June 13, 2017 — Alina is Product Manager at Code Themes. Alina talked about how her company uses WordPress to manage projects and how even the company as big as Automattic uses WordPress for the same and keep things simple.

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March 18, 2017 — Agile practices such as Scrum, and Lean practices such as Kanban, have become some of the biggest buzzwords in tech, and are top keyword in job descriptions. But they’re also frequently misunderstood, and constantly argued about online, which can make them seem intimidating and confusing. They can affect everything from how you write code, to how you organize your work, and how you relate to your customers. I can’t cover everything about them in a single talk, but I can explain some core Agile and Lean concepts, and how to go about trying them out in a way that can maximize their benefits while minimizing risk and disruption to your work. I’ll share insights from hard-won experiences bringing Agile and Lean practices to several different companies and consultancies where I’ve worked. While some of these practices are tremendously beneficial for WordPress work, others can cause confusion, and even harm if you try to suddenly force them into a typical WordPress development environment. I’ll do Q&A with the audience through most of the talk, as every workplace has unique challenges, and I want to make sure the talk addresses what’s on people’s minds and the challenges they are dealing with, whether they’re issues with difficult customers, deadline pressures, too many bugs, project management difficulties, etc.

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March 16, 2017 — Failing to plan is planning to fail. Way too many otherwise talented WordPress businesses get bogged down in development hell. Pain Free(ish) Project Management is a product and method agnostic approach to setting goals, getting systems in place, and following through with consistent execution. The talk includes ideas and samples of flowcharts and systems that people can use on their own projects at no or low cost.

This talk is not only for businesses but also great for anyone building a WordPress site or doing any type of project.

January 3, 2017 — You know how the saying goes, “When you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”

As business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers we often come across projects that may seem complex maybe even overwhelming. In this talk, you will discover how to create structure around your WordPress projects to protect you from the dangers of unmanaged scope creep. There are strategies and steadfast approaches that can help turn even a failing project into a viable one if you are up for the challenge.

This session will cover:

How to structure your process for client communications
Tips to make room for innovation
How to keep the lights on by avoiding scope creep
How to turn scope creep into a positive revenue boost

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October 28, 2016 — You’ve heard the buzz words… Perhaps you’ve considered incorporating agile concepts into your WordPress shop’s processes. But is it the best methodology for small teams? Does it even work for freelancers? For managing multiple projects? For support? The best project management methodology is the one that works. And that’s going to be different for every team. In this talk we’ll look at the principles & tools of agile development — including sprint, scrum, and burn-down. We’ll share examples of how small businesses and freelancers can adopt specific agile processes to increase productivity and create better results for clients.

October 8, 2016 — There’s an old saying that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. You can build almost anything with WordPress, but should you? If you build a single landing page or a 5-page brochure site in WordPress, you may be burdening your client with the cost and effort of constant maintenance of a site they might update once in a year. But if you don’t use a CMS when you need one, managing that site is going to be a nightmare for the client. Here’s how to explain to clients what a content management system is, how to tell whether they need one, where to go if they don’t, and why WordPress is worth the higher cost of hosting, the ongoing maintenance, and the time it takes to learn how to use it in the first place.

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October 8, 2016 — Dissection of website development from the ground up for a millennial news website project for Ovation TV. Session will show off wireframes, UI mockups, Custom Post Types, plugins and dare I say it? Code.

September 25, 2016 — “Yes, and…”: Using improv comedy for project management success
One of the most important things a project manager does is say no to people, whether it’s the client or a member of the team. The problem is that “no” is one of those words that ends the conversation, cutting off growth that can benefit the project (and your bottom line). No matter how outlandish the demand, I will show you how the principles of improv comedy will let you use the word “yes” to ensure both you and your client get what you want.

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July 4, 2016 — Whether you’re creating a small site for one stake holder or re-designing a large site with many players, understanding how to manage the project is the key to getting anything done. We’ll look at a couple of case studies and learn about methods and strategies that keep a project on track and get the site launched.

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July 3, 2016 — Getting burnt by a project can leave you and your team feeling unmotivated and your agency unprofitable. Using our proven Discovery & Definition approach to project planning you’ll learn how to plan and budget a WordPress project successfully from the beginning whilst keeping both you clients and team happy.