Devin Walker joined Automattic as Artistic Director for Jetpack after 16 years in the WordPress ecosystem, including co-founding GiveWP and building tools like WP Rollback. After GiveWP’s acquisition and a stint at Liquid Web, a conversation with Matt Mullenweg led him to choose a high-impact role inside Automattic over starting another independent business. He wanted scale, the chance to influence a product used by millions, and to work at a company he respected.
Scope and strategy
Jetpack spans a vast set of features—analytics, backups, security, performance, social sharing, forms, VideoPress, SEO, and more. That breadth is both its strength and its liability: it provides significant value out of the box for many sites, but it can feel scattered and divisive, leading some to call it a “jack of all trades.” Devin’s view is pragmatic: Jetpack shouldn’t try to beat deeply specialized plugins at every niche. Instead it should excel for the majority of users—delivering features that satisfy typical needs while recognizing advanced edge cases will rely on dedicated tools. Where modules are unused or low-value, they should be either improved or sunset.
Organizational changes and collaboration
Automattic is moving away from strict functional silos toward a more matrixed model with shared architecture and cross-product collaboration. Teams that work on wordpress.com, Jetpack, WooCommerce, and other products now share resources and expertise so integrations are smoother and products work together more seamlessly. Devin highlighted the engineering talent he’s found and pointed to practical integrations—such as tighter Jetpack and WooCommerce connections—that enhance user value while preserving user choice (for example, not forcing a wordpress.com login except where cloud-backed features require OAuth).
Simplifying the product and user experience
A core problem Devin sees is complexity and inconsistent UI: multiple toggles scattered across screens, disparate flows, and surprising behaviors for non-technical users. Immediate priorities include simplifying onboarding, clarifying what connecting to wordpress.com delivers, consolidating toggles, and removing interface friction. He’s applying customer-centered frameworks like Jobs to Be Done to better understand the outcomes users expect from Jetpack and to design the product around those real needs so a vanilla WordPress site with Jetpack feels coherent and useful.
Releases at scale: balance speed with caution
With roughly 4 million core installs, Jetpack operates at scale where regressions quickly erode trust. Automattic currently ships monthly releases, and Devin plans to continue a deliberate approach: phased rollouts, careful testing, and better onboarding to minimize surprise and negative feedback while still making meaningful progress. The aim is to raise review scores and reduce breakage over time.
AI as a strategic frontier
AI figures prominently in Jetpack’s near-term roadmap. Current features include content assistance like drafting excerpts and generating featured images; this is just a starting point. A large team across Automattic is building AI capabilities, and Jetpack will be the primary route to bring many of those .com AI features to self-hosted WordPress. Possible directions include richer content generation, admin tools to improve conversion and engagement (newsletters, chat, smarter forms), block generation (e.g., Telex-like workflows), and AI that connects Jetpack modules into smoother end-to-end experiences.
Marketing, perception, and community
Devin believes Jetpack’s technical progress has outpaced its marketing. In a crowded ecosystem of specialized competitors, Jetