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
Goals
What is everyone's Goal?
Roles
Is it clear what each Person's Role is?
Information
Does Everyone have the information they need?
Process
Is the Process Clear? Is it Right?
Interpersonal
It's not Interpersonal
80% of the time: The cause is a Goals issue
How do we Solve Goals Issues?
Unified Project Philosophy
Philosophy Driven Development
Democratize Publishing
A Clear Goal
Out Of the Box
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