2023-08-18 Team meeting¶

Attendees: Core team, Anish, Varsha

Projects approval¶

Discussion goal: Approve projects or figure out concrete next steps and timeline for approval.

Sean:

needs to get Rajat assigned to some tasks
three meta-tickets
- full-stack
- back end
- front end
Currently, these are split between Dom and Sean, need to get Rajat integrated into that
Remaining i18n work would go into Rajat’s ad-hoc queue.

Brent:

Couple backend tickets seem related to existing PG support. Brent will reach out to Dom to make sure we’re not duplicating work.

Dom:

Mostly would be focusing on backend bugs and unblocking frontend work.
Identified issues that seem more important than Supabase integration.
- Start the Supabase integration research in the middle of the cycle, when those tasks are finished, currently not assigned to a specific person.

We need to pay attention that we don’t accidentally do things twice since there’s overlap with ‘Compatibility with existing DBs’.
Dom: read the project; seems well written
- wants more definition in the outcome section
- Good job outlining various ways to define niches
Brent & Pavish approve
Mukesh: no feedback
Rajat: Looks good
We’ll approve async after update of the outcomes section

Updated to prioritize use cases
Sean will be a helper on this
Anish and Rajat will also be working on this
Send feedback by EOD Monday
Approve async (hopefully by Tuesday)
Brent: we should make sure users have a documented path from the docker compose installation type (if we’re dropping it) to the new installation type(s).
Kriti: It’s better to tackle one installation method after another i.e. it’s better to ship one installation method instead of getting some work done on all options and not shipping.
Brent: Consider using openbuildservice.org for the distro packaging.

Compatibility with existing DBs is approved.
Let’s try to get Niche Research and Installation Improvements approved async.
- Look for updates on Monday.
- Send feedback by EOD Monday
- Try to approve by early next week

Responsibilities to potentially rotate:

Kriti’s responsibilties, will delegate when out:

Kriti isn’t sure when she’s taking the time off.
Brent: We haven’t been getting responses recently from the installation help webform.
Kriti: It might be better to reach out after we improve our installation methods.
Marketing:
- Paying attention to Syften notification and responding to HN, reddit, twitter etc.,
- Brent is interested.
- Sean is interested in responding to users but isn’t interested in finding new Marketing avenues.
- Anish can help with Twitter.
User help:
- Brent is interested.
- Brent will try to get something CRM like setup on our internal Mathesar at the moment.
- Sean is interested in cases where it’s front-end related
- Treat the users like gold
  - Do work so they don’t have to
- Pavish is interested in a supportive role
- Mukesh interested
People management:
- 1:1s
- Someone to reach out to when people have a problem
- Sean is interested
Project management:
- Making sure people aren’t stuck, and the cycle is progressing
- Sean is interested
Product management:
- Involves reviewing projects from the product perspective
- Pavish is interested
- Ghislaine is interested in a supportive role
- Sean is interested in copy and documentation
- Brent is interested in a supportive role
- Dom is also interested in supporting here
Mukesh: Interested in a Mathesar glossary

Responsibilities to rotate (We’re not rotating):
- Repo admin: Rajat
- Release ownership: Rajat
- User feedback tracking: Ghislaine
People interested in taking over Kriti’s responsibilites
- Marketing: Brent, Sean (supportive role), Anish (supportive role)
- User help: Brent, Sean, Pavish (supportive role), Rajat (coordination with Repo admin work)
- Team management (People + Project): Sean
- Product management: Pavish, Ghislaine (supportive role), Sean (Copy & Documentation), Brent (supportive role)
Dom & Rajat are interested in taking on whatever no one else wants to do.
Kriti will follow up with next steps individually with people who expressed interest.

Discussion goal: Check in on ongoing conversations and make sure everyone is following them / keeping track of decisions made, etc.

{we forgot to take detailed notes}

People have varying levels of comfort with long emails and async discussions.
Generally people like async discussions.
They can be hard to follow, sometimes people are reacting to the latest email and losing track of the original intent of the discussion.
People are even using ChatGPT to summarize discussions for themselves.
Brainstorming is better in 1:1 conversations, not in email or big groups.

The person who starts the email thread should be responsible for stating the purpose of the email and periodically checking in and summarizing viewpoints, etc, and guiding the conversation to the desired conclusion
- We do this in meetings, but not emails
Purpose could be spitballing, building consensus, agreeing on a decision, etc.
Sometimes it’s good to have options if we’re trying to making a decision.
It’s always better to reply to an email so people know you’ve seen and comprehended it.
It’s okay to have a reply of “I’m not interested in contributing to this.” (unless the email is explicitly asking for buy-in or agreement from the whole team)