily on its community of volunteer contributors for its existence. Better onboarding and more mentorship opportunities will go a long way in fostering a vibrant community of committed volunteer contributors. By offering direct support for such contributors, we provide them with a unique learning opportunity that will help them grow as both leaders in the project and professionals in their fields while helping WordPress succeed.
To achieve this goal, I propose a project-wide WordPress contributor mentorship program that aims to empower new and aspiring contributors by helping them succeed in (and with) the project through mentorship.
This initial concept was born out of past discussions with contributors and feedback from the contributor journey blog post. Mentorship in WordPress is not a radically new idea – it has been discussed several times in past community summits and was formally proposed a few years back (in the form of an onboarding team). While the idea did not get a lot of traction in the past, feedback from contributors makes me feel that the time is right to launch such a program. I strongly feel that it will help us build the next generation of WordPress leaders we need to take our project forward through the future. This also ties to one of the big-picture goals for WordPress in 2023, which is to “Establish contributor and mentor programs.”
There are so many moving parts to any mentorship program and several factors that should be considered in order to make it happen. For starters, what will mentorship look like in WordPress? What kind of support do new contributors need? What type of mentorship works best? How can such an idea create a long-term impact? So many questions! Clearly, the idea behind a contributor mentorship program is complex. It should be a cross-team effort and needs the broader support of our global community to make it happen.
A dedicated working group will be needed for a project-wide WordPress contributor mentorship program. To that end, if this proposal moves forward, I’d love to revive the Contributor Working Group under the Make/Community Team.
The working group was founded in September 2020 and led by the amazing @amethystanswers. The group, with an original focus on improving the onboarding process, enhancing new contributor experience, and coordinating with Make/Teams, did a lot of good work such as suggesting improved onboarding flows, and organizing online contributor day events, even as the world struggled from the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope to build on the excellent contributions of the group and its members to kick off work on creating a contributor mentorship program for WordPress and finding ways to improve our onboarding flow.
Request for Feedback
What are your thoughts on a Mentorship program for WordPress?
Assuming this proposal gets support from the community, what would we need to make such a mentorship program successful?
What are your thoughts on restarting the contributor working group?
And finally – would you like to be a part of this working group to help build a mentorship program for WordPress?
Please share your feedback in the comments by F̶e̶b̶r̶u̶a̶r̶y̶ ̶2̶0̶,̶ ̶2̶0̶2̶3̶ February 27, 2023.
As part of our ongoing discussion around improving the contributor journey, I recently asked a few folks their thoughts on Eternal September in open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL.. More specifically, I wondered:
What makes it difficult for our seasoned contributors to mentor new contributors in the open source project?
What happens for existing contributors when we have an influx of new contributors?
Where are the pain points for existing contributors when we bring in new contributors?
Some Initial Thoughts
There were a lot of interesting responses, but there we a few common threads I heard:
Lack of Clarity
It’s hard for existing contributors don’t know a new contributor is in their onboarding, and therefore also hard to see if they are stuck or what could get them unstuck.
Lack of Skills
The primary work for teams is focused, i.e., marketing, coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., etc. Welcoming and teaching new contributors is a different skill set from those specific focuses. And ever after accounting for that skills gap, there are unspoken cultural norms to get work looked at and moved forward which takes time and observation to learn, rather than task-oriented training.
Lack of Certainty
No matter whether a new contributor makes a single contribution or returns regularly over the coming months, the time required to make sure they have their bearings is the same. This creates tension among team members/existing contributors—they wonder whether they should prioritize existing work (new contributions) or training/support for new contributors.
What do you think?
I’d like your thoughts on the questions I posed above, but I’d also like you to consider this:
If we believe that speed of feedback on a contribution is key to helping a casual contributor become a regular contributor, then what would a good first contribution experience look like for a mentor?
The WordPress project has made great strides this year thanks to its contributors. As WordPress enters an exciting new era of growth in 2023, it is time to examine how Five for the Future can best support the project and the people behind it.
This post shares research on the contributor journey for individuals and organizations committed to the Five for the Future initiative. Your feedback will be valuable in further refining the contribution experience for pledged contributors.
Self-sponsored Contributors and Pledging
At this time, individual self-sponsored contributors can edit their wordpress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ profiles to update and share the number of contribution hours per week towards their chosen contributor teams. However, after pledging contribution time towards their respective teams, the onus is on the contributors to follow up on their commitments. Below is a flowchart representing the current contributor journey for self-sponsored contributors in Five for the Future.
As depicted in the flowchart, many contributors pledging their time to Five for the Future tend to drop off. Based on conversations with contributors, I identified some reasons why this may be happening:
Self-sponsored contributors do not get any direction on navigating the project or identifying contributor teams.
There is no onboarding for self-sponsored contributors pledging their time to the Make/Teams of their choice.
Making the first contribution can require a lot of coaching and guidance, which is currently not available to self-sponsored contributors.
Pledged contributors frequently do not get any additional guidance or support on making ongoing contributions to the project.
There is a lack of clarity on what constitutes a Five for the Future contribution.
When a contributor making a recurring time commitment to a big project like WordPress lacks guidance on how they can honor their commitment, their contributions could stagnate. In other words, at this time, the journey of a pledged contributor is not very much different from a non-pledged contributor.
Companies and Pledging
Companies have a more nuanced relationship with Five for the Future. They are listed on the Five for the Future website with dedicated profiles, which include lists of the Make/Teams they contribute to, linked contributors, and the total number of hours pledged. However, like individual contributors, once a company commits time and resources to Five for the Future, they frequently also lack direction or guidance on contributing.
