New Foundations
Welcome to the new EllisLab! Early this year I quietly noted that 2012 marks 10 years for EllisLab and that I had dedicated this year to building a new foundation for EllisLab.
Today I am pleased to introduce a new site, new private Support plans, the new Enterprise Service Partners program, revamped Community Forums, a rebuilt team, and finally, a new CEO. Why do all of this? One simple reason.
We love making ExpressionEngine for you and we wanted to build the best possible company for that single minded purpose.
We’ll be talking about all these new things over the coming weeks, starting with Private Support which went live today.
The path to this New Foundation was surprisingly clear. We needed to stop doing everything that didn’t fall into two easily identifiable areas.
First, we must build software we’re in love with. Second, we have to help people use it. That’s it. When all is said and done, those are really the only two things we truly love doing. Those are also the two most important things you need us to do. If we aren’t doing those things to the best of our ability, with a deep love and passion for the results and the success it brings to all involved, we’re not doing our jobs.
Ten years also brings with it baggage, expectations, and assumptions that simply don’t work anymore. We went into this process to clean house, to get rid of everything that wasn’t helping us make the best possible software for you and provide the best possible ways to help you use it. Every person at EllisLab is deeply passionate about living this out every single day.
A Manifesto can’t be just words, it has to mean something. The most important thing it means is EllisLab’s commitment to only hiring and keeping staff who can actively contribute to our software. We’re a small company and that means that every single person must be able to directly contribute.
This has meant some difficult staffing decisions, but as of today, that goal is realized. All EllisLab staff actively contribute to our software. And yes, this includes the CEO. Once the strategy and goal had been set, it became an easy decision to step down and promote Derek Jones from CTO to CEO.
Derek’s passion and talent for ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter have always been in the code since his first day on the job. This change happened internally several months ago and in that short time span he’s already created a new culture, tone, and tenacity that makes me pump my fist and yearn for the next ExpressionEngine release.
What about me? Well, after making this decision I went home and told my wife “I worked myself out of a job again!” We cried, we celebrated, we knew it was right. This has always been my role at EllisLab. I start something, identify what’s right and wrong with it, and then replace myself with people who are smarter and more capable then myself. I did it with support, sales, business development, and now with leadership. I will remain with EllisLab quietly behind the scenes for the rest of the year doing what I love the most. Then we’ll see what happens.
I love the transformation I’ve seen at EllisLab. Derek and I have one enduring commonality and its the one that makes me the most excited about this New Foundation. We know that ultimately we build software so that you can be successful. This is, after all, about you, what you build, how you grow, how you succeed. Derek’s commitment to making you the best software possible is inspiring and its my great privilege and honor to formally hand over the EllisLab keys to Derek Jones publicly.
Sincerely,
Les
Comments & Feedback
That’s a shame. EllisLab is losing a great leader; I hope you find a new passion that is equally rewarding as you say EllisLab has been to you thus far.
Christopher Kennedy
From a person who doesn’t necessarily love change, I hear ya and I hope your future continues to be bright!
But, from a new Expression Engine enthusiast I’m excited by the changes I just stumbled onto tonight and what this hopefully means for the future of this platform. With our recent few months experiences with EE it is already in my mind one of the best (if not #1) client friendly, designer focused and developer tuned CMS/CMF out there today. We’ve recently launched 2 pretty good sized, content heavy, visually stylized web projects using Expression Engine and your product does Not disappoint. I’m not usually a fanboi of much. But, your product is real nice and we are greatly appreciative of what it enables our small boutique studio to deliver to our clientele’.
Good luck to your entire team, and we hope to grow right along with you all.
Peace,
Reuben (1/2 The FlyDuo)
FlyDuo
Of all of the things that happened tonight this is the one that pains me. You have been an inspiration to those that have worked with you and to the community at large. To many you are the heart and soul of what makes EllisLab a caring company. This is not to take away from what DJ brings to the table. But your actions and vision over the last couple of years have been great. I, for one, will miss your presence and do want you to know that I appreciate you.
Marcus Neto
If I’m correctly reading between the lines… it sounds like you’re preparing us all for your permanent departure. If that is the case, you’ll be missed Leslie. You’re leaving the company in capable hands for sure but still…
Just remember… no more tech jobs! That’s what you told the attendees at one of the L.A. EE Meetups. Ellislab is your last tech job. So maybe you’ll fight fires or become an astronaut or follow your secret dream of becoming a world famous Paris street mime… just remember, ‘No more tech jobs’!
All the best!
Todd D.
Congratulations to all on their respective changes!
I like the separation between Forums and Official Support—may just resuscitate the Forums. Though perhaps it might be even better to somehow help push the current Stack Exchange beta, as it’s apparently struggling?
That said, such effort might detract from the declared “back to software” direction, a move I also like. In its spirit, a suggestion: any bugs classified as showstoppers but still being distributed get a garish alert somewhere on the downloads page—or even somewhere on the homepage?!? Surely few other things would demonstrate fanaticism about software than presenting on the homepage one’s current showstopping bugs. That may be over the top, but a good place to walk back from.
