The WordPress Foundation is pleased to announce the return of the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship for WordCamp US 2025. Applications are being accepted until July 25, 2025.

Scholarship Eligibility

This year, a single scholarship will be awarded. To qualify, applicants must:

• Identify as a woman
• Be actively involved as a contributor to WordPress
• Have never attended WordCamp US before
• Demonstrate a need for financial support to attend the event

If you meet these qualifications, we invite you to apply before the July 25 deadline. All applicants will be notified of the decision by August 7, 2025.

For additional information, visit the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship page hosted by the WordPress Foundation.

Join the Celebration

• Tickets for WordCamp US 2025 are now available—secure yours soon!
• Volunteer applications are open until July 11, 2025
• Interested in supporting the event? Explore our sponsorship opportunities

Help us spread the word about this opportunity and make WordCamp US 2025 even more special.

In the evolving digital commerce landscape, successful funding requires strong founder-investor relationships, clear problem-solving focus, and ethical considerations, emphasizing collaborative growth and effective product strategies.

You know that moment when you breeze into a new app by clicking “Sign in with Google”? That’s not magic. It’s federated identity management (FIM). 

It lets you hop between apps and services using just one login, no password juggling required.

You’ve likely got usernames and passwords scattered across what feels like half the internet. It’s a mess for users, and an even bigger migraine for developers trying to build secure login systems from scratch.

FIM solves this core problem of digital identity management by creating trusted links between different platforms. So instead of managing dozens of accounts, you just maintain one primary identity that does the heavy lifting across multiple services.

In this article, we’ll unpack:

• How identity providers and service providers team up to make login friction-free.
• The protocols behind the magic – SAML, OAuth, OpenID Connect.
• Why FIM systems are more secure and more user-friendly than the old-school alternatives.
• How tools like Gravatar bring federated identity to the everyday user, not just the enterprise crowd.

So, let’s dig into how federated identity is rewriting the rules of online access.

What is federated identity management?

Federated identity management lets users log into multiple services with just one set of credentials – even if those services belong to entirely different organizations or live in separate security realms.

In short: One login, many doors.

The clever part? While users enjoy the simplicity of a single sign-in, each organization still keeps tight control over its own systems and data. Everyone wins – convenience for users, boundaries for businesses.

At its heart, FIM solves a very modern dilemma: Too many passwords, not enough patience. By reducing login clutter whilst safeguarding security, it keeps systems streamlined and users sane.

For example:

• A university student signs into their campus portal with their regular uni login.
• From there, they can hop into a Google Workspace to submit assignments, dive into academic databases, or access publishing platforms with no additional accounts.
• Their university identity just… goes with them.

This all works thanks to behind-the-scenes handshake deals called federated identity agreements. The university acts as the identity provider, backing the student’s identity. Services like Google Workspace act as service providers, trusting that endorsement and granting access accordingly.

It all works through carefully coordinated authentication protocols working behind the scenes. These standards let systems talk to each other securely. Only the essentials get shared, passwords never stray from their home base, and users keep control of their data.

Now, let’s dig into how those protocols do their thing.

Key protocols and standards: SAML, OAuth, and OpenID Connect

Federated identity might sound like something dreamt up in a sci-fi novel, but it’s really just about helping different services trust each other enough to vouch for you. 

That way, you’re not logging in twelve times before breakfast. Instead, a handful of protocols quietly do the work to keep things smooth, secure, and repeat-login free.

Here are the big three making that happen:

SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language)

SAML is basically the corporate go-to when it comes to easy sign-ins. It’s what lets employees hop between internal tools (HR systems, dashboards, intranets etc.) without juggling five passwords and a daily identity crisis.

Here’s the gist:

• You try to access a service (say, the company HR portal).
• You’re bounced over to the company’s identity provider.
• You log in with your usual details.
• The service gets a SAML assertion – a signed digital nod that says, “Yep, this person checks out”.

It’s especially handy in enterprise and B2B settings, where you need airtight security and rich user data. If you’re into technical deep dives, the OASIS SAML Technical Committee has the specs.

OAuth 2.0

OAuth isn’t really about proving who you are; it’s about saying what an app can do on your behalf.

That moment when you “Sign in with Google”, OAuth is just passing a temporary access token that tells the app, “This person’s cool with you looking at their calendar (but hands off their emails).” It’s identity permission management, not identity confirmation.

It’s like handing out a key that only opens one room in the house, and only for a short time. You can learn more about it on the OAuth 2.0 site.

OpenID Connect

OpenID Connect builds on OAuth 2.0 by enabling proper ID verification. It’s what makes one-click logins like “Sign in with Apple” or “Sign in with Google” actually log you in, not just hand out permissions.

It works by adding an identity token that securely shares who you are with the service. So now, it’s not just “this person said yes,” it’s “this person is Alice, email verified, and here’s the proof.”

Want to build with it? The OpenID Connect specs are the go-to guide for implementation.

Identity providers vs. service providers: Roles in the FIM ecosystem

In federated identity management (FIM), two main players run the show: The identity provider (IdP) and the service provider (SP). Knowing what each does is key to understanding how FIM works.

Identity providers handle the login. They verify who you are; whether that’s Google, Microsoft, your university, or your company’s system. The IdP stores your credentials and confirms your identity to other services.

Service providers are the apps and platforms you want to access using that login, like Zoom, Dropbox, or academic databases.

Here’s what happens when you click “Sign in with Google”:

• Google (the IdP) checks your credentials.
• It tells the service provider you’re authenticated.
• The service provider grants access without ever seeing your password.

This split keeps things secure. Your passwords stay with trusted IdPs, so you’re not juggling new logins for every service. And if a service provider is breached, your credentials are still safe.

For organizations, it simplifies access control. IT teams can grant or revoke access from the IdP side, managing all connected services in one go when people join or leave.

FIM vs. single sign-on: Key differences explained

Single sign-on (SSO) is the big crowd-pleaser: One login, and you’re in. Email, HR tools, task boards, wiki rabbit holes – it’s all yours, no repeated password dance required. 

The catch is it all lives within the borders of your organization. Handy, yes. But fenced in.

Federated identity management (FIM) takes things a step further. Same single login magic, but this time the credentials can travel. Across platforms. Across orgs. Across ecosystems. It’s SSO with a passport.

Here’s how that plays out:

• With SSO, a university student signs in once and gets access to campus email, class materials, and the meal plan portal.
  
• With FIM, that same login gets them into external research libraries, academic collaboration tools, and third-party cloud drives, all run by different providers.

Both SSO and FIM save you from juggling five logins and twenty browser tabs. Both boost security by keeping authentication centralised. The difference? FIM doesn’t stop at the edge of your organization, it builds trust between systems that aren’t under the same roof.

To make this work, FIM needs a little extra backend choreography. To work smoothly across domains, it relies on protocols like SAML, OAuth, or OpenID Connect (the same ones we unpacked earlier). 

SSO inside a single org skips the extra tech since everything’s already playing on the same team.

So: SSO keeps things simple within your four walls. FIM gets you past the gates.

Gravatar’s profiles-as-a-service: A simplified approach to federated identity

Gravatar makes federated identity feel less like an enterprise buzzword and more like something regular people can actually use. It takes the big, often baffling ideas behind FIM and packages them into something simple, familiar, and weirdly elegant.

Let’s start with the magic trick: Update once, sync everywhere. 

Change your photo or bio on Gravatar and – ta-da – it updates across every platform that supports it, from WordPress comment sections to your GitHub commits. No faff. No repeat uploads. Just instant consistency, quietly flexing the whole “federated identity” concept in real life.

What really makes it click, though, is how Gravatar ties your identity to your email address instead of your name. That lets you switch gears effortlessly:

• One email for your work persona.
• Another for hobby projects.
• A third for your incognito forum life.

Each one becomes its own lightweight identity provider. And because Gravatar plays nicely with WordPress, GitHub, Slack, OpenAI (and plenty more), your profile travels with you like a loyal companion.

Gravatar skips the corporate complexity in favor of something far more accessible, especially for solo operators and smaller teams.

Best of all? It’s free. And since it’s backed by Automattic, Gravatar takes ideas that used to live inside enterprise IT departments and hands them over to the rest of us.

How developers can leverage Gravatar’s API for cross-domain identity

If you’re a developer staring down the barrel of yet another user profile system, take a breath. Gravatar’s got your back. Our API is basically a plug-and-play shortcut to “profiles-as-a-service,” and integrating it is almost suspiciously easy.

Instead of wrestling with databases, uploads, and custom logic, you can hook into Gravatar’s infrastructure with just a few lines of code. Here’s what you get:

• Avatars in all the sizes you’ll need.
• Verified social links.
• User bios and display names.
• Professional details, neatly packaged.

It’s a clean fix for the mess of cross-domain identity. One Gravatar profile works across every platform that supports the API. No more begging users to upload the same photo (again). No more duplicated effort.

And here’s what makes things even better: the docs are actually helpful. Whether you’re calling our REST API or grabbing an SDK, our Gravatar tutorials walk you through everything from basic avatar fetching to pulling in full profiles.

Building your own profile system could eat up weeks or months. With Gravatar, you’ll be done before your coffee goes cold. Plus, you skip the long-term headaches: Maintenance, security patches, user complaints – all gone.

If you’re working on a comment thread, a full-blown app, or anything in between, Gravatar delivers a clean, federated identity solution minus the enterprise bloat.

Create your digital passport today

Gravatar makes federated identity simple and available to everyone, whether you’re a solo creator or a full-stack developer. 

One profile, thousands of platforms: WordPress, GitHub, Slack, OpenAI… all covered.

You simply update your profile once, and it syncs everywhere. No more hunting down forgotten logins just to swap out a profile pic or tweak a bio.

For developers, it’s a breeze: Just a few lines of code, and your users get a polished, cross-platform experience without the headache of building your own identity infrastructure.

Gravatar’s been trusted by millions for over a decade, and it’s backed by Automattic, the same folks behind WordPress.com and a whole suite of web heavyweights. 

It’s free, privacy-conscious, and puts you firmly in control.

Ready to streamline your online presence? Set up your free Gravatar and make profile chaos a thing of the past.

I’m so glad Tammie was (partially) inspired to reflect on the beginning of her contribution journey after reading my 12 year first contribution anniversary post. I love reading these stories! They really ignite a meditative mindset.

I’m currently up in the White Mountains on a family vacation. I read her post with my morning coffee before my wife and I set out to hike Mount Willard as part of our attempt to tackle the 52 With A View. I know, I should be better about disconnecting, but her reflections had me thinking on the trail.

Everyone is just “figuring it out” (whatever that means)

It’s interesting how the contributors you looked up to when getting started that you assumed were well established were actually still finding their way.

Tammie is a great example of this. I remember looking at comments she made and thinking they were insightful and based on lots of experience. They were and still are, but her experience was not what I had assumed. Her experience at the time was just not yet from contributing to WordPress. She too was wandering around looking for the path that looked just right at the same time as me.

“Figuring it out” also means something different to everyone. And “it” can also change over time. The best path today will likely not be a good fit in 10 years, 5 years, or even 6 months.

Activating Observers

“A simple code review or “great job” can be the difference between a one-time contributor and a future maintainer. You never know what someone needs to hear, so be generous with feedback.”

This is something I included in my essay for the Maintaine.rs book. In Tammie’s post, she interestingly had a sentence that struck me as the exact opposite of that statement.

“Our projects are full of the ghosts of contributors we never activated, and that fuels me to see potential in every person who gives up their time.”

What happens when we don’t put our best forward, if it wasn’t enough, or wasn’t what someone needed to hear? Obviously we can’t (and shouldn’t) attract or keep everyone who passes by the communities we care for to join in our efforts. But what about those who were good fits but just weren’t engaged with in the right way?

Maybe documentation was lacking. Maybe expectations were unclear. Or maybe they sensed a maintainer was being territorial towards an area of the project they look after. This excerpt from Producing Open Source Software is relevant here:

Watch out for participants who try to stake out exclusive ownership of certain areas of the project, and who seem to want to do all the work in those areas, to the extent of aggressively taking over work that others start. Such behavior may even seem healthy at first. After all, on the surface it looks like the person is taking on more responsibility, and showing increased activity within a given area. But in the long run, it is destructive. When people sense a “no trespassing” sign, they stay away. This results in reduced review in that area, and greater fragility, because the lone developer becomes a single point of failure. Worse, it fractures the cooperative, egalitarian spirit of the project.

Karl Fogel. Producing Open Source Software. Chapter 8: Preventing Territoriality

Sometimes letting people find their way means not engaging at all. Not every contributor requires an eager welcome or hand-holding. Over-engaging can also be a bad thing. Knowing how to gauge the appropriate level of interaction is a skill that comes with time.

Different Paths For Different People

On our hike, I noticed that the route my wife took was almost never the same as the one I took on the same exact path. I wasn’t intentionally avoiding her footprints, I was just subconsciously choosing what looked best to me.

The same is true in a large community. Instead of rigid groupings with strict criteria that must be met, establish decision-making frameworks that encourage flexibility guided in foundational principles.

I sometimes observe new contributors trying to make sense of activity by forcing everything into specific categories, paths, or types. While it makes a lot of sense as a first step, that can quickly lead to frustration and burn out because it just doesn’t work like that at scale.

Paths also manifest to individuals differently. Sometimes they’re rocky and sometimes not. Sometimes it’s rocky but one giant smooth rock instead of many little ones, and occasionally the surface is just a little slippery. Everyone proceeds at their own pace. If you believe in the mission and have purpose, continue on despite the form the path takes in front of you.

Avoid Congregating At The Top

Two Summers ago while also in New Hampshire, we took the Mount Washington Auto Road to the top of the 6,288 foot highest point in New England. When we reached the summit, the weather was drastically different (30-40MPH gusts, cloudy, and 35°F) than at the base (high 80°s F, calm, clear and sunny).

Besides the weather, something else stood out. There was a line ~100 people long waiting for a chance to take a photo in front of the summit sign.

When everyone crowds toward the “top,” we risk losing the balance and continuity that healthy communities need. It’s not about reaching the summit. Rather, it’s about ensuring the entire path is well-traveled, well-marked, and connected.

Don’t Meet At The Top

We never truly make it to the “top” because it’s not a static thing. This is especially true in technology where everything is constantly changing and evolving. Thus, “getting to the top” is the wrong goal. Instead, our goal should be to connect with as many people as we can at the many points paths intersect along the way. Put differently, we should be building connections between as many paths as possible.

Those Who Predate Us

There was a very old stone wall covered in moss on the hike and I found myself thinking: how many others had used the same path before me? How many people lived on this mountain before the trail existed? There’s no true way to know, especially if everyone is respecting the carry in, carry out mindset. Instead, the signs will be very subtle and require an astute eye.

Footprints, paths worn down from traffic, and in more obvious cases, others actually passing you on your way. While each path is unique, where your path takes you is rarely untraveled. Learn to spot the differences and adjust accordingly.

Many Small Trickles Fill A Basin

When you drink from the fire hose of a large Open Source project like WordPress, it’s easy to lose sight of the cumulative efforts that are required to create such a strong and steady flow. But like basins and streams, it takes many small trickles to fill them.

Our work isn’t measured only by the splash of large contributions, but by the steady trickle of small acts that feed a thriving ecosystem. If we want future contributors to drink from the same basin, we need to show them how every small drop matters.

Judging Effectiveness By Noise

As we got close to the end of the hike, we started hearing cars on the highway again. The trail we took was an out and back loop. In this situation, it meant we were in the right place. But when we started the hike, the opposite was true.

When participating in a community, the level of “noise” can be used to gauge whether your work is on target.

When beginning to work on a foundational task that only a few people can advise on, that often means you’re in the right space. But once you’ve shared that idea with the wider community, silence could mean you’ve missed the mark.

Still, silence isn’t always failure. Sometimes it’s just the sound of others listening, considering, and preparing to walk their own part of the trail that you’ve created.

Featured image credit: CC0 licensed photo by soycelycruz from the WordPress Photo Directory.

The post The Ghosts of Unactivated Contributors appeared first on Jonathan Desrosiers.

The WordPress Foundation is proud to launch WordPress Credits, a contribution-focused internship program that brings university students into the heart of the WordPress open source project. While WordPress thrives on contributions from a global volunteer community, many students and newcomers face barriers to entry, such as a lack of structured guidance or real-world experience in open source projects. This new program is designed to bridge that gap, nurturing future contributors and ensuring WordPress remains innovative, inclusive, and sustainable for years to come.

The pilot program, developed in partnership with the University of Pisa, was announced on stage at WordCamp Europe 2025 by Matt Mullenweg and Mary Hubbard. Since then, it has attracted interest from students across various fields of study, including humanities, computer science, and communication. Companies in the WordPress ecosystem have also expressed support and interest in contributing to the project. In response to the growing interest from both community members and academic institutions, we are now inviting more universities to join the initiative.

Open to students from all fields of study, the program blends structured onboarding with a personalized contribution project. Activities are adapted to each student’s degree program and familiarity with WordPress, aiming to develop transferable skills, academic-related competencies, and active participation in the WordPress community. Internship durations may vary depending on the university or educational institution. Some may align with academic semesters (typically 3–4 months), while others, like the University of Pisa, allow students to sign up year-round with a requirement to complete a set number of contribution hours (e.g. 150 hours). Flexible arrangements can be discussed to meet the specific requirements of each institution.

Foundational Training includes:

• An introduction to open source principles and the WordPress Foundation
• Getting familiar with community tools (Slack, Make blogs, Learn platform, GitHub)
• Setting up a personal WordPress site and publishing content

Each student will choose a contribution area and design their own personal project within that area. Examples of possible projects include:

• Translating interfaces or documentation
• Creating multilingual subtitles for educational videos
• Contributing code or performing testing
• Supporting product development or design
• Writing or editing content
• Assisting with community event organization
• Developing training materials for Learn WordPress
• Creating open source tools
• And much more…
  

Interns are guided by an experienced mentor specific to their chosen area and supported by a dedicated WordPress Foundation contact person throughout the program. All student contributions, whether code, translations, documentation, or educational materials, will be publicly visible and integrated into official WordPress projects and resources, directly benefiting the wider community.

Interested universities and educational institutions interested in participating can reach out by filling the interest form.

We also invite companies in the WordPress ecosystem to support this initiative by sponsoring mentors who will guide and empower the next generation of contributors, or by providing tools and resources that help students succeed in their contribution journey. 

If your company is interested in getting involved, please visit the Company Guide to learn more and fill out the form to join the program.

