Partner with @KStoller-WMF to define and establish a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goal for the Personal Dashboard Key Result [FY26-27, DE1.3].
Summary
As outlined in the Contributors Strategy, volunteers currently face a fragmented experience that provides limited guidance on how to navigate the many available contribution pathways and policies. Over time, both volunteers and Wikimedia Foundation teams have attempted to address this problem through dashboards and special pages, such as:
- The Newcomer Homepage (en)
- Special:PersonalDashboard
- Community-created dashboards and scripts
- Special:Contribute (en)
Active readers have also demonstrated interest in personalized experiences through products such as mobile feeds, the Android activity tab, and the annual Year in Review.
At the same time, internet users increasingly expect a central starting page on platforms where they consume content or contribute. Experiments with the Newcomer Homepage show that a centralized hub can significantly improve retention and constructive activation.
The combined Dashboard + Homepage would function as the engine behind a contributor experience that supports:
- Discovering compelling opportunities to contribute
- Being equipped to act on those opportunities
- Having a rewarding experience where impact and next steps are clear
- Creating this cycle is critical to building long-term participation habits and improving contributor retention, especially given the decline in active editors across Wikimedia projects.
We have July 2026 - December 2026 to focus on this work. How should we measure success?
Objective
We double the number of retained editors by delivering a structured, progression-driven, and more meaningful mobile-first editor experience.
Key Result: Deepen Engagement 1.3
By the end of Q2, experiments focused on editor progression result in an x% increase in second-week retention compared to control groups.
Context
This work advances a unified personal dashboard that supports the full journey from reader to contributor to moderator.
The initiative will:
- Integrate the Newcomer Homepage and the Personal Dashboard MVP into a cohesive experience
- Introduce a clear progression system that helps contributors advance beyond their first edits
- Strengthen onboarding pathways for moderation and cleanup work
- Help interested contributors take on more responsibility while reducing patrolling backlogs over time
Benefits
A centralized homepage or personal dashboard allows the platform to connect the dots for volunteers in ways that are currently difficult.
Key benefits include:
- Modular experiences that can be customized by wikis and individuals
- Personalized recommendations for impactful contributions
- Clear visibility of impact so contributors understand the value of their work
- Recognition and milestone experiences that celebrate progress
- A consistent entry point for discovering opportunities and returning to continue contributing
This approach can benefit multiple audiences:
- Readers who want deeper engagement with content
- New contributors learning how to participate
- Experienced editors seeking meaningful work
- Moderators managing community workflows
Use Cases
Reader experience
As a reader, I can engage with Wikipedia in a personalized way that helps me curate content and discover opportunities to contribute.
'''Supporting context'''
Language and localization contributors
As a translator, I can seamlessly integrate translation work with other types of contributions while understanding my overall impact.
New contributors
As a newcomer, I receive guided steps that help me:
- Learn how to contribute
- Find help when needed
- Understand the impact of my edits
Experienced editors
As an experienced editor, I can easily identify high-impact opportunities to contribute and track my contributions and impact.
Moderators and patrollers
As a moderator, I have access to a customizable dashboard that:
- Reduces fragmentation across moderation tools
- Makes moderation workflows easier to navigate
- Supports skill development
- Helps reduce community moderation backlog
Acceptance Criteria:
- Partner with Growth and Moderator Tools PMs to help define the OW1.3 Key Result
- Write a brief plan to help clear up details on how we will define and measure this KR, and what metrics teams can use within Test Kitchen for hypothesis-level experimentation