Email idea about flow changes in Mozillians

flowyo.markdown

How we could make Mozillians signup better

OK, so Mozillians signup currently consists of many steps, but it's not as straightforward as it could be. Worse, it isn't as helpful in on-boarding new contributors as it could be. Let's examine the problems with the current system:

1. There are three "levels" of access (anonymous, unvouched, vouched), but only two of those (anonymous and vouched) are practically separated. We can't, in good conscience, give unvouched users anymore access than we give anonymous users -- the only thing they've proved is that they aren't a spam bot by confirming their email.

   Solution: We should simplify the accounts to be simply "anonymous" and "registered". Being registered ("vouched") entitles you access to information community members have marked "community-only" and allows you to display you status as a verified Mozillian to other contributors (or the world, should you so choose). That's it. In typical Mozilla fashion: everything else is open, because other than personal information, there's nothing that would wind up on the site.

2. Users find the "vouching" system strange and unfamiliar. This isn't to say vouching is unheard of, but user testing has shown that users don't understand the system as a whole. Sometimes they don't understand how to get vouched. It's confusing to sign in to a site where you can't do anything (or can only do those things you could already do as an anonymous user -- see issue #1).

   Users understand requesting access to a site (via an "invite" system or something conceptually similar). The only part we're asking them to be vouched for is information users have marked in their profile as "community-only".

   Vouching, in its current implementation, also puts the onus on the user to move forward in the contributor onboarding process. We should direct community (or group -- move on that later) stewards toward new members. Users who signal their intent to join Mozillians ("get involved") should be brought to the attention of people already in the community. After registration, the next step should not be the user's, but a community steward.

   Solution: Streamline the registration process. Ask the user solely for their email address to get started, and notify designated community stewards of their interest. This functions similarly to the "Get Involved" page on Mozilla.com (which has a noted poor track record), but differs in a few ways:

   • Virtually no spam, as users have to verify their email (BrowserID) before we email/ping the community stewards. That's a huge step up from the current "Get Involved" form.
   • We can allow the user to fill in a few groups from Mozillians as their areas of interest -- if these groups (eg. Webdev, standards, l10n) have designated contributor stewards (I know webdev does), they get notified as well. This scales well because it doesn't require any manual process if a new group with a new steward is added to Mozillians.
   • We can attach extra info to groups if the user is proactive and doesn't want to wait to get involved. If you select "webdev" as an area of interest: we show the public profiles of the stewards, IRC channels, etc., that the potential contributor can use to get started right away.
   • If the user does nothing after registration, we can still contact them via email and ask them what's up. We are seen as interested in their involvement, and the connection feels personal.

3. We want to on-board new contributors into the community, but being unvouched doesn't assist in this at all.

   Solution: See solution #2. In addition to the roadmap regarding task boards and such, simply tying into group info on Mozillians and connecting potential contributors directly with stewards in a specific community, we can help new contributors get involved with the right people earlier on. Bonus: we do this in a fairly automated fashion.

4. Especially without BrowserID, creating an account is onerous -- there are many steps, and much of it is done out-of-band. BrowserID will eliminate the need to confirm one's email, but there's still the process of finding someone to vouch for you. If you aren't a contributor/staff already, being unvouched does nothing to help you.

   Solution: Use your BrowserID as your pre-verified email (BrowserID already confirmed it). In terms of required info: that's it. Make groups ( and possibly other info, subject to UX concerns) optional and helpful, but by no means required info. The user doesn't even have to go to their inbox to express an interest in getting involved with Mozilla if they already have BrowserID.

I think we can fix this problem by re-jigging the way we approach user accounts, registration, and community management. I don't think any of these ideas fly in the face of what Mozillians sets out to do. I don't think they clash with using BrowserID on the site. And I don't think they put up artificial barriers to the community.

In case my excited, rambly wall of text doesn't make a lot of sense, allow me to illustrate the flow I'm suggesting:

Happy paths:

Potential Contributor -- Not yet involved with Mozilla

1. Find themselves at mozillians.org
2. Click a "get involved with Mozilla", "help out", "join Mozilla", etc. link
3. Supply BrowserID email 3.5 Go through BrowserID signup if no account exists
4. Optional Fill in groups (with an existing contributor steward) you're interested in.
5. Click "Get involved" -> Submits the form and notifies "main" contributor stewards (responsible for all accounts) and, if applicable, group stewards
6. If groups were supplied, user is presented with any info about those groups (where to go to get involved, code repos, IRC rooms, blogs, steward profiles with contact info, etc.)
7. User is contacted by a steward and the on-boarding process begins.
   • If the user stays on and contributes, they account is "vouched" and they can log in as a verified Mozillian contributor to access the entire contributor directory (and show off their cool contributor profile!)
8. User is vouched and can use the site!

Existing Contributor

1. Find themselves at mozillians.org

2. Click a "Existing contributors -- sign in" -- or whatever. I'm no UX/copy person.

3. Basically, we want them to go through the same process as potentials, but some copy explaining that using an active bugzilla email, @mozilla.com account, etc. (some way to automatically verify an account) will automatically "vouch" them (again, copy is up for debate).

   If those things aren't true -- tell them someone from the community will get to their account in due time.

4. User is either auto-vouched somehow or an existing contributor finds them, vouches them if it makes sense, and it's done. If they aren't a contributor, try to onboard them or ignore the request? (I need some help here -- should the signup have a radio "I want to get involved" / "I am involved" option, or do we just assume people no one recognizes aren't yet contributors?)

5. User is vouched and can use the site!

Existing Mozillian

1. Sign in (with BrowserID)
2. Done, lol.

My paths assume BrowserID -- even though it's not currently on the site it's a goal for this quarter and thus far we're on target.

Is this clear? Is it more compelling? I really think with a contributor directory already in place and being built up, we can create a place that automates/consolidates a lot of our "get involved" tools, without resorting to the unhelpful "see the wiki".

Thoughts? Reactions? Laser Beam Eyes?

I want Mozillians to be an awesome way to onboard contributors, and I want it to be as frictionless as possible. From the few contributors I've dealt with in my time at Mozilla, they just want to jump past the process and find who they can talk to start spending their time creating, tweaking, or helping somehow. Let's have a single directory of our contributors, and use it to, as automatically as we can, point our potentials toward exactly the right people with no middlemen or red tape.

tofumatt out.