By welcoming students, mentors, sponsors, and volunteers into this initiative, we are building a stronger and more connected WordPress community. Each person who takes part, whether they guide a student, share their experiences, provide sponsorship, or simply help spread the word, helps ensure that open source remains vibrant and accessible for all. Together, we are not just supporting individual contributors; we are shaping the future of WordPress and open source itself.

In this episode of Dev Pulse, hosts chat with Jason Cosper about the challenges and humor in infrastructure, consulting rates, communication, and the evolving role of AI in tech work and workflows.

This post was inspired by the awesome posts from Jonathan Desrosiers and Felix Arntz, who celebrated their contribution anniversaries with reflection. It made me muse on how critical those first points, the initial steps in a contribution journey, are. I began reflecting on my own ‘firsts’ and the people who helped me achieve them.

Reflecting

I am never one to celebrate anniversaries in general, and as a result, I admit I let my slide, both personally and professionally. That isn’t a pattern I suggest anyone should follow, though; it’s essential to acknowledge where you have been and who helped you get there.

In open source, those who have been involved in the project for a longer time may have always known what they are doing. This is far from the truth. Those who enabled my first props also had their own. Often, though, the first prop isn’t the first entrance into the project. It can be an incredible moment that empowers someone, though, by recognising their work. Often, props can come after a few stages in a contribution journey, and we might forget that. That path was one I followed, taking time to explore adjacent spaces before even finding my way around the space.

My first props

I admit I don’t recall ever looking up my first props before and I found mine this time but it took a bit. It was a nice moment that aligned with my contribution story to see my props split across core and BuddyPress. It also reflected how I took time before props to get settled in.

My first appearance in this space was in core, and then I rapidly ended up in adjacent areas, such as the theme review team and BuddyPress. On reflection, this could have been a different story. It could have been one of the contributor who pivoted out, never finding their space. So, I am grateful for finding a space and to those contributors who caught me.

My first BuddyPress props was by Paul Gibbs, and it was on 11/12/2010. My first core props came a few years later, and it was by Helen Hou-Sandi on 03/01/2013. By each of these props, I was already settled into those spaces as a contributor. Props might come later because you’re working on other things or the role you’re contributing.

A welcome

I had the pleasure of being asked to share my thoughts on contributing to maintaine.rs, along with other open source contributors, including the ever-awesome Jonathan Desrosiers. This is an incredible project telling stories across open source, and I encourage checking it out. In it, I was asked about welcoming contributors and how to see value.

If you want contributions, be sure to show how and where they are wanted. It’s one thing to say ‘all contributions are welcome’, but that’s open-source theatre because honestly, it’s likely not all are in every area as welcome as others. There are always more areas needed than some. Highlight these and make sure someone gets off to a contribution success from the start.

My journey could have been very different if I hadn’t found a place to contribute. Empowered by those people, I was led to the props and supported in my first tickets. Our projects are full of the ghosts of contributors we never activated, and that fuels me to see potential in every person who gives up their time.

When I arrived at the project, I wasn’t sponsored; I was giving my own time because this project was providing me with a blog and client work. My journey in open source began before WordPress, starting with Linux. When I joined the project, I already understood the concept of contribution and came to it with that in mind, looking to find a way to balance what I was gaining.

I wasn’t aware of all the options to contribute to the project; there were fewer than there are today. I had to be shown my options, where I could be helpful. My path was one so many have followed. I ended up staying here for so long because of the people who caught up with me along the way and helped empower me as a contributor, so thank you.

Props is just one of the firsts

Whilst these are ‘first’, they are just the public ones. There are so many firsts in a contribution journey. I was in these projects before my props. My first experience with core was that it was too overwhelming, which is why my first props is in BuddyPress. My first solo theme review was also pivotal to my journey 14 years ago.

Every conversation, particularly in the first few stages, was pivotal to my journey as it set the tone for where I ended up adventuring. They could also have been points that led me to leave the project because I couldn’t find a way to contribute. I hold onto this point when interacting with others, as each contribution is so significant. You never know what someone will do in a project if they are given the opportunity, and it starts with them knowing they can do things. It’s essential always to acknowledge and recognise everyone who contributed. You never know whose first props those might be and what impact each of us might have on someone’s journey of contribution.

Someone might also travel this project and never get props, because perhaps of the contribution area they are in or the work they are doing. That’s a key thing to consider, and actually, my own journey has public and non-public recognition due to different roles. As a project, WordPress needs to be better at recognising and measuring all types of contributions so the pride we all feel in props can be given to anyone contributing significantly.

If open source contribution works, it’s a journey. This point is demonstrated by the adventures I have travelled and those of others within these projects. We have grown up, changed jobs, and moved locations, but we stayed with the project and our contributions. You do that because you want to, because you are getting something from doing it, as contribution has to be a two-way street to become a part of someone’s life. Props and other recognition are a boost to help you on that journey. It works because it acknowledges the work being done, and in its simplest form, it is a way of saying thank you.

As AI advances, WordPress must choose between cloud-based tools or local agent workflows. Emerging protocols allow dynamic communication, influencing automation, privacy, and the future control of web content management.

In 2004, I was at home with one baby, having just left a career that I loved. Being at home with a baby full-time was shriveling up my brain. Before WordPress I tried gardening, sewing, painting, preserving and cooking. I was desperate to fill the void left by my career. 

My husband at the time, was a tech genius and had heard of a new get rich quick scheme: “blogging”.

I didn’t know what that meant – I had to research what the internet was! But I was desperate and the evening news was featuring these “mommy bloggers” who were making small fortunes!

“If they can do it”, I thought, “So can I!”

I made a whole $0.82 that year.

I am not easily dissuaded though. I decided that a new theme would get me more revenue.

To build themes circa 2007, you had to learn the template system, the file structure, and the hooks baked into WordPress. 

It was like a giant puzzle and I was so excited to be using my brain – I jumped in.

Learning to Swim

I read every single page in the WordPress.org docs. I spent 10–20 hours a week in the support forums, mostly asking for help – not giving much! 

I learned to code by fixing real problems – it was challenging and the internet was full of quality resources.

I made big mistakes – I crashed countless sites! And in doing so, I learned what not to do. 

I was in heaven. 

Except for those all-nighters trying to fix something that I broke on a client’s site. 

I learned from the best in the community – because back then, they were in the forums with me. I learned from friends and other bloggers. I learned from online articles (pre-YouTube days).

Along the way, I met a fellow mommy blogger who had a side business called Desperately Seeking WordPress. (Her blog was Desperately Seeking Sanity and she has the best sense of humour!) She needed help. I was available. 

At the time, our offer was simple: we would install WordPress, a theme, and a few plugins – and make it look nice – for $20.

Eventually, she stepped back, and I got to take the reins. 

That’s when I realized I hadn’t the foggiest idea how to run a real business. I started reading books like *E-Myth*, *Duct Tape Marketing*, and *Purple Cow*. I had no MBA, no startup capital. Just the desire to help other mommy bloggers not get ripped off by tech ‘gurus’.

Building a Business While Falling Apart

I’ve struggled with depression for my entire adult life. By 2006, I had three young children. By 2012, I was divorced. The work that had been a fun puzzle, now had to pay the bills.

I couldn’t disappear on bad days – my fledgling company had to be reliable! The clients needed stuff. So I hired my first contractor. She made more than I did most months.

But I needed to know someone would be there for my clients when I couldn’t be. That was the first step toward building a team that would be better than any of us could have imagined.

The behind-the-scenes work we do stays the same whether it is for celebrities or tiny fledgeling bloggers. And when we were kind, didn’t talk down to them, and were honestly helpful, they talked about us. And we became 100% referral-based.

So how do YOU get referrals? 

I can’t tell you that – but – I know what works for us: radical honesty (even when it hurts our bottom line), genuine kindness and respect, and being the best at what we do. I believe with all my heart that our clients are in good hands.

And that honesty requires owning my mistakes. I wish I could say I don’t make them anymore but… radical honesty! 

We always do what’s in the client’s best interest, even when it costs us money.

The Invisible Work

After about seven years, I made an intentional decision to hire women. I grew up in West Africa, and I’ve seen firsthand how empowering women lifts entire families and communities. 

So we began funding microloans for women entrepreneurs in developing countries. The research shows that supporting women has a multiplier effect – and I’ve always had a soft spot for hard-working entrepreneurial free spirits.

From the very beginning, we were a remote team. I’ve never been on my own – being reliable is a non-negotiable – I need the team.

One of those teammates is Diane. I met her 14 years ago, just after she got married. She’s quiet, steady, avoids the spotlight – and she’s been one of the most important people in my life. We’ve built a business together through births, illness, life transitions – and I trust her completely.

That trust, that stability, is part of what we offer our clients. And it’s rooted in one simple idea: be kind. Treat everyone with dignity. Respect whatever expertise they bring, even if it’s not technical. Our job is to help their business succeed – not to impress them with ours.

Burnout, Boundaries, and Pricing with Purpose

In 2014, I burned out — hard. I had thrown myself into social media marketing. I spent $1000’s on courses and really tried to implement the suggestions. Guest post twice a month? Check. Two hours connecting on Facebook every day? Check. Write three posts a week? Check. 

I did all the things. ‘Cause they told me to.

I think it only took me three months to crash and burn. I got so sick, my body was done. I spent two full weeks in bed.

That’s when I learned my limits. And it’s when I learned to stay focused. 

Today, all decisions go through a, “What does this do to the bottom line?” framework. And by bottom line – I mean money, of course, but without sacrificing service, honesty or the trust of our clients.

Part of our growth meant making pricing decisions that felt terrifying.

We raised prices from $20/setup to $40/hour. We lost 20% of our clients — and I expected to lose more. But the ones who stayed? They valued us. They paid happily. They referred us to others.

Later, we raised it again — to $75/hour. I braced for another drop. It never came. 

Instead, I got emails thanking me! Clients said they were glad we were finally charging what we were worth! I’m still shocked about it. Who knew I’d have warm fuzzy stories on the day we raised our prices?

Eventually, we raised it to $89/hour. Still below the $110–$120 that custom coders charge. Because we’re not “true coders.” We’re *practical coders.* We solve real problems, fast, for people who trust us.

And that trust is priceless.

On Staying True in a Shifting World

Through all of this – the growth, the pivots, the grief and healing – this little WordPress agency has offered me survival.

The ability to work from home. To be present for my kids. To build something real while living with depression. To build a team based on trust, not hustle.

I can only recommend something that I truly believe is the best option for my clients. That’s why WordPress matters to me. It’s extensible, open-source, secure, supported, owned and portable. Currently it is the best option for my clients. And I can stand behind that.

A sign sits on my desk. It reads: “Who can I serve today?”

That’s the constant. That’s the compass.

Today, I volunteer in the WordPress support forums – the same ones I learned from. I volunteer in the community to give back. I’m sharing my story, not to teach anyone how to succeed, but to say: it’s okay to build slow. To price based on value, not hype. To grow into leadership without chasing fortune.

There are still chapters unfolding in my story. Some endings haven’t revealed themselves yet. But I know this much:

I stayed.

And through WordPress, I learned that staying — quietly, kindly, steadily — can be its own kind of success.

Cathy’s Work Environment

We asked Cathy for a view into her development life and this is what she sent!

HeroPress would like to thank Draw Attention for their donation of the plugin to make this interactive image!

The post The Remote Team Who Raised Me appeared first on HeroPress.

Transcript

[00:00:19] Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.

Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case the power of local WordPress Meetups in community building in Spain.

If you’d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to wptavern.com/feed/podcast, and you can copy that URL into most podcast players.

If you have a topic that you’d like us to feature on the podcast, I’m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wptavern.com/contact/jukebox, and use the form there.

So on the podcast today we have Héctor de Prada.

Héctor is one of the founders of Modular DS, a tool for managing multiple WordPress websites. But his contributions to the WordPress community go far beyond his day job. Based in Spain, he’s been involved in creating and developing websites for years, and has immersed himself in the WordPress community, attending numerous WordCamps and Meetups in various cities.

More recently, he’s been co-organizing the WordPress Meetup in Leon, a city in northern Spain, which has seen impressive growth and engagement since its revival after the pandemic.

Héctor shares why he volunteers his free time to organize these community events, and the impact Meetups can have, not only for individual learning, but for revitalizing local tech ecosystems.

We discuss what makes a successful Meetup, how his team approaches event planning, rotating roles so nobody feels the pressure to attend every time, and how sponsors and local venues help make it all happen.

Héctor explains how their Meetup group draws diverse attendees, from students and marketeers, to business owners and agencies. And how they’ve experimented with differing formats and topics to keep things fresh and inclusive. Whether it’s inviting guest speakers from digital businesses, running panel forums, or focusing on networking opportunities for job seekers and entrepreneurs, he highlights the power of community in building connections that exist beyond WordPress.

We cover everything from the practicalities of finding venues and sponsors, to managing team workflows and keeping the events welcoming and approachable.

If you ever thought about starting a WordPress Meetup in your city, or want to bring new energy to an existing group, this episode is for you.

If you’re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you’ll find all the other episodes as well.

And so without further delay, I bring you Héctor de Prada.

I am joined on the podcast by Héctor de Prada. Hello, Héctor.

[00:03:20] Héctor de Prada: Hello, Nathan. A pleasure to be here.

[00:03:22] Nathan Wrigley: We’re at WordCamp EU. It is in Basel. We are on the contributor day. And you are going to be giving a presentation about an experience that you have, I guess, on a monthly basis running an event. Let’s get into that in a moment. First of all, just introduce yourself, who you work for, what you do in the WordPress community outside of Meetups.

[00:03:41] Héctor de Prada: Okay, so I am Héctor de Prada. I am one of the founders of Modular DS, which is a tool to manage multiple WordPress websites. So that’s like my main occupation. But thanks to that, and also since way before, I have been involved with WordPress, creating websites, developing websites.

And for the past couple of years, or three years I could say, I have been also involved in the community. I’ve been in many WordCamps in Spain because as you know, in Spain, we have a lot of WordCamps. I’ve also been in many Meetups in different cities. I try to stay as much connected as I can to the community.

I also write a newsletter about the WordPress ecosystem in Spanish. And since a year and a half ago, I am also one of the co-organisers of the Meetup, and that’s what I’m going to talk about, well, Saturday in the WordCamp Europe in the talk I have.

[00:04:39] Nathan Wrigley: This is going to seem like a strange question because you know, on a very visceral level, you really understand why you do it, but I’m kind of keen to explain that to the audience. Why do you use up your free time organising WordPress events on a sort of voluntary basis? You know, you’ve given up lots of your free time, there’s no financial gain, you’re just doing it. Why do you do that?

[00:05:02] Héctor de Prada: Okay, well, I was thinking a lot about this question before and I came up with two different answers.

The first one is that since, like I said, I have been kind of part of the community for a few years, and I have been in many events outside of my city. I saw how the WordPress communities, how it feels, all the good things that come out of it. And then one of the main things I was always thinking when I was going to these events was like, why can’t we have this in our city for the people in our city to experience this, to have this type of connections, inspiration, learning, and so on? So that’s one of the first things.

And then it was also mixed with, I come from a small city in the north of Spain, and one of the things, many people say inside the city and outside of the city is that we don’t have many things anymore, okay. So it’s hard to explain, but like there is not much to do, a lot of young people leaves the city. So it’s kind of like depressing mood a little bit.

So it was also like, why don’t we try to do something in our city to try to start creating an ecosystem? And WordPress gave us the perfect excuse to also do that. Try to get people together, people in the tech world, which is what we do, talking about me and my partner, my friends, we are always talking about websites, technology, design. So it kind of all got together and we said, okay, let’s start doing the WordPress Meetups. And it’s been great so far.

[00:06:31] Nathan Wrigley: How long have you been actually involved in the one that you’re doing now?

[00:06:34] Héctor de Prada: The meet up in our city, we have been doing it for around year and a half now. So after the summer, we’ll do two years.

[00:06:40] Nathan Wrigley: I should probably say to the listeners that a Meetup, if you’ve never attended one, WordPress has a whole community outside of the software, who help create the software, but they also show up for social events and things like that. And the ones that you may have heard of are WordCamps, and they’re the big ones. That’s where we’re at right now. So they tend to be an annual thing, perhaps in a city or, we are at WordCamp Europe, which is an annual thing, which moves around Europe.

But the Meetups, which is what we’re talking about, that’s usually bound to a city or a town or something like that, and it’s much more regular and it’s probably happening in an evening. It’s not a whole day. It’s maybe, I don’t know, six o’clock till nine o’clock, something along those lines. And presumably using local talent, using the people in the community that you’ve got, drawing them in and trying to get them to do the presentations and all of the bits and pieces.

So if you don’t know anything about that dear listener, now you do. If there’s something close to you, if you actually log into your WordPress dashboard, there will be an area in the dashboard, if you put all of the panels on, if you turn them on, you’ll be able to see, hopefully it will geographically locate you and give you some intel as to that.

So tell us a little bit about the one that you’ve been doing. You said it’s been going for 18 months, or at least you have been involved for 18 months.

[00:07:53] Héctor de Prada: Actually it was already working before Covid, so for a couple of years before Covid. Then it was shut down. I wasn’t involved before Covid. I didn’t even know the WordPress community before Covid. And then it was like three years stopped. Yeah, like 18 months ago, we kind of restarted the Meetup.

[00:08:13] Nathan Wrigley: So how many people typically would attend your Meetup? Because yours is quite a big one. The one that we are at at the moment is ridiculously big. You know, it’s going to have several thousand. Nobody can expect those kind of attendance numbers. That would be extraordinary. What are the kind of numbers that you are seeing on a monthly basis?

[00:08:28] Héctor de Prada: Yes, so I was checking this for the presentation I’m giving on Saturday, and we have, in this 18 months, we don’t do it every month, okay, it is more like every couple of months, because we don’t do it in the summer or during Christmas, for example, in December. So it’s kind of like six, eight, a year. And we have an average attendance of 60 people.

I know it’s pretty big because like I said, I’ve been in many other places where having like 25 people, 30 people, is already like a huge success. And that’s what we were trying to accomplish at the beginning. Like, okay, let’s try to get 20 people here, 25 people, get together. And since the beginning it’s been like, yeah, like sometimes it’s 50 people, sometimes it’s like 75 people. And for us it’s like, sometimes we don’t even know, how is it possible? But sure, it’s very fulfilling and we’re very happy about it of course.

[00:09:16] Nathan Wrigley: And how do you sort of account for that? Do you email people? Do you have like a system? So for example, a lot of the Meetups will use a platform, which is called Meetup. You can go to meetup.com, and figure all of that out. But do you use a system like that to keep in touch with people and notify them that there’s a new one coming in June or July or whatever it may be?

