WordPress Agencies: Facing Challenges for the Next 10 Years
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The document discusses the challenges facing WordPress agencies over the next decade, emphasizing the need for agencies to adapt to the growing enterprise market and focus on client partnerships. It highlights strategies for growth, including acquiring talent and enhancing project management, while also underscoring the importance of being active in the WordPress community. Overall, it calls for agencies to leverage their skills beyond development to attract larger clients and improve their service offerings.
![“[WordPress agencies] often have
the talent, but aren't pulling
together the non-development
skills that make clients
comfortable spending the big
bucks.”
– M AT T M U L L E N W E G](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/next10yearsfin-140121051936-phpapp02/85/WordPress-Agencies-Facing-Challenges-for-the-Next-10-Years-23-320.jpg)
WordPress Agencies: Facing Challenges for the Next 10 Years
- 1. W O R D P R E S S AG E N C I E S : FAC I N G C H A L L E N G E S F O R T H E NEXT 10 YEARS SARA @ROSSO, AUTOMATTIC W O R D C A M P PA R I S 2 0 1 4
- 3. 21.2% of the top 10 million websites
- 7. 16% and growing ! Large Business or Enterprise Clients 2013 WordPress survey
- 8. “I want to see more large WordPress consultancies in the future.”
- 9. W H AT E N T E R P R I S E S WA N T
- 10. “Enterprises love enterprises.” – JAKE GOLDMAN, 10UP
- 11. THINK LIKE AN ENTERPRISE AT ANY SIZE
- 12. ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS • Pricing • Breadth of services • Robustness of team • Ongoing support • Risk tolerance
- 13. GROW
- 14. “How do you plan for the future while you hunt for your next meal?” – NICK GERNERT A U T O M AT T I C , F O R M E R LY V O C E C O M M U N I C AT I O N S
- 15. GROWING • Always be interviewing • Try before you hire • Distributed == Find talent anywhere • Network inside the WP community
- 16. “To build the kind of sites we wanted, for the kind of clients we wanted, we needed to put together a team of specialists.” – SIMON DICKSON, CODE FOR THE PEOPLE
- 17. “Keep a client. Make a partnership.” – PA U L M A I O R A N A V P M E D I A S E R V I C E S , A U T O M AT T I C
- 19. PARTNER • Other WordPress firms • Subcontract for overflow or special services • Larger, non-WordPress specialist firms • Beyond code
- 20. ACQUIRE
- 21. ACQUIRE • Engineering talent • Products and plugins • Client base
- 22. KNOW
- 23. “[WordPress agencies] often have the talent, but aren't pulling together the non-development skills that make clients comfortable spending the big bucks.” – M AT T M U L L E N W E G
- 24. PROJECT MANAGEMENT • Managing Expectations • Proactive Communication & Planning • Timelines & Dependencies • Resource Management • Contingency Plans
- 25. MAKE YOUR CODE BETTER
- 26. “Code reviews serve two purposes: to improve your code’s quality, and to learn from each other.” – MO JANGDA, WORDPRESS.COM VIP
- 27. DEVELOPER PLUGIN
- 28. VIP CODE SCANNER
- 29. “Every line of code we ship has at least one extra set of eyes on it. It's not supervisory, it's peer review, which fosters collaboration.” –AUSTIN SMITH, ALLEY INTERACTIVE
- 30. CODE REVIEW APPROACHES • Gatekeeper • Peer review • Review by committee • Pair coding
- 32. LEARN • Codex • .org Handbooks • WordPress.tv
- 33. SHOW
- 34. TELL YOUR CODE’S STORY
- 35. TELLING YOUR CODE’S STORY • Development approach & coding decisions • Server or architecture setup & modifications • Modifications of or forking .org plugins • Development workflows
- 36. TELL YOUR CLIENT’S STORIES
- 37. TELLING THE CLIENT’S STORY • Editorial and administrator tools • Publishing workflows • Business use cases • Budgets and cost savings • Results
- 39. “More WordPress agencies need to wake up to the power of being part of the WP community.” – T O M W I L L M O T, H U M A N M A D E
- 40. BE IN THE COMMUNITY Flickr: Heisenbergmedia
- 41. BE IN THE COMMUNITY • WordCamps, Meetups, Hack Days • Present, Sponsor, Participate, Host • Release Code & Plugins to .org • Beta test new releases
- 43. CONTRIBUTE TO CORE • Make WordPress • Core, UI, Mobile, Accessibility • .org-dedicated Resources • Documentation and Translation • Support
- 44. KNOW SHOW GROW
- 45. THANKS! (We’re hiring!) @Automattic automattic.com/jobs @WordPressVIP vip.wordpress.com Sara @Rosso sararosso.com VIP Global Services Manager Automattic / WordPress.com