Hatchery Update

mozilla

1 response

Last month we announced The Hatchery, Mozilla’s new program to support emerging product ideas. We want to update you on how things have gone since then, and give you a peek at what is to come and how you can get involved.

  • We have coaches! We heard from many of you wanting to help out as a subject matter expert for product development, design, front end development and more. We had so many offers to help that we’ve created a database of our new coaches, and invite more of you to join with us!
  • One of our first projects, TowTruck, is off and running! TowTruck is a service for websites that makes real-time collaboration easy! It started out a few months ago and we’re providing design and user research support to the team. Though still in its early stages, the press have been super interested in TowTruck; you can read more about TowTruck here and here.

So what is next?

  • Greater definition of focus areas. Be on the lookout for more clarity from us around what kinds of projects we’re prepared to support. Expect themes to emerge, such as “HTML5 mobile apps”, so that multiple small teams can work in parallel, and learn from each other.
  • Prototypes. If you submit an application, must provide a prototype (mockup, sketch, code, etc.) with your application. This will help us better understand your idea and to see if there is a good fit.
  • Refer projects to us. We heard from a few of you and are keen to hear from more. Be sure to check out our program criteria on our FAQ and encourage people in your network to apply.
  • Distribution list. We will set up an email list for interested parties where you can expect updates from us every few weeks. Contact us if you’d like to get on our distribution list at labscoaches@mozilla.com.

As always, we welcome any feedback as we evolve this process! You can send it to labscoaches@mozilla.com too 🙂

To innovation!

The Hatchery Team

1 response

  1. Caspy7 wrote on :

    This is a really excellent effort! And right in line with the spirit of Mozilla I think.

    I think even the most ideologically open group can fall to the NIH syndrome at times and this is a great way to foster worthy projects/ideas from both outside and in.
    ===

    On a separate note, just had the thought, what about creating an idea bin? A place where anyone could propose and comment on ideas/projects. There would be clear communication that Mozilla or whomever has no obligation to fulfill wishes, etc, (and it’s not a support forum or bug db). Perhaps even have a voting system to measure popularity (use Persona for unique logins).
    Just a thought. There are a lot of people out there with ideas and maybe one of them has the next ‘tabbed browsing’ concept (in terms of UX leaps). But also a partial idea could be refined by others. Oh and allow mockup images and videos to be embedded (linking to free mockup making tools).