Here is what I am thinking … publish WordPress plugins that expand beyond the default WordPress experience; with solutions that I personally run on my websites.
Helping WordPress website owners, maintainers, developers, freelancers and agencies grow beyond the standard WordPress behaviour.
With curated performance, security and risk-lowering solutions that simplify complex aspects of running a WordPress website.
Geronimo … let the adventure begin. 🖖
Table of Contents
Technical Adventures for WordPress Website Maintainers
DataMates Studio is a small business that builds, publishes and supports WordPress plugins for WordPress website owners, maintainers, developers, freelancers and agencies.
Focusing on feature gaps in automating system configuration activities to reduce the quality assurance and risk profiles associated with owning a WordPress website.
Starting with a WP Maintenance Mode Pro plugin for WordPress to show a Custom Content page while the website maintainer tinkers under the hood during a website release window.
[Developing] A Landscape Tiers WordPress plugin that detects when a website is suddenly a staging / non-production website because it was cloned from an existing production website. Immediately block customer engaging activities like customer logins and sending email campaigns, to protect the customer experience and data integrity in the real production website.
[OneDay] Growing with a ‘Landscape Tiers Pro’ WordPress plugin that offers a paid-support option and feature addons.
A Lifetime of Digital Technology Adventures
DataMates Studio was founded in April 2024.
My name is John Lang
, an Aussie from the land down under, with 40-ish years experience in building practical computer solutions.
Originally, a solid foundation in application programming, internet technologies, distributed computing, SAP Business Warehouse (BW) and HANA Data Modelling; which has evolved into leading project teams to deliver successful outcomes for their clients, customers and user communities.
My passion is to find practical solutions that help fellow explorers overcome their challenges with using website technologies.
This allows a truly curious website maintainer to get on with the adventure of delivering, while minimising the time and effort spent on repetitive activities.
When WordPress Websites Wake Up as a Clone of Production
[Developing] The Landscape Tiers plugin focuses on reducing the time, money and risks of working with WordPress non-production staging websites.
Building on top of foundational activities a web hosting service provides, there are basic WordPress features that should be blocked when a website wakes up as a clone.
One moment the website is a live production system with sensitive customer data. The next moment it is a non-production staging website … but does not know it.
- It is probably sending duplicate emails with stale data to customers.
- It has unlocked user accounts causing unnecessary support complications.
- It is a non-production environment consuming production resources.
… and then a mountain of repetitive custom activities need to be done before a WordPress non-production staging website can be considered ready.
Affordable WordPress Plugins for Complex Digital Architecture Landscapes
DataMates Studio makes affordable WordPress Plugins for customer websites to enable Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) of their development and operational (DevOps) pipelines.
Saving time through flexible configuration of automated activities for improved customer data protection in non-production websites and increased transparency with website owners.
A dedicated customer service first support approach for long term relationships with beginners and seasoned professionals alike.
Have More Fun with Planned Adventures by Minimising the Unnecessary Chaos
A dedicated customer service first support approach for long term relationships with beginners and seasoned professionals alike.
Quality research and development, improving with tiny steps over time.
Be well organised with internal storage, processes and day-to-day; while enjoying splat testing and breaking it to explore.
A lot of unnecessary incidents are foreseeable and preventable. While accidents do happen, most can be caught during the delivery life-cycle before they grow like Gremlins.
Delivery quality is a dance with planned and chaos visions (Jikan cards).
Internal Business Culture
Attribute 1 – Customer service first requires a supportable and sustainable product line with realistic milestones. Often this means additional mini-milestones to lay a good foundation for the target milestone.
Attribute 2 – Clear curated priorities to enable a sustainable work / life balance. Achieved through internal curated priorities and clear communication to all parties involved in each step of the delivery journey. Leveraging an agile Programme Increment (PI) and Sprint adventure designed for Solopreneur developers.
Attribute 3 – Quality product releases. Functional, tested and useful within automated digital pipeline processes.
The Adventure of a Solopreneur Journey
A small business adventure can be satisfying and rewarding, as long as the devil-in-the-detail is acknowledged, accepted and given a big uncomfortable hug … way longer than the 3 second social-rule for hugging allows.
Many aspects of a small business solopreneur adventure are not created equally.
Some are short-lived, minor, anoying and add to the feeling of death-by-a-thousand-cuts … a dramatic exaggeration, of course, but is it?
