[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcing Howie Fung as Director of Product Development

Mon Jan 30 22:04:44 UTC 2012

This is great news. Congratulations, Howie.   SJ

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 8:03 PM, Howie Fung <hfung at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Thanks everyone!  I'm really looking forward to continuing to work with the
> community & Foundation on some cool and important stuff!
>
> If anyone has any questions about the product group (e.g., what to expect,
> how it's organized, how we work with the community and other groups),
> please drop me a line.
>
> Howie
>
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 10:32 AM, Thehelpfulone <thehelpfulonewiki at gmail.com
>> wrote:
>
>> On 30 January 2012 18:26, Patricia Pena <ppena at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>
>> > Congrats, Howie!
>> >
>> > On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 10:07 AM, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > > Hello all,
>> > >
>> > > It’s with great pleasure that I announce the promotion of Howie Fung
>> > > to the position of Director of Product Development at the Wikimedia
>> > > Foundation, effective February 1.
>> > >
>> > > Howie joined us in October 2009 as a consultant for usability
>> > > projects, and became a permanent staff member in May 2010. Prior to
>> > > Wikimedia, Howie was Senior Product Manager at Rhapsody, where he
>> > > helped grow the music site's traffic five-fold within the the first
>> > > year on the basis of extensive customer research, including web
>> > > analytics, focus groups, user testing, and customer surveys. Prior to
>> > > that, Howie was Product Manager at eBay, prioritizing features based
>> > > on business objectives, usability studies, and economic impact.  He
>> > > has an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA and a Bachelor of Science
>> > > in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University.
>> > >
>> > > I’m really proud of all the work Howie’s done for Wikimedia since he’s
>> > > joined, calmly and rationally introducing method where there was
>> > > madness, always challenging us to increase our understanding of our
>> > > communities and to use our limited resources for the projects that are
>> > > likely to have the highest impact. In addition to the work he’s done
>> > > on the Usability Initiative, he’s worked on a variety of projects,
>> > > including the Editor Trends Study, the Former Contributors Survey, the
>> > > Article Feedback Tool, Moodbar, and the Feedback Dashboard.  We’re
>> > > very lucky to have him in this new role.
>> > >
>> > > This announcement also means that we’re formally establishing a
>> > > Product Development department at Wikimedia, which is part of the
>> > > larger Engineering department. Product, in our context, means really
>> > > digging into what we want our projects to look like in a year, in two
>> > > years, in three years, and working together with software developers
>> > > and architects, as well as across Wikimedia, to make that vision a
>> > > reality.  Our work will be organized along the following product
>> > > areas: Editor Engagement, Mobile, Analytics, and
>> > > Internationalization/Localization.
>> > >
>> > > The following staff and contractors will be part of the Product group,
>> > > going forward: Phil Chang, Brandon Harris, Fabrice Florin, Diederik
>> > > van Liere, Siebrand Mazeland, Dario Taraborelli, Oliver Keyes, and the
>> > > new Interaction Designer, when hired.
>> > >
>> > > The Mobile team, which works on both mobile apps (such as the
>> > > Wikipedia Android app) and the mobile web experience, is a good
>> > > example of how this works in practice. It has Phil as a product owner
>> > > (reporting to Howie), Tomasz as a scrum master and engineering
>> > > director, and Patrick, Arthur, Max, and Yuvi as engineers (reporting
>> > > to Tomasz). The team itself is the most important unit here: it drives
>> > > the success of any given initiative. The connection into the Product
>> > > Development group helps to ensure we follow a consistent strategy and
>> > > coordinate efforts across the board. [1]
>> > >
>> > > This is an important step in our organizational development and will
>> > > help us parallelize and coordinate product and engineering work more
>> > > effectively.
>> > >
>> > > Please join me in congratulating Howie, and WMF. :-)
>> > >
>> > > All best,
>> > >
>> > > Erik
>> > >
>> > > [1]  In case you’d like to learn more about agile product development
>> > > and software engineering, this presentation is a good intro to scrum,
>> > > a specific methodology we've started to use on a couple of teams:
>> > >
>> >
>> http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/presentations/30-an-overview-of-scrum
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > Erik Möller
>> > > VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
>> > >
>> > > Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>> > >
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately
>> > > directed to Foundation-L, the public mailing list about the Wikimedia
>> > > Foundation and its projects. For more information about Foundation-L:
>> > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list
>> > > WikimediaAnnounce-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>> > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
>> > >
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > foundation-l mailing list
>> > > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>> > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>> > >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Pats Pena | Global Fundraising Operations Manager
>> > Wikimedia Foundation
>> > office +1 (415) 839 6885 x6764
>> > cell:   +1 (415) 816 3349
>> > fax: +1 (415) 284 9511
>> >
>> > Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
>> > the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
>> >
>> > http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > foundation-l mailing list
>> > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>> >
>>
>> Congratulations Howie, and Happy
>> Birthday<
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Wikimedians_by_birthday&diff=35118&oldid=34909
>> >
>> Erik!
>> :)
>> --
>> Thehelpfulone
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone
>> English Wikipedia Administrator
>> Accounts-enwiki-l Moderator
>> _______________________________________________
>> foundation-l mailing list
>> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

-- 
Samuel Klein          identi.ca:sj           w:user:sj          +1 617 529 4266