[00:09:35] Héctor de Prada: Yeah, we use meetup.com to create the events and send the email communications to all the people that is subscribed to the group, or has been in one of the previous Meetups. And also, we always try to get people to follow us on social media because it is where, we have like a Twitter and Instagram account. It’s where we try to advance the new Meetups and give all the information and stuff.

And then we try different things also to get more people to come in. For example, we go kind of old school and we print some big flyers, okay, to put it on the walls. And we put it, for example, in the university, in the buildings the city hall has for technology companies. So we put them over there just for people, when they go to work or students, when they go to the university, they will just check it out. And maybe they will feel like going. So that’s also something we do.

[00:10:25] Nathan Wrigley: And where do you actually do it? Do you have the same venue every single time, or do you tend to move around?

[00:10:30] Héctor de Prada: No, we move around. This is very important because it, I think it’s one of the most important things when you are organising any kind of event, the venue where you’re actually doing it. And we are very lucky because, even when I was telling you that in our city it seems like not many things are being done. When you actually try to do something, everybody tries to help you.

So we have been offered many different venues from City Hall, from the university, from private companies, from the government, public buildings they have. So what we have tried to do is to do the Meetup in different places. So in case, at some point, we can do it in one of them, we will always be able to go to any of the other ones. And that has worked very well for us.

[00:11:12] Nathan Wrigley: Oh, nice, yeah. I think that’s not typical. I think usually it’s done in kind of the same venue and what have you.

My understanding also, and I could be wrong about this, but my understanding is that the Spanish WordPress community is actually one of the healthier ones, for want of a better word. It seems to be kind of thriving. I don’t know if I’ve just heard a story and that’s not true, but is that true?

[00:11:33] Héctor de Prada: No, I think it is. I think it is definitely, well, I was talking with somebody that is organising here at WordCamp Europe, and we were accounting for WordCamps made in Spain last year. And I think it was like 12 WordCamps in one year, only in Spain, which I could say is what the rest of Europe has in one year.

So it’s like pretty crazy. I think, we Spanish people, we just like to gather a lot and just meet each other. But also I think there are many Meetup groups in Spain that are doing a great job and have great numbers and do a lot of Meetups with really great speakers. So yeah, I would say in Spain there is a lot of community movement.

[00:12:14] Nathan Wrigley: I’m quite jealous. The part of the world where I live in the UK, Covid really had a profound impact. The Meetups kind of disappeared, and in some cases came back, but in most cases they didn’t. I think maybe the year 2025 was a bit of a watershed. There’s a few I think that maybe are on the cusp of returning.

So it can’t just be you. I’m presuming that there’s a whole bunch of people, a team, if you like. And how does that work? How many people regularly are helping you out, and do you have, I don’t know, different roles that you perform? Like, you’re in charge of the emails, you’re in charge of the venue, you’re in charge of the snacks and whatever it may be. How many people on the team and how do you manage all that?

[00:12:49] Héctor de Prada: We are six people currently, and what we tried since the beginning was to find other people that could be complimentary to us. And like you said, we try to split responsibilities. So one of us, who is very good with social media, is the one taking charge of posting everything in social media so everybody sees what we are doing.

Other person is always in charge of the networking we do afterwards to get the catering, even the venue we have to change somewhere, because it’s somebody who has a lot of contacts in that space.

Also somebody’s in charge of sponsors. Somebody’s in charge of creating the Meetups. Somebody’s in charge of the design.

Okay, so we try to split the responsibilities, but at the same time, and this is not so obvious, I think what we have also found very important is that, even when each one has a responsibility, we also try to rotate every once in a while. So, for example, when we started, everybody thought or supposed I was always going to be the one presenting, because I’m kind of more used to speaking in public. One of the first things we decide is that every day one of us was going to present the Meetup. So in case I’m missing or anybody else is missing, the Meetup will work exactly the same.

Because we don’t want this to feel like an obligation, like every member of the team has to be every single Meetup no matter what, because it’s not a job. You said it. This is like a volunteer thing. We do it for the community. So if at some point something happens with life, you have to take your kids to school or anything, well, the rest of the team will be able to take charge.

[00:14:27] Nathan Wrigley: So everybody kind of rotates things around so that if somebody’s, I don’t know, unwell during that day, somebody can slot in. Yeah, that’s kind of an interesting approach.

[00:14:35] Héctor de Prada: Exactly. Yeah, the same with like organising the networking and the catering afterwards, taking charge of cleaning everything up afterwards. We try to rotate everything.

[00:14:44] Nathan Wrigley: There’s so much that goes into these events. So let’s just go through the little laundry list of things that you have to achieve. Now, you may do some of these, you may not. But I guess it’s things like booking the venue has to be done. Maybe there’s a payment that needs to be involved with that. You have to presumably have an email list. You’ve got social media accounts. You’ve got ordering the food, tidying up at the end.

[00:15:03] Héctor de Prada: You need to talk with the sponsors as well to get any merchandise they might send to you to give to the attendees. Also, you have to select the speakers and then prepare it with the speakers.

[00:15:14] Nathan Wrigley: So do you work with the speakers as well? Because my experience is that often speakers can be, if they’re new to it, they can be a little bit nervous. And so having some sort of, coaching is maybe the wrong word, but some intuition as to, yeah, you’re on the right lines. That, I think, is what our audience will like.

[00:15:27] Héctor de Prada: It depends a lot on the speaker, because it’s true that there are some speakers that are very, I’m not going to say professional, but they’re like very used to, they are experts in something and they’re very used to give talks about it. So you basically can’t tell them anything because they already know more than you do, okay, about how to do it right.

But it’s true that one thing that we like to do a lot is that we don’t only try to do like the normal talks you might see in a WordCamp, where somebody is an expert on a field, and they just give you a talk trying to allow you to learn something. But we also like to do more experience stuff like trying to look for inspiration instead of learning.

So for example, like you do with the podcast, nowadays I think podcasts are a trend because we like to listen and understand the stories behind people, how they are doing something, or how did they come to this? So for those kind of talks, it’s true that we kind of give them a guide. So, we would like you to talk about this.

Or sometimes if we do, the last meeting we did, it was like a forum with three different businesses, and we wanted to just talk about their experience. And what we did is try to get like the main questions we wanted them to answer. And we gave them to them previously so they could kind of prepare a little bit of what we wanted to talk about. Because they didn’t have any presentation or anything, it was just like a normal conversation, like an interview more. So in those cases, it takes much more work than if it’s just somebody with a presentation and they do their thing.

[00:16:58] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, i’ve been to Meetups where they’ve done a whole variety of different things, not all at the same evening. So for example, they might do two presentations of, I don’t know, 45 minutes each, and then have a bit of networking in the middle.

Some places do social things where it’s just, maybe there’ll be an hour where you just do the networking and hang out. I’ve been to Meetups where they do prize giveaways and quizzes and things like that.

So there isn’t just one model. You can sort of mix it around a little bit and offer things which the audience, I don’t know, it’s a bit more entertainment, if you like.

[00:17:29] Héctor de Prada: Of course. I think it’s very nice to try different formats, different things. Because also people, when we have a lot of, I guess like many Meetups, we have many regular people, they go to almost every Meetup, so I think it’s also good for them to try different things so it’s more like, a little bit unexpected. You get a surprise of what you are getting out of it, and it’s not always the same thing.

[00:17:51] Nathan Wrigley: Have you had things which you’ve tried maybe recently in the last six months or something that you just thought, oh, let’s give that a go. And if so, maybe you could share that.

[00:17:59] Héctor de Prada: Well, the last one we did, at the beginning it was a little, it wasn’t so much about the format because we had already tried that because it was like, yeah, like four people from three different businesses talking about how they achieved what they have done. But the crazy thing is it was the topic about it. Because it was three different gastronomic business, which at the first time you could say, okay, so what does this have to do with WordPress?

But it was very interesting because those three businesses, it was a social media influencer only talking about restaurants, a food influencer. Then it was a restaurant that has digitalised all the experience inside the restaurant. So you get to the restaurant and you order the food with your phone, everything, so no people around you or anything.

And then the other one was an e-commerce site made with WooCommerce of one of the biggest meat sellers in Spain. It’s a big restaurant just to eat meat. The type of meat, like you pay a lot for that. And they are really crushing it, like with their e-commerce made with WooCommerce.

So it was all very digital, but at the same time, the topic was like gastronomic and at the beginning people was like, doesn’t feel like a WordPress Meetup. It was amazing. People loved it.

[00:19:08] Nathan Wrigley: It worked.

[00:19:08] Héctor de Prada: Yes, yes. Because their stories were so interesting and how they kind of mixed with the technology and how it started, the pains they had at the beginning, trying to introduce that technology and how it has now changed their business. It was super interesting.

[00:19:23] Nathan Wrigley: How did you come up with the idea of that particular one? Because that’s so curious. Because usually it is, there’s a strong WordPress focus to the ones that I’ve been, you know, there’s a presentation, it’s WordPress, there’s a Lightning Talk, it’s WordPress, there’s another presentation, it’s WordPress.

But that one, there’s a thread running through it, which is technology. Sounds like the audience really liked it. And there was obviously that WooCommerce bit at the end that you mentioned. How did you even conceive of that topic?

[00:19:47] Héctor de Prada: Yeah. Well, it wasn’t only that WooCommerce, like the three of them had started somehow the business with some WordPress, a WordPress website, a WordPress blog, a WooCommerce, okay. It wasn’t the main focus of the talk, but they all had something to do. And that wasn’t intentional, like it just came out because I guess WordPress, you want it or not, it is behind most of the worldwide web. So it was very nice.

But one thing talk about in the presentation here at WordCamp Europe is that I think that WordPress is what unites us, but I don’t think it should be what separates us. So I think, thanks to WordPress powering like 40 something percent of the worldwide web, it allows us to talk about almost everything related to the digital world. It will always be somehow related to WordPress.

So it’s true that we don’t go too deep into the technical WordPress part. It’s always somehow related, but we feel like our audience is not like WordPress experts, to say it like that. We have a lot of students, marketing students, marketing agencies, entrepreneurs. And then we talk more about like the digital business part, the online marketing. It’s always somehow related to WordPress, but it has worked for us very well to kind of get a broader view and not go so specific, to get also like more attendees coming, and they all feel like they understand, that they can apply that to themselves.

Of course we always talk a lot about WordPress. It’s a WordPress Meetup. But I think that’s also important because even us that we are so deep in the community, I feel like WordPress is like my main thought like 24/7 almost. But for most people outside the community, it is not like that. And I think one important thing in WordPress is that we try to get as many people to the community as possible, and they don’t have to be such experts.

[00:21:36] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, it’s kind of interesting because if you show up and you did two presentations back to back and it was all about, I don’t know, WP-CLI, followed by some other very technical thing, it may be that half of the audience, maybe more, maybe 70% of the audience would think, I don’t really understand that. And managing that is quite difficult.

So mixing it up a little bit and making sure it’s not too technical for one of the evenings. Maybe you have a technical one now and again, but you’ve got to think a lot about the audience and what they are prepared to consume.

So, pivoting slightly, I guess this cannot be entirely free. So I know that you give your labour for nothing. But presumably there is a cost somewhere along the line, whether that’s for snacks or whether it’s for hiring of the venue. How do you finance your Meetup? How does that work?

[00:22:22] Héctor de Prada: Yeah, we have sponsors that help us with the cost. We basically, our costs are only the flyers, which is like almost nothing because we don’t do that many, and then the food and drinks for the networking. So we always try to have two sponsors. One, it’s always a local company, and then one is a workers community company.

I think in Spain at least, because I don’t know outside of Spain, but there are many companies, mostly hosting companies that really want to sponsor these kind of events. And since the beginning, we have had a lot of offers of companies trying to sponsor. I guess it’s also important that we have good attendee numbers and stuff. But I think they sponsor most of the Meetups in Spain. That’s what we use to cover the cost.

[00:23:08] Nathan Wrigley: How does the sponsorship actually work? Because obviously they couldn’t realistically be paying you directly and then you then move the money to buying the snacks and the pizzas or whatever it may be. How does that sponsorship actually work? Who is the person that’s receiving the money and distributing it and so on?

[00:23:23] Héctor de Prada: Well, normally what we do is that, since our costs are very located in, I would say 90% or maybe 95% of the budget goes to the food and drinks for the catering, which we have also tried different companies and different stuff. So they give us a bill and then we’ll send it to the sponsors so they pay the bill. I know it’s not the easiest way. Sometimes because of the company requirements of the food, we have to give the money first and then ask the sponsor to give us the money.

Well, I guess as long as you are, for example, us of course, in the team, as long as you are completely transparent and you show where all the money goes and what is being spent. At least for us, I’m sure for you guys in London, for example, it has to be way different because it’s another city, other kind of prices and everything. But for us, the money sums are really, really small. Even when we have a 60 person Meetup, the money is really small. It just gives you for that, for like the food and that. We are still waiting to try to do some T-shirts for the team, but we haven’t still gotten the money for that.

[00:24:27] Nathan Wrigley: So you tend to get a sponsor on board to sponsor a thing, a component of the Meetup. So it might be that this week hosting company X is sponsoring the food. Or such and such a company is sponsoring the venue. It’s like in one door out the other. Somebody on your team will pay for the food, but then send the receipt, the bill if you like, to the sponsor, who will then reimburse them for all of that.

[00:24:50] Héctor de Prada: Yeah, could be. For example, we have never paid for the venue. We have always had agreements, it’s always free for us so far. Yeah, it’s basically always the food. And the sponsor, even the local company has changed a few times.

But for example, I would say the WordPress community company, that for us is a hosting company, that also sponsors many WordCamps in Spain, we have always had the same one because since the beginning they told us, we want to sponsor, and as long as you keep doing it, we will send you the money or give us the bills.

And also the sponsors we’ve had, they always give us gifts or merchandise for the attendees or maybe to give something like a raffle and then somebody can win a prize or something better. Or they even give us gifts for the speakers as well. So they always treat us very good.

[00:25:37] Nathan Wrigley: So is there like a magic number that makes the event work? So you said that sometimes 70, sometimes 55, something like that. I mean, they seem like pretty good numbers. If you stand in front of that many people, that can be quite intimidating, you know, that’s a lot. Obviously other places will have smaller numbers. Maybe some places will have bigger numbers.

Is there some feeling in your head about, if the numbers dipped down to 20, it’s not worth doing it anymore or anything like that? Do you have any of those thoughts? Because I know that a lot of people who’ve put these events on before, they get quite demoralized because they begin it, three people show up and they do it again, and then two people show up and maybe five people show up. And it kind of seems like a lot of effort. There’s not much interest. I’m trying my hardest, I’m doing all the things which I think are the right things to do. Any thoughts on that?

[00:26:22] Héctor de Prada: Yeah, well, I think it’s definitely challenging because I’ve seen, like you said, many cities where this is the case. It’s really hard for them to get people to attend. I think the main focus for us, when we got all the team together, we always try to think about new things to bring new people in. Maybe talking with the teachers at the university, or maybe going to a business group to present them the Meetup, or maybe get a collaboration with a social media influencer in the city, so he can talk about the Meetups, even be a speaker and then post it on socials. So it is definitely, I think it’s the most important thing.

In my experience, i’ve been in many Meetups and when you are more than 20 people, I could say, it already feels pretty good. Because more than 20 people, it’s already a good number of people to network, to talk, to give a presentation in front of. So more than 20 people, I think it’s already a good number. When you go below 20, below 10, I guess it’s pretty hard.

[00:27:19] Nathan Wrigley: You sort of feel that it’s a lot of work and, you know, it’s difficult to justify that work if the interest is not there.

So speaking of that then, is there a support, like a wider WordPress Meetup support network? So where you can go and dip in for ideas, advice. Obviously if you’re listening to this podcast, that’s one avenue you might get it. But is there a place that you can go, like a Slack channel or a wordpress.org forum or something like that where you could go and gain advice, or some leadership from people like you who’ve been doing this before?

[00:27:48] Héctor de Prada: Yeah, well, there are different places. In the day to day, we have the Slack channel, for example, in the Spanish community inside the WordPress Slack, we have a channel for the Spanish Meetups. So every time we have a problem, we had one a few weeks ago with the Meetup platform, for example, or things like that. We always go there and there is always somebody from the community team replying, and telling you, and helping you, whatever you need.

Also I think it’s very important. It was huge for us at the beginning, before we started doing the Meetup of our city, again, when we started now 18 months ago, it was very helpful to go to WordCamps and in the Contributor Day, like today, go to the community tables and talk with the people that has experience organising Meetups. And they were the ones, for example, when we started it was like super easy because people like Rocío Valdivia, Juan Hernando, who are very deep into the community team for many years, they have been there. They just help us do all the process, all we needed to know. They gave us all the basic advice to know, screwed up at the beginning.

So I would say, if somebody’s looking to organise a Meetup, the first thing they should do is to go to a WordCamp event, or maybe a Meetup in a different city, and talk with people that is organising a Meetup to just get some of the real experience, because I think that’s invaluable.

[00:29:08] Nathan Wrigley: How do your team actually meet up then? Do you have like a regular weekly gathering, like a session where you all gather on zoom or something like that?

[00:29:16] Héctor de Prada: It’s more like on a monthly basis. So since we do Meetups every two months, let’s say on average. So one month we do the Meetup, and then the next month we got all together. It may be all together on the same place, because since it’s a small city, we are all kind of close to each other, or it might be on Zoom. And then we do like the feedback of the previous Meetup to talk about what went well, what could be improved, and at the same time to prepare the next Meetup.

So it’s kind of one month, Meetup, one month, all get together to talk about it. Next month, Meetup, next month, get together to talk about it.

In one hour we can talk about the previous Meetup and organise the next one. And I’m not talking about organise everything, I’m talking about kind of like divide the responsibilities and say, okay, so I’m going to do this, you’re going to do this. And then on a WhatsApp group, we are just letting each other know like, okay, I already booked the venue. Okay, I already talked with the speaker, and he said, okay. Okay, I already designed the flyer or the image and we are good to go, and things like that.

[00:30:14] Nathan Wrigley: From what you’re saying, it sounds like it’s kind of got a homely, family sort of vibe to it.

[00:30:20] Héctor de Prada: Yes. We try to have that casual vibe, like friendship vibe. Like, even in the Meetups, when people come at the beginning when other people on the team was speaking at the beginning, like presenting the Meetup, and talking a little bit about what is the WordPress community, or what do we do here, what type of events are in the WordPress community and everything. They were a little bit nervous about it because they haven’t done it before or seen it as many times as I have seen it.

