Update Five for the Future Documentation to Support Company and Contributor Onboarding and Retention

[harishankerr]

As discussed in the dedicated Five for the Future session at the 2023 Community Summit, and further analyzed in this Make/Project blog post, lack of information on resources on how to go about Five for the Future emerged as a major blocker - both for companies and self-sponsored contributors wanting to pledge their time.

A great way to fix these issues would be to create new documentation in the Five for the Future site that will support both 5ftF organizations and self-sponsored contributors in helping them find their way through their contributor journey.

After some brainstorming, I have arrived at a list of contents that we will need to prepare to update the Five for the Future site, and I'm listing them below:

• About Five for the Future: Explain Five for the Future, Clearly articulate what counts as a contribution as mentioned in Clarify and communicate 5ftF definition #119
• Individual Contributor Guide: How to pledge, benefits of consistent contributions, contributing consistently and sustainbly, growing as a contributor, FAQ
• Company Guide: Why pledge & benefits of contributing, How to create a pledge, Onboarding and starting to contribute, Set up a contribution team, Contributing effectively - Internal company contribution days, contribution sprints, identifying projects, potential list of projects to contribute to, FAQ, Company case studies (related to Modify the text on #5ftF as an individual contributor's role has changed.  Marketing-Team#317)
• PR Materials/Resources for Five for the Future
• Update Five for the Future White Paper for content and visualization
• Get Help!

For now, each checkbox represents a new page (or section) in the Five for the Future website, however the final presentation might differ, after we sync with the website redesign project.

[harishankerr]

I have started working on this project, and I have created Google Docs to track each task:

• About Five for the Future
• Company Contribution Guide
• Individual Contributor Guide
• 5ftF PR Materials/Resources
• Updated Whitepaper

These documents only contain outlines for now, but we'll be adding content to these docs.

[naokomc]

I added the "Onboarding: How to start contributing?" section of the Company Contribution Guide doc.

Here's the direct link to the section.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LmnhHX1aU4hn7aoZE2um9tNBaiRaoOTJXhjdmyTaZjA/edit#heading=h.2gxgm4z7ygae

[kafleg]

I'm not sure if we discussed this or not, but we also need a team that will closely communicate with the company management who is supporting the 5FTF program.

This team can give feedback about the contribution they made to the WordPress project and can also make them interested on supporting more members/hours for the WordPress project.

[peiraisotta]

Added the following sections to the Individual Contributor Guide:

• How to pledge
• Benefits of consistent contributions
• How to start contributing consistently
• Sustainable contributions
• Growing as a contributor

Added the following sections to the Company Guide:

• Benefits of Five for the Future for organizations and how to achieve them

All sections are in-progress. Feedback and comments are welcome.

[patriciabt]

The remarks I often get from smaller companies when I tell them they should join, is:
"Why 5%? we do not want to commit to give 5% of our resources"
(last time last week!)

It may even prevent them to have one of their employees to contribute even only 1 hour/week (2.5%) or even for some months 4 hours/week (10%) or more when their employees are for example organizing a WordCamp.

The problem they see is that's it's an ongoing and non-fluctuable commitment.

If you could clarify this point in the documentation, I think it would help.

Another point is to show in the documentation that this is a community project, not an Automattic project, I had a lot of reactions about that confusion.

[patriciabt]

Overlaps with [Documentation proposal] Guides and templates for contributors to propose "Five for the Future" to their employers #11 in the contributor-handbook repository

[francescodicandia]

My small contribution: we should always be able to check that companies that involve their employees in the 5FTF are not abusing it and using it to get a 'medal on their 5ftf page'.
It should be checked that there really is a contribution from the employees of the companies involved in the 5FTF at Wordpress stuff.
I don't want to be offensive at all however I think it is a necessary thing.

[estelaris]

Added some comments to the Individual and Company contribution guides

[harishankerr]

Big thanks to @naokomc @kafleg @peiraisotta @patriciabt @francescodicandia @estelaris as well as: @angelasjin @kirasong and @poena for their support and contributions!

Thanks to y'all's hard work, I'm excited to announce that we now have a V1 of the Five for the Future Handbook that can be accessed here: https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/handbook/

This handbook currently contains the following sections:

• About Five for the Future
  A detailed explanation of Five for the Future and on what are Five for the Future contributions.
• Organization Guide
  Detailed guide for organizations and organization representatives on how to onboard, and set up their organization for Five for the Future.
• How Can Organizations Benefit from Five for the Future?
  A page on how Five for the Future can drive growth, innovation, and community engagement for your organization.
• Onboarding: Organization and Team Setup
  Steps to effectively onboard your organization and set up your team for successful contributions to WordPress.
• Contribution Best Practices for Organizations
  Best practices for company contributions to ensure impactful, sustainable, and rewarding involvement in the WordPress community.
• Five for the Future FAQ for Organizations
  Answers to common questions about participating in Five for the Future, tailored specifically for organizations.
• Five for the Future Resources
  Some external resources and additional content on Five for the Future.
• Contact
  A contact page for contributors/organizations to reach out and get help on Five for the Future.

The following pages are still pending:

• Individual Contributor Guide: How to pledge, benefits of consistent contributions, contributing consistently and sustainbly, growing as a contributor, FAQ
• An updated Five for the Future White Paper
• Dedicated case studies from Organizations that already contribute to Five for the Future

We hope to add them in the days to come.

[enrico-sorcinelli]

Hi all, my first little contribution to this nice handbook!
In https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/handbook/ on the acknowledgments at the bottom, I noticed that the WordPress profile link for @patricia70 is broken.

[harishankerr]

Thank you for the report, @enrico-sorcinelli This has been fixed.

[enrico-sorcinelli]

Hi all,
on Pitch Five for the Future to Your Employer page there are two links I suppose are wrong (Organization Benefits on "Step 1: Understand Five for the Future and WordPress" and "Key Points to Include" sections).
They currently point to this image but I think the right link is https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/handbook/organization-pledge-guide/benefits/

[enrico-sorcinelli]

Hi all,
there is a broken link on Onboarding: Organization and Team Setup page (Start Contributing section): company contribution best practices should point to https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/handbook/organization-pledge-guide/best-practices/

[harishankerr]

@enrico-sorcinelli Thank you so much for these excellent suggestions, these are now fixed. I greatly appreciate your diligence and your input!

[ryelle]

@harishankerr I closed this based on your last comment, but realized that the whole issue might not be done, sorry!