Dear TED translation community,
We know you have been looking forward to the launch of the new collaboration model, and it pains us to say we’re not going to make the end of 2016. We know the last few years Amara has made promises — promises that we have not kept – and that you have been waiting quite a long time for this launch to happen.
Please know that we’ve recently spent time examining our past processes. We found that we set estimates and expectations based on optimism and a desire to deliver; not structured design and planning. We failed to acknowledge our limited resources and plan responsibly. And because of this, we have set your expectations poorly.
For this we apologize.
We want to make things right, and in the process, we hope to earn your trust and confidence again. We are a bigger and even more capable organization now. To better serve you, Amara has expanded its resources. We’d like to introduce ourselves: Raul Villalobos and Kenzie Slottow. We form the Product Design and Development team.
I’m Raul – I joined Amara in January 2016, and bring experience in visual and UX design, art direction and branding. And I’m Kenzie. I joined the team in August, and bring a detail-oriented, user-focused approach to project management and systems analysis. Along with the rest of Amara, our team is working to create a thoughtful, polished experience worthy of the important work you do.
All this said, we have taken the first step to ensuring we do not disappoint you again. Our team has been working diligently to arrive at a thoroughly-scoped timeline that identifies a launch date we can be confident about. Based on this timeline, which includes constraints and comprehensive testing strategies, the beta version of the collaboration model will be ready by June 1st, 2017. The official release will roll out after the testing period by June 16th, 2017.
We know this seems like a long time from now, and yet another delay. However, our job is to launch a high quality product that you will be sure to have input in, and be totally stoked about. Starting in January, we’ll begin sharing demos of working pages of the new collaboration model as we complete them. We’re all ears and welcome your feedback on these to make sure they match your needs. We’ll also invite you to participate in surveys and help us decide on certain visual design elements for the final release, and will be rolling out our living style guide along with other process improvements via updates on our blog. We want you to share our excitement as we hit these milestones together.
Thank you for for your work, patience and dedication. We very much appreciate your partnership!
Sincerest regards,
Raul Villalobos, Kenzie Slottow and the Amara/PCF team