And I would always tell them, this is like a friend group. If you say something wrong, you just say naturally, okay, this is my mistake. I should have said that this way and not that way, okay. And just do it in a casual vibe. Like, most of the people, like I said, since they’re regular people, we kind of know everybody. We all know each other because we do, if we do like one hour talk, then we always have like one hour, or hour and a half, of networking. So almost everybody knows each other.

So it’s kind of more like, yeah, like friendship, not family, but friendship. We try to do that also so everybody who comes feels comfortable and not afraid to speak with anybody or even to ask something during the Meetup or anything. Because it feels really like it’s just a group of friends and you are part of those friends and everybody’s welcome.

[00:31:35] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, that feels really nice. The Meetup that I attend, we also have this idea of kind of networking and that seems to be quite a powerful thing as well. So people don’t just show up to make friends, which is nice. They don’t just show up to watch the presentations. Again, it’s nice, but they also show up, and there’s an opportunity to share stories about, I’m looking for work, I’ve got a job that I need to be filled.

And just the other month we had a story about somebody who, you know, started a new job because of a conversation that had happened at that event. Just wondered if that kind of thing was something that you have noticed happens with yours as well?

[00:32:09] Héctor de Prada: Definitely, definitely. One of the first things I was telling, for example, in the first Meetup we have, I think a few students came from the university. And I was like, this is where you have to be because you’re studying for marketing, and here there are like, I don’t know, like seven or eight agency owners that are going to be looking for the next people to work on their marketing team. So this is the perfect place. You are not going to meet them any other place. You’re not going to go on the street and just cross them all. So you have a marketing agency. I want to work on a marketing agency. No, it’s not going to happen.

But here you just come here for free, you learn something, and also you can talk to these people directly. You can tell them about your life. They can tell you about theirs. Maybe there is a match. So yeah, I hope, I know a couple of stories that have worked, but I hope, I really hope it will be like the best thing for the Meetup that a lot of good things, it’ll either be collaborations, hirings, partnerships, anything come out of the Meetup. Because that would be great for the ecosystem, for the people in our city, for the people attending the Meetups. So that would make us so, so happy.

[00:33:11] Nathan Wrigley: It’s one of those things that I think many people might find it a little bit nervous to go for the first time. You know, just the idea of sitting in a room full of strangers. You can do just that. You can sit at the back and you don’t have to contribute. You don’t have to put your hand up and say anything. So the idea of just showing up, lurking maybe a few times, just seeing what the whole situation is like. And you never know, something completely revolutionary might happen.

[00:33:33] Héctor de Prada: Yeah. There is always, sometimes when you go to the networking part, and you don’t know anybody, the normal thing is that you probably go to a corner just by yourself, okay. Or just close to a wall and just stay there. But the normal thing in this type of events, or I would say almost any event, is that you’re going to find other people next to the wall, next to you, because they also don’t know anybody.

And those are the first people you’re going to meet. And you’re going to create that relationship. And from that you’re going to start moving to other groups. Somebody’s going to come that knows one of you. And that’s how it starts. So it might feel intimidating at the beginning, but then once you get into it, also, this is especially in the WordPress community, it’s very easy to start to know people.

[00:34:17] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. It’s just occurred to me, Héctor, that we’re sort of 40 minutes in and I haven’t said, where is it? Where is your Meetup?

[00:34:24] Héctor de Prada: Okay, yeah, true. Well, it’s in the city of León, which is in the north of Spain. It’s a small city in the north of Spain.

[00:34:31] Nathan Wrigley: And I will make sure, when I put the show notes together for this episode, if you go to wptavern.com and search for the episode with Héctor in it, I’ll make sure to link any resources that you put in my way. I’ll make sure to link so that if you are in that neck of the woods, you can check it out, but also I’ll make sure to link to other more wider resources.

[00:34:50] Héctor de Prada: If somebody that listens to this at any point thinks that me or anybody on our Meetup group can help them, if they are trying to create a Meetup, or doing a Meetup and trying to change something, please reach out to us and of course we’ll be happy to talk with anybody, if our experience can help in any way.

[00:35:10] Nathan Wrigley: That’s perfect. I will make sure to put some links to your bio as well. That’s absolutely wonderful. Héctor de Prada, thank you so much for chatting me today.

[00:35:17] Héctor de Prada: Thank you, Nathan.

On the podcast today we have Héctor de Prada.

Héctor is one of the founders of Modular DS, a tool for managing multiple WordPress websites, but his contributions to the WordPress community go far beyond his day job. Based in Spain, he’s been involved in creating and developing websites for years, and has immersed himself in the WordPress community, attending numerous WordCamps and Meetups in various cities. More recently, he’s been co-organising the WordPress Meetup in León, a city in the north of Spain, which has seen impressive growth and engagement since its revival after the pandemic.

Héctor shares why he volunteers his free time to organise these community events, and the impact Meetups can have, not only for individual learning, but for revitalising local tech ecosystems.

We discuss what makes a successful Meetup, how his team approaches event planning, rotating roles so nobody feels the pressure to attend every time, and how sponsors and local venues help make it all happen.

Héctor explains how their Meetup group draws diverse attendees, from students and marketers to business owners and agencies, and how they’ve experimented with differing formats and topics to keep things fresh and inclusive. Whether it’s inviting guest speakers from digital businesses, running panel forums, or focusing on networking opportunities for job seekers and entrepreneurs, he highlights the power of community in building connections that extend beyond WordPress.

We cover everything from the practicalities of finding venues and sponsors, to managing team workflows and keeping the events welcoming and approachable.

If you’ve ever thought about starting a WordPress Meetup in your city, or want to bring new energy to an existing group, this episode is for you.

Useful links

Héctor’s presentation at WordCamp Europe 2025: Tips for hosting a successful WP meetup in your city

WordPress León meetup

Héctor on LinkedIn

Héctor on wordpress.org

As described by longtime contributor Tammie Lister in a recent episode of Open Talk on Open Channels, fractional sponsorship is when a contributor is sponsored part-time by multiple organizations (or individuals). Rather than being fully funded by one company or acting as a purely unpaid volunteer, fractional contributors assemble support from several interested parties. As […]

Twelve years ago today, I received my very first props for contributing to WordPress Core. I had no idea at the time, but it turned out to be a transformative milestone in my career.

In WordPress, community participants receive credit for contributing to a given change or deliverable by receiving “props.”

Props should be given to all those who contributed to the final commit, whether through patches, refreshed patches, code suggested otherwise, design, writing, user testing, or other significant investments of time and effort. Usernames are parsed for the credits list and WordPress.org profiles.

WordPress Core Handbook

Before each release, the names of all contributors to that version are collected and added to the Credits API, which powers the Credits page in the WordPress dashboard. I’m proud to have been listed on that page for 22 consecutive releases starting with 4.7, and 27 of the 33 releases overall since my first credited contribution in WordPress 3.7 “Basie,” alongside 210 other contributors.

To celebrate my ten year anniversary, I started publishing a blog post each year. In past editions, I’ve focused a bit on my WordPress origin story and looking at some “props” related data.

This year, I’m excited to commemorate the day by announcing something new!

From Stage to Essay

At the end of May, Nick Vidal from the Open Source Initiative reached out to me. To celebrate GitHub’s Maintainer Month, he had been working to compile a collection of contributor stories for a book about the maintainers behind Open Source projects. He asked me if I’d be willing to submit something.

I was honored! I read through the dozen or so questions he sent and wrote answers for a handful that resonated with me. The next day I flew out to attend WordCamp Europe. Between the whirlwind of travel, attending sessions, and preparing to give my talk, I completely forgot about it.

A few days after speaking, I received another email from Nick.

While doing some research about you, I fell in love with your recent talk at WordCamp Europe.

He had seen the recording of my talk and asked me to incorporate the subject matter with the answers I had already sent over for the book. My speaker notes captured the core ideas, but they needed a lot of refinement and proper citations before they could stand alone as a publishable essay. I also included some thoughts from my recent post about the impact of maintaining Open Source projects.

I’m excited to share that thanks to the many hours Nick put into the project, the maintaine.rs website showcasing this project is live. You can read my essay on the website, or download the full book in PDF or EPUB format.

Building On The Ideas Of Others

My good friend and fellow Core Committer Felix Arntz celebrated the 10 year anniversary of his first contribution to WordPress late last month. He wrote about 10 things he’s learned in 10 years of contributing.

As far as I know, Felix hadn’t seen my WCEU talk or heard about the Maintainers project. Despite that, we ended up exploring many of the same themes and principles.

While the ideas I explore in my talk and essay aren’t novel, they’re rooted in lessons I’ve learned from others and foundational Open Source concepts. A key part of participating in any Open Source community is learning from your predecessors. How should we conduct ourselves? How should we structure our communities? How should we make decisions? You can earn the respect of your peers by demonstrating that you thoughtfully consider these questions through your day to day actions.

Submit Your Own Story

I’m grateful to be included in the book among many other amazing maintainers, but I was also glad to find out I was not the only maintainer representing the WordPress project: Tammie Lister also submitted her maintainer story.

While it’s good to see WordPress represented in the book, the project is maintained by many people, not just two.

On the landing page for the project is a call out to “Share Your Story” for consideration in future editions. The HeroPress site does an amazing job of surfacing the stories behind members of the WordPress community. But there’s value in sharing those stories with the broader Open Source community too. If you help maintain WordPress in some way, I hope you’ll consider sharing your story for a future edition of the book, they all deserve to be heard.

Closing Thoughts

Over the past 12 years, I’ve done my best to contribute in ways that don’t just solve problems, but make the project more approachable, more sustainable, and more human.

I recently received this DM from someone.

“Watched your talk on my way home. You did a fantastic job explaining core and the committer role. Reminded me why I’m still around and invigorated to do more. Thanks!”

It came from someone I deeply respect, someone I’ve learned a great deal from over the years.

It’s easy to underestimate the impact even our most routine contributions can have on others, especially in Open Source, where so much of the work happens asynchronously and behind a screen.

Messages like this remind me why I do this work. I hope others have found value or inspiration in what I’ve shared. And if my story, my talk, or my essay helps even a few people feel more connected or inspired to stay involved, then it’s all been worth it.

Here’s to year 13 and beyond.

---

“Props” Anniversaries: Ten, Eleven.

Commit-iversaries: Two, Five, Six.

Featured image credit: “A couple of bookshelves with colorful books on a stone wall” by mdburnette/ CC0 1.0

The post 12 Years Contributing to WordPress appeared first on Jonathan Desrosiers.

In this Media Playbook episode, Rae Morey and Adam Weeks discuss effective pitching for WordPress stories, covering what makes a story newsworthy, and providing practical advice for successful media outreach.

When a business first starts creating content, it often looks chaotic. There’s not always a strategy. You try a few blog posts, maybe some tutorials or listicles, toss in a few keywords you think matter, and hope something sticks. And that’s okay. In fact, that messy start is what helps shape your future strategy. The […]

Before I begin this post, I am writing it not expecting change, but rather sharing my opinion. It is the opinion of someone who has themes both default and working with them from agencies to exploration, threaded through their life. I say this with a passion for what themes were, are, and I see evolving into. I am also focusing on a pause, not a stop or hard point. This is a suggestion, a thought I am working through myself.

The past

The default themes worked for us as a project in WordPress. They were both a call to unify in work, and also allowed us something to focus on testing the features of the year. They were also a way to close out the year; historically, many switched to them to showcase.

Another thing the default themes have done well is showcase different aspects of WordPress. One could argue that having a theme focus is key for everyone. Similarly, many writers use it as a basis for their content, drawing on it as fuel. It was an end to the year for many, although I would self-reflect, as the years have gone by, this has waned. Again, this is a personal reflection.

Today

For a long time, whether we like to admit it or not, the default theme process has been more complex and disjointed. It hasn’t been as much about testing features as many weren’t theme visible. 

Each default theme currently incurs a high maintenance cost. This goes over the code in support. I am reluctant to recommend anything in core that adds to the bundled theme debt at this time, considering there is still a backlog. To be clear, I want to see significant product benefits before recommending it as a course of action.

Themes have changed

Themes are a sliding scale of complexity, ranging from the quick brew weekend, a few hours of JSON for a personal site, to the large-scale enterprise theme founded on a complex design system, an extensive pattern library, and variations. Themes today are different, and anyone who is creating them knows this. Anyone not creating them also knows this, which is where the next bit comes in.

The education piece

One of the loudest comments in favour of having a default theme is that it brings education. Whilst this is true, education once a year isn’t useful. We need to consider the themes that are relevant today, and to do that, we need to examine all the pieces and their respective use cases. How are different people making themes? How are individuals experimenting? How are agencies scaling? How are people using themes today, and where are they stuck?

What a theme is needs to be reconsidered

The strongest point for pausing this year is to take a moment as a project and consider what a theme is today. What design tools are missing that we need first? What pieces do we have, and how do they go together? Where do they not go together and need to? Fix those flows first, then build amazing ‘themes’ or whatever we settle on.

The future of a theme might be a ‘kit’ where you have a style you share. It might be something else. We haven’t paused long enough to think about it, and it’s not the same format we keep reworking in default themes.

What else could we do instead?

Here are a few things that could be done with all the people and effort a theme release typically takes. It’s worth noting that they require a lot, which is why these are in much greater demand at this time.

• Education: Many people still don’t understand or haven’t fully explored the potential of block themes. Taking time for this collectively could be a powerful experience. It also helps the ecosystem, agencies and products.
• Improve the design tools for themes: By adding features such as adaptive controls and other missing pieces, redirecting the effort that would have gone into the default theme into the core editor itself. This benefits everyone and all themes.
• Rejuvenate the community theme project: This moves it beyond being a one-time event and could include various types of experiments. Allow exploration of what a theme is.
• Identify the areas where the themes are not working out: Improve this with tools and also within the core itself. This goes beyond the design tools and into the system of themes themselves.

A pause is not a stop

I chose this title because I am suggesting a pause, although I struggle to see ‘when’ we would need them, but of course, things change. As a project, WordPress should also release more experiments on what a theme should be today. That’s been the issue, and as a result, the default theme has become such a hot topic for people. 

This is just my thought, though. If a default theme were to happen, it would be amazing and welcome. I also know it will be done incredibly well. I often reflect on the logistics and the limited resources required for incredible contributions. I always want to put them in the space where they will be most effective and move the project forward. I also think that, as a product, it makes sense to have focus, and I can’t see a default theme that fits right now. I’m open to evidence, as always, to counter that. For that, it’s up to the project to decide, not me.

Another month has passed and what a month this was, it started with WordCamp Europe and ended with a new sponsor.

Areas of contribution

My focus continued in the areas it had before, but I also began trying to work more product work into this. I also attended the contribution day at WordCamp Europe, as well as the event itself. I had many great conversations that fueled me throughout the month.

Some stats this month (it’s worth noting I also did a lot of commenting, feedback and other activities outside of ticket numbers but they are good to refer to):

• Commits: 4
• Closed tickets: 44
• Gave indepth feedback: 32 (this is worth calling out as often requires time around product and design).

I have also been exploring how to optimise flows, such as rapid note-taking, and speed up more triage processes.

• Backlog: My focus was on closing tickets and also on the ancient list which is to clear down.
  • Another focus on the Gutenberg repo and clearing up the ‘needs design’ to be a true reflection of that state.
• Extensibility: Reviewing and verifying if issues are still valid, while also engaging in conversations about next steps.
• Bundled themes: Cleared out things for potentially including in next release.

I also explored limits with dataViews and other areas of the editor, and as a result, encountered issues. This is always beneficial to do, as I learn each time where the boundary problems lie.

Sharing the journey

This month saw the opportunity to share my journey in contribution in a conversation with Marcel Bootsman at WCEU for Kinsta. I also got to be on the OpenChannels.fm talking about the evolving landscape of core contribution and company sponsorship, with Tim and Zach from BigScoots with the amazing Adam Weeks joining us.

I continued to reflect on the learnings from the work I am doing. I wrote about ‘Defining Roadmaps in the Open‘ and ‘Optimising Triage and Review Processes in WordPress using AI‘.

Upcoming plans for contribution

I am allowing July to take shape as it unfolds, but to start with, this work will form the foundation. I also want to explore how I can incorporate some of my outside product management experience a bit more.

• Backlog:
  • Focus on ancient and inactive trac log.
• Core editor:
  • Continue on making sure ‘needs design’ label is a true indicator.
  • Move on to the triage of the components label.
  • Components: see where can help with documentation – for example how can things be surfaced on make easier.

Sponsors this month

A winning profile page requires two things working in harmony: 

1. First, a compelling design that showcases user identity. 
2. Second, frictionless onboarding that gets users to actually complete their profiles.

Most teams nail the design but fumble on the experience. Users abandon beautifully crafted pages because they’re tired of uploading the same photo and entering the same bio for the hundredth time. Your conversion rate flatlines while you wonder why your pixel-perfect interface isn’t working.

We analyzed 15 top-performing profile designs. The winners combine great design with smart data integration. Here’s a snapshot:

• GitHub’s contribution graphs turns coding into a game, while using Gravatar’s data to instantly populate developer avatars.
• WordPress.com creates consistent profiles across millions of sites by tapping into existing user data.
• Slack eliminates redundant profile setup by recognizing users’ existing information.

The pattern: These platforms skip building avatar systems from scratch. They focus on features that actually differentiate them, like GitHub’s contribution graphs or WordPress.com’s activity streams.

What you’ll discover:

• The components of winning profile pages.
• 15 profile examples that actually convert.
• Why top platforms use existing infrastructure instead of reinventing the wheel.

Ready to fix your profile problem? Let’s dive in.

What Actually Makes Profile Pages Convert

What Actually Makes Profile Pages Convert

A converting profile page transforms visitors into engaged users through strategic design decisions.

Four core elements separate winning profiles from the rest:

Visual Hierarchy That Works

Profile photos positioned prominently drive immediate recognition. Research shows profiles with photos receive 14x more views and make users 36x more likely to receive messages.

Smart platforms leverage this psychology. Photos anchor the layout. Essential information clusters nearby. Secondary details push down or hide behind tabs. The result? Users find what they need instantly.

Example: GitHub positions avatars in the left column where Western readers naturally start scanning. LinkedIn’s mobile app leads with the profile photo, capitalizing on the fact that 63% of web traffic comes from mobile devices.

