2025-08-07 Product Council Meeting Agenda

 Date

Aug 7, 2025

 Participants

• PC Members: @Jennifer Eustis @Jana Freytag @Autumn Faulkner @Tod Olson @Thomas Trutt @Charlotte Whitt @Jeremy Huff @Martin Scholz @Lisa McColl @Alexis Manheim @Caitlin Stewart

• Other Attendees: @Gang Zhou

• Note taker: @Thomas Trutt

 Discussion topics

 Related materials

📄 Meeting Minutes:

📢 Announcements (10:01:46 - 10:09:03)

• WolfCon Conference Logistics: Jesse provided updates on WolfCon, urging attendees to register and use the provided hotel room block link on the registration confirmation page. He emphasized that filling the room block is crucial for the conference to run smoothly and noted that it offers the most affordable way to stay at the conference hotel. The conference will be held in Kansas City and is seeing a strong registration turnout. There will be virtual meeting capabilities via Zoom for those who are attending remotely, and meeting invites will be sent out and information will be posted in SCHED.

   

• Post-WolfCon Meeting Schedule Change: Caitlin introduced a proposal from tri-council leaders, to invert the Tri-Council and Council meeting schedules for the Friday after WolfCon. The new schedule would have the Tri-Council meeting in the morning and the individual Council meetings in the afternoon. The motivation for this change is to make it easier for more people to attend the Tri-Council meeting, and to allow the outcomes of that meeting to inform the subsequent council meetings. Alexis and Jana both agreed with this change. This schedule would also need to accommodate European colleagues attending virtually.

   

• Offline Discussion for Remote Attendees: Caitlin recognized the challenges of participating in free-form discussions remotely due to potential audio issues or simply not being in the room. She proposed maximizing offline discussions leading up to the meeting, referencing a successful retro board used last year by Alexis as a precedent.

   

• Vision Workshop: Caitlin mentioned the tentative plan for a vision workshop to revisit the product vision and use it as a tool to anchor priorities for the upcoming year.

   

📝 Agenda Structure and Meeting Improvements (10:09:09 - 10:17:26)

This section of the meeting focused on a comprehensive review and proposed changes to the agenda structure and note-taking process to improve efficiency and inclusivity.

• Proactive Announcements: To streamline the meeting and ensure all news is captured, Caitlin and Jeremy decided to proactively reach out on Slack for announcements at the same time they send out the agenda. This ensures that even those unable to attend can have their updates included.

   

• Template Updates: The conversation shifted to how to improve the agenda itself. Caitlin and Jeremy discussed the need for a written-out "script" for meetings to ensure nothing is missed, especially with new members in the PC. They also discussed adding a section to the agenda to list absent PC members for follow-up. Alexis proposed updating the meeting notes template to include the PC member list to save time and reduce the need to recreate it each week. Caitlin confirmed this is possible and will reach out to Peter about it. Tod suggested a "Present and Regrets" format for attendance. The consensus was to use this format to keep track of who attended and who didn't. Thomas added that he usually tags people on action items at the end of the meeting.

   

• Standing Agenda Topics: The co-chairs reviewed the new standing agenda structure, which includes: Welcome and Announcements, Housekeeping Topics, Updates on Active Initiatives, Time for New Topics, and a Planning section at the end. They decided to continue not having a separate Tuesday planning meeting for the month of August.

   

👥 Liaisons and Roles (10:17:40 - 10:25:24)

This discussion focused on identifying and assigning liaisons for various groups, including Special Interest Groups (SIGs), the Community Council (CC), and the Technical Council (TC).

• Jennifer replaces Kristen as Release Management Stakeholders Liaison.

• Alexis volunteered for Community Council liaison.

• Tod continues as Technical Council liaison.

• Autumn volunteered for Acquisitions and Support SIGs.

• Martin volunteered for App Interaction.

• Charlotte for ERM, Implementers, Linked Open Data.

• Lisa for Public Library.

• Martina for Documentation.

• Thomas for Privacy SIG.

Clarification of Roles: Discussion on the distinction between SIG liaisons, conveners, and product owners. Charlotte emphasized liaisons’ role in bidirectional communication and note-sharing.

📊 Prioritization & Dashboard Review (10:41–10:59)

• Dashboard Overview: Caitlin introduced a dashboard collecting top 5 priorities from each SIG. Intended as a living artifact to guide development and collaboration.

• Rubric Development: A rubric is being developed to rank features for PC voting. The goal is to complete this before WolfCon.

• Challenges:

  • SIG presentations to PC are not feasible.

  • Some priorities are in draft and not dev-ready.

  • Timing is critical for influencing the upcoming Umbrella Leaf release.

• Proposal:

  • Involve SIG liaisons in contextualizing priorities.

  • Present dashboard to POs for feedback.

  • Encourage refinement of draft tickets to make them actionable.

• Feedback Loop: Jeremy suggested using PC rankings to inform PO decisions and highlight community interest. Alexis supported dual-level prioritization—SIG-specific and community-wide.

🧭 Planning & Next Steps (10:59–11:00)

• Mosaic Presentation: Scheduled for next week by Dennis, pending scheduling conflicts.

• Future Agendas: Unaddressed items will be distributed across upcoming meetings.

• Acknowledgments: Thanks to Thomas for note-taking.

✅ Decisions Made:

• Standing agenda structure adopted.

• SIG liaison assignments confirmed.

• Dashboard will be maintained and refined.

• Rubric development will continue.

• Outreach to POs for dashboard awareness and feedback.

• Future meetings will address subgroup maintenance and other pending items.

📌 Action Items:

🐝 Links:

This link was shared by both Thomas and Jeremy.