Hi WordPress community friends! Below is the result of cross-table discussions at the Torino WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. Contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/., followed by many exchanges and thoughtful notes.

TL;DR You’ll find here a proposal for using Playground to demo WordPress to first time meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. attendees. allowing them to quickly experience the platform without setup hurdles. This aims to engage non-WordPress professionals like marketers and designers, reducing friction in the initial interaction. The plan includes using Playground for demos, gathering feedback, and developing resources to enhance the experience. Looking forward to your comments below!

THE WHY (context) 

During WCEU Contributor day we discussed the need to bring newcomers to the ecosystem.

We identified professionals who are not currently working with WordPress as a potential target group for specialized local MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook.. This group includes marketers, designers, content creators etc.

• Who either use closed-source products
• Or who don’t include web creation in their portfolio of services.

Currently, getting someone to try WordPress for the first time involves either signing up with a managed host or with a self-hosting service, causing unnecessary friction, as:

• Meetup time is limited and using part of that time with account creation questions / WP installs is not the most productive use of together time
  • Doesn’t leave enough time for actually discovering the platform
  • Can cause frustration and a negative first experience with the platform.
• Asking participants to come with a pre-existing account might deter them from participating as they might not know where to go / what to do 
• Attempting to help them with the setup would imply either:
  • Encouraging them to use a specific host – positioning the workshop facilitator as a ‘sales agent’ and likely instilling a sense of distrust, further complicated by data protection concerns etc.
  • Or giving them a number of options – causing further delays due to analysis paralysis.

All in all, a successful / compelling product demo would need to give them swift, easy access to the interface so they can dive right in. This is particularly important for younger participants whose attention span / expectations are dictated by the instant gratification of social media. It is critical that participants get to love the output before they are faced with the admin aspects of site creation so they are motivated to continue building their site.

THE WHAT (solution)

Using WP Playground could help palliate these issues – as it offers a chance to get straight to the point, shortening participants’ time to a working site that would fire their imagination.

The plusses:

• Increased clarity – allowing participants to focus exclusively on discovering the interface / site building, without spending initial time in setup or getting lost in hosting analysis paralysis.
• Efficiency – allowing Meetup facilitators to get straight to the point and start demoing WP without needing to spend time guiding participants through setup 
• Localized experience – since being run in the browser, the tool could be displayed in the user’s default browser language (feature in progress).

The minuses:

• Initial interface is not super beginner friendly (some mentions of blocks, styles, WP version etc.)
  • Mitigation: Playground team mentioned the possibility to create a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party that can help display a different interface. we could also explore a Playground blueprint as a solution to deployDeploy Launching code from a local development environment to the production web server, so that it's available to visitors. a pre-set environment that is more suitable for our purpose – all to explore). It’s not on their radar, but something a community member or a group might be able to take on. You might have that person in your local meetup, who knows? 🙂
    That said, this is just me being extra picky – we could totally work with the current interface as is – it’s not a blocker, more of a nice-to-have. 
• Further steps needed in saving / reusing work at the end of the workshop 
  • Mitigation: it’s critical to set expectations up front (i.e. ‘this is NOT your final site; you’ll need to take steps at the end to keep your work if interested to continue’). We’d also want to create an easy resource that explains how to use the .zip download option (available -> can be installed / imported on any host)

THE HOW (steps)

Here’s what using Playground in demo-ing WP to non-WP users might look like: 

• Session objective:
  • Get participants familiar with the site creation process (pages vs. posts etc.) and the site layout (themes, styles etc.)
  • Focusing on working through their idea to make it come to life – the only way to really engage them long term is to help them shape their vision in actionable steps they can continue to take once the Meetup / workshop is over 
    
• Approach:
  • Share this tutorial “How to start using WordPress Playground” about how to use Playground in advance with the attendees, so they can watch it, get familiar and/or play with it beforehand.
  • Share link with the participants – and guide them through the interface 
  • Set expectations – this is an opportunity to test WP in a temp environment – guidance will be available at the end to 
  • They can convert it to an actual site at the end, hosting decisions needed; current options include using the .zip -> upload to host / import to WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/;
    • Coming soon, courtesy of Adam Zielinski:
      • Studio will support importing Playground Exports
      • InstaWP will support importing from Playground (see comment ->) 
  • The trainer can demo and participants can follow on their computer in real time
  • Run training in browser – proceed as you would in a ‘regular’ session with a traditional WP install
    • Explain pages vs. posts
    • Explain themes, styles
    • Etc.
      
• Advantages:
  • Bypass the need to have a traditional install
  • Get quicker to the demo / practice
    • We’ve identified these more or less in theory; let’s collect your experiences using Playground in your meetups – please comment below!

• Resources needed: 
  • We’d need a facilitation guide for meetup organizers, based on existing training resources
  • Support doc on saving work at the end of the Meetup 
  • User friendly process document (workbook) for working through their vision for the site, resulting in the structure of the site

THE NEXT (to dos)

Playground team: 

• Localize the interface (done)

Training team: 

• Create workshop (adapt existing to the Playground environment) 
• Create resource (workbook) to help shape their vision for their site and convert it to actionable steps they can work on post Meetup (idea to site structure) 
• Create resource on saving work at the end of the session 

Community team: 

• Add a new handbook page about this at the Meetup Organizer Handbook
• Include mentions to this new documentation in the monthly newsletter sent to Meetup Organizers.
• Pilot the use of Playground in a limited number of Meetups -> collect feedback to improve the process 
• Roll out the process to all Meetup organizers 
• Explore ways to add a ‘filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output.’ / create a plugin that would simplify the interface for the Meetup use case (nice-to-have) 

Many thanks go to….

… the participants at the Community tables during the WCEU Contributor Day, to the wonderful Playground team, and to the Tardis team (Automattic) for reviewing this and sharing thoughtful feedback!

Over to you!

Over to you, dear Community friends – looking forward to your comments and your experiences are you try using Playground in your meetups.

Thank you!