Waze US Mentorship Program - Trial

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Gentlemen and Ladies if they are here. After watching the Webinar this evening I had a few questions to ask, figured being as the mentor program kind of surrounds them all this would be a good place to start. ...
-Bruce

Bruce,

First off, thanks for the feedback. This is the kind of positively stated perception we can use. I agree with Sketch's comments too. Here's my perspective.

I'd say that that what you're experiencing is part of what happens when new things emerge -- we have not had time to think them all the way through and implement them in policy or procedure (e.g., Community discussion, Champ discussion, followed by Wiki).

The WME Chat is really a brand new game changer on the WME editor. It's a totally different mode of interaction. How we use it is a matter to be discovered. How we limit expectations of users so they are not frustrated is an issue. It probably becomes another time sink for senior editors. We may need other features.

Formal Mentoring has a lot of promise, but we've always been worried about its drawbacks. It is much more constrained than all the informal mentoring that can go on because its bandwidth is limited by the number of Mentors. There will likely be a waiting line. You should have had a response within about a week (I think), but we're still working on the process and who is going to staff that process.

The webinar held last night is another example of a great idea, but one that we're still learning how to create, operate, and deliver. The cool thing with On Air Hangout is that it is recorded, leaving behind some sort of library of potentially useful things. A problem is the core content that needs to be developed. We have a whole incomplete draft of lectures we wish to create. Making them takes time.

My guess is that a number of the Champ community is "spent" because 23 or 24 of us attended the 2014 North Amercian Meetup in Las Vegas with Waze Staff last weekend. That was a big investment of time some of us have to recover. In addition, like all of us with family, April / May tends to be busy with graduations, planning, etc.

With that set of insight back to you, I am sure we're dedicated to find a Mentor for you, set up whatever goals you have, like Rank-5, CM, or both, and have you join us helping others with some of the very issues you have seen!

[vectorspace]

Will there be a Mentee badge or Signature Icon ?

My guess would be "no" for a couple reasons.

First, badges are for Waze Community Roles. Being a "Mentee" is not a Waze Community role, it is a temporary activity while a person is in a Formal Mentoring activity. Secondly, there are already a defined set of other badges that apply to users as they gain more editing and community activity, such as Area Manager, Expert, Beta Tester, etc.

Being a Mentee could quickly and likely result in a new badge such as an AM or CM though!

[vectorspace]

נועם חרוץ, מהיר, ומומחה

I am glad there is Google Translate... I agree.

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Here is a new webinar set of slides that talks about "Mentoring." I was inspired by some critique to realize that almost all learning on Waze is via mentoring of one type or another. I defined three ways for Informal Mentoring and, of course, put in Formal Mentoring. This helps consider context between them because everyone is in a different place and has different needs at a particular time. There is something for everyone in the way we provide training and help. Formal Mentoring is just one tool we can add to that toolbox.

The link to the existing presentation is here:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ ... sp=sharing

What do you think?

[vectorspace]

Hi -- sorry about that if I was the one doing "harassing." I had asked txemt to consider being a mentor via PM earlier today. I also tried to tease a little bit about it in WME chat -- but obviously may have gone too far. Sorry about that if my joking was too much.

It was there where I went to WME Chat this evening to look around for those rank-4 to rank-6 editors that were actively participating in editing. I thought that might be a great pool of people to just ask about it. I posted in WME chat my intentions to ask if anyone was interested, but that's about it.

I also want to mention publicly that both OrbitC and I want to impose no pressure to become a Formal Mentor. It's really up to everyone. We do want to ask though in order to get a pool of volunteers that can do this once in a while. Great Champs here are potential Mentors and some have have told us they can't do it for one reason or another. Most have already maxed out their time on other projects around Waze. That's completely understandable. Let's not burn out!

As a reminder, I believe OrbitC is currently keeping track of and updating a list of those that have decided to help on the first post of this thread. I am going to work on three formal mentoring activities in this trial as a way to judge the viability of this and our approach.

[vectorspace]

My question was, really, is this prezo intended to be just that?

My take on it is that the presentation is one resource we can rely upon for training editors, holding webinars, helping them through informal mentoring that goes on all the time, or for use in formal mentoring. I believe that more are to come and we're encouraged to create draft content for items that we think are needed.

[vectorspace]

Hey guys,

The second presentation is ready. This one is about community roles, and as with the previous one it's a basis for your changes and adjustments.

You'll need to ask for viewing permissions - I'll grant them of course

Let me know what you think,

Noam

Hi Noam, thanks for doing this. Here are some comments per your request. I don't feel strongly about any of them, but perhaps they might improve the content and use of the slides.

