At the heart of any great plugin lies a deep understanding of the user. In a recent product chat between James Kemp (WooCommerce), Katie Keith (Barn2 Plugins), and Jewel (WP Manage Ninja), the conversation highlighted how feature development isn’t just about what developers want to build—it’s about what users need, often discovered through hands-on use and constant feedback loops.
Building for Yourself First
Jewel shared that many of WP Manage Ninja’s products start as internal tools. For example, FluentCRM was initially created to solve their own email marketing frustrations. Similarly, Fluent Community began as an internal platform inspired by Automattic’s P2. “We use every product heavily,” Jewel explained, “so when something doesn’t work well, we feel the pain first.” This kind of real-world usage helps identify issues and areas for improvement early on, well before external users ever see the product.
From Support Tickets to Sprint Planning
One of the smartest things WP Manage Ninja has done is bring their support team into the feature development process. Jewel explained that many of their product managers come directly from support roles. These team members understand user frustrations better than anyone and help guide which features get built next. “They dictate what we develop in the next sprint,” he said. This ensures that feature requests aren’t just guesses. They’re responses to real user needs.
Dedicated Teams, Startup Mindset
Each product at WP Manage Ninja functions like a mini startup with its own development, marketing, and support teams. This separation means teams can stay laser-focused on improving a single product without being pulled in different directions. When they launch a new plugin, like Fluent Community, they first form a team, build the MVP, gather feedback, and then scale based on demand
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Design as a Differentiator
Once the core functionality is nailed down, design takes center stage. Jewel noted that they initially didn’t have a full UX team developers handled most of the experience. But as their products matured, they invested in a five-person UX team dedicated to designing intuitive, powerful interfaces. The result? Their plugins stand out in the WordPress ecosystem for their polished, app-like experiences.
Beta Testing with Real Customers
Launching with a minimum viable product (MVP) and involving real users in beta testing has been key to refining features. Before officially launching Fluent Community, WP Manage Ninja onboarded 500 users into a private space to gather feedback. That insight shaped the product roadmap and ensured the public launch met actual customer needs.
Data-Driven Decisions and Cross-Selling
Their internal CRM and support systems give them deep insights into user behavior. This data powers feature prioritization and even marketing efforts. For instance, they run campaigns targeting customers who use one product but haven’t yet tried another like recommending Fluent Community to FluentCRM users. These smart cross-promotions are driven by usage data, not assumptions.
Final Thoughts
Feature development isn’t just about building—it’s about listening. Whether it’s “dogfooding” their own tools, embedding support teams into the roadmap process, or running customer beta tests, WP Manage Ninja’s approach ensures they’re solving real problems with every release. It’s a model worth learning from for any WordPress product maker.
