2024 Year in Review
Ninety-two thousand miles.
That’s how far I traveled in 2024—enough to circle the earth nearly four times and a 26% increase from last year. Each mile carried me further into new territories, both geographical and professional, making this one of my most transformative years yet. Let’s dive in.
The year began in the winding streets of Kotor Bay and ended beneath the neon glow of Tokyo. Between these moments, I found myself in places where tradition and innovation dance together. From the centuries-old temples of Kyoto to the vibrant streets of Taipei, each destination revealed something profound about the seamless blend of tradition and innovation that mirrors what we’re trying to achieve with WordPress.
Much of my travel revolved around WordCamps this year, hitting all three regional events—Asia in Taipei, Europe in Turin, and US in Portland. Between WordCamps and Automattic team meetups scattered across the globe, each city offered a new backdrop for collaboration and connection.
It’s in these moments that our shared mission to democratize publishing feels most tangible.
I led design for two major WordPress releases last year. Among the many improvements across these, I’m most proud of launching color and font theme variations to give designers more tools to express themselves, and reimagining page creation with zoom out—which lets you step back and see your work from a new perspective, much like an artist stepping back from their canvas. My efforts also extended into WordPress 6.7, where I helped shape the latest default WordPress theme, and created the official release video.
This last year deepened my understanding of how I work best: creativity isn’t just what I do—it’s how I think. My work spans different mediums—from design to code, writing to video—and 2024 showed me just how powerful this intersection of logic and art can be.
In development, we code systems with mathematical precision. Yet, the best solutions often feel more like art than engineering. In design, our most impactful work comes from balancing systematic thinking with tasteful leaps. These weren’t just abstract observations—they were hard-won lessons from shipping to millions of people.
Through years of practice at this intersection, and especially through this year’s challenges, I’ve learned to trust my ability to envision: feeling out designs before they take shape, knowing which path a solution will take before writing a line of code, even hearing melodies before playing a single note.
This is my superpower—I should lean on it more this year.
In 2024, I turned more consistently to writing as a way to think out loud. I published 33 posts—a 175% increase from last year—garnering around 75k views. Between documenting experiments like 720 theme styles and sharing thoughts on focus, taste, and practical contentment, I explored ideas within and beyond WordPress development.
I started “Shaping WordPress,” a newsletter sharing what’s on my mind and where WordPress is headed.
While I initially planned fortnightly updates, I found myself stepping back as tensions rose around Automattic’s relationship with WP Engine. Community discussions devolved into attacks and hyperbole, distracting from what matters most: strengthening the future of WordPress.
I don’t play that game. I’m uninterested, no matter how much folks try to involve me in wholly negative rhetoric. But still, I am optimistic about WordPress’s future. Every day, I see contributors collaborating globally to strengthen WordPress as an open source publishing platform—improving the editing experience, building better tools, and making it easier for people to build their corner of the internet.
Looking back on 2024, I see a year defined by growth and creativity—both personally and professionally.
Apart from my WordPress contributions, a few highlights that gave me energy were designing interaction paradigms for WordPress.com‘s AI project, building out the WordPress.com Pattern Library, leaning into AI-powered engineering with Cursor, and making silly music with my kids. These moments of quiet, intentional focus, where exploration meets possibility, showed me where real progress happens.
As 2025 kicks off, I’m thinking about focus and scale: how to amplify impact across teams and divisions, how to turn individual vision into organizational velocity, and how to foster environments where good ideas spread.
The chaos of product development can certainly be energizing, but the real opportunity lies in finding ways to harness that energy more systematically.
And I’m here for it. Happy new year friends.
