
One more time I was invited to talk at a local Kharkiv WordPress Meetup #5, which took place on April 20th. I have decided to share my thoughts
Slides
You can download slides here as well.
Presentation key points
- So, you’ve decided to create a plugin for sale: https://bit.ly/khwp3
- Working for Awesome Motive
- OptinMonster, MonsterInsigts, WPForms, WP Mail SMTP
- we are hiring: https://awesomemotive.com/career/
- WP Mail SMTP
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/
- Fixes the problem of email deliverability
- The repository was created on 09/06/2007 19:06:36
- 900 thousand active installs
- A lot of users using this plugin for years
- Audit
- Current problems from point of view of:
- ordinary users
- developers (do you have such users?)
- User base activity
- active install growth / downloads per day (*/advanced/)
- support forum
- Current problems from point of view of:
- Goals (why?)
- What do you want to do:
- adding new features/enhancements?
- fixing old bugs?
- update code based on the latest technology stack? Is it important?
- start selling a paid version with new code/features set etc?
- What do you want to do:
- Target audience (whom?)
- Whom this new version will be dedicated to?
- if developers – API
- if ordinary users – UX/UI
- How long will users work inside you plugin admin area?
- Does old design correlate with your target audience?
- Whom this new version will be dedicated to?
- Requirements (what?)
- Depends on Target Audience:
- different ways to develop UI for developers and ordinary users
- no need to waste time on something that is not needed, example: error messages
- follow your target audience strictly for the 1st version
- Technical planning (how?)
- Minimum requirements?
- WordPress, PHP, MySQL versions etc.
- New technologies for you or not?
- Full plugin rewrite or partial?
- throw away old code and start fresh – it has both advantages and disadvantages
- depends on timing
- Minimum requirements?
- Time (when?)
- Release:
- exact date
- when it’s ready
- when dedicated development time/money will come to an end
- Upfront thinking about this date:
- users notifications
- what will change at this day?
- Release:
- One more thing…
- WordPress 5.0 [YOLO Release]* (* as per Chris Christoff from Awesome Motive, Inc.)
- Gutenberg
- “GutenBlocks”
- React
- jQuery 3.3.x
- JavaScript hooks: addAction() / addFilter() etc.