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#3 – Benjamin Intal on Why He’s Betting His Business on Blocks
About this episode.
On the podcast today we have Benjamin Intal. He's the founder of Stackable, which is a suite of custom blocks.
Benjamin decided early on that his company was going to take the possibilities that Gutenberg offered seriously. They had previously developed a page builder plugin, but felt that the opportunity presented by blocks was something that they could not overlook.
During the conversation, we talk about why Benjamin decided to devote so much time and energy towards creating blocks, at a time when there was almost no certainty about the status of blocks, and the block editor. Indeed, there was no clarity on whether blocks would become a core feature in WordPress.
As we now know, blocks are an increasingly important topic in WordPress, and so Benjamin's decision, with a little hindsight, appears to have been a wise one.
We talk about some of the difficulties that have presented themselves over the last three years, and how they overcame them. These ranged from having to develop in the absence of documentation, to creating bespoke solutions to problems which were later handled by WordPress Core.
We also discuss how they went about iterating their product in a technology space which was new. What methods the team used to ensure that they were building features which their users really needed.
We also get into whether the block system is now fully mature and ready to support a growing ecosystem of developers. Is it a good idea to create 'smaller' blocks with a limited use case, or a large suite of blocks which work in harmony with one another? Are we entering a future in which the 'there's a block for that' mentality might lead to sites with 'block bloat'; sites with multiple blocks, with overlapping features.
It's an interesting chat and gives an insight into a transitional moment in the history of WordPress. A moment in which blocks are taking on much of the heavy lifting in a WordPress website. A moment in which reputations are being made.
Useful links.
Stackable
Gutenberg Times
Make WordPress
View all episodes
By WordPress Tavern
5
11 ratings
About this episode.
On the podcast today we have Benjamin Intal. He's the founder of Stackable, which is a suite of custom blocks.
Benjamin decided early on that his company was going to take the possibilities that Gutenberg offered seriously. They had previously developed a page builder plugin, but felt that the opportunity presented by blocks was something that they could not overlook.
During the conversation, we talk about why Benjamin decided to devote so much time and energy towards creating blocks, at a time when there was almost no certainty about the status of blocks, and the block editor. Indeed, there was no clarity on whether blocks would become a core feature in WordPress.
As we now know, blocks are an increasingly important topic in WordPress, and so Benjamin's decision, with a little hindsight, appears to have been a wise one.
We talk about some of the difficulties that have presented themselves over the last three years, and how they overcame them. These ranged from having to develop in the absence of documentation, to creating bespoke solutions to problems which were later handled by WordPress Core.
We also discuss how they went about iterating their product in a technology space which was new. What methods the team used to ensure that they were building features which their users really needed.
We also get into whether the block system is now fully mature and ready to support a growing ecosystem of developers. Is it a good idea to create 'smaller' blocks with a limited use case, or a large suite of blocks which work in harmony with one another? Are we entering a future in which the 'there's a block for that' mentality might lead to sites with 'block bloat'; sites with multiple blocks, with overlapping features.
It's an interesting chat and gives an insight into a transitional moment in the history of WordPress. A moment in which blocks are taking on much of the heavy lifting in a WordPress website. A moment in which reputations are being made.
Useful links.
Stackable
Gutenberg Times
Make WordPress