Why WordPress Works This Way

Onboarding at an early job

Rainforest

Rarity: Everyone starts at once

WordPress doesn't have that luxury

Matt: 0 days

Mark Jaquith: 2 years

Andrew Ozz: 4 years

Dion Hulse: 4 years

Andrew Nacin: 6 years

Helen Hou-Sandí: 8 years

96 new contributors in 4.2

To 12 year old software

Most of us aren't working on 12 year old software

We can learn from it though

Contributing is not frictionless

Conflict Is

Resolving Conflict is not

Projects die due to conflict

People quit due to Conflict

Get On The Same Page

G.R.I.P.I

What is everyone's Goal?

Is it clear what each Person's Role is?

Does Everyone have the information they need?

Is the Process Clear? Is it Right?

It's not Interpersonal

80% of the time: The cause is a Goals issue

How do we Solve Goals Issues?

Unified Project Philosophy

Democratize Publishing

A Clear Goal

Little Configuration

Famous Five Minute Install

Emoji

Design for Majority

Most users are not technical

A solid array of basic features

Majority of users shouldn't want to turn off features

Not adding features, is a feature

Take on Technical Debt

My first patch

Menus in the Customizer

Decisions, Not Options

Options are expensive

Havoc Pennington

Too many preferences means you can’t find any of them.

Preferences really substantively damage QA and testing.

Preferences make integration and good UI difficult.

Preferences can confuse many users.

Auto Updates: Adding an option was never an option

Striving for Simplicity

Ease of Use matters

Link Manager

Link Pasting

Accessibility

Deadlines are not Arbitrary

Delaying a release for that one-more-feature is a rabbit hole

Real Users in the Real World mean Real Feedback

The Vocal Minority

1% are vocal

Controversy is Normal

Emoji

Inline Plugin Updates

Menus

Multisite

Customizer

Talk with Users

User Testing

Document Flows

Our Bill of Rights

The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.

The freedom to redistribute.

The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others.

The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish.

Study, not just the code

Organizational Debt

PhilosophyDrives Development

Users Drive WordPress

Aaron Jorbin

aaron.jorb.in
@aaronjorbin