La comunidad de WordPress está llena de gente fantástica que hace cosas fantásticas, entre ellos blogueros, voluntarios y emprendedores. Recientemente tuve la oportunidad de hablar con uno de esos intrépidos emprendedores de WordPress: David Rashty, el fundador de CreativeMinds.
Fundada en 2008, CreativeMinds ofrece complementos de WordPress, extensiones de Magento y desarrollo personalizado para ambas plataformas. Rashty tiene más de 20 años de experiencia trabajando en puestos de nivel ejecutivo en varias startups, y llegó a la comunidad de WordPress de la manera típica: blogueando. Una startup para la que estaba trabajando eligió WordPress como su plataforma de blogs preferida, y cuando los complementos externos que usaban no estaban a la altura, terminaron codificando los suyos.
In this post, I'll share the highlights of my interview with Rashty (which I've edited lightly for length and clarity), including her recommended apps and critical thoughts on the current WordPress plugin system.
1. What is the creative mind about?
CreativeMinds is the company behind plugins like CM Tooltip Glossary and CM Ad Changer. What you may not know is how the business started and how much work goes into those products. This is what Rashty said:
Our WordPress business started as a side project while I was working at another company and gradually grew to become a major one. We focus on developing unique and robust WordPress based products where we believe solutions are non-existent or not as we would like to have them.
We invest a great deal of time in each product, trying to add value in functionality, making the UI and UX simple and intuitive, and doing a lot of testing before launch. We are always the first customers for our products, which gives us the ability to understand what is missing. Once we launch, we get a lot of ideas and feedback from our users.
2. How your team works
I thought this part was great because it really exemplifies online business in our age of globalization. Rashty explained that the CreativeMinds team is spread across three continents:
Nuestro equipo ha crecido durante el último año y ahora consta de 15 persons (no todas trabajan a tiempo completo). Estamos divididos en varios equipos: producto, marketing, diseño, servicio al client y diseño de instrucciones.
We are spread over three continents. Our developers are in Europe, while the marketing is in Israel and the United States. We are part virtual and part not. We have an office in Europe and an office in Israel, but some of our team members work from home.
3. What programs and apps do you recommend?
Administrar un equipo internacional y lidiar con las tensiones, tensiones y necesidades normales de los negocios puede ser un desafío. Para mantener a todos en la misma página, Rashty y su equipo utilizan la app de gestión de proyectos Asana.
Here is a list of several other programs and apps that Rashty told me he recommends:
- Scout Help for customer support
- Moz para la optimización de search engines (a la vez de Google analytics)
- Crazy egg para ver qué están haciendo los clientes en el sitio Web de CreativeMinds
- Monitis para rastrear el rendimiento y la confiabilidad del server
- Google docs to help with planning and management
4. How you generate WordPress plugin ideas
Having ideas for plugins can be the hardest part of development. Rashty explained her process:
The ideas come from the clients we interact with and from our own wishes and dreams. Not all are very successful. We have developed several products that we throw away or reuse in some other way. We always start with some basic MVP (minimum possible product) that we pull to see the comments and then we start to grow the product. Right now we are working on six new products. I'd say we get half of our product ideas from our customers and half internally.
5. What do you think about the free plugin model?
One of the most intriguing parts of my discussion with Rashty involved his views on the way WordPress plugins are presented and thought right now. He's very critical of the free plugin model:
Getting users to appreciate the fact that WordPress products take a great deal of time and effort to develop and even more to support is challenging. Some users still believe that all WordPress products should be free. I think this free model does not work: out of the 30,000 plugins on WordPress.org, the 95% are not well maintained or written according to WordPress standards, leading to clashes and problems once installed.
In your ideal world, premium plugins would play a bigger role and receive a bigger place in the community spotlight:
I think WordPress / Automattic should change the way it works and interacts with plugin developers and support them. We are part of what makes WordPress a great environment and we are part of the WordPress ecosystem… I'm trying to say: help us and support our efforts.
As an example, Magento by AOL provides a free catalog in which each developer can list their extensions, regardless of whether they are free or premium, and at the same time receive feedback and provide customer support. This is not possible with WordPress ... If there is no possible model that WordPress endorses and pushes, we will not see too many great plugins.
I asked him about his position and he replied further:
Otro aspecto de este problema es que muchos complementos existentes no están escritos de acuerdo con estándares ampliamente aceptables y no están bien soportados. Para ayudar a nuestros clientes, debemos lidiar con estos complementos. Por lo general, nos encontramos explicando por qué otro complemento que han instalado está provocando problemas debido a que no está escrito correctamente. En varios casos al mismo tiempo muestran errores JS / PHP.
My point is that in order to have good plugins, there must be a sustainable model that WordPress supports, and even drives, that allows plugin developers to develop and support their products.
6. Your Favorite WordPress Plugins
That doesn't mean that Rashty doesn't have all the plugins out there. Far from there. I asked him to list just a few of his favorite community plugins:
I'm lovin 'it Relevanssi and at the same time I am in contact with the developer from time to time. You are doing a great job and you have a wonderful product. At the same time we really like the Visual form builder which is less well known than the alternatives.
At the same time I asked him to highlight some CreativeMinds plugins that he thinks are some of the best:
I think in addition to the tooltip glossary, we have a great new product that we just released called OnBoarding Plugin, which is a great user experience and guidance tool that we are very proud of.
7. Current projects of the company
Rashty was kind enough to give us a look at some of the upcoming CreativeMinds offerings:
Tenemos varios complementos cocinando: Un nuevo complemento de informes de WordPress que será una plataforma para generar informes para diferentes necesidades y casos de uso. Un complemento de administración de cursos de video que ayudará a la organización a rastrear y controlar las lecciones en video, un catálogo de productos unificado para fusionar varios catálogos de comercio electrónico como EDD y WooCommerce, y varios productos nuevos que aún se encuentran en la etapa de planificación.
8. Your hopes for the future of the company
With years of work behind her, I asked Rashty to look to the future. He explained how he envisions the evolution of the WordPress market in the coming years and what role CreativeMinds could play in that:
I think the WordPress market is still evolving and brands are still building. We would like to see CM as an appreciated brand for great WordPress products, in the same way that we look at EDD / WooCommerce / Yoast / ElegantThemes and other good brands ...
I think the market we are in is going to grow. More organizations and companies are using WP as a content and e-commerce solution, and they need high-quality, reliable tools to power their content and sites. The needs for such tools are going to grow, so I think having a great selection of great WordPress tools is our goal.
conclusion
David Rashty has been very successful in the WordPress plugin market, and it's always interesting to hear a developer's perspective.
Let us know what you think about what you said: Do you use any of their recommended programs? Are you right about the free plugin model? Post in the comments below!
