Really. I mean it: run a training course.
“If you want to master something, teach it.” — Richard Feynman
There’s no better way to truly understand how people use your product, what they love, what they fear, and where they stumble, than by running a training course.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve trained more than 5,000 people on WordPress. From complete beginners to marketing teams, small business owners, and agencies. And I can tell you, those hours in front of real people have hard-wired into my DNA what folks actually struggle with.
That experience has shaped everything I do.
It’s helped me build my YouTube channel to over 200,000 subscribers, because I know exactly which pain points to make videos about. I’ve seen first-hand the “aha!” moments when things finally click, and the frustration when they don’t.
Why I’ll Always Be an Advocate for Beginners
I’ve seen how transformational it can be when someone breaks through the early barriers with WordPress.
I’ve seen people start businesses, get new jobs, and build confidence they never thought possible, all because they learned how to publish online. That’s powerful stuff.
That’s why I’ll always be an advocate for beginners. They remind us that technology isn’t about features, it’s about empowerment.
Writing and Running Courses Reveals Everything
The process of writing a course forces you to look at your product through fresh eyes. You start spotting all the rough edges, confusing terms, and hidden assumptions that trip people up.
Then, when you actually run the course, especially face-to-face, you see the real pain points in real time. You see where people hesitate, where they get lost, and what they’re actually trying to achieve (which is often not what you think).
Every time I teach, I learn something new about WordPress, and about people.
Product Managers and Developers: You Need to Teach
If you’re a product manager, designer, or developer, I’d seriously recommend running an end-user training session at least once.
Not a demo.
Not a feedback form.
A real, hands-on training course where you have to explain, step by step, how someone achieves a goal using your product.
There’s nothing like teaching something to show you how it actually works, and where it doesn’t.
I’m always surprised how often developers on a product team don’t actually use the product they’re building. And you can always tell when that’s the case. The product feels slightly off, like it’s been built in the dark without that lived-in understanding of how real users behave.
Recent Training: WordCamp US, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and OFFF Barcelona
Recently, I ran three training sessions — one at WordCamp US in Portland, another at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and one at OFFF in Barcelona for creatives and designers.
All completely different audiences, but the same truths came through:
people want to create, they want to understand, and they want things to just work. And the only way to truly see that is to be in the room with them.
A Decade of Teaching WordPress
I’ve run courses in all kinds of places. Hired meeting rooms, upstairs rooms in pubs, corporate offices, and universities.
I’ve trained teams at the NHS, run digital masterclasses for The Guardian, lectured at Regent’s University, helped Yell migrate to WordPress and trained their site builders, and taught thousands of individuals who just wanted to build a website for their business or passion project.
Every single course taught me something new, not just about WordPress, but about people, learning, and design.
So, if you really want to understand how someone uses your product, don’t run another survey.
Don’t hold another focus group.
Run a training course.
You’ll see your product in a completely new light, and you’ll never build the same way again.
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