February 26, 2018 — This track consists of five short sessions focused on using themes and building sites.

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Help Us Help You. Things You Should Know Before Contacting Support.

Brooke Dukes

I’ve been on all sides of support. In that time I’ve learned a lot of the dos-and-don’ts of asking for (and providing) support. In this lighting talk I’ll go over some of the most commonly missing information when reaching out to support.

Slides: https://2017.seattle.wordcamp.org/files/2017/11/brooke_dukes_wcsea.pdf

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Creating A Knowledge Transfer Plan, or How To Really Go On Vacation

Hilary Fosdal

It’s surprising how stressful going on vacation or attending a conference can be. Are you ready to temporarily step away from the business relationships you’ve carefully built with your clients and handing over all the hard work you’ve put into your projects to someone else?

Learn how you can transition your projects and clients professionally and programmatically to co-workers during your temporary absence. Take the stress out of leaving for vacation by having a knowledge transfer plan – a.k.a. your vacation exit strategy.

Slides: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0bd6bji99p5cs6t/HowToReallyGoOnVacation.pdf?dl=0

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Sketches: The Universal Language

Joshua Wold

Anyone can sketch. You don’t have to be an artist. A few simple shapes can help explain a problem quickly and clearly. Sketching is a universal language that anyone can understand regardless of technical background.

Have you ever tried explaining a technical problem to a stakeholder, developer, designer, or customer? Has that ever led to miscommunication? A quick sketch can help validate that everyone understands the issue – or show that each person is thinking something completely different.

In this talk you’ll learn some very simple steps to create sketches and wireframes that you can add to any ticket or problem you’re discussing.

Slides: https://cloudup.com/c19N_0Hryii

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Quick Tips: Gain Mutual Buy-In and Inject More Empathy Into Your Projects

Justin Parra

Let’s discuss empathetic strategies that will ultimately help you create a more satisfying client experience, smoother creative process with less barriers, and help clients grant a new level of trust in your creative/technical concepts. Empathy is often said to be the most important quality of a UX professional. One can argue that it is the most important quality in a human being. While we won’t go quite that far, let’s talk about how injecting a higher level of empathy into your project management and client interactions can improve your final product.

Slides: https://2017.seattle.wordcamp.org/files/2017/11/justin-parra-wp-project-management-strategies.pdf

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Getting up to Speed on Build Processes

Jacob Wayne Smith

In this hands-on talk Jacob Smith will demystify Gulp, NPM, Grunt, and more so that you can work smarter and faster.

With code examples and live programming, we will work with a standard build process for WordPress development.

Slides: https://abravenew.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Jacob-Smith-wordcamp-seattle-2017.pdf

December 8, 2017 — I’ve been on all sides of support; first as a WordPress user, then a freelancer, theme shop employee, and currently as WordPress.com staff. In that time I’ve learned a lot of the dos-and-don’ts of asking for (and providing) support. In this lighting talk I’ll go over some of the most commonly missing information when reaching out to support.