Purpose-Driven Design

Single-purpose profiles outperform feature-bloated alternatives. Pick one primary goal. Execute flawlessly. Everything else becomes secondary or disappears.

Portfolio showcase? Show the work. Professional networking? Highlight credentials. Community building? Surface engagement metrics.

Example: Stack Overflow focuses solely on technical reputation – no social features, no messaging, just pure expertise visualization. This laser focus helped them become the de facto Q&A platform for developers.

User Control = User Retention

Customizable profiles keep users engaged. When people shape their digital presence, they invest emotionally. That investment translates to return visits.

Complete LinkedIn profiles receive 30% more profile views than incomplete ones. The best implementations balance flexibility with constraints – too many options overwhelm, too few feel restrictive.

Example: Discord allows custom status messages and per-server avatars, letting users express different facets of their personality across communities.

Three-Click Rule

Every profile action needs to be accessible within three clicks. Each additional click loses users. 

Successful platforms use either tabbed interfaces or single-scroll designs. Both help users to quickly find the information they need. The choice depends on your content density and mobile constraints, not designer preference.

Essential Profile Components (Ranked by Impact)

Profile components are user interface elements that directly impact engagement metrics and conversion rates.

1. Profile photo

The trust anchor of any profile. No photo means no trust. Poor quality photos perform almost as badly.

Technical requirements that matter:

• Optimal size: 500×500 pixels recommended, 400×400 minimum.
• Format: WebP with JPEG fallback.
• Implementation: Lazy loading for performance.

The shortcut major platforms use: Gravatar handles all of this automatically. Users upload once, and their photo appears everywhere. No image processing pipeline to build. No storage costs. No optimization headaches. Just add their email hash and move on to features that actually differentiate your platform.

2. Bio section

The narrative that connects. Optimal length varies by platform, but the principle remains: force clarity through constraints.

Instagram’s 150-character limit drives concise, impactful bios. LinkedIn allows 2,000 characters, but best practices suggest keeping profile summaries to 300 words or less for maximum engagement.

Winning bios include:

• Clear value proposition (first 50 characters).
• Credibility markers.
• Personality touches.
• Call-to-action.

3. Connection Mechanisms

Where engagement becomes action. Make it obvious how to connect. Make it easy to execute.

Core features:

• Follow/connect buttons above the fold.
• Clear messaging options.
• Permission controls.
• Export capabilities.

Professional headshots increase perceived competence by +0.94 points and influence by +1.29 points. Yet most platforms still make users jump through hoops to connect.

The Infrastructure Reality

Building these from scratch takes weeks. Database schemas, image optimization, and privacy compliance – each component requires specialized expertise.

Gravatar already serves billions of avatars for WordPress.com, Slack, GitHub, and OpenAI. Their evolution brings a complete profile solution: one integration, full identity system. While competitors build profile systems, smart platforms leverage existing infrastructure and focus on unique value.

15 Profile Examples that Actually deliver

Developer Platforms

1. GitHub – The Contribution Graph Pioneer

GitHub’s green contribution squares changed developer behavior. The visual representation of daily commits gamifies consistency without explicit rewards.

• Hero element: 365-day activity visualization.
• Conversion driver: Pinned repositories (6 maximum).
• Mobile optimization: Collapsible sections preserve space.
• Technical note: Uses Gravatar for avatar fallback.
• Steal this: Visual activity drives engagement.

The Profile README feature lets developers create dynamic showcases with real-time stats and custom content. Markdown + APIs = living portfolios. This single feature spawned an entire ecosystem of profile enhancement tools.

2. Stack Overflow – Gamification Done Right

Stack Overflow proves single-metric focus works. Everything revolves around reputation points.

• Scoring system: Clear value exchange (answers = points).
• Badge collection: 95 distinct achievements.
• Information hierarchy: Reputation dominates visually.
• Steal this: One clear success metric.

Their discontinued “Developer Story” feature proved that even successful platforms overcomplicate. Returning to reputation-first design re-engaged their core audience. Sometimes less truly is more.

3. GitLab – The Everything Dashboard

GitLab emphasizes team collaboration over individual achievement. Every contribution is visible, and every interaction is tracked.

• Activity feeds: Complete transparency.
• Project integration: Seamless repository connection.
• Team visibility: Organizational context is clear.
• Steal this: Transparency builds trust.

Creative Showcases

4. Dribbble – Visual-First Excellence

Dribbble’s 400×300px shot grid maximizes visual impact. Their 2023 redesign philosophy was: “less noise, less clutter – more beautiful pixels.”

• Grid optimization: Rapid visual scanning. 
• Hover interactions: Preview without commitment.
• Social proof: View and like counts are visible.
• Steal this: Minimize UI, maximize content.

Pro accounts unlock customization – header images, welcome messages, and shot reorganization. Monetization through enhancement, not restriction.

5. Behance – The Case Study Master

Behance champions comprehensive project stories over individual images. Adobe integration made it the default for Creative Cloud users.

Project depth: Multiple images per entry.
Rich media: Video, 3D, animation support.
Context provision: Process documentation encouraged.
Steal this: Show the journey, not just the destination.

6. ArtStation – Industry-Specific Focus

ArtStation owns game and film portfolios through specialized features. Generic platforms can’t compete with niche expertise.

4K image support: Industry-standard quality.
Software tags: Tools and workflows are visible.
Marketplace integration: Direct monetization.
Steal this: Deep specialization wins.

Content Platforms

7. Medium – Minimalism That Converts

Medium profiles strip away everything except what matters: your words and your audience.

• Typography focus: Clean reading experience prioritizes content. 
• Clap engagement: A Simple appreciation system that actually works.
• Clean metrics: Followers, following, nothing else cluttering the view. 
• Steal this: Radical simplicity drives engagement.

Medium achieved profitability in 2024 by doubling down on human storytelling. Their profile pages offer header customization and infinite scroll, but the real lesson? Sometimes less truly is more. No vanity metrics. No feature bloat. Just writers and readers connecting through stories.

8. WordPress.com – The Network Effect

WordPress.com leverages Gravatar for network-wide consistency. One avatar, thousands of sites.

Multi-site integration: Activity aggregation
Universal identity: Single sign-on benefits
Cross-platform recognition: Comments tracked globally
Steal this: Reduce friction everywhere

The Gravatar Enhanced plugin adds privacy features including no referrer information by default and an opt-in proxy service. It includes a Gravatar Profile Block for displaying user information dynamically. Hovercards are enabled by default to increase engagement. 

9. Dev.to – Community-Centric Profiles

Dev.to prioritize collective learning over individual achievement. Participation matters more than perfection.

• Discussion highlights: Best contributions featured.
• Learning transparency: Reading lists are public.
• Reaction diversity: Beyond simple likes.
• Steal this: Community value over vanity metrics.

Social Platforms

10. Discord – Personality-Driven Design

Discord’s per-server profiles let users wear different hats in different communities. One account, multiple personalities.

• Custom statuses: 128-character expression.
• Server showcase: Community membership visible.
• Nitro features: Premium customization options.
• Steal this: Context-aware identity.

11. Spotify – Data as Identity

Spotify Wrapped proves people love sharing their data through their user profiles when presented beautifully. Listening history becomes a form of social currency.

• Data visualization: Musical taste graphs.
• Playlist curation: User as tastemaker.
• Sharing optimization: One-click social posts.
• Steal this: Make data shareable.

12. Twitch – Revenue-Focused Profiles

Twitch optimizes for creator monetization without apology. Money matters, design supports it.

• Subscribe prominence: Can’t miss the CTA.
• Schedule display: Reliability builds an audience. 
• Clip showcase: Best moments surface automatically.
• Steal this: Business goals drive design.

Business Tools

13. LinkedIn – The Professional Standard

LinkedIn profiles work because they’re discoverable within the platform. Every field functions as a searchable element for recruiters and connections.

• Keyword integration: Natural optimization.
• Skill validation: Peer endorsements.
• Content platform: Native publishing power.
• Steal this: Make profiles search-friendly.

LinkedIn optimization tools show an average 132% increase in profile views. Strategic profile optimization drives real opportunities – candidates with comprehensive profiles have a 71% higher chance of job interviews.

14. ProductHunt – Maker Credibility

ProductHunt profiles display your complete launch history with upvote counts, creating a track record that builds credibility for future product launches.

.

• Launch timeline: Track record visible.
• Upvote accumulation: Social proof currency.
• Collection curation: Tastemaker status.
• Steal this: History builds credibility.

15. Figma – Collaboration Visualization

Figma profiles showcase collaborative work by default – files display team ownership, not just individual creators. This reflects how modern design actually happens.

• File previews: Automatic portfolio generation.
• Team context: Collaborative credentials.
• Plugin development: Technical skills showcase.

Steal this: Modern work is teamwork.

Why Mobile Profile Optimization is a Must

Here’s the reality check: Your beautifully designed desktop profile? Most users will never see it.

It differs between segments like age group and industry, but 96.3% of internet users access via mobile phones. Yet most profile pages still treat mobile as an afterthought – cramming desktop designs into smaller screens and wondering why engagement tanks.

The paradox: Desktop users spend ~77.8% longer per visit, while mobile users generate 81% higher visit volume. This isn’t about choosing sides. It’s about understanding each platform’s strengths and designing accordingly.

Mobile profile optimization prioritizes thumb-zone interaction and vertical information architecture. Get this wrong, and you lose the majority of your audience before they even engage.

Mobile Constraints That Matter

Touch Targets

• 44x44px minimum (Apple HIG).
• 48x48dp minimum (Material Design).
• 20% spacing prevents mis-taps.

Information Architecture

• Progressive disclosure by default.
• Expand on explicit intent only.
• Vertical rhythm consistency using 8px grid system.

Performance Requirements

• 3-second maximum load time.
• Lazy loading below the fold.
• Image optimization is critical.

Platform Solutions Worth Stealing

LinkedIn: Card-based sections create digestible chunks. Each card is self-contained, swipeable, and complete.

GitHub: Collapsible sections preserve desktop density. Critical info visible, details on demand.

Discord: Native gestures for navigation. Swipe between servers feels natural, reduces cognitive load.

Implementation Without the Headache

Efficient profile implementation leverages existing infrastructure to reduce development time and maintenance burden.

Build vs. Buy Reality Check

DIY Timeline:

• Week 1-2: Database schema and API.
• Week 3: Frontend components.
• Week 4: Image handling and optimization.
• Ongoing: Security updates and maintenance.

The Gravatar Approach:

Gravatar already powers avatars across WordPress.com, Slack, GitHub, and OpenAI. Their evolution brings a complete profile solution:

Current Gravatar Reality:

• Billions of avatars are served monthly.
• Email-based identity system.
• Zero license keys required.
• Native mobile SDKs released in October 2024.

The Gravatar Approach:

Gravatar’s Profile-as-a-Service API provides: 

• Full profile data access (avatars, bios, interests, verified accounts) 
• Open API with no licensing requirements 
• 80+ million existing profiles 
• Automatic profile syncing across platforms 
• Native mobile SDKs for iOS and Android 

Learn more: https://docs.gravatar.com/ 

Critical Technical Decisions

Image Handling

• A CDN is required for global performance.
• Multiple size variants are needed.
• Format detection and serving.
• WCAG 2.2 compliance for accessibility.

Privacy Compliance

• GDPR consent mechanisms.
• Data portability options.
• User-controlled sharing (Gravatar’s approach).

Performance Optimization

• Edge caching strategies.
• Progressive enhancement.
• Core Web Vitals compliance.

What’s Next for Profile Design

Three trends reshape profile architecture:

Unified Identity Systems

Gravatar’s vision: One profile, updated everywhere. Email becomes the universal identity anchor.

Users demand control. They own the data, and platforms display it. The winning platforms embrace this shift. 85% of adults worldwide want additional steps to protect online privacy – unified systems deliver both convenience and control.

Privacy-First Architecture

Granular sharing controls become a competitive advantage. Users specify what shares are where. Trust drives retention.

Gravatar’s model: Users decide what’s shared, and platforms respect those decisions. This approach aligns with evolving regulations while building user confidence.

Stop Building. Start Converting.

Profile pages fail when built in isolation. Each platform reinvents the wheel, users suffer through repetitive onboarding, and developers waste weeks on solved problems.

The solution is clear: Study these 15 examples. Steal what works. Then decide – build from scratch or leverage existing infrastructure?

Your Next Move:

1. Audit your current profile system against these examples
2. List the gaps costing you conversions
3. Calculate the real cost of DIY development
4. Consider unified identity solutions like Gravatar

Using the Gravatar API for importing profile data helps establish attractive and consistent profile designs. This improves the overall look of your application and guarantees the accuracy of profile information. 

Gravatar’s profile integration is already revolutionizing user profile design for leading websites such as Pocket Casts and WordPress.com. These platforms use Gravatar’s features to enhance user engagement and provide a more dynamic profile experience to users worldwide.

Stop building profile systems. Start building profile experiences that convert Join the thousands of people customizing their unique profiles today with Gravatar!  .

Tone in writing significantly influences communication, especially in async messages, where emojis, punctuation, and warmth affect how messages are received and interpreted.

My May and June in WordPress focused on helping get 6.8.2 set up for success and gardening old trac tickets.

This was my first time putting together the squad for a minor release that I wasn’t going to be a member of. I coordinated with a few active committers, team reps, and the 6.8.0 release coordinators to review the folks who volunteered to help lead a maintenance release. The first step was identifying from the volunteers one person who could be the primary lead. This involved reaffirming that people could still make the commitment. Once the first person was identified, we looked for folks to compliment them and I confirmed their availability. After that, I announced it and the 6.8.2 team got off to a quick start getting ready for the next release of WordPress.

I’ve also been spending some time looking at some long neglected tickets. In order to not feel stuck, I’ve moved between a few reports on trac. The close report (which is now under 200), one looking at tickets with a patch that haven’t received attention in a long time and the ancient report. Over half the tickets I touched during this span of time are now closed.

Another task I did was once again participate in the Share Your Pride photo drive. I added a total of 32 photos though not all are in the photo drive. One of my favorites is used as the featured image on this post

By the numbers

During these two months, I contributed to 131 tickets on trac, made 4 commits to core, received 10 props, put together the squad for a minor release, wrote 1 make/core post, added 32 photos to the photo directory, and led one bug scrub.

I had 20 sponsors these months: Jeffrey Paul, philipjohn, Zach Stepek, Keanan Koppenhaver, George Mamadashvili, Russell Heimlich , Austin Ginder, Adam Silverstein, Felix Arntz, Jonathan Desrosiers, Brian Coords, mklute101, Tim Nash, Jay Hoppie, Dan Knauss, Kevin Cristiano, Kinsta, Jake Spurlock, Andy Fragen and one who wishes to remain anonymous. Thank you for believing in and supporting my contributions to Open Source.

Previous: March/April 2025, February 2025, January 2025, 2024 as a whole, October 2024, September 2024, August 2024, July 2024, June 2024, May 2024, April 2024, March 2024, February 2024, January 2024, December 2023, November 2023

The post My May And June in WordPress appeared first on Aaron Jorbin.

In async work, short messages often lead to confusion. Being clear and detailed helps everyone understand without endless back-and-forth. Good communication is about being useful, not just quick.

WordPress plugins require a number of headers to be included in the plugin file for them to render correctly in the dashboard. If releasing a plugin on WordPress.org then a number of additional headers are required in the readme file.

The problem I have is that I can never remember which header goes where. Each time I write a plugin, I have to spend time reading the docs and making sure everything is in the correct location.

Continue reading Unit testing WordPress plugin headers on peterwilson.cc

bbPress 2.6.14 is a minor release that fixes 20 issues. For everyone running bbPress 2.6, feel free to update at your earliest convenience.

This release improves Akismet, BuddyPress, and PHP 8.2 support, moderation terms, search, and more!

(All of these fixes have already been merged into trunk/2.7.)

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this bbPress release!

Transcript

[00:00:19] Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.

Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress, the people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, learning from mistakes in website development agencies.

If you’d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to wptavern.com/feed/podcast, and you can copy that URL into most podcast players.

If you have a topic that you’d like us to feature on the podcast, I’m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wptavern.com/contact/jukebox, and use the form there.

So on the podcast today, we have Jennifer Schumacher.

Jennifer has been working with WordPress and web development for over 15 years. Her journey began with a spark of curiosity in university, building her first WordPress website after a YouTube crash course. Then evolving into freelance gigs, team collaborations, and eventually running a white label agency working alongside other agencies around the world.

Jennifer’s experiences have exposed her to the highs and lows of agency life. Projects that run smoothly, but also cultures that can become toxic, people burning out, and the all too familiar frustration of unbillable hours, and broken processes.

This inspired Jennifer’s lightning talk at WordCamp Europe 2025, where she shared some of the most common, and painful, mistakes she’s seen agencies make, and what can be learned from them.

Jennifer walks us through her path in the WordPress world, and we discuss three real world mistakes agencies make. Web support that drains your soul, the design handoff from hell, and work more, bill less, and smile anyway.

We talk through support, bottlenecks, frustrating design to development handoffs, and the dilemma of over servicing clients without fair compensation.

Jennifer shares her candid perspective on why processes and honest communication matter, not just for the bottom line, but for the mental health and building sustainable teams. She also discusses how transparency, learning from failure, and continually improving processes can improve agency life.

Jennifer’s approach is refreshingly open about both the mistakes and the solutions, aiming to help others avoid repeating them.

If you found yourself frustrated with agency workflows, or are hoping to build a healthier business in the WordPress ecosystem, this episode is for you.

If you’re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you’ll find all the other episodes as well.

And so without further delay, I bring you, Jennifer Schumacher.

I am joined on the podcast today by Jennifer Schumacher. Hello, Jennifer.

[00:03:26] Jennifer Schumacher: Hello. Nice to be here.

[00:03:28] Nathan Wrigley: We’re here on Contrib Day. It’s WordCamp Europe 2025. Now, because it’s Contrib Day, that means you haven’t yet done what it is that you are going to do at WordCamp Europe. But you’ve got a presentation, like a lightning talk. So you’ve got 10 minutes to stand on the stage.

The idea is that you are going to be talking about agency, WordPress agencies, how they mess up, I’m going to use that word, and how they can learn from their mistakes.

So before we get into that, just tell us a little bit about you.

[00:03:56] Jennifer Schumacher: I started web development about 15 years ago, maybe a even more even. I was at university, no money, on a freelance platform, and somebody asked me if I could build a website. I checked on YouTube, okay WordPress. I said yes, and then I sold a website. No idea how to do it, honestly. But then YouTube helped me figure things out, and that’s how I started and fell in love with it. No way to turn back.

