User:STei (WMF)/Designing a new Community Wishlist Survey

Hello Signpost readers! I am Jack Wheeler, I’m excited to introduce myself as Wikimedia Foundation’s Lead Community Tech Manager responsible for the Future of the Community Wishlist Survey.

The Community Wishlist Survey is an annual survey that has enabled contributors to the Wikimedia projects to propose and vote for tools and platform improvements since 2015.

Following community feedback, I have been tasked to lead the design of a new Wishlist that is continuous, better integrated into annual planning, and can efficiently handle the intake of community-submitted technical problems. The new Wishlist is expected to be piloted by July 2024, and your input is needed.

So far, I’ve learned a lot about the Community Wishlist Survey in my few weeks with the Foundation, especially the fact, that the Wikimedia Movement’s greatest asset are its communities, you.

I have also learned that:


 * The Wishlist represents a diverse audience; voters from 227 communities have participated, and as the Wishlist evolves, it should still serve the needs of different groups.
 * We need to make it easier for anyone to submit a wish, 365 days a year, and let volunteers have a voice on what’s important.
 * Both WMF engineering teams and volunteer developers need to be more involved in addressing wishes.
 * We need to align or incorporate the Wishlist in the Foundation’s annual plan.

I’d love to design a new Wishlist with your input. I’m kicking off a round of conversations, starting with what you would define as a wish. Is a “wish” a description of a problem, a design for a solution, or something in between?

I’d like to use this information to inform how we redesign the wish intake form so the proposer has a higher chance of success when they submit a wish. Please join the conversation to help design a better, more inclusive Wishlist together.