What does it take to lead a WordPress release or any major open-source initiative without writing a single line of code? In this talk, I\u2019ll walk through how I\u2019ve helped shape and ship multiple WordPress releases by leaning on product thinking, project management skills, and \u201cglue work\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ll hear the story of a contributor who moved from helper to release deputy to AI team lead all without commit access. Along the way, we\u2019ll explore the often-invisible roles that keep WordPress moving: coordinating feedback, managing timelines, nudging consensus across Slack and GitHub, and motivating volunteers across time zones. I\u2019ll share practical tools, patterns, and gotchas for leading distributed contributor teams, with a focus on how you can lead even if you\u2019re not an engineer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether you\u2019re a project manager, designer, or just someone who makes things happen, this session will help you: Recognize what leadership looks like outside the code, Understand the real impact of \u201cglue work\u201d in open source, Find your place in the WordPress project and level up your contributions, Leave with clear ways to get involved in releases, roadmap work, or contributor organizing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Learn how to lead WordPress releases without writing code\u2014through glue work, project management, and empowering distributed contributor teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5645739,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wcpt_session_time":1760636700,"_wcpt_session_duration":2700,"_wcpt_session_type":"session","_wcpt_session_slides":"","_wcpt_session_video":"","_wcpt_speaker_id":[3708],"footnotes":""},"session_track":[126],"session_category":[118],"class_list":["post-3713","wcb_session","type-wcb_session","status-publish","hentry","wcb_track-track-2","wcb_session_category-contributions"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"session_date_time":{"date":"October 16, 2025","time":"1:45 pm"},"session_speakers":[{"id":"3708","slug":"jeff-paul","name":"Jeff Paul","link":"https:\/\/canada.wordcamp.org\/2025\/speaker\/jeff-paul\/"}],"session_cats_rendered":"Contributions","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.wordcamp.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/3713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.wordcamp.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.wordcamp.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wcb_session"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/canada.wordcamp.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/3713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6233,"href":"https:\/\/canada.wordcamp.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/3713\/revisions\/6233"}],"speakers":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.wordcamp.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/3708"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.wordcamp.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wporg\/v1\/users\/jeffpaul"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.wordcamp.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wcb_track","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.wordcamp.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/session_track?post=3713"},{"taxonomy":"wcb_session_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.wordcamp.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/session_category?post=3713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}