Embracing Friday Culture To Build A Happy, Healthy, High-Performing Team

Jake Goldman on July 7

When I founded 10up, building a remote company at scale was somewhat of a novelty. Our agency has been featured in case studies, books, ebooks, interviews, and articles about remote work culture, including a Forbes list of notable remote work companies. I have guest lectured at universities like Stanford and the University of Michigan on the subject. Where we were once early pioneers of a new model, companies around the globe have come to embrace remote work.

Now, more than 10 years in, we’re called to revisit how we think about remote work in the context of client service, continued pioneering of working models, and cultivating a happy, healthy, high-performing workplace.

For instance, one thing we’ve realized is that when you already work remotely or stay at home during time off, a day off doesn’t always feel like a day off. When your home and office are the same place, and “entering the office” is only few taps away on that computer in your pocket, finding a healthy work/life balance can be a challenge.

While evaluating potential improvements to the 10up workforce experience, we found ourselves asking, “Client service is our number one value — can we make meaningful changes for our team without diminishing our customer experience?”

A Decade of Contributing to WordPress

Helen Hou-Sandi on June 25

Ten years ago today, I submitted my very first proposed change to WordPress itself and not long after, in August of 2011, I joined 10up. I have been fortunate to be a part of and grow with the WordPress community in the decade since. Not only have I grown from Web Engineer to Director of Open Source Initiatives at 10up, but also in that time, I’ve gone from being a first-time contributor to one of a handful of WordPress lead developers.

The power of open source and its communities continues to astound and humble me. I could never have dreamed this is where a little curiosity about the second freedom to “study how the program works and change it to make it do what you wish” would lead… and I look forward to seeing what the next decade of my career brings with it.

10up Uncovers Security Vulnerability in FileBird WordPress Plugin, Update Now Available

Zach Brown on June 16 • 1 Comment

FileBird WordPress Plugin

As a leading contributor to WordPress, 10up is committed to the cultivation of a vibrant, collaborative, and healthy open-source ecosystem. We strive to strengthen open platforms and tools through responsible stewardship, and embrace the concept that “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.”

Last week, that work included helping a popular WordPress plugin with 90,000+ installs fix a critical security vulnerability.

10uppers Share Expertise Through Articles, Conferences, and Webinars

Jeff Paul on June 7

10uppers travel the globe every year to volunteer, speak at, and organize dozens of industry events. The pandemic may have limited the ability to travel to events, but it hasn’t stopped our team from giving back and sharing their expertise. Here are some recent highlights:

WP Engine Includes ElasticPress.io In New eCommerce Hosting Plans

Vasken Hauri on June 3

WP Engine recently announced a new eCommerce solution for Small/Medium Businesses (SMBs) seeking to launch a new WooCommerce store or scale up, optimize, and increase revenue for an existing online store.

The new solution offers an integration with ElasticPress.io — our fully integrated, end-to-end SaaS solution for adding the power of Elasticsearch to WordPress and WooCommerce.

Helen Hou-Sandi on June 2

On Thursday, June 3 at 3:30pm EDT, I’ll be presenting “Editorial Experience: An Important Part of the Full Stack” at Click/Deploy, an event presented by Jamstack Toronto. If you’re intrigued by talk about Jamstack versus WordPress, this is for you. Then, on June 8 at 3:15 EDT I’m joining GitHub’s Global Maintainer Summit to present “You Can’t Have a Solution Without a Problem”. I’ll be talking about why I like to ask, “What’s the problem being solved for here?” and how that type of thought process can lead to better solutions. Both events are virtual and free to attend.

10up Recognized In 2021 Microsoft Supplier Program (MSP) Prestige Awards

Elena Bargo on May 27

At 10up, we have enjoyed collaborative, multi-year partnerships with several different departments and teams at Microsoft, including the Microsoft Cloud Marketing team. Since 2017, 10up has successfully scaled the Cloud Blog’s platform to support 18+ blogs, several migrations, accessibility compliance, and strategic initiative projects with innovative and cost-effective technology solutions.

Each year, we build upon those strategic relationships to positively impact the Microsoft brand.

This year we were honored to be nominated for three different supplier awards in the 2021 Microsoft Supplier Program Prestige Awards and named a finalist in one category.

Seven 10up Projects Recognized In 25th Annual Webby Awards

Jake Goldman on April 26

The Webby Awards honors excellence on the Internet. It is the most widely accepted industry award recognizing websites, online video and advertising, apps, Internet games, and podcasts. For its 25th year, a record-breaking 13,500 projects from around the world were entered into the competition.

We were honored to discover that seven projects supported by 10up in 2020 have been recognized by The Webby Awards — including three listing 10up as the creator, and four others listing clients and partners.

Core Web Vitals and Google’s Page Experience Ranking Signal

Patrick Ahl on April 19 • 1 Comment

A significant Google search algorithm update coming this June incorporates new performance metrics: Core Web Vitals. A new set of ranking signals based around page experience combines Core Web Vitals with existing signals such as mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS-security, and intrusive interstitial guidelines to provide a holistic picture of the quality of a user’s experience on a web page.

Google tends to be guarded when it comes to big algorithm updates and how those changes impact search engine results and page rankings. This time, the search giant has provided explicit insight into what’s coming and how site owners and digital agencies can prepare.

Core Web Vitals were introduced by Google less than a year ago to measure real-world web page user experiences and provide guidance for delivering a great experience. While Google captures many data points that speak to site performance and considers hundreds of ranking factors in its algorithm, the Core Web Vitals this update will focus on are:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures perceived load speed — the time from clicking a link to seeing the majority of the on-screen content.
First Input Delay (FID): Measures responsiveness and interactivity — the time “long” tasks delay a visitor’s ability to interact with a page.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures visual stability — the unexpected movement of page elements due to lengthy load time or ad insertions that hinder user interaction and experience.

Helen Hou-Sandí Presents at the GitHub Virtual Meetup for Open Source Fridays

Helen Hou-Sandi on April 1 • 2 Comments

On Friday, April 2 at 10AM PDT/1PM EDT I’ll be joining Brian Douglas on GitHub’s Twitch stream for a GitHub Virtual Meetup Open Source Friday. Open Source Friday is a place for maintainers to share demos, stories, and inspiration with other GitHub users.

We’ll talk about using GitHub Actions to solve common problems in the WordPress development ecosystem, such as with 10up’s WordPress Plugin Deploy Action, and how the WordPress project itself uses GitHub Actions.

This Meetup event is free and will also be available afterward on the GitHub YouTube channel.