Chris Lema headed this week’s ManageWP AMA. Lema is the CTO and Chief Strategist at Crowd Favorite, public speaker, and voracious blogger. Having authored five ebooks about how to manage an online team, Lema knows a lot about teaching and working on the Internet.
There were questions about how to make intelligent hires, why he chose to work with the WordPress community, and as always, the future of WordPress.
Here are five takeaways.
Hire Smart People Who Are Willing To Learn.
While it may seem like common sense, Lema talked about how important it is to hire people who are willing and excited to learn. Having someone who is smart and dedicated is more important than someone with a lot of WordPress experience.
Of course each company will be looking for different experience, and Lema noted that for Crowd Favorite he looks for someone who can work with large organizations and can integrate Oracle Financials, Peoplesoft, and Microsoft Sharepoint.
At the end of the day, just finding someone you really like and want to work with is key. Lema said the most important qualities to him are,
“demonstrated ability to learn, a value for ownership/accountability, demonstrated effectiveness in coaching/training others, a curiosity that drives experimentation, and, of course, some magic superpower that most people don’t know they have.”
The Future Of WordPress Lies With Training.
It wouldn’t be an AMA if someone did ask about the future of WordPress, and Lema’s thoughts are extremely positive. Most of the growth will come from the people who are just learning about WordPress.
Lema believes organizations that are focused on training and all-in-one training will be incredibly important.
There Is No Recipe For Becoming A Billionaire.
Although we all wish there was, there isn’t a surefire way to be successful in software. Lema broke the bad news saying he has worked on incredibly successful projects and ones that took more time and both felt very similar day to day.
There is good news, according to Lema, “If you spend less than you earn and stay out of debt, you’ll always feel like a billionaire.”
Users Will Also Want Multipurpose Themes.
Any consumer wants their life to be easier, and buying a theme that can do more than one thing at once will always be appealing. Lema said that it seems that theme providers would want to find a way to provide more of these themes to appeal to consumers.
However, developers are trying to compete against multipurpose themes with lightweight code. Lema noted that developers should stop looking at their competitors, and think about how they shop and purchase themes, then create themes that align with that.
One Horse-Sized Duck Can Easily Be Fought.
When asked if Lema would rather fight one horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses, he chose the duck. “It would be work, but the attacks would come from only one direction, and that seems more plausible in terms of winning,” said Lema.
If you enjoyed this AMA, don’t forget to tune in next week for a talk with CEO of Envato, Collis Ta’eed. ManageWP intends to make this a weekly event with the biggest names in WordPress!
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