June in WordPress

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