Community Roles

• Although it can be inferred by later slides, maybe you want to say why community roles are important right from the start. Why would it be important to a new editor? You make the point that the community is the "beating heart" but having some insight on the slide of what the Community does for Waze would be good. Much of Waze is sourced from the community, so it is important for many aspects, including editing. It's important because users report activity by driving and sending in reports. The community helps with localization. The community informs the technical staff at Waze, etc.

Experts

• When you say "Experts are Champs who mastered a certain field-
  be it Routing, Android, iOS or localization," it made me wonder why an Expert has to be a Champ. It would seem that you're constraining yourself on all these by making a requirement that the be a champ. An expert could be a level-3 editor that is really good in something.
• I would list the types of experts you already have over on the side so people get an idea of the breadth of the current categories. For instance, you don't mention Editing as an expertise field, but it is (or was).
• Your connection to Experts is mostly through a connection to Waze. Aren't they also a resource for the community to ask questions, such as someone asking why a particular issue exists on an Android device?

Regional Managers

• I thought this could use more detail if this presentation is just for the US, such as AM assignment. If this is for broader world community, then that probably doesn't make sense.

Other

• Do you want to list "Mentor" as a new community role since that is being developed for Formal Mentoring?
• Without going into a lot of detail, I think you could extend one of your comments with another slide -- one about what is not exactly a community role. Listing that editing rank, AM, and CM are not specifically community roles might help clear confusion. Mentioning that AM and CM have implications in community roles would also be important. It is harder to be a AM, and even more, a CM, without getting involved in the community somehow.
• This looks like a quick presentation unless elaborated by the presenter. A presenter might want to have more notes or activity about their presentation. For instance, if I were giving this I would likely:
  
  • Break away from the slides to show the US board and all the regions, then point out the RCs.
  • Go to "Board index ‹ Community ‹ Experts" on the forum to show that area after the Experts page.
  • So... perhaps you want a hyperlink on relevant pages to where more resources can be found in the Forum when it makes sense.
• Since this is about people, having some people's faces and people working together (better if Waze-related, but even stock photos would be better than nothing) might liven up the slides a bit and hold more interest.

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Three draft Formal Mentoring documents are now on the Wiki at:

https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Mentoring/USA

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Teach me oh great ones. Count me in. A more formal approach to mentorship is very much appreciated. And like others have already said, I'm willing to in turn mentor others when I too reach "enlightenment".

Ha ha! I think that once we reach enlightenment, we should change our signature graphic to show a yellow glow around the back of the Wazer icon! I haven't talked to OrbitC about diplomas yet, but maybe we can work on that...

[vectorspace]

From discussions with others working on this concept, I would describe it as a one strongly supported by Waze staff to help expedite motivated editors up the ranks more quickly. To do this, it was intended to be a more formal, one-on-one, intensive engagement with a start, objectives, and and end. The intent was to increase editing level immediately or in the middle of mentoring with the notion that level could be reduced if the Mentee didn't sufficiently engage.

OrbitC is leading. I have assisted by creating some draft documents that have yet to be shared including (1) a helpful process to consider when engaged in 1:1 mentoring, (2) Training and agreement for Mentors, and (3) agreed upon process or "management" of mentoring by Mentors so we have some consistency. We'll take advantage of some other tutorial efforts underway by Waze staff, and hopefully expand the tutorial material.

Because there is some risk in "more quickly," there was some intent to make this a "Formal Mentoring Program" where we both carefully select the Mentors and the Mentees. The objective was to not make mistakes in increasing levels and to make it enjoyable by everyone -- to make it a success. Mentors and Mentee both have to commit to this, and therefore one Mentor can only take on so many Mentees at a time.

It was not intended to replace all the existing informal mentoring going on, which is a great thing. It was intended to learn from the few examples where some informal Mentors and Mentees really committed to take time to improve. As such, everyone that becomes a Mentor will have to agree to a list of attributes and approaches before they are accepted as a Formal Waze Mentor. Waze staff said another "badge" and designation would likely be added to all those who are accepted into the Mentor position. Just because you're a level-6 or a Global Champ doesn't mean you would make a good Mentor. You have to have patience, interest in teaching, and the time to do it.

We discussed this "Trial" yesterday because (how I interpreted it), we could use a little more experience before launching a complete Waze Formal Mentoring activity. We could work out some bugs, get some lessons learned, and at the same time start to build a cadre of Mentors.