Wikimedia Foundation/Communications/Audience research/Process

This page from the Wikimedia Foundation is kept for historical interest. Any plans, policies, projects, or strategies mentioned may be obsolete.

Audience research: Process

Audience research

Overview

• What we are doing
• Objectives
• Staying up to date

Team

Process

• Activities
• Timeline

Ways to participate

Research and notes

• Updates
• Findings

Frequently asked questions

Discussion

Activities

Through a set of five Audience Definition Workshops, this project has begun to understand...

1. Wikimedia Foundation teams’ current perception of their audiences:
   • How they define and segment their audiences;
   • How well they believe current audiences are being served;
2. Wikimedia Foundation’s current approach to audience development:
   • How teams gather information about their audiences;
   • How teams incorporate information about audiences into their work;
   • Challenges to understanding and serving various audiences;
3. Gaps in Wikimedia Foundation’s understanding or servicing of audiences that prevent the Foundation from achieving its mission.

This information is helping the cross-functional Audience Development team develop a framework to guide audience research and engagement. This framework will attempt to map audience segments based on factors such as: geography, motivation, behavior, acquisition pathways, barriers to access, workflow, brand awareness, language / reading levels, tools used, communication methods, and how well they are served. Within this framework, we will also identify:

1. Strong areas of understanding;
2. Knowledge gaps;
3. Possible priorities for near-term research and engagement;
4. Potential lines of inquiry for audience research;
5. Opportunities and challenges for integrating audience research into Wikimedia’s processes;
   • Recommendations for mitigating challenges in audience research when implementing through processes and resources;

In the near term, this will help the Wikimedia Foundation…

1. Develop a common language and framework for thinking about and engaging various audiences;
   • Socialize and communicate framework organization-wide;
2. Determine how best to focus Wikimedia time and resources, alongside community efforts, to conduct audience research;
3. Guide generative audience research on priority audience segments;
4. Define processes for audience development within various product teams.

In the medium term, this will help the Wikimedia Foundation...

1. Apply audience insights to organizational and product strategy and development;
2. Better integrate audience research and user-centered design approaches in how it develops products;
3. Develop communications strategies (messaging, media channels, etc) to increase awareness and improve understanding of Wikimedia products; and
4. Develop partnership strategies to improve reach of and engagement with Wikimedia products

Timeline

October 2016

Five Audience Definition Workshops (2 cross-functional and one each with Reading, Discovery, & Editing teams)

November 2016

Map of Audience Understanding Today; Create high-level Framework of Audiences & Stakeholders, and supporting tools (i.e., Checklist of Audience & Stakeholder Data, Resources to Build Audience & Stakeholder Understanding)

December 2016

Socialize and iterate on map, framework, and tools

January 2017

Finalize framework for segmentation to inform generative research; Plan for forward work

February 2017

Strategic planning for product generative research