One worrying disappointment: not giving EE Pro network members notice before ending that program. The email we received was unsettling.
Adam Khan
Wow big changes. Leslie, this is a huge surprise and I"m sure we’ll all miss you at the helm of the ship. I for one will always be grateful for all the personal help you have given me.
Sean C. Smith
Miss you already, Leslie. I hope the other changes at EllisLab aren’t happening just because of you stepping down, because they’re pretty worrying. Hopefully it will all get sorted out…
Michael C. (ProImage)
@All - Thank you very much for the kind words, they are much appreciated. Though the decision was actually pretty easy, living it out is indeed difficult (doing the right thing often is).
@Marcus - As to being the “heart & soul” of EllisLab, I really do appreciate the compliment Marcus, but its not true for a couple reasons that I think are worth stating out loud. First, Derek, James, Wes, Kevin, Robin, and well, everybody at EllisLab cares just as deeply about your success as I do. If I felt for a moment that wasn’t true, I never would have made the decisions I did.
But more importantly the heart and soul of EllisLab is what you do with EE, the awesome things you build with it, how you use it to make yourself and others successful. That’s the foundation, the heart, and its why we cleaned house on just about anything (good or bad) that detracted from making the best software possible for you to do just that. Some of that is painful, true (raises hand at a personal level), but it allows a reset that puts the focus on making sure we deliver the best tools possible.
To those expressing concern at the changes, please let Derek and James know. Direct contact via email works best. I meant what I wrote, Derek cares very deeply about doing what’s best and what’s right for you. He and I are no different in that respect. How we live it out will be different and that’s exactly the point of me letting him take over. For what EllisLab needs to do next on your behalf, he is more qualified to spearhead it then I. He is one of the few people on the planet that I trust implicitly.
Leslie Camacho
Great job. I love the new layout!! i have to start playing with ExpressEngine but i am just in a tight spot so i wanted to try the new product MojoMotor, I emailed today to see if i can get a 30day free trial. or something like that. Thanks again for all the hard work you have done!
dippy
Leslie, I never got to know you personally, though I honestly wish I’d had the chance. I’m not a big time PHP developer and I’ve never made any type of Add-on. I’m hardly even a big participant in the forums. But I am an avid EE user and developer, and I can say this… what you’ve done for EE and for the CMS community is really remarkable. My initial reaction to all of this, the new look, the paid support, and your leaving - was a bit of a shock. It’ll take time for all this to sink in. I’ve used EE from near the beginning and it has transformed not only my personal life with the websites I developed, but my professional one as well (I actually landed a great job thanks to my EE knowledge). EE is the core of what I do each and every day, and to see the founder step down is always tough. If you do decide to step away, you’ll be missed - by myself and all the other countless people who maybe never got to meet you, but used a product you inspired. My hats off to you for that, and my thanks and best wishes for the future.
Derek, those are big shoes to fill - though I’m sure you’re up for the job. Congrats on the promotion, and I’m looking forward to seeing where EE and EllisLab go from here.
-John
JCDerrick
I think the move to paid support is a great one. Building software is easy. Support is hard. I personally love giving great support for our products, but its not a simple thing to do, and ultimately, I think one of the best things about EE is the fact that it’s backed by a company that gets paid for its efforts. If I wanted to work with an Open Source system with spotty communication, bad support, and no level two access…. there are a lot of other platforms I could choose.
That being said… regarding the other changes I see here; they’re bittersweet, but exciting nonetheless. I’ve been a big believer in ExpressionEngine for a long time, and a vocal champion… but I’ve thought for awhile that it would be healthy to see some new directions. Staffing aside, I’m stoked to see what’s coming.
Chris Newton
So, you have learned that support is costly, and free support costs the organization.
You will also learn that small operations don’t like/can’t pay for support, so you could alienate them (maybe have already). Try to remember that small operations can grow, sometimes rapidly, and before you know it you have a large enemy if you are not careful - I think I have detected one or two looming already.
If you have an unstated marketing focus to go after the big support budgets, you will find that you are not big enough - they could bury you because growth in that arena will stretch you without the luxury of maintaining your reputation on the quality of your product. In the paid support business, quality of support ranks equal with quality of product, and inability to live up to the promises equals instant loss of credibility. You already know how hard it is to claw back credibility. Customers who pay for support just want you to fix what’s wrong, even if it is their fault AND they will blame your software anyway if you are unable to make good on the promises.
If you are not looking for growth via paid service, I cannot figure out why you are going there - it is a completely different business from making good software, which is your stated new/re focus.
If everyone at Ellislab is a “maker,” where is the support resource, or is that another shoe that will drop sometime soon? It better be soon!
Besides, are you REALLY ready to take on the support of poorly designed crap over which you had no influence at the design stage, just because you think you can better balance your cash flow/budget like that? How do you intend to weed those out of your service mix? You may find that it is difficult to even cover costs when supporting bad designs, because you never get to assess the damage until the effort is spent, and you hardly ever get to go back for another bite at the customers budget.
Despite my curmudgeonly skepticism, I wish you well, but in case you are wondering, I speak from experience in the paid service arena, and not on a small scale.
JohnD
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