Went for it, did a couple of freelance gigs and then, you know, joining other team members, joining other people in the freelance world, building like groups, working on stuff together, working on projects. And then it grew, got bigger. We got bigger projects. We built a white label team working for the agencies, collaborating with other agencies. And that’s what I have done over the past years. So that’s a bit of my background.

[00:04:47] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, that’s perfect. Yeah, that’s great. I think your story sounds like a lot of people’s stories in that they, if you began 15 years ago, the web was still very much discovering what it was going to be. And you drop in and learn as you went along. I think maybe now that’s a little bit more difficult. I think if you drop in these days, it’s maybe more challenging. There’s so much more competition out there and things like that. yeah, your story kind of mimics mine except that you grew an agency and I didn’t, I just stuck as a one person, and that kind of worked out for me.

[00:05:15] Jennifer Schumacher: Yeah, it’s like the people network, right? You meet different people and then you get to know each other, and then you start learning, and then you think about the opportunities. And then either you say, okay, this is a path that I want to take, or you don’t, right?

[00:05:27] Nathan Wrigley: And have you ever worked for other people in website building? Have you worked for other agencies, or been an employee? Or has it always been you and the agencies that you have run?

[00:05:36] Jennifer Schumacher: I never have been like an employee per se, so it was more like a contractor, but either freelance or for the agency that we built. But the nice thing, and why I really loved this was it was in different roles, right? Sometimes I was the designer in the beginning, or I was the developer. Later on I did develop myself, but that was in the WP Bakery days. So I don’t do that anymore to be honest.

Yeah, so it was design then more development. And then later on I moved more into project management. And then in the most recent years, there’s so many things that I, after all those years, you know, it’s nice, I love WordPress, but certain things make me sick. I was like, God, no, I don’t want this anymore.

Certain stress levels that I’ve reached where I said, no, I don’t want to do it the same old way as usual. This is something that my talk will be about, to be honest.

And the last couple of years have been more about process improvement. Doing things faster, less stress, and then also all these unbillable hours that many people just hide below the table. So this has been my focus for the last couple of years.

[00:06:41] Nathan Wrigley: Okay. Well, I’ve got to say it’s very, very nice to meet somebody who’s really open and honest about their successes, but also things that they consider they could do better. Let’s use the word failures. I think most people kind of hide that stuff, but it’s really interesting that you are doing a presentation where you are raising that as, okay, I messed this up, I messed this up, I messed this up, and here’s how I took it as a, you say learning opportunity, which I suppose is the best way to parse any of those kind of things.

Why are you doing a talk though at WordCamp? So this is kind of a more of a community question. It’s not really about the presentation itself. I’m just curious as to why, what is it that you get out of it? Do you just enjoy sort of hanging out at these events or, why have you decided to do it?

[00:07:20] Jennifer Schumacher: How can I explain that in the best possible way? I’ve met many great people over the years, but I’ve seen many of them who got frustrated about certain things in part of the culture at the agency they worked at. I’ve seen toxic cultures as well. I’ve seen many projects that started off very nice and then it became frustrating over the time. And then towards the end, people were not getting paid according to what they actually delivered.

I’ve seen people that later on actually quit and they said again, I don’t want to do it anymore. That they were so frustrated, especially in project management, I’ve seen a couple of them just drop out. It’s like, you know what? Not doing it anymore. And I don’t think that that’s worth it.

If we don’t talk about what goes wrong, if we don’t acknowledge about stuff, these things that could be better, and then say, hey, you know what, let’s figure out a better path and resolve this kind of stress because we deserve a better team that’s in sync, then what are we doing? If we just continue and say, well, that’s agency life, you know? That’s how it is in agencies. No, it’s not supposed to be that way.

If you just accept it and just go with it, then it’s going to be that way. I think it’s worth sharing that, because if you don’t ask the question, how can it be better? You’re not making anything better to be honest.

[00:08:38] Nathan Wrigley: Okay. Thank you. So let’s hope that the wisdom that you impart will land with the people. But you’ve got this idea of three real world agency mistakes. That’s what you’re going to focus on in your 10 minutes.

I have a question around that. So obviously you’re going to highlight the things that went wrong, explain how you tackled it. Do you ever get the sense though that there’s ever, and I’m doing air quotes, a perfect system? Have you ever landed on something where you think, okay, that’s it, I do not need to improve that thing anymore? Or is there always room for improvement?

[00:09:09] Jennifer Schumacher: Well, that’s a good question to be honest. I’m German. Many Germans try to be perfect to be honest. But I don’t think perfect exists, and isn’t imperfect perfect. Because the thing is like, learning is a journey, so if we set up a system and then we figure out, okay, let’s try that way, and then we work with it and then see, what can we tweak, what can we improve? And isn’t that what makes it perfect, right? Because we keep improving things.

There are new things coming out now, you know, AI is everywhere. So, are there certain things that we can use that help our system? We just keep tweaking it. So, no, perfect system. Do I want one? No. Is it fun to keep tweaking things? Yes. So I think you’re just trying to get started, build a certain setup and try to improve it over time.

[00:09:58] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. So that would’ve been the way I would’ve paraphrased it as well. You kind of get something which feels like it’s good for now and then the technology changes, WordPress adapts and you have to figure it out a new. Okay, that’s great.

So there are three things that you’re going to tackle. Maybe you could’ve done 5, 10, but the time was probably the limitation. What are the three things that you are going to mention? What are the three things which agencies make as mistakes that you have encountered?

[00:10:21] Jennifer Schumacher: First of all, I had to think a lot about, okay, which kind of situations do I want to include, right? Because over the years, you know, you collect a lot of stories, and I think the most impactful is a story. You want to talk about a specific situation where you were in. And so I was thinking about, what should I cover?

For each story I made a nice headline. I can just quickly share those headlines, and then you think about what you think that that means.

[00:10:46] Nathan Wrigley: Perfect.

[00:10:47] Jennifer Schumacher: So the first one is, support that drains your soul. The second one is, the design handoff from hell. The third one is, work more, build less and smile anyway.

[00:10:59] Nathan Wrigley: Let’s go back to the first one then. You’re going to have to say the exact wording, because I’ll probably get it wrong. What was number one again?

[00:11:04] Jennifer Schumacher: It’s web support that drains your soul.

[00:11:07] Nathan Wrigley: Okay, tell us, what went on here? What calamity befell you and your agency that led to that portion?

[00:11:13] Jennifer Schumacher: I’ve seen it in many, many agencies and if, for example, once I had a agency in Switzerland and they said, we manage one point of contact for our clients. So this was mainly the project manager, right? So whenever the client wanted something, they contacted this person.

Why was that not a good idea? Because pretty often the people that I met were just simply overworked, especially when it came to support staff. Because the client got in touch with them, they got in touch with the designer. The designer got in touch with them. They got back to the client and they were just in the middle on every little item.

And the more you have of this kind of support work, the stressier it gets. And this is something where I’ve seen a lot of things go wrong and where I’ve seen a lot of frustration just for being the person in the middle.

[00:11:58] Nathan Wrigley: That was something which was commonly, I want to use the word taught. People often told me it would be better to always deal with this one person, because that one person at least is this single point of contact. You can build up a relationship with them. Just prize that open a little bit. Has that led to problems, and what were those kind of problems? Was it that that person, I don’t know, maybe they are not a good communicator or something like that?

[00:12:21] Jennifer Schumacher: Well, the thing is, that person doesn’t, it’s just a person most of the time that communicates. This person’s never resolving the issue. So for example, the client has something super simple, I want to change the position of that button. So the client asks their single point of contact. The single point of contact, they go to the developer, hey, they want to change that button. But then the developer goes back, but yeah, but this position we cannot do, it’s not recommended.

It’s like ping pong. And let’s say changing that button takes like maybe just 30 minutes, but the entire communication about where the button should go and why not there, why it would be more recommendable to go into that spot exactly, or which size or animation they want. These kind of details take maybe two and a half hours. But now the client doesn’t really want to pay for the communication about it.

And then in the end, I’ve seen many, many agencies, they just put this under the table, under the rug, or they say it and then just don’t admit it. And if you have a lot of these support items, you have a lot of unbillable hours. And is that sustainable? No. Is that frustrating? Yes. Especially if you’re a small team and you need to bill for the time. If you’re not able to bill for it, then what are we doing here?

[00:13:31] Nathan Wrigley: So this is the idea then that in a company, let’s say that you as a freelancer are working with a company, I don’t know, maybe they’ve got a hundred employees or something like that. You’ve set it up so that you only speak with this one person in their company. But those other 99 people are funneling all of their bits and pieces through that one person.

You just get this backwards and forwards. That one person becomes a bottleneck because they’ve got to communicate with the 99 people. Any change has to go through them.

Okay, what was the second one? I’ve forgotten, I’m sorry.

[00:13:57] Jennifer Schumacher: The design handoff from hell.

[00:13:59] Nathan Wrigley: Okay, what’s that?

[00:14:00] Jennifer Schumacher: Have you ever worked, like you’re a developer and then you are working on a project where they say, okay, the design will be done by a design agency or by some other designer. And then you get the design, you’re like, well, that doesn’t fit anymore what I thought I would spend on time in the beginning. And then I get a file, it was not even clear like this page, what should be the H1?

And then inconsistent styles. And then suddenly on the mobile view, if the designer also did a mobile view, the designs do not match at all. Like, on this screen they use this size, on this screen, this size. Super inconsistent. And this is so frustrating. Because as a developer, in theory, then suddenly you have so many hours.

Then, again, you have to decide, do I log them? Do I tell them that this is not anymore a fit? And if I am not anymore making it a fit, do I look bad? And again, unbillable hours. And then either you bill them or you’re like hiding them. I don’t like that.

[00:14:57] Nathan Wrigley: This is the idea of if you are, I guess if you’re in a big agency where you’ve got a design team, and the design team is literally in the, you know, the cubicle next to you. That’s a fairly easy point to solve because you just stand up and have a chat about it. But if you’re a freelancer, or you’re dealing with a third party design agency or something like that, it’s a real bottleneck, isn’t it?

Because you get a design, it looks great, but suddenly you realise, well, yeah, it looks great, it would make a great magazine piece. Transferring that over to the web with H1s and paragraphs, and it’s got to be accessible and color contrast has got to be good and all of this kind of stuff, that suddenly becomes problematic.

And usually the client doesn’t have that same level of expertise. So you know, they might catch sight of that design and think, perfect, do that. Do exactly what we see and then you have to have this whole tennis again of explaining, well, actually we can’t do it quite like that. So, okay, that’s the second one.

[00:15:50] Jennifer Schumacher: What I can tell you is that I’ve seen this happen nonetheless in big agencies too. I have worked also with agencies with more than 150 employees. And it always depends a lot on their internal processes and how they approve and the system, right?

Nonetheless, I’ve seen also like big design agencies, and it looked all fancy, but then it did not match up. Maybe you’re very good at selling, but if you internally do not have certain systems in place, this stuff can still happen.

[00:16:21] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. And I also feel that when I was doing this kind of work, when I was a freelancer, I had to be all the things. I had to be literally everybody. I had to be the designer, I had to be the developer, I had to be the communicator, I had to be the marketer, I had to be the SEO. I had to be all of these things. And with the best will in the world, I’m not the best at all of those things. Probably one or two things I’m pretty good at, but the rest of them fairly lousy.

And so that kind of fits in as well. And again, the process, getting a process exactly right. You are all about sort of saving money by having a process, saving time and money by having a process, yeah.

[00:16:54] Jennifer Schumacher: To be honest, in my opinion, it’s mental health. Because if it goes on for too long that you’re charging less than what you are actually bringing to the table, that’s frustration. You bring that frustration to your home, that’s when you get stressed out. You share with your family what happened. You are like unloading the stress. You are not that much capable of being a good listener if you’re stressed. And you want to be a good listener with the people that you love. So, what are we doing here? You know?

[00:17:23] Nathan Wrigley: You also become like a double fronted marketplace a little bit. Because you’ve got the designer over here who’s giving you designs and you are sat in the middle. And then you’ve got the client over here and you are sat in the middle. And you become this person that has to communicate the ideas in both directions.

And when they say, we want this, you have to communicate that back to the designer. Do you have like a trusted designer or a design, like a network or a team or something like that, that you just more or less rely on that because you’ve figured out they know what I am typically going to want?

[00:17:52] Jennifer Schumacher: I give them guidance how I want it. Some have, you know, worked with me before, here and there, and then they already know. But I tell them exactly how we need things, and then I point things out, okay, hey, like a checklist. Okay, we need to check this, this, this, this, this. And this sometimes could take a lot of time too, depending on the people that, you know, I work with.

But it’s not that I have like a hundred percent go-to person per se. No. Maybe I can share that same thing. I did design many years ago, then development. And sometimes I need to also, you know, pause and say like, Jenny, no, don’t jump in and just do it yourself. You know, I could, but I just should not. So I just try to, let’s say, express how I need things to be done before going into development. If that’s not done, we’re not going into development.

[00:18:41] Nathan Wrigley: I think designing for the web is really difficult because it is a real skill in and of itself. You know, if you’re designing for a magazine layout, I mean, obviously there’s a high level of skill required to do that in an effective way. But then being able to actually understand the semantics of that design, and how it might look, and especially now where we’re going into a web which is not three view ports. It’s not just mobile, it’s not just tablet, and it’s not just desktop.

It’s this much more kind of, we have no idea what you’re going to be viewing it on. We don’t know the width. I think this sort of Intrinsic Design, which people keep talking about, that makes the job even more difficult, okay. So there’s number two.

Number three, what was that one?

[00:19:23] Jennifer Schumacher: Number three was, work more, bill less and smile anyway.

[00:19:27] Nathan Wrigley: Okay, go on. Did you say work more, bill less?

[00:19:30] Jennifer Schumacher: Yeah. Work more, bill less.

[00:19:32] Nathan Wrigley: That seems counterintuitive.

[00:19:33] Jennifer Schumacher: Yeah.

[00:19:33] Nathan Wrigley: Most people would say work less, bill more.

[00:19:36] Jennifer Schumacher: Well, everybody likes to say that, which is unfortunately, the truth is not always how it works, right? So, how about this? Have you ever been on a project where time goes by in the beginning, everybody’s excited? All fits, looks good. We’re progressing and then the client comes back with feedback and then there’s a change. Maybe it’s a change request, you know, okay, we add some extra hours.

But then there’s something that either we did not notice, for example, oh, this doesn’t work in the Safari. And suddenly we need to work a bit more to make it a fix. But the budget is really tight. Anyway, we need to fix this. Or the client wants something, oh, but this should also animate. You animated this, but also this needs to be animated.

Details. Detail here, a detail there. And then suddenly you notice like, well, the budget we had is not anymore available, but the client is still asking for things, and even saying stuff like, that should be included. How could you charge that extra? Or it was not communicated early enough like, hey, you know what, client, our budget is getting tight. If you are requesting more things, we will need to invoice you extra down the road.

Of course you want to say, okay, if there’s something wrong with our work, we will cover this internally. You don’t want to be somebody who says, okay, I did a mistake, but I’m not correcting it, haha. But if the client is requesting more stuff, you need to let them know in advance. Because if you let them know later, they also go like, huh? Where does that come from? Why didn’t you tell me that this has got more expensive?

And then suddenly you cannot charge them for that. And now you worked more, but you are effectively billing less if you take your effective hourly rate, what you actually delivered and work.

I’ve met agencies, freelancers, when they would really calculate their effective hourly rate, they would be crying, sitting in the corner of the room and crying. This is frustrating, right? And nobody likes that. But anyway, they expect you to sit there smiling and just pretend like everything was good.

[00:21:33] Nathan Wrigley: Do you always do that with your clients though? Do you have that approach of, we must smile through this, even though things are not necessarily working out? Because that was one of the things that you wrote in your description. Let me just find it. You wrote, it’s about laughing, learning, and maybe even recognising a situation you’ve been in yourself.

So do you try to have that sort of humorous approach when things are not working out? Can you always laugh? Because sometimes these things can be so profoundly, well, annoying, let’s go with that. It’s difficult to laugh, I think.

[00:22:01] Jennifer Schumacher: I think it depends a lot on your personality. I can tell you something. So I live in Spain and in Mexico. I’m German, but I don’t live anymore in Germany. But I think when you meet different cultures and see how they react, how they treat certain situations, that made me open up my eyes and see like, okay, you know, you always have the choice. How do you react to this? This is your choice.

And if you get frustrated and you dwell into the pain and just continue again and again, and in the same cycle, then that’s your choice. What’s the other end, right? You can just say, hey, you know what? It was a mistake or this happened. I’m not happy about it, but the only thing I can do is appreciate that it happened because it gave me the opportunity now to learn from it. And that’s the super different perspective.

Some people are not capable of thinking like that, but I prefer to think like that, because it makes me feel better and it makes me look at possible solutions and focus on that. Instead of me looking at the situation, focusing on the issue and the problems.

[00:23:07] Nathan Wrigley: I think it’s very difficult in the moment sometimes to be so, I’m going to use the word sanguine. Just to be so measured about it because you know, something doesn’t work out. Maybe the first reaction is a buildup of anger or something like that. But to have that, to be able to in your head, parse that and say, you know what? The anger probably won’t get me anywhere, but viewing that as a learning opportunity.

Because you go into pains, that’s what you say over and over again. Treat it as a learning opportunity. It’s almost like Zen Buddhism, or something like that, you know, it’s kind of trying to turn a bad situation into a good situation.

But you are also at pains to say, well, it feels like you’re at pains to say, just don’t keep repeating it though. You know, if something bad happened, learn from it, but then adapt the process. Make the process different so that it doesn’t happen a second or a third time because, well, that’s crazy making.

[00:23:57] Jennifer Schumacher: Yeah. But that’s, again, the reason why I think I really love the opportunity to be here and to be having that speech at WordCamp. Because, I get frustrated just thinking about it, I’ve seen so many great people just do the same thing over and over again, because they think that’s it and that’s how it is in agencies. It doesn’t matter if they work at this agency or that agency.

Maybe some do it a bit different here or there, but the same problems come up and they do not really think about, how can I resolve this? New project. Like, new projects will fix it, or let’s sell more. Let’s fix it in the next project. Let’s fix it in the next project.

But then they don’t think about a fix. And I have a couple of people who I really think like, God, you’re so good at what you do, but why do you do this to yourself? Why don’t you think about how to get out of this mess? And I think that’s what I want to do, what I want to share because you have to focus on how to solve this. Otherwise, if you don’t make it a priority, you’re stuck where you are.