Others are big-picture, major, inspirational and forever life-changing … eventually, please, are we there yet?
Then there are aspects of lessons to learn the hard way, as we grow while trying to balance ‘what we do not know we do not know’ versus ‘upside down priorities’ versus ‘ugh ohh that just happened’.
One approach is a daily life-cycle that reminds us of the major important steps without the rigid enforcement of drowning in to-do lists.
Now, use a few different tools that store the appropiate level of detail for your specific journey … but only you know what that is for you, and it might change over time as you grow and improve your small business adventure.
Starting with these four diverse perspectives, what tools would work best for your situation to capture the right level of detail to get the job done?
- Doing Agile Programme Increment (PI) for top-down work priority.
- Permission to visualise a direction and breath without overwhelm.
- Doing Agile Sprint for bottom-up team work priority.
- Permission to focus each day, rank priorities and say not-yet to chaos.
- Using Time Blocks for DueDate Obligation cards.
- Honour regular obligation, compliance, assurance and risk aspects.
- Using Chaos Planning Block for loose-end cards.
- Servicing enquiries, customers, providers and processes.
- Now review what tools you already use, from one of these perspectives.
- What works well and what can be improved?
Timeline Block Alignment for Cards
Hint: Express planning quarters as calendar, not fiscal.
Like: 2024-Q3 for 1 Jul 2024 to 30 Sep 2024.
Hint: All Cards go on a board. Ready includes a Rank.
Hint: Add a card size (~time span) and capacity planning gets easier with visualised drag-n-drop timelines for teams.
- Fiscal Year alignment for top-down planning with budget constraints.
- Programme Increment (PI) alignment to calendar quarters.
- Sprint anchored to first Wednesday in PI.
- Sprint span of 4 weeks, in a Solopreneur Programme Increment (PI).
- Sprint Reduced Activity Period (RAP) is for last few days in quarter.
- Extra week’ish is a RAP for holidays, loose-ends or lite-touch.
Further Reading: www.jikan.wtf for a deeper dive into Epic-Outcome-Feature-Story-Task adventures for planning where the effort goes. A way to manage Planned Visions and Chaos Visions using cards and kanban boards.
Simple Focus for a Week
Hint: Use a focus bias for each day, to simplify process perspectives.
Benefit: Permission to say ‘not yet’ when it is not todays focus bias.
- Monday – Do it.
- Tuesday – Elimination and Sprint Complete.
- Wednesday – Optimisation and Sprint Commence.
- Thursday – Do it.
- Friday – Delegation.
- Saturday – Forecasting.
- Sunday – Reflection and Future Runways.
Simple Focus for Today
Hint: Strong recommendations are numbered. Do all per cycle.
Hint: Soft recommendations are bullets. Do next one each cycle.Hint: Flexible single word prompts; make them what you need them to be.
Prepare – Living Life
Rise Ritual (G’Day)
- Snooze
- Shit
- Step
- Shower
- Shave
- Shovel
- Slide
- Setup
Produce – Offer is to be of Service (Engage Future)
Raise Ritual (Product)
- Satisfy
- Source
- Sanity
- Secure
- Speed
- Share
- Support
- Stop
Pay – Bank is for Monetisation (Engage Hot)
Reconcile Ritual (Account)
- Source
- Sort
- Survey
- Slice
- Show
Pass – Type is to Connect (Email)(Engage Warm)
Reach Ritual (Engage)
- Lift
- Laugh
- Learn
Promote – Grow is for Traffic (Engage Cold)
Route Ritual (Traffic)
- Sharpen
- Sponsor
- Sustain
- Support
- Simplify
- Speed
Priority – Wrap Up
Risk Ritual (Focus)
- Satisfy – Todays delaied urgent actions.
- Secure
- Steer – For tomorrow.
- Supervise
- Share
- Stifle – For now versus sprint versus new backlog.
- Snitch
Play – Living Life
Release Ritual (Adventure)
- Laugh
- Learn
- Lift
- Lounge
- Launch
- Link
Peace – Living Life
Rest Ritual (G’Night)
- Slide
- Shit
- Shovel
- Setup
- Shower
- Shave
- Slow
- Sleep
The Simple Focus lists are a starting perspective. Explore what works for you and grow your process and tools over time.