Devin Walker, recently hired by Automattic as Artistic Director and head of Jetpack, joined the Jukebox Podcast to explain his WordPress background, why he took the role, and what he plans for the product. A cofounder of GiveWP who helped scale that business and later worked across major WordPress brands, Devin left Liquid Web in early August 2025 and chose Automattic over launching another independent startup because Jetpack offers scale, impact, and a rare opportunity to influence the broader WordPress ecosystem.
Why Jetpack
Devin was attracted by the challenge and by working inside a company he respects. Jetpack has always been divisive: it bundles many features—stats, backups, security, performance, forms, VideoPress, SEO, and more—so it can feel like a jack-of-all-trades. Devin sees both the problem and the potential. With clearer focus and refinement, Jetpack can solve the needs of the majority of users while allowing specialized third-party plugins to serve power users with deep, niche requirements.
Scope and priorities
His early priorities are clarity, focus, and polish rather than an influx of new products. Key areas he mentioned include improving forms and SEO while continuing to deliver strong core features—many of which are generous in the free tier, such as CDN and VideoPress. The goal is pragmatic: make Jetpack the go-to solution for roughly 98% of sites’ common needs and accept that ultra-specialized functionality will remain the domain of dedicated plugins.
Organizational changes and collaboration
Automattic has been shifting away from strict functional silos toward a more matrixed organization. Rather than isolated teams owning individual Jetpack modules, engineers, designers, and architects now collaborate across .com, WooCommerce, and Jetpack. This matrix aims to create more cohesive integrations and reduce duplicated effort. Devin is leading a forms upgrade that’s already visible in recent releases (like 15.2) and in upcoming releases (15.3). The engineering team is focused on improving core experiences and shipping safer, higher-quality changes.
Cloud dependency and privacy
Because many of Jetpack’s advanced capabilities rely on cloud-backed services, .com connections and OAuth are often required. Devin acknowledges user concerns about connections and privacy. He also points out that the cloud infrastructure is the source of much of Jetpack’s advantage—its “secret sauce”—and that the reorg makes it easier to align cloud features with Automattic’s broader product work.
AI as a driving force
AI is a major focus. Jetpack already embeds modest AI features—auto-generated excerpts and featured images are examples—but Devin calls that “scratching the surface.” Automattic has a sizable engineering effort (50+ engineers) working on AI, and Jetpack is positioned to bring many .com AI capabilities to self-hosted WordPress sites. The roadmap includes a stronger content companion, admin-side assistants, visitor-facing features for conversions and pre-sales support, and deeper editor integration.
Devin referenced Telex (Automattic’s block-generation tool) as a foundational component. He envisions AI being used to generate and customize blocks, create temporary or bespoke site components from prompts, and act as a glue connecting disparate products. The aim is to supercharge WordPress capabilities without constraining creativity, making advanced features accessible without coding.
User experience, onboarding, and marketing
A significant problem Devin wants to fix is Jetpack’s confusing UX. Over many years the product accumulated toggles, multiple places to enable features, and inconsistent behavior across themes and site types. That complexity generates negative reviews—often born of breakage or merely unclear expectations—and creates friction for both newcomers and experienced users.
Devin plans to apply frameworks like “Jobs to Be Done” to understand user goals and simplify onboarding and navigation. Recent improvements to connection onboarding already raised successful connection rates, and that approach will expand: consolidate toggles and modules, clarify product boundaries, and make feature discovery and configuration more straightforward. He stressed the importance of user feedback and intends to involve the community as changes are rolled out.
Marketing has lagged relative to a more mature ecosystem full of specialized competitors. Devin wants to publish more of Automattic’s internal work, clarify Jetpack’s messaging, and refresh the website so it better explains what Jetpack is and who it serves.
Shipping carefully at scale
With roughly 4 million active Jetpack installs, changes must be cautious. There’s a tension between the need to move quickly and the responsibility of not breaking a large number of sites. Automattic ships monthly releases and tries to balance careful rollout with necessary improvements. Devin wants to be bolder where it’s safe but recognizes the goal of raising satisfaction metrics (for example, improving ratings above 4.0) without causing regressions.
How to give feedback
Devin invited direct feedback and promised to make channels and progress more public. He listed [email protected], the jetpack.com/feedback page, Twitter @innerwebs, and devin.org as places to reach him. He wants community input to prioritize, validate, and iterate on changes.
Next steps and check-ins
Immediate work includes continuing the forms overhaul, refining onboarding, improving UI consistency, advancing AI features, and ramping up marketing. Devin suggested a follow-up check-in in 12 months to evaluate progress using metrics like user reviews, onboarding success rates, and visible UX and AI improvements.
Conclusion
Devin Walker has accepted the challenge of steering Jetpack toward a more focused, polished, and integrated future. His approach is incremental and cautious because of Jetpack’s scale, but centered on simplifying UX, improving core features (notably forms and AI-driven tools), aligning teams across Automattic, and strengthening marketing and communication. The aim is to make Jetpack deliver clearer, more reliable value to most WordPress users while leaving specialized, deep features to purpose-built plugins.