diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
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--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -173,10 +173,64 @@ committing your changes. Most editors have plug-ins that do this automatically.
 Pull request descriptions should be as clear as possible and include a reference
 to all the issues that they address.
 
+### Successful Changes
+
+Before contributing large or high impact changes, make the effort to coordinate
+with the maintainers of the project before submitting a pull request. This
+prevents you from doing extra work that may or may not be merged.
+
+Large PRs that are just submitted without any prior communication are unlikely
+to be successful.
+
+While pull requests are the methodology for submitting changes to code, changes
+are much more likely to be accepted if they are accompanied by additional
+engineering work. While we don't define this explicitly, most of these goals
+are accomplished through communication of the design goals and subsequent
+solutions. Often times, it helps to first state the problem before presenting
+solutions.
+
+Typically, the best methods of accomplishing this are to submit an issue,
+stating the problem. This issue can include a problem statement and a
+checklist with requirements. If solutions are proposed, alternatives should be
+listed and eliminated. Even if the criteria for elimination of a solution is
+frivolous, say so.
+
+Larger changes typically work best with design documents. These are focused on
+providing context to the design at the time the feature was conceived and can
+inform future documentation contributions.
+
+### Commit Messages
+
 Commit messages must start with a capitalized and short summary (max. 50 chars)
 written in the imperative, followed by an optional, more detailed explanatory
 text which is separated from the summary by an empty line.
 
+Commit messages should follow best practices, including explaining the context
+of the problem and how it was solved, including in caveats or follow up changes
+required. They should tell the story of the change and provide readers
+understanding of what led to it.
+
+If you're lost about what this even means, please see [How to Write a Git
+Commit Message](http://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/) for a start.
+
+In practice, the best approach to maintaining a nice commit message is to
+leverage a `git add -p` and `git commit --amend` to formulate a solid
+changeset. This allows one to piece together a change, as information becomes
+available.
+
+If you squash a series of commits, don't just submit that. Re-write the commit
+message, as if the series of commits was a single stroke of brilliance.
+
+That said, there is no requirement to have a single commit for a PR, as long as
+each commit tells the story. For example, if there is a feature that requires a
+package, it might make sense to have the package in a separate commit then have
+a subsequent commit that uses it.
+
+Remember, you're telling part of the story with the commit message. Don't make
+your chapter weird.
+
+### Review
+
 Code review comments may be added to your pull request. Discuss, then make the
 suggested modifications and push additional commits to your feature branch. Post
 a comment after pushing. New commits show up in the pull request automatically,