The Intro: Why Am I writing this?
A few months ago, I was in an interview where I was asked a familiar yet thought-provoking question: “If you were hired as a Product Manager for [Company X], what would you do in your first 90 days?” It got me thinking—how do you approach product challenges when stepping into a well-established platform?
Let’s take WordPress as a prime example of this.
As the world’s leading CMS, it powers over 40% of the web. But even industry giants face friction points. If I were to step into a PM role at WordPress (hypothetically), my first goal wouldn’t be to rush into roadmap planning. Instead, it would be to deeply understand user pain points and how they impact growth and adoption.
This post isn’t about offering a pre-defined roadmap or listing out fancy features. Instead, I want to share my thought process—how I would approach problem discovery, engage with the community, and find meaningful opportunities to make WordPress more user-friendly.

Identifying the Core Challenges
If I were stepping into this role, my first step would be listening: combing through user feedback, analyzing community discussions, and gathering quantitative insights. Based on industry trends and ongoing user complaints, that I discovered through public domains, here are five key challenges, I would investigate:
- Block Editor Complexity – While the block-based design system offers powerful customization, many users find it overwhelming, leading to a steeper learning curve and inconsistencies in design.
- Performance Optimization Struggles – Despite improvements, issues like bloated themes, excessive plugins, and suboptimal hosting setups continue to slow down websites.
- Technical SEO Gaps – Native WordPress SEO capabilities remain limited, forcing users to rely on third-party plugins for structured data, metadata, search optimizations and most importantly security.
- Community Fragmentation – Disputes between major players in the ecosystem, such as WordPress.com vs. WP Engine, create uncertainty for developers and users alike.
- AI Integration Challenges – As AI tools become mainstream, WordPress users are looking for seamless ways to integrate AI-driven automation and content enhancements, but solutions remain scattered and complex.
Each of these challenges represents a unique opportunity for improvement—but solving them requires more than just “NEW” features. It demands a user-first mindset, thoughtful prioritization, and collaboration with the broader ecosystem.
How Would I Approach This as a PM?
Rather than jumping into solutions immediately, my focus would be on structured problem discovery. Here’s how I would like to approach it:
- User Research & Data Collection
- Conduct user surveys to capture real pain points beyond anecdotal feedback.
- Analyze heatmaps and user interactions to pinpoint friction areas.
- Review support tickets and community discussions to identify recurring themes.
- Interview customers to learn about their experience.
- Prioritization & Roadmap Thinking
- Rank issues based on user impact and feasibility.
- Balance short-term wins (low-hanging fruits) with long-term strategic initiatives.
- Ensure alignment with WordPress’ open-source philosophy and its business model.
- Community & Developer Collaboration
- Engage directly with plugin/theme developers to address compatibility concerns.
- Organize focused feedback loops through beta testing and advisory groups.
- Strengthen transparency in decision-making to foster community trust.

The Blog Series: A Deep Dive into Each Challenge
Rather than trying to cover everything in one post, I plan to explore each of these five pain points in more depth through a blog series:
- Part 1: The Block Editor Learning Curve – Why WordPress users struggle and how we can improve adoption without compromising flexibility.
- Part 2: Performance Optimization at Scale – Finding the right balance between functionality and speed.
- Part 3: SEO Limitations and the Plugin Dilemma – How much SEO capability should be built into WordPress core?
- Part 4: Navigating Community Conflicts – The impact of fragmentation and how governance can help.
- Part 5: The Future of AI in WordPress – How AI-powered tools can enhance site-building experiences without adding complexity.
Each post will focus on problem discovery, potential solutions, and lessons from my own experience as a product manager.
Conclusion: Building for the Future
A Product Manager’s job isn’t just about launching features—it’s about solving real problems that matter to users. If I were stepping into a role at WordPress today, my first instinct wouldn’t be to dictate a roadmap but to deeply understand what’s working, what’s broken, and where we can drive meaningful improvements.
This blog series is my way of thinking through that process. I hope it sparks conversations, insights, and new ideas on how we can make WordPress an even better platform for its millions of users.
💬 What are your biggest challenges with WordPress in 2025? Let’s discuss in the comments, or connect with me on LinkedIn!