Disruptive Innovation

A look at how the new block editor in WordPress, Gutenberg, is a disruptive innovation for WordPress and how important that is to the future growth of the software.

Transcript

1. Innovation
2. Mark Uraine // @mapk I’m a creative technologist at Automattic contributing to the open source project, WordPress. My focus is Gutenberg Phase 2.
4. Disruptive Innovation
5. Characteristics of disruptive businesses, at least in their initial stages, can include: […] simpler products and services that may not appear as attractive as existing solutions when compared against traditional performance metrics. Source: Clayton Christensen
 http://claytonchristensen.com/key-concepts/
6. An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new population of consumers at the bottom of a market access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill. Source: Clayton Christensen
 http://claytonchristensen.com/key-concepts/
7. One of the hardest things to do in technology is disrupt yourself. Source: Matt Mullenweg 
 https://ma.tt/2015/11/dance-to-calypso/
8. DISRUPTOR Personal computers Cellular phones Free online courses DISRUPTEE Mainframe and mini computers Fixed line telephony Four-year colleges > > >
9. DISRUPTOR Airbnb Uber & Lyft Amazon Nest Netflix Apple iPod DISRUPTEE Hotels Taxis Brick & mortar retail Traditional thermostats Video rentals Portable CD players > > > > > >
10. Just as the startup disrupted its black car service years ago by offering lower-margin UberX rides, it now hopes to help forge the next shift in transportation. Uber says that cannibalization of its ride- hailing business is part of its master plan.
 Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-07/uber-lays- out-its-plan-for-long-term-self-disruption
11. The fear of making the wrong choices leads some companies to strategic paralysis. Source: https://www.strategy-business.com/pictures/Disruptors- and-the-Disrupted-A-Tale-of-Eight-Companies-in-Pictures
13. Top 1M sites Top 100k sites Top 10k sites
14. Time for some disruptive innovation.
16. 4 principles of 
 self-disruption
17. 1. Target a need that can be met more effectively. 2. Identify your disruptive strengths. 3. Step back (or sideways) in order to grow. 4. Let your strategy emerge.
18. Other CMSs Page Builders Closed Platforms 1. Target a need that can be met more effectively. A need for a more versatile Content Management System. > > >
19. 1. Target a need that can be met more effectively. A need for a more versatile Content Management System. A need to unify the various interfaces. Editor Customizer wp-admin > > > Widgets & Plugins >
20. 2. Identify your disruptive strengths. JavaScript was fully adopted and libraries were being built. A great amount of learning came from the Calypso project.
21. 3. Step back (or sideways) in order to grow. Calypso was a fresh look at wp-admin using an API and modern libraries. Git & GitHub instead of SVN & Trac.
22. 4. Let your strategy emerge. Everything on a WordPress website becomes a block. All blocks are created equal. Drag-and-drop is secondary. Placeholders are key. Direct manipulation is intuitive. Code editing shouldn’t be necessary for 
 customization. Source: https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/contributors/design/#vision > > > > > >
23. 4. Let your strategy emerge. Phase 1 : Create a new block-based editor. Phase 2 : Push Gutenberg beyond the editor. Introduce UI/block creativity. Phase 3 : Collaboration and multi-user editing. Phase 4 : Official multi-lingual site support. Source: WordCamp US 2018. State of the Word
24. Despite all the 
 bad mojo
26. Why do we love WordPress? Extensibility is the #1 thing 
 people like about WordPress. Source: WordPress.org site building study #5
 https://make.wordpress.org/design/2019/02/08/sitebuilding-study-conclusions/
27. WP-CLI API Plugins Themes Shortcodes Custom Post Types Widgets Blocks
28. WP-CLI API Plugins Themes Shortcodes Custom Post Types Widgets Blocks
29. WP-CLI API Plugins Themes Shortcodes Custom Post Types Widgets Blocks Block Templates
30. WP-CLI API Plugins Themes Shortcodes Custom Post Types + Block Templates Widgets Blocks
31. WP-CLI API Plugins Themes Shortcodes Custom Post Types + Block Templates Widgets Blocks Global Styles
32. WP-CLI API Plugins Themes Shortcodes Custom Post Types + Block Templates Widgets Blocks Global Styles
33. WP-CLI API Plugins Blocks Custom Post Types + Block Templates Global Styles
34. WordPress extensibility is refreshed. Modern JS Libraries (React)
 Git + GitHub WP-CLI API Plugins Blocks Custom Post Types + Block Templates Global Styles
35. With Gutenberg we’ve: Redefined editing & layout using blocks 
 – attracting more site builders. Introduced modern code 
 – attracting new developers. Provided an easier and more adoptable version control and repo system 
 – attracting more contributors.

36. This isn’t a breakthrough innovation
 that made WordPress better. It’s disruptive innovation making WordPress
 more affordable and accessible.
37. Innovation
38. Thank you. Twitter: @mapk WordPress.org: mapk markuraine.com