You will find below a flowchart representation of the current contributor journey for companies. As you can see below, in an ideal world, when a company pledges to Five for the Future, they should go on to make ongoing contributions to WordPress and build a mutually successful relationship. At this time, companies have to figure out the nuances of contributions themselves and put in extra effort to provide ongoing contributions to the project. If they are unable to get that support, their contributions could stagnate.
Companies and organizations that have grown alongside WordPress or that already have experienced contributors may be able to navigate through the process more efficiently. However, many companies in the program (especially newer companies) could have a tough time figuring out WordPress contributions. Some of the issues faced by Five for the Future companies include:
Lack of guidance on the next steps after pledging (Ex: How can a company start contributing to a Make/Team – example, Make/CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. or Make/AccessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility))
Missing direction for companies navigating their Five for the Future contributions (Ex: How does a company build a Five for the Future strategy? How do they effectively make contributions as a company? Are contributions aligned with company goals and WordPress project goals?)
Significantly less ongoing support for their contributor journey.
Little or no awareness of how companies can benefit from Five for the Future
These issues could potentially lead to some companies reducing the quantum of contributions or even dropping off the program.
How Can We Improve the Five for the Future Contributor Journey?
As @chanthaboune mentions in Episode 35 of the WordPress Podcast, Five for the Future intends to foster “generous collaboration toward the long term health and stability of our project for the future.” While the program has made great strides since its formal launch in 2019, starting the journey to the next iteration of Five for the Future will make that vision a reality. With improved onboarding and better cross-team communication between companies and contributors, that reality will also enjoy an unmatched contributor experience that benefits both the WordPress project and contributors alike.
What do you think about the existing contributor journey? What are our successes and pain points?
How can we improve the contributor journey for Five for the Future contributors and sponsoring companies?
What more can Five for the Future do to help its contributors?
How can Five for the Future contributors best support Make/WordPress Teams?
Please share with us in the comments on this post! Your feedback will go a long way in shaping the contributor experience of our favorite open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project.
Additionally, if you are an existing WordPress or Five for the Future contributor or work closely with Make/WordPress Team, @angelasjin and I would love to chat with you. Please express your interest in the comments of this post, pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.”@angelasjin or myself (@harishanker) in the Make/WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/., or simply drop a mail to getinvolved@wordpress.org so that we can schedule a conversation based on your availability.
Participation in Five for the Future means consistent effort by an individual or a company via a Make WordPress team to directly support the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project and the project’s current big ideas, rather than the sole benefit of a company or individual.
Another important iteration to the 5ftF program is identifying and recording contributions made; this will help Make Teams follow activity and progress (dashboards, anyone?!) and support all WordPress contributors to recognize all the great work achieved.
Of course, there is much, much more activity to celebrate. This is where I would like your input. Based on the definition we now have of 5ftF contributions, what other activity, specific to a Make Team or across multiple teams, should be recognized and recorded? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
After reading through some of this post’s comments, I think it might be useful to re-articulate the hopes behind the discussion.
The end goal is to find ways to automate contribution props, so that no one has to either spend huge amounts of time before their contributions are noted or find ways to contribute to the most time intensive props opportunities, major releases and major WordCamps. The end goal is to distribute props more equitably and more consistently by taking out the subjectivity of human review, not to make individual contributions somehow less valuable.
The first step for automation is, of course, documenting what you have and what you mean, hence my use of the word “define.” ~Josepha
In recent months, the Five for the Future (5ftF) program has improved to make it more reliable and useful when it comes to tracking impact and success. An example of this is the work being done to reduce the number of spam and dormant Five for the Future pledges and give more credit to non-code contributions.
To support such efforts, it’s also important to build a shared understanding for how the Five for the Future program works.
The WordPress project thrives because of the generous contributions in time and resources from people and companies across the globe. A portion of contributions are made in the form of Five for the Future pledges from individuals and organizations. They commit to giving back to the WordPress project by contributing a goal of at least five-percent of their time (or resources) consistently via the Make WordPress teams. By joining together in giving, we make WordPress stronger.
Participation in Five for the Future means consistent effort by an individual or a company via a Make WordPress team to directly support the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project and the project’s current big ideas, rather than the sole benefit of a company or individual. Simply put, Five for the Future exists to collaboratively invest in the health of the WordPress project, ensuring its long-term sustainability and success.
What makes a contribution a 5ftF contribution?
Some contributions are easy to sort through and agree on; we see them happening, props are given with them already, and we understand how they help make WordPress better. Contributions of code to CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. or the apps, translations through Polyglots, forum management with Support, organizing WordPress-centric events, and many other main focuses of Make WordPress teams.
But other contributions are in a grey area. For those, it’s important to look at not only whether they move WordPress forward, but also whether it helps the community of contributors work in a sustainable way and whether the contributions can be done consistently over time.
Some examples of grey area contributions that do fit the 5ftF definition include: maintaining WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, WordCamp.org, or Rosetta networks; adding or editing official WordPress documentation, training, or communications; speaking at WordPress Meetups and WordCamps; and maintaining or moderating official repos (plugins, themes, photos, WPTV, et al).
Examples of grey area contributions that do not fit the 5ftF definition include: creating WordPress websites, creating WordPress themes, plugins, or blocks (including those that are listed in WordPress.org), and providing support solely to third-party WordPress themes or plugins. These activities are critical to extending the reach and utility of the WordPress project, but they are not considered part of making Five for the Future commitments.
There are many important efforts and lots of incredible work performed outside of WordPress.org and Make Teams. While these are indispensable activities that further the WordPress ecosystem, Five for the Future is about ensuring that the WordPress project continues to be a fertile foundation for WordPress extenders and users.
What do you think of this definition? Share your feedback in the comments below.
