iAUTOMATTIC SHAKEUP null (FALSE) 0 i null (FALSE) 0 i2024-01-28 null (FALSE) 0 i null (FALSE) 0 iMy employer Automattic's having a bit of a reorganisation. For unrelated null (FALSE) 0 ireasons, this coincides with my superteam having a bit of a reorganisation, null (FALSE) 0 itoo, and I'm going to be on a different team next week than I've been on for null (FALSE) 0 imost of the 4+ years I've been there (I've been on Team Fire for a long while, null (FALSE) 0 iwhich made my job title "Code Magician on Fire", but now I'll be on Team null (FALSE) 0 iDesire which isn't half as catchy a name but I'm sure they'll make up for it null (FALSE) 0 iby being the kinds of awesome human beings I've become accustomed to working null (FALSE) 0 ialongside at Automattic.). Together, these factors mean that I have even less null (FALSE) 0 iidea than usual what I do for a living, right now. null (FALSE) 0 i null (FALSE) 0 IDan, wearing an Oxford-branded t-shirt, shrugs and looks confused in front of a screen showing Automattic's "Work With Us" page. /2024/01/20240128_205246-scaled.jpg danq.me 70 i null (FALSE) 0 iOn the whole, I approve of Matt's vision for this reorganisation. He writes: null (FALSE) 0 i> Each [Automattic employee] gets a card: Be the Host, Help the Host, or null (FALSE) 0 iNeutral. null (FALSE) 0 i> null (FALSE) 0 i> You cannot change cards during the course of your day or week. If you do not null (FALSE) 0 ifeel aligned with your card, you need to change divisions within Automattic. null (FALSE) 0 i"Be the Host" folks are all about making Automattic's web hosting offerings null (FALSE) 0 ithe best they possibly can be. These are the teams behind WordPress.com, VIP, null (FALSE) 0 iand Tumblr, for example. They're making us competitive on the global stage. null (FALSE) 0 iThey bring Automattic money in a very direct way, by making our (world class) null (FALSE) 0 ihosting services available to our customers. null (FALSE) 0 i null (FALSE) 0 i"Help the Host" folks (like me) are in roles that are committed to providing null (FALSE) 0 ithe best tools that can be used anywhere. You might run your copy of Woo, null (FALSE) 0 iJetpack, or (the client-side bit of) Akismet on Automattic infrastructure... null (FALSE) 0 ior alternatively you might be hosted by one of our competitors or even on your null (FALSE) 0 iown hardware. What we bring to Automattic is more ethereal: we keep the best null (FALSE) 0 italent and expertise in these technologies close to home, but we're agnostic null (FALSE) 0 iabout who makes money out of what we create. null (FALSE) 0 i null (FALSE) 0 IA laptop computer on a desk, showing a WordPress wp-admin page. /2024/01/pexels-pixabay-265667-scaled.jpg danq.me 70 i null (FALSE) 0 iAnyway: I love the clarification on the overall direction of the company... null (FALSE) 0 ibut I'm not sure how we market it effectively (Fortunately they pay me to null (FALSE) 0 icode, not to do marketing.). I look around at the people in my team and its null (FALSE) 0 isister teams, all of us proudly holding our "Help the Hosts" cards and ready null (FALSE) 0 ito work to continue to make Woo an amazing ecommerce platform wherever you null (FALSE) 0 ichoose to host it. null (FALSE) 0 i null (FALSE) 0 iAnd obviously I can see the consumer value in that. It's reassuring to know null (FALSE) 0 ithat the open source software we maintain or contribute to is the real deal null (FALSE) 0 iand we're not exporting a cut-down version nor are we going to try to do some null (FALSE) 0 ikind of rug pull to coerce people into hosting with us. I think Automattic's null (FALSE) 0 ilong track record shows that. null (FALSE) 0 i null (FALSE) 0 iBut how do we sell that? How do we explain that "hey, you can trust us to keep null (FALSE) 0 ithese separate goals separate within our company, so there's never a conflict null (FALSE) 0 iof interest and you getting the best from us is always what we want"? null (FALSE) 0 iPersonally, seeing the inside of Automattic, I'm convinced that we're not - null (FALSE) 0 ilike so much of Big Tech - going to axe the things you depend upon (Cough... null (FALSE) 0 iGoogle.) or change the terms and conditions to the most-exploitative we can null (FALSE) 0 iget away with (Ahem... Facebook.) or support your business just long enough to null (FALSE) 0 ibe able to undermine and consume it (${third_coughing_sound}... Amazon.). null (FALSE) 0 i null (FALSE) 0 iIn short: I know that we're the "good guys". And I can see how this null (FALSE) 0 ireorganisation reinforces that. But I can't for the life of me see how we null (FALSE) 0 ipersuade the rest of the world of the fact (Seriously, it's a good thing I'm null (FALSE) 0 inot in marketing. I'd be so terrible at it. Also public relations. Did I ever null (FALSE) 0 itell you the story about the time that, as a result of a mix-up, I null (FALSE) 0 iaccidentally almost gave an interview to the Press Office at the Vatican? A null (FALSE) 0 istory for another time, perhaps). null (FALSE) 0 i null (FALSE) 0 iAny ideas? null (FALSE) 0 i null (FALSE) 0 iLINKS null (FALSE) 0 i null (FALSE) 0 hAutomattic's "Work With Us" page URL:https://automattic.com/work-with-us/ (FALSE) 0 hMatt Mullenweg's blog post "Automattic’s Big Re-Org" URL:https://ma.tt/2024/01/automattics-big-re-org/ (FALSE) 0 hMy blog post from 2021 about my job title URL:https://danq.me/2021/02/02/on-fire/ (FALSE) 0 hMatt Mullenweg URL:https://ma.tt/2024/ (FALSE) 0 hWordPress.com URL:https://wordpress.com/ (FALSE) 0 hVIP URL:https://wpvip.com/ (FALSE) 0 hTumblr URL:https://www.tumblr.com/ (FALSE) 0 hWoo URL:https://woo.com/ (FALSE) 0 hJetpack URL:https://jetpack.com/ (FALSE) 0 hAkismet URL:https://akismet.com/ (FALSE) 0 .