---
title: Automattic, one year later
description: 'One year ago today, I joined Automattic as a product manager  focused on WordPress. A year later, I’m inspired as ever, energized, and committed to relentlessly democratizing publishing, commerc'
doc_version: current
last_updated: '2026-03-31T09:54:39.000Z'
date: '2024-01-02T20:16:24.000Z'
author: Rich Tabor
summary: 'One year ago today, I joined Automattic as a product manager  focused on WordPress. A year later, I’m inspired as ever, energized, and committed to relentlessly democratizing publishing, commerc'
tags:
  - WordPress
published: true
type: blog
url: /automattic-year-one
canonical: https://richtabor.com/automattic-year-one
id: 4267
---

[One year ago today](https://x.com/richtabor/status/1609894230633377792?s=20), I joined [Automattic](https://automattic.com) as a product manager focused on WordPress.

Automattic is as unique as they come. As a distributed company with a flat organizational structure and a healthy culture of synergistic innovation—ideas, thoughts, and feedback come from [anyone](https://automattic.com/creed/wont-just-work/), anywhere, and anytime.

This environment generates a jet stream of knowledge, information, and experiences—kindly referred to as the “chaos” internally—that you, as a high-functioning team member, choose how to absorb. You communicate extensively; it’s [an expectation](https://automattic.com/creed/communication-is-oxygen/). And just about everything is recorded in some form or fashion, for anyone else to digest.

So yes, there is a bit of chaos… and I like it.

If you embrace “the Automattic way”, there is opportunity to dial in the intersection of passion, imagination, and productivity, to make a tangible impact on many different projects and efforts.

> _Remember that everything is clay. It’s malleable, changeable, moldable—don’t let your imagination become constrained by the prosaic nature of the grind._
> 
> — _[Matt Mullenweg](https://ma.tt)_ —

And if you’re excited about something, you share it with folks and see where it lands. Prototype, pitch, and move fast.

I’ve come to embrace this chaos, this imperfect storm.

## All in on WordPress

Having contributed to WordPress in some fashion for over a decade, I found the shift to working wholesale on the project welcoming. There’s much to do.

There are naturally parallels between the WordPress community and Automattic. If you think about it, there’s a sort of friendly “chaos” to the wide breath of what WordPress encompasses. There are thousands of diverse people with a multitude of ideas coming together to build a better, open source, way to publish.

## Here’s to tomorrow

A year later, I’m inspired as ever, energized, and committed to relentlessly democratizing [publishing](https://wordpress.org), [commerce](https://woo.com), and now [messaging](https://texts.com)—with the recent addition of [Texts](https://texts.com).

Each day I show up as curious as ever, working on some of the best work of my career; couldn’t ask for much more than that.

So here’s to tomorrow.

## Sitemap

[Full site index](/sitemap.md)