Making a Career Change

This month I’m embarking on a new role: Developer Advocate, WooCommerce. That’s right folks, I’m joining Automattic.

Over the past year, I’ve gotten to know a bunch of people over there, whether it was working on Create Content Model with WordPress.com, writing about the company for WP Tavern, or participating in Jamie Marsland’s Speed Build Challenge at WCUS.

I’ve always seen Automattic as a magnet for the smartest people in open source, whether it’s the developers and educators working on WordPress.org or the leadership and employees at WooCommerce who just pulled off a massively successful rebrand last week.

Why Woo?

WooCommerce is open source and built on WordPress, and viewed by many as one of the top drivers behind WordPress’ growth. WooCommerce is in the business of democratizing online commerce. While its competitors build walled gardens and tighten the screws on their customers, WooCommerce has remained committed to being open while also making sure that they’re growing a sustainable platform for everyone who lives inside their ecosystem.

More than that, if you’ve been paying attention the last year or so, you can see a company that has a clear vision/roadmap, a renewed dedication to product quality and UX/DX, and a deep desire to open the communication channels with its community. These are the priorities I’ve been advocating for in the WordPress ecosystem, so I’m excited to join a team with the same ideals.

The role of Developer Advocate is new to me, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to keep doing the things I’m most passionate about: empowering other developers through education and speaking up for the users of open source software. I hope those motivations are clear to anyone who knows me.

What about all that drama?

If you want my opinions on Automattic versus WP Engine, I’ve written about it before. Even if I don’t agree with every tactic, I believe in the intentions behind the project. I’m optimistic about the future of WordPress. Opinions are easy to come by, but open source software is not a democracy, it’s built by people who show up and contribute.

The WordPress ecosystem faces the same challenge all software is facing right now: the need to assert relevance in the face of generative AI. If you make money building things on the internet, this is what you should be thinking about.

The internet is evolving, but I’m a firm believer in the value of human experience and human expertise. I believe in owning your own home on the web. Generative AI just reinforces that idea as it lowers the barrier-to-entry to building stuff online, much like WordPress itself did to publishing twenty years ago.

Next Steps

While there are some personal projects that I’ll be sunsetting, you can still expect the same inconsistent blog posts appearing randomly in your inbox. My podcast (Webmasters.FM) should continue for the foreseeable future, though probably with a slower cadence.

It’s more important than ever that we continue to strive for an open internet where anyone can publish their ideas and run their own business. Hopefully you’ll stick around. I’ll still be writing and recording about the web, WordPress, open source, and AI. And if you have any advice for me, you can find me on any of those social networks we all said we were going to join.