[00:24:50] Nathan Wrigley: I guess also, each one of us really genuinely does have, so I’m focusing on a freelancer at the minute, you know, so you’re not in an agency, it’s just you. We all really genuinely do have a unique set of attributes which make us the way we are. And it may be that you just have to lean into those. You’re good at this thing, you’re not so good at that thing, so maybe that gets outsourced, or maybe you just have to approach it in a different way. But it’s very, very hard.

I also think that over the last 10 years, we’ve lived through a cycle of YouTube videos where people are trying to pitch us the perfect solution. In 10 minutes I’ll teach you how to revolutionise your agency. Some of that works, I’m sure, but there seems to be quite a bit of snake oil there as well.

And what i’m trying to say is, just because it’s in a YouTube video or somebody is shouting from the rooftops that they’ve got the answer, it may be that that answer actually won’t work for you because that’s not who you are.

[00:25:43] Jennifer Schumacher: Yeah. Well, that can be too. The thing is like, if you see those fancy videos on YouTube with these nice titles, they put them because that gives them a better click rate because people are more like, okay, well, I want to see if I just say like I have something that’s way high work. If you think that that’s a good idea or not, that’s up to you. It’s not a big selling point, right?

So they write it that way just because of the enticing title makes you click. So that’s also, you know, it’s your human brain that follows this kind of direction. Yeah, so I think a big part, just as you mentioned, resources, YouTube. For me, the biggest part has been asking. And that’s why I loved, we started white labeling, working with other agencies, I learned so much from them. So much.

And just sharing, I have one CEO that I once asked, he had built an agency with over two hundred employees, and they started out as four many years ago. I asked him for lunch. I asked, I would love to know how you did it. What was your motivator? How did you decide who to hire? How did you find the right people? What were the big decisions or risks that you took.

And I think that is so important. Why not? What do we have to lose? I think, why not open up conversations and just ask, how are you approaching this? And I think this kind of stuff gets lost a lot. It’s not just only just sitting there and looking at YouTube videos. Who else could I ask? How do you deal with this?

[00:27:12] Nathan Wrigley: I have a question, which is maybe one that you don’t want to answer because it’s quite vulnerable. But what is your biggest mistake? What’s the thing that if you look back over your career you think, oh boy, that was a calamity?

[00:27:23] Jennifer Schumacher: I have one and I think I’m not, well, it is embarrassing. Yes, it is. But why not? It’s like a learning opportunity, right?

So when I was younger, oh God, I don’t know how many years ago, it was like 10 years maybe. So I thought, okay, I want to build a team, I want to do this. Let’s make it at an agency. We have clients, we have projects, okay, cool.

So I searched for people. I got an office and we were all there. And I thought, okay, I also want to be great with our culture because I think, you know, the team is what matters because only if the team is happy, we can make great work. I wasn’t going to be the one that’s sitting there with a whip, you know, like, do this, do this, do this. That was not how I envisioned myself.

But I focused so much on this team that I did not notice that I did not yet learn enough how to be a good salesman. Few months later, I ran out of money.

And because I was not yet intelligent enough about putting up boundaries that certain clients were like, oh, what? That should be included. Why was that not covered? And we just went in and covered it and not communicate, okay, that we stopped covering certain things for free. We did not yet know how to charge certain things on time.

So we were still like, or I was still, did not resolve it. I did not think about, how do I need to do it so I don’t get myself in the situation that I would have a hard time getting out of, especially financially? And then I had to say, okay, that’s it. Pack my bags. I then started a job in sales. And then I had to learn, damn, how do I sell? How do I communicate? And that I did for a year and a half. And when, again, made more money outside of the job, I did quit.

[00:29:06] Nathan Wrigley: Okay, so that was a real learning opportunity, wasn’t it? You went, the whole thing collapsed but the key bit that was missing was sales. You pick yourself up, got a sales job, learnt the sales portion, and then kind of began again. I guess it worked out the next time.

[00:29:18] Jennifer Schumacher: Yeah. This time, we’re still here.

[00:29:20] Nathan Wrigley: That was the low point. That was the thing which you did worst. Maybe you’ll be good at answering this question. Some people are a bit shy when you ask a question like this. What’s the thing that you think you’ve done best?

[00:29:29] Jennifer Schumacher: Oh. What? The best.

[00:29:30] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. What’s the bit that if you look back over your 15 years, I mean, it may not be exactly one thing, but can you summon up something which you think, actually, do you know what? I’m really proud of me for that.

[00:29:41] Jennifer Schumacher: I’m really proud of me for opening up and saying like, you know what, that’s not how it has to be. I don’t want this anymore. I want to see how I can improve this. I must say that my husband has been a bit of an inspiration here too. He’s the kind of person that’s like, ah, I want to work less. Like, I don’t want to work that much. And he finds a way to do it. He always does. He always finds his way around. It’s like, how come that he figures that out and I don’t? And I’m like, sitting here stressed.

And there was also this thought like, do I like this stress? Do you know these people who are addicted to this kind of stress? And they just think they need it. It’s like, do you really think you need it? Do you really think that that’s what you want? Yeah, this is what made me think. And I’m happy that decision, saying like, you know, no. I don’t want that anymore.

And i’m still having things to learn. You know, there’s still things that I’m working on. Totally. I think having that in your, like a little angel, I don’t know, or figure in the back of your head saying like, you shouldn’t do that. Can this be better? Think about it. That’s what I’m proud of.

[00:30:47] Nathan Wrigley: Being honest with yourself, even if that means some uncomfortable realisations.

[00:30:51] Jennifer Schumacher: Oh God, yeah. Tell me. Admitting to yourself like, damn.

[00:30:56] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. Yeah. I know what you mean. We often have a culture of, okay, just work harder. Just keep going. Just keep doing the same thing because I’m pretty sure the process over there is bulletproof. Just keep going, and maybe being a bit more open with yourself and trying to learn from the mistakes.

[00:31:12] Jennifer Schumacher: And I think when you see somebody, it’s not cheating the system, but it’s kind of like doing it faster and being more relaxed and even having time to do some extra stuff, and you’re like, I want that. Why am I not striving for that? Why the hell I’m just focusing on being more busy? I think you start doubting things.

[00:31:31] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, that’s interesting. There’s always somebody in my life who seems to have way more free time than I do. There has to be a reason for that. And probably that they’ve just figured it out and allowed themselves the time off.

And I always found that curious. I would find myself sitting at the desk doing the busy work, just because it felt like I needed to be shackled to the desk because that was where work took place. But really, I probably would’ve been way more productive if I’d gone for a walk for half an hour or just did something a little bit more for me, and then come back, regroup, start again. I never did learn that.

[00:32:05] Jennifer Schumacher: Isn’t that, like it sounds so weird, but isn’t that kind of the expectation of society that you should be sitting there on that desk. How come you’re just going for a walk? How come you’re just saying, you know what, I’ll just get my hair done. Let’s just relax a bit and then I get back with a clear mind to that issue. Why not? But no, society expects you to be available, to be at the desk. That’s how you look good.

[00:32:29] Nathan Wrigley: And it’s curious, we’re in such a fortunate position. I mean, obviously if you work in an agency and they provide you with a desk and you have to be there from nine to five, you’ve got that. But there’s a lot of people in our industry who don’t. You know, they’re working out of a spare room in the house. Maybe they’re doing it out the kitchen or what have you. And you can, you genuinely can, take time off and do other things and work a little bit later because you gave up some time during the day. You can be flexible. I think that’s one of the most remarkable things about the industry that we’re in. It’s utterly brilliant.

[00:32:57] Jennifer Schumacher: I read the other day on my phone an article, it was about a bank where they were saying like the four day work week. And they were saying like, now that AI is around the corner, it’s a no brainer. That’s going to happen. Because we will be able to get more efficient with how we do things. And I think, isn’t that beautiful to more focus on outcomes instead of like the nine to five.

Well, depends also how you manage the agency and everything. And I’ve seen many, they said they want to call their employees back. For example, in Mexico, like I live partially there. Many, many people got called back. But others in Germany I’ve seen, they still keep a hybrid model. Some days they just say, okay, we do a day here, a day there. But many developers said like, nope, staying at home.

[00:33:42] Nathan Wrigley: So people listening to this podcast, hopefully some of them will think, do you know what? It’d be really interesting to chat this through with Jennifer. You know, she seems like she’s got some interesting ideas around that. Do you have a little community of people that you vent your anger, vent your frustration with? Do you have a little clique of people where you share the ideas that you’ve been discussing today?

[00:34:01] Jennifer Schumacher: Besides my husband.

[00:34:02] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, how do you keep yourself sane? Yeah.

[00:34:04] Jennifer Schumacher: I do not yet have a big community, but I am working on this. Because I think it’s great just to share. I was in this mess, in this chaos until I realised, like I had this awakening moment for more like 10 years. So 10 years, I kind of would, was like lying to myself, I feel.

So I would love to share more. I want to do a LinkedIn live show. So I’m preparing that kind of stuff just to share, like we do, like a bit of talking. How did you do that? And just this story. I have a great network of people that I’ve met over the years with great stories.

And this is something that I want to share. I also wrote a book for freelancers, where I just share the exact same thing because damn, I wish I would’ve noticed certain things earlier, to be honest. Because 10 years is quite a lot, you know? And especially when you start out and you’re freelancing, oh God, I just charge way less. I just shouldn’t think about it.

But you know, I didn’t even know how much I was worth. I didn’t even know how to protect myself so that certain situations I could say ahead of time, you know what? That’s it. This entire project management mindset, or building the system, it didn’t occur to me for so long. I just thought, no, let me put this in a book and then, why not?

[00:35:21] Nathan Wrigley: So, where do we find the book? Or where’s the best place to find you, which then might link to the book?

[00:35:26] Jennifer Schumacher: On LinkedIn. And just, first of all, my network, I just want to get some feedback and then improve it. And then let’s see what else I can put in it. I also can share you something, maybe that’s something you found interesting. There’s this writer, Ryan Holiday. He has a great, great book that’s just called Growth Hacker Marketing. Read it. I love it. And I love the way how he writes this book because it’s so honest. It’s so transparent.

And I wrote it the same way he did. I took my entire inspiration, how I wrote it, based on his book. And I also have a couple of stories that I share at the end of the book from other people out of my network. How they did resolve, for example, the cash flow issue, right? How they approached the entire setup. Where how they even were able to sell their agency. You know, like build it and sell it.

That’s what I mean, ask others. Ask others how they did it. And then not getting stuck on these fancy YouTube videos for people that say they have the solution. But I think it’s so much worth it just to have conversations and learn and listen.

Maybe you do not have to take everything that people say, but maybe just can take a bit here or there and then build your own. That’s what I like.

[00:36:34] Nathan Wrigley: Perfect. Jennifer Schumacher, thank you so much for chatting to me today.

[00:36:38] Jennifer Schumacher: It was a pleasure to be here, to be honest. Thank you.

On the podcast today we have Jennifer Schumacher.

Jennifer has been working with WordPress and web development for over 15 years. Her journey began with a spark of curiosity in university, building her first WordPress website after a YouTube crash-course, then evolving into freelance gigs, team collaborations, and eventually running a white label agency working alongside other agencies around the world. 

Jennifer’s experiences have exposed her to the highs and lows of agency life, projects that run smoothly, but also cultures that can become toxic, people burning out, and the all-too-familiar frustration of unbillable hours and broken processes. This inspired Jennifer’s lightning talk at WordCamp Europe 2025, where she shared some of the most common (and painful) mistakes she’s seen agencies make, and what can be learned from them.

Jennifer walks us through her path in the WordPress world, and we discuss three real-world mistakes agencies make: “web support that drains your soul,” “the design handoff from hell,” and “work more, bill less and smile anyway.”

We talk through support bottlenecks, frustrating design-to-development handoffs, and the dilemma of over-servicing clients without fair compensation. Jennifer shares her candid perspective on why processes and honest communication matter, not just for the bottom line, but for mental health and building sustainable teams.

She also discusses how transparency, learning from failure, and continually improving processes can improve agency life. Jennifer’s approach is refreshingly open about both the mistakes and the solutions, aiming to help others avoid repeating them.

If you’ve found yourself frustrated with agency workflows, or are hoping to build a healthier business in the WordPress ecosystem, this episode is for you.

Useful links

 Jennifer’s presentation at WordCamp Europe 2025: 3 WordPress Agency F*ckups and What I Learned from Them

The presentation on WordPress.tv

Growth Hacker Marketing book by Ryan Holiday

From a Refugee Camp to a Worldwide Community

I was born and raised in Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza — one of the most crowded places on earth. A place where electricity cuts were normal, water came in buckets, and even simple internet access was a daily battle. But it’s also the place where I became a WordPress and WooCommerce developer. I didn’t go to fancy schools or work in glass buildings — I learned by doing, failing, repeating, and staying curious.

Gaza wasn’t easy. But it gave me focus, grit, and a reason to push forward.

Living Through War

When the war started in 2023, the scale wasn’t the same as the previous wars imposed on a besieged population of Gaza. It turned into a brutal genocide, targeting civilians, homes, and entire neighborhoods. For six months, I was trapped inside Gaza. Every day, I woke up not knowing if I or my loved ones would survive the next airstrike.

Getting food became a full-time job. I stood in line for hours to buy just a bag of flour. Sometimes there was no bread. Drinking water was scarce and often unsafe. Showering became a luxury, sometimes I could only use one small bottle of water to clean myself.

Forced to Flee — Under the Gun

I got married just one month before the war started. My wife and I were full of hope, planning a simple future together in Gaza, despite all the challenges.

But soon after, everything collapsed.

We were forced to evacuate from northern Gaza to the south, walking through a military checkpoint, surrounded by tanks and armed soldiers. We stood in line, a long, slow-moving line of displaced families, with our hands raised in the air, step by step, under the eyes of a tank.

My wife was shaking. I held her hand, trying to stay calm for both of us. But deep inside, I was just as afraid.

We weren’t carrying weapons. We weren’t fighters. We were just a young married couple trying to survive.
All I had with me was my laptop and some food packed in a WordPress tote bag I’d gotten from WCEU 2023, everything that mattered to me at that moment.

Not long after we reached the south, my wife’s father was killed in an airstrike. We didn’t even get to say goodbye or grieve due to the continuous bombardment.

And yet, despite all of this — despite everything — we’re still trying to build a better life. Because that’s the only thing we can do. Keep going. Keep trying. Keep hoping.

Leaving Gaza – With Just My Laptop and a WordPress Tote Bag

After weeks of surviving in unbearable conditions, I had to make one of the most difficult decisions of my life: to leave Gaza on my own. I was only able to leave because of the support from the company I work with, they stepped in and helped cover the huge fees the Egyptian authorities charged to cross the border during the war. It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made, leaving behind my entire family: my wife, my parents, my brother, my sisters, and their families, all of them still trapped in a war zone.

A month later, by some miracle, my wife, one of my sisters, and my brother managed to escape. This was only possible because of a GoFundMe campaign where many people from the Automattic and Codeable community generously contributed to help get them out. We reunited in Egypt, and for a short while, we felt like a family again — displaced, but together.

WordCamp Europe Journey

A Failed First Attempt

In 2024, I tried to attend WordCamp Europe in Turin, Italy. I had the passion, the knowledge, the motivation, but not the legal papers. As a Palestinian stuck in Egypt after fleeing Gaza, I had no residency, no ID, and no right to even apply for a visa.

A New Chapter in Oman

That’s when I made a hard decision. I left Egypt and moved to Oman, hoping for more stability and legal residency. It wasn’t easy to start from scratch, but I kept working, building WooCommerce plugins, contributing to projects, and slowly getting back on my feet. Oman gave me room to breathe, time to plan, and most importantly, a legal status.

The Second Try – and This Time, It Worked

Months later, I tried again. This time, I applied for a Schengen visa from Oman. I was nervous. I’d already been rejected by borders and systems that didn’t care about where I came from or what I could do. But luck, and persistence, were on my side. I got approved.

Holding that visa in my hand felt unreal. It wasn’t just permission to travel — it was a small victory against everything that tried to stop me.

WCEU 2025 — More Than Just a Tech Event

I attended WordCamp Europe 2025 in Basel, Switzerland.

I wasn’t just there to listen to talks or meet plugin authors. I was there because I believe stories like mine matter. I come from a place that’s usually erased from conversations. But I’m also part of this global community — a developer who pushed through war, exile, and paperwork, and still showed up.

Being there was not just for me. It was for every Palestinian developer still stuck behind walls. It was for every freelance coder who has talent but no passport. It was for those who build in silence, under fire, and without recognition.

Still Separated — In Every Way

Just before WCEU, I had to leave my wife and baby son in Egypt. I traveled to Europe to attend the event and explore a new future for my family. My wife and one-year-old son stayed behind in Egypt, waiting in limbo. This time, we don’t know when we’ll be reunited.

I looked at my baby’s photos almost every minute during the event — trying to hold on to every small detail while we’re apart. Being away from him and my wife has been incredibly painful. And at the same time, I’m also far from my mother, father, brothers, and sisters — all still in Gaza, living through unimaginable hardship.

That pain never fades, a constant shadow following me even as I kept going for all of them. While I walked freely through Switzerland, my parents, sisters, and closest friends remained trapped in Gaza’s nightmare, existing without homes, surviving on animal feed disguised as bread, drinking contaminated water that makes them sick, living without electricity, schools, or hospitals. They endure each day without the most basic human right: safety. The genocide continues relentlessly, now over a year and a half of systematic destruction. Every morning, with trembling hands, I check my phone not for work messages but for the simplest, most desperate confirmation—that my family is still breathing, still alive. So as I sat listening to talks about WordPress performance and block themes, my heart remained split in two, my body in Basel, but my soul still in Gaza, aching with every breath for those I left behind

WordPress Gave Me More Than a Job!

Being a WordPress developer gave me hope when I needed it most. The ability to work from anywhere meant I could survive and rebuild no matter where I ended up. WordPress wasn’t just a technology for me, it became my connection to a world of possibilities. The WordPress community helped me in ways I never expected. People reached out with support, advice, and genuine friendship. When everything felt uncertain, knowing I had skills that traveled with me and a community that welcomed me made all the difference. WordPress didn’t just give me work; it gave me a future I could believe in.

Grateful for Real Support

None of this would’ve been possible without the support of the company I work with — Progressus.io. During the most difficult moments — from trying to leave Gaza, to applying for visas, to finally making it to Basel for WCEU 2025 — they stood by me. Not just as an employer, but as humans who understood the weight of what I was going through. Their support wasn’t just professional — it was personal. And I’ll always be grateful for that.

