- Monday: Product Support & Stars
- Tuesday: User Generated Content (UGC) Team
- Wednesday: User Experience Team
- Thursday: Engagement Team
- Friday: Ad Experience Improvements
If you attended this year’s Community Connect, you might remember the theme Gears of Progress. It was more than just an in-person community event; it was an opportunity to share our future plans for the platform with the entire community and as well as collaborate between Fandom Staff, admins, and editors. As a result, we developed new ideas that stemmed from our community-driven effort like our first-ever in-person Hackathon, the Virtual Community Connect experience, and even Ad Bash! We also outlined a series of commitments to enhance the platform and your editing experience, making it even more valuable for both fans and editors. Every suggestion and every critique you shared became a gear and brought us to this point.
Now, we're delivering Progress in the Making, a blog series dedicated to showcasing the tangible results of our shared journey through Fandom’s product roadmap. Throughout the week, we'll reveal the exciting advancements across our platform from our product initiatives and community programs we recently shared at Connect. You'll see firsthand how your contributions have directly influenced the features, tools, and experiences we're building.
This is a reflection of your impact, and we encourage you to ask questions and provide productive feedback. So stay tuned, stay engaged, and get ready to witness the progress we're making, fueled by your direct feedback and participation as admins and editors who have continued to share their perspectives. Will your edit or suggestion be the gear that makes the difference? Share your thoughts, and let's make progress together!
Today we’re starting off walking you through the two main ways we’ve repositioned our staff to be better able to communicate product news and receive feedback from you: a new Product Support team and our Fandom Stars program.
Product Support[]
Earlier this year, we announced that we had started a brand new staff team at Fandom called “Product Support”.
Product Support is dedicated to building a direct and mutually beneficial connection between our community and our Product teams that build and improve features on the platform. We kicked these efforts off in earnest toward the end of 2023 and are already seeing promising results that are starting to bring more information in front of users quicker, and that has embedded our team members directly into the planning and development process of our Product teams. Beyond this blog, you can find summaries of platform updates in our bi-weekly Technical Update blogs and announcements of experiments being done by our Product teams on our Staff Blog.
One area we’ve seen a big difference with this new team is with the Quick Answers tool. Last year, when we rolled this tool out, we had a few missteps both in design and communication that led to justified resistance of the feature from many wikis.
But in 2024, Product Support has been closely collaborating with the Traffic team to ensure a smooth and beneficial Quick Answers rollout. We’ve meticulously refined the AI’s responses over the past year, adjusting its tone and accuracy through extensive experimentation. We’ve also empowered editors with tools to directly manage Quick Answers, fostering a collaborative environment. Furthermore, our personalized outreach strategy allows us to introduce the tool to wikis we believe will benefit, while providing users with the choice to opt in or out. By working hand-in-hand, Product Support and the Traffic team are creating a significantly improved experience for users as Quick Answers is gradually rolled out. In our most recent survey of creators, we found Quick Answers satisfaction has topped 85%. This level of direct community outreach is also serving as a blueprint for future product releases.
Fandom Stars[]
Fandom Stars are building bridges with the very teams that design and build the Fandom platform and continue to build momentum. Stars were inspired to connect with the decision-makers and builders behind the platform, and that’s what they’ve been doing weekly since the Fandom Stars second anniversary announcement. The direct access to members of Fandom’s product, engineering, and community teams fosters a deeper understanding of the tools and features that power their editing experiences. Stars pose their questions directly to members of Fandom Staff on a weekly basis, gaining insights into the motivations, challenges, and thought processes behind the platform's evolution and its complex structure of teams.
This series of events marks a shift in the program's commitment to transparency and collaboration as well as its refresh to host more product-driven programming that was mentioned at the top of the year. It acknowledges Star's vital role in shaping the platform's future and underscores the belief that open communication leads to better outcomes for everyone on the platform! Programming such as roundtables, AMAs, and fireside chats create a space for discussions where ideas are exchanged, editor concerns are addressed, and innovative solutions emerge. Stars are empowered to voice their perspectives, share their community experiences, actively contribute to conversations with fellow editors and Fandom Staff, and access information concerning the latest initiatives and experiments directly on Discord. Stars have already engaged in conversations with members of Fandom’s User Experience team, Traffic team, and News & Ratings team.
However, the benefits of this engagement go beyond knowledge and problem-solving. It fosters a sense of shared ownership and purpose, strengthening the bond between the community and Fandom staff. When admins and editors see their feedback reflected in new features or improvements, it reinforces the value of their contributions. The opportunity to interact directly with key figures like Peter Mansour, Fandom's Chief Product Officer, further reinforces this connection and motivation to participate.
Collaboration creates a ripple effect, and inspires creativity and a fresh approach to editing and outreach beyond the Stars program. We’ve tested new event ideas and series in an effort to ensure Stars are gaining as much knowledge as possible and enjoying themselves in the process. As admins and editors witness the tangible impact of their engagement, they're motivated to explore new possibilities, experiment with different approaches and tools on their wikis, and contribute to the collective effort of building the ultimate fan experience throughout the community.
If you want to contribute to these conversations, learn more about the Fandom Stars program and apply here!
The Week Ahead[]
So starting tomorrow, we're going to start diving deep into what the different teams are working on. Come back to this blog to learn more about:
- Tuesday: You'll hear about our UGC Team's focus on providing tools to our most engaged editors and converting occassional editors into more engaged contributors.
- Wednesday: You'll hear about our User Experience's team focus to clean up the Mobile experience and begin to think about how we can provide similar improvements to Desktop.
- Thursday: We'll discuss how we've focused on providing utility for readers, giving them more engaging reasons to come back to the site beyond simply reading articles.
- Friday: We'll discuss the high level changes we've made to the advertising experience on Fandom in order to strike a better balance between ads and content.
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Click here to follow the Fandom staff blog.
Click here to sign up for the From the Desk of Community email newsletter.
Join our Official Discord server for registered editors!