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[RFC-001] Hackerspace RFC 001

Thursday 24 November 2022 08:20:54 PM IST

Agenda

Establish and cement a memo-first ideation culture in HackerSpace PESUECC.

Authors

Anirudh Rowjee

Introduction

Since its inception in 2021, HackerSpace PESUECC has experienced growth, defined by both quality of work and population, at a breakneck pace. In this process, we amassed a community of thinkers, innovators, and trailblazers, as clearly evidenced by our execution and our ideation. In the lens of growth, this pace is a positive - but when percieved through a Knowledge Management perspective, it presents multiple communication-related risks.

Planning for Action Items (Ideas, Plans, Initiatives, Events) is a non-trivial task that is communication-intensive. This document introduces the RFC system, a plan aimed at -

  1. Reducing rounds of communication when formalizing an Idea, Plan, or an Initiative
  2. Archiving everything related to an action item (Idea, Plan, or Initiative)
  3. Maintaining a Standing reference of every Action Item and the accompanying thought process, evidence, and objectives created in the past.
  4. Providing a sense of reference and direction to meetings

Both offline (informal meetings) and Online (whatsapp) communications present extremely poor, if any, mechanisms for knowledge management and preservation, which is a risk that must be addressed. This Memo introduces the RFC System, a rule-based mechanism for ideation and archival on Action Items.

Goals

  1. Inculcate an RFC-First, collaborative thought process as the standard for club-wide planning and ideation

    • Metric: 100% of Ideation Happens through RFCs by Jan 2023

  2. Create an accessible, open process to discuss and Collaborate on RFCs

    • Metric: Every RFC accepts at least One community-driven change, Effective Immediately

  3. Create an Archive of past RFCs

    • Metric: An Open and Always-Available store of RFCs must be implemented by Jan 2023

  4. Run meetings aided by RFCs

    • Metric: Meetings can only be set to discuss RFCs, and we dedicate 40% of the time in every meeting to reading the RFCs being discussed

Tenets

  1. Collaborating is Key: Single-Author RFCs are discouraged for large, club-wide Action Items.

  2. Writing is thinking: We expect everyone to think by writing. This impresses that it is important to maintain a non-ephemeral thought process, encouraging revisiting and idea and embodying it in real life.

  3. Making mistakes is not only expected but encouraged: We expect RFC authors to make mistakes, as all humans do. A revision from the Author is seen as a community-wide win for encouraging apativity of thought.

  4. Adopt a Metrics-first approach: We do not set any goals unless we know how to quantify achievement or failure of said goals.

  5. Open-Source our Decision-Making process: public scrutiny enforces strong implmentation and stronger planning.

Present Day State of Affairs

Hackerspace runs multiple channels of communication, with active ideation and planning happening on each and every one of these channels. This is primarily due to recent recruitments having brought in a massive influx of talented and motivated individuals, each with their contributions toward the club's future.

Hackerspace currently lacks a formal framework to ideate and collaborate, instead relying on conversations and meetings with haphazardly-scribbled Minutes of the Meeting. These minutes aren't publically accessible and do not contribute to the ideation process, with much of the ideation happening whilst the minutes are being written by the directly responsible individual. These meetings are often chaotic with no clear agenda, and this, no clear expectation of outcome.

There's a lack of visibility amongst club members on the current initiatives and happenings of the club. Members across verticals are not synchonized on the state of affairs, heightening the risk of miscommunication and misunderstanding.

Lessons Learned

There are multiple great ideas lost to the flood of messages and the passage of time. We must do better to capture plans on Action Items being collaborated on.

OKR-Defined Execution Plan

  1. Introduce The RFC System to HackerSpace PESUECC

    • Metric: 100% of the club members have access to the RFC Template, and have acknowledged the same.
    • Plan: Broadcast the RFC template on a communication platform and encourage members to read it

  2. Kickstart the process of writing RFCs and collaborating on them

    • Metric: Atleast 1 Collborative RFC has been drafted and is ready for discussion by 1st Jan, 2023
    • Plan: Encourage and incentivize all teams to collaborate and write one RFC

  3. Create an RFC Archive and reference

    • Metric: 100% Of all RFCs written before 1st February, 2023, must be available on the archive for viewing and reference
    • Plan: Open a Github Repository or a page on the Homebrew Website synchronized with the Communication Platform, linking to every RFC

  4. Run meetings on RFCs

    • Metric: 100% of all meetings that run are centered around an RFC by Jan 2023
    • Plan: Do not meet unless there is an "RFC's Worth" of content to be discussed. All other collaborations can happen online.

Summary

Writing is thinking, and if we capture our ideas in a structured, collaborative format, we retain our thought process, incentivizing clarity of thought over flashy templates and presentations. As an organization, and more importantly, a community, a platform for collaboration similar to the RFC system is expected to increase the clarity of our goals and plans that concern our Action Items. Better planning begets better execution. We expect the memo-first culture to be a transformative change in the community thought process of the club, and must strive towards the net positive effect of clarity of thought.