My Message to the WordPress Community

To everyone at WCEU and in the broader WordPress ecosystem:

• Don’t take your freedom for granted.
• Remember that talent exists everywhere — but opportunity does not.
• Keep building open tools. You never know who’s learning from them in the shadows.

And to every developer in Gaza , or in any part of the world facing war, exile, or isolation:

Keep going. Keep coding. You’re not invisible.

What’s Next?

After everything, I’ve now moved to Spain, starting yet another chapter, far from where I began. It’s not easy building a new life from scratch again, but it’s a step toward stability, safety, and possibility.

I don’t know exactly where this path will lead. But I do know what I’ll keep doing: working on what I love, WordPress, WooCommerce, and helping small ideas grow into real businesses.

I’ve seen what war can destroy. Now I want to see what code and community can build.

The post From Gaza to WCEU 2025 Basel – My Journey as a WordPress Developer from War to Community appeared first on HeroPress.

In the world of WordPress, it’s tempting to think that every company update deserves media attention. You’ve landed a new client, launched a product update, or celebrated an anniversary. Shouldn’t everyone care? Turns out, not always. On a recent episode of the series Media Playbook, Rae Morey and Adam Weeks dug into the nitty-gritty of […]

This episode of Open Event Talk discusses the significance of non-official WordPress events, emphasizing grassroots initiatives like Alt Ctrl Org that foster inclusive conversations and broaden community engagement.

In honor of Automattic’s 20th anniversary, and also since it’s been a few years, I joined Nilay Patel the editor-in-chief of The Verge on their Decoder Podcast. We talked about Tumblr and the Fediverse, how Automattic thinks about Ecosystem and Cosmos sides of the business, Automattic’s re-organization into cross-business functional teams and leadership, the vision of Clay as a personal CRM and Beeper as the super-human messaging app that puts control in the hands of users, Newspack, the future of websites, the obligatory coverage of the alleged WP Engine trademark violations and their subsequent preemptive suit, and much more. Please give it a listen! They chose the title “Why Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg went to war over WordPress.”

Speaking of Beeper, we’re going to do a fun event for the next-gen version that’s launching on July 16 in New York City in NoHo. I’ll be there along with Beeper CEO Kishan Bagaria and some of the best and brightest in New York’s tech and creative class. If you’re a Beeper early adopter (or would like to be) and want to attend, leave a comment! We’ve held back some invites for cool folks like readers of ma.tt. It’s like getting on board with WordPress in 2004.

When we were first invited to be a media partner for this event, we were still known as Do the Woo. A lot has changed since then, including our name But what hasn’t changed is our excitement to support conversations that drive real impact in the open tech ecosystem. The Future Is Now—And the Philippines […]

Today marks a special anniversary for me: It has been exactly 10 years since I received my first props for a contribution to WordPress Core. And it was just a day before that I actually worked on that first contribution.

You may know that I am a long-term WordPress Core contributor, having contributed ever since. To celebrate this 10-year milestone, I wanted to reflect on this journey and share the 10 most valuable lessons I learned along the way. But first, let me provide a bit of background about just how I started.

How I Started Contributing to WordPress Core

It all started at the WordCamp Europe 2015 Contributor Day, an event I still remember fondly as my favorite Contributor Day experience. The atmosphere was incredibly welcoming and productive, largely thanks to the fantastic guidance of Konstantin Obenland, who was the Release Lead for the upcoming WordPress 4.3 release.

While leading the Core table, he encouraged us to test the new Site Icon feature, which was nearly ready to be committed. I dove in with a few other contributors and started testing various scenarios. I managed to uncover a minor bug that only appeared when JavaScript was disabled in the browser. I worked on a patch to fix it, and a few days later, on June 29, 2015, the feature was committed to Core with my first props included.

That first small contribution was the starting point of my long and rewarding journey. After a few more months of occasional contributions, I began contributing heavily in early 2016, focusing on the Multisite component. Over time, my responsibilities increased, eventually running team meetings and becoming a component maintainer. In November 2016, just 17 months after I had started, I was honored to be named a WordPress Core committer. And little did I know, this would be just the first chapter of my ongoing journey as a WordPress Core contributor.

Becoming a long-term WordPress Core contributor is not an easy task. But in some ways, it’s not as hard as it seems. You may think you need to be an incredible coder, and you may feel imposter syndrome. But that’s just a small part. The most important skills are interpersonal skills such as communication, flexibility, perseverance. To celebrate 10 years of contributing, I’m going to share with you 10 things that helped me in my journey the most.

1. Communicate, and Communicate Well

As a good engineer, it is equally important to discuss and reason about code as it is to actually write the code. Proactively documenting what you’re doing goes a long way. Some examples:

• If you raise an issue, provide details and include context, including why you think it is a valid issue.
• If you open a pull request, use its description to explain at a high level the relevant technical choices you made in the code you wrote – unless it’s a typo fix of course.
• Unless the code is trivial or you really want to write it just to test whether it works, discuss what you’re proposing first, e.g. in a ticket. Spending hours on writing code that may not get merged can be frustrating. Gathering feedback on your idea from other contributors first will go a long way in avoiding that experience.

Other than being able to discuss code, it’s equally important to ask questions. If you don’t understand the rationale behind a decision, kindly follow up on it. If you’re attending a Slack chat where someone shares something you are missing context on, inquire about it. Every question you ask and every answer you get will grow your understanding of the WordPress project – whether its overarching philosophies, strategic decisions, or deeply technical decisions.

2. Assume Good Intent

Another important aspect of communication that is worth highlighting separately is to be respectful. Be respectful of your fellow contributors, even if you feel they weren’t. If someone disagrees with you or even if a ticket you proposed is closed without an explanation (which should not happen, but it can), don’t get angry. Don’t get defensive. Don’t get arrogant. Remain kind, and follow up. The other person probably didn’t mean any harm.

Assuming good intent means to keep calm even when your initial reaction tells you not to. Sometimes, a reply that comes across as harsh may be the result of the other contributor lacking the time to reply, which is not necessarily an excuse. Other times, it may be the result of the other contributor being from another culture where communication norms are different to yours. In either scenario, the reply that came across as harsh most likely wasn’t meant to be harsh. If you feel yourself getting defensive or angry, maybe step away and come back later.

Another way to say this is don’t take things personally. Your proposals and code may be rejected, sometimes wrongfully. Either way, this is entirely specific to the problem that you’re trying to solve. It has nothing to do with you as a person or your quality as a developer.

3. Be Persistent, As Long As Appropriate

As I previously mentioned, sometimes another contributor may have feedback or propose something you disagree with. And sometimes, even though that’s not ideal, they don’t provide adequate context – we all make mistakes. If you have taken the time to introspect and ensure your disagreement is valid, make sure to follow up. Ask the other contributor to share more context, or lay out clearly why you disagree.

For example, it’s okay to reopen a ticket that you created when it’s closed but not resolved. Just keep in mind the previous points on communication and self-awareness.

Sometimes you may be overruled, or a discussion continues back and forth a few too many times with seemingly no noticeable progress. Sometimes us humans, we simply disagree, and that’s okay. Take a moment to think how strongly you think your point is correct. Sometimes, it’s right to keep pushing. Other times, it’s right to give in. Don’t keep pushing excessively. It’s important to know when to accept another person’s decision and move on, even when you disagree. Especially in situations where several other Core contributors disagree with your point, think twice. There may be something they understand that you don’t, or you may be proposing something that is not aligned with the WordPress philosophy. Simply remember, you can ask.

4. Pay Attention to Detail

The previous points primarily focused on communication and introspection. But now let’s talk a bit about code. I’m not going to talk about algorithms or code patterns though. Something that you can try to do, regardless of how experienced you are as a developer, is to pay attention to detail and go the extra mile. Your mindset should be to get it done right, not quickly.

Sloppy code doesn’t get committed to WordPress Core. Some of the important things to look out for is code style, comprehensive inline code documentation and doc blocks, as well as test coverage. Proactively making sure your code is safe, documented, and tested shows that you care and is a great signal of a promising new contributor.

Similar care is equally important when reviewing other people’s code. Point out when any of the above are lacking or inadequate. Think about edge cases the code may not be catering for yet. Ask questions if you’re unsure. Take the time to be a thorough reviewer.

5. Think at Scale

WordPress is not just used by millions of websites, it’s used by over a third of the web. I’m sure you already know that, but it’s crucial to remember that anytime you are thinking about technical solutions. Whenever you want to make a change in WordPress, consider the entire spectrum of WordPress sites. I already mentioned to think about edge cases, but here are some more examples for what to keep in mind:

• WordPress can run anywhere – $1000 premium hosting or a Raspberry Pi. Be especially mindful of the lower end here.
• WordPress can be used at any scale – a small business portfolio site with five pages, or a membership site with millions of user-generated posts from thousands of users. Be especially mindful of the higher end here.
• Many WordPress sites do not use an object cache, many are on older technologies, such as outdated versions of PHP or MySQL.

Another important aspect of thinking at scale is the impact that WordPress has on the rest of the web. WordPress can influence the web to change. A new feature or API in WordPress could lead to other platforms or even browsers considering it. Use WordPress’s scale responsibly – it can be a lever for the web as a whole, but make sure you’re only proposing a new feature to be merged into WordPress Core once it is ready for its scale.

6. Increase Scope Gradually

When you first start contributing to WordPress Core, it’s natural to have big ideas and see opportunities for major improvements, even complete rewrites of certain APIs. However, if you’re new to the project, pushing for a massive change or a brand-new feature right away is often going to result in resistance and likely won’t succeed. Believe me, I’ve been there. This can feel frustrating, but it’s a natural part of how open-source communities function.

Established contributors need to “get to know you” first. They need to assess your expertise, your motivations, your communication style, and your willingness and availability to see complex ideas through to completion. This is simply a human element of collaboration. Your idea might be entirely valid, and you might be the perfect person to execute it. But others won’t know that until they’ve had the chance to work with you and observe your contributions over time.

This doesn’t mean your valuable ideas will be rejected outright, but you might encounter hesitation or caution. A better approach is to increase your scope gradually. Start with smaller, more contained contributions: Fix bugs, improve documentation, or address minor enhancements. This helps you build trust and credibility within the community. Furthermore, by contributing to less complex endeavors first, you’ll gain additional expertise and a deeper understanding of the intricacies of WordPress Core development. This experience will likely enable you to approach those more complex ideas later with even greater insight and a stronger ability to execute them successfully than you would have had when you were completely new.

7. Find Your Niche

While it’s a great starting point to contribute to any random issues you find or care about in the beginning, it’s incredibly valuable to eventually find your niche within WordPress Core. After some initial contributions, ideally you’ll discover an area that genuinely interests you and where you feel you can make a sustained impact. To give some personal context, for me that initial niche was Multisite, as mentioned earlier. I focused on it largely because I was working with a client with a large Multisite installation at the time and wanted to improve some quirks I was encountering in the foundation. For you, it might be any of the other dozens of WordPress Core components.

Perhaps it’s a component you frequently interact with in your own WordPress development work or hobby projects where you’ve identified opportunities for improvement. The more practical experience you have with a specific part of WordPress, the more likely you are to contribute valuable enhancements and fixes to it.

Finding your niche is also important because you simply cannot be an expert in everything. WordPress Core is vast, but there are many specialized areas where dedicated experts are needed, especially where original maintainers have moved on or reduced their contributions. However, at the end of the day, don’t solely define your niche based on perceived project needs. Define your niche based on what you truly care about and are passionate about. This will make your contributions more enjoyable and sustainable in the long run.

8. Be Helpful

Contributing to WordPress Core isn’t just about pushing your own agenda or implementing the features you want to see. A crucial part of being a valuable contributor is actively being helpful to others. Being proactive and offering assistance demonstrates that you are a team player and a great collaborator, deeply invested in the project’s success. It also shows that you’re willing to take on work that might not be the most exciting for you personally, but is essential for the community as a whole.

Here are some examples of such activities:

• Make an effort to review other contributors’ tickets, discussing ideas and technical approaches beyond your own.
• Provide constructive feedback on pull requests, even if they’re not in your immediate area of expertise.
• Offer to run a bug scrub for a specific component, helping to triage and categorize issues.
• Volunteer to write summary posts for recurring team meetings, keeping everyone informed.

These are just some ideas that will signal to other contributors that you are passionate, eager to work collaboratively, and not just in it for whatever you want to see added to WordPress Core. Being a helpful and supportive member of the community fosters a positive environment for everyone.

9. Adapt Well

A common descriptor for the ideal mindset of a WordPress Core contributor is “Strong opinions, loosely held.” This highlights the importance of having conviction in your ideas while remaining open to changing them based on new information or different perspectives. Especially when you’re a new contributor, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “This is so straightforward, why wasn’t it added to Core years ago?” Usually, if it hasn’t been, it’s simply not as straightforward as it appears. This often relates back to the earlier points about understanding the WordPress philosophy, paying attention to detail, and thinking at scale.

But even as you become a more established contributor, it will always remain crucial to adapt well. Approach different opinions with curiosity rather than adversity. Sometimes, additional learnings on your own end may genuinely change how you think about a technical approach. There will be times when you disagree with a decision that a majority of other contributors support. In these situations, it’s crucial to find the right balance: know when to keep pushing back if you genuinely believe in your stance, and when to acknowledge that this is not your decision alone, but a collective one that you should accept and move forward with for the good of the project. This goes back to the earlier point about being persistent as long as it’s appropriate. The flexibility and willingness to adapt are hallmarks of an effective and respected Core contributor.

A great post that goes into more depth on this point, even though being old, is Andrew Nacin’s “The qualities of a great WordPress contributor”.

10. Build Personal Relationships

While online collaboration is the backbone of WordPress Core development, building personal relationships with other contributors is incredibly valuable. This isn’t just for your personal growth as a contributor; it also significantly enhances the enjoyment and effectiveness of your contributions. The connections you make can enrich your journey in unexpected ways, and you may make new real-life friends.

Meeting other contributors at a WordCamp or similar event is an incredible experience. Go for a run together, have a beer, do a hacking session together – whatever is fun for your group. Whether it’s finally connecting in person with someone you’ve collaborated with online for months, or meeting a mentor you’ve looked up to since you started contributing, these face-to-face interactions foster a deeper sense of community. Hanging out, sharing meals, and catching up in person inevitably changes how people see you. Having met someone in person simply tends to change the dynamic, even in subsequent online interactions.

It may not always be feasible for every contributor to attend a WordCamp or other event to meet fellow contributors in person, and that is certainly unfortunate. However, the unique understanding forged through in-person interactions is something a purely online community simply cannot fully replicate. If you have the opportunity to participate in such an event, I strongly encourage you to take it. The bonds you form will make your contribution journey even more rewarding.

---

Looking Back and Moving Forward

This decade of contributing to WordPress has been a remarkable journey of both personal and professional growth. I can say with certainty that I am where I am today, in so many ways, thanks to contributing to WordPress Core. The lessons I’ve shared here are reflections of countless hours spent collaborating with other community contributors, solving complex problems, building powerful features, and helping to build the open web. Contributing to WordPress Core has taught me more than I could have ever imagined when I first uploaded that small patch back in 2015.

I hope that these reflections are helpful, whether you are a seasoned committer or someone who is just considering making their first contribution. A large open-source project, especially at the scale of WordPress, is an excellent way to work on something bigger than (very likely) anything one of us could come up with by ourselves. I remain as excited and motivated as ever to continue playing my part in its future.

What about you? If you’re a contributor, what are the biggest lessons you have learned on your journey? I’d love to read about your experiences in the comments below.

The post 10 Lessons from 10 Years of Contributing to WordPress Core appeared first on felix-arntz.me.

WordCamp US 2025 is heading to vibrant Portland, Oregon, from August 26–29, 2025! Join fellow open source enthusiasts, developers, designers, and WordPress professionals from across the United States and around the world for four days of learning, networking, and collaboration at the Oregon Convention Center.

Nestled in the Pacific Northwest, Portland is famous for its creative spirit, lush green spaces, and riverside trails, making it an inspiring backdrop for this year’s WordCamp. Whether building your first site or leading a digital agency, WordCamp US offers something for everyone, all set against the city’s stunning natural scenery.

What to Expect

Contributor Day: August 26

Kick off your WordCamp US experience by giving back. Contributor Day welcomes all skill levels to collaborate on teams that help make WordPress better, from code to community to documentation. You can make a difference to the project, and build new friendships or rekindle old ones, perhaps even while enjoying views of Portland’s skyline and tree-lined streets.

Main Conference: August 27–29

Showcase Day – August 27

As part of the main conference, day one will give us a look at project showcases, discover innovative uses of WordPress, see how people push the platform’s boundaries, and get inspired to try something new.

Session Days + Expo Hall – August 28-29

Experience another two days filled with inspiring keynotes, practical sessions, and deep dives into the latest trends in web development, design, content, accessibility, and more. Hear from some of the brightest minds in the WordPress ecosystem and explore topics that get to the heart of what makes WordPress unique. Also, take some time to explore the main floors of WCUS, like the Sponsors Hall.

Networking and Community

Meet WordPress friends new and old, exchange ideas with community leaders, and collaborate with people who share your passion for open source. Enjoy daily lunches and a memorable social event, all included with your ticket. Stroll along the Willamette River or explore nearby parks in between sessions.

Venue & Accommodations

This year, we’re gathering at the Oregon Convention Center in the heart of Portland—a city known for its vibrant neighborhoods and abundant green spaces. We’ve secured a special hotel block right across the street at the Hyatt Regency Portland for convenient, comfortable lodging during your stay.

• Oregon Convention Center
  777 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
  Portland, OR 97232
  
• Hyatt Regency Portland
  375 NE Holladay Street
  Portland, OR 97232
  Book your room!

Registration and Tickets

Registration officially kicked off last month. Secure your spot early; tickets are selling quickly.

Ready to Plan Your WordCamp US Experience?

Keep checking the WordCamp US site for travel tips, to book accommodations, and to watch for the whole event schedule—coming soon! While here, why not plan to take in some of Portland’s scenic hiking trails, bike-friendly streets, or local food scene?

Stay tuned for updates and announcements on WordPress social media channels, and join the conversation.

Help Us Spread the Word!

Whether attending in person or following along online, share your experience and help welcome others to the WordPress community. Use the #WCUS and #WordPress hashtags and tell your story on social!

Portland is calling—see you at WordCamp US 2025!