Participation/Lab/methodology

Learning Methodology

The Participation Lab has been developing a systematic methodology in order to measure fresh approaches to participation this quarter, which will help us test how participation can better achieve a strategic advantage for Mozilla.

Our approach in the first heartbeat is to work closely with teams who have established participation goals to help them to increase both the likelihood and quality outcome of those goals.

What we offer:

• A team with diverse expertise in developing for participation success
• We work with you to brainstorm creative solutions for achieving your goals
• Help you identify one solution to test, and turn it into a hypothesis
• Help you create a plan for executing the experiment and achieving this goal
• Ongoing help executing the plan
• Help recording and capturing results

If you are interested in entering your experiment into the Participation Lab please fill out this form here or email Emma Irwin (eirwin at mozilla dot com) or Lucy Harris (lharris at mozilla dot com).

Outline of Methodology Framework:

1. Clear Participation Goals: Starts with a clear view of what the goals are for participation within a given team or project. What would you like to change or improve with regards to participation?
2. Establish a Hypotheses: Choose a goal for which you have a clear picture of success and identify a method for achieving it that you can test. Structure it as a hypothesis: "If _____[we do this] _____, then _____[this]_____ will happen."
3. Establish Key Measures and Milestones: Identify the indicators that will change if you are succeeding and record an estimate for how they will change if your hypothesis is correct.
4. Establish Milestones: Think about what is required to set-up this project and what is a reasonable timeline for accomplishing these projects.
5. Dependencies: Identify other teams or initiatives upon which the success or progress of your experiment will be dependent.
6. Risks & Blockers: Identify any potential blockers or risks that will make it difficult for you to achieve your goals. If there is something you can do to address or avoid these pitfalls, add these actions to your milestones.
7. Evaluation: After a preliminary heartbeat the Participation Team will assist you in evaluating your success and help you decide whether to adjust, redesign or terminate the experiment.
8. Document lessons: The Participation Lab will help synthesize and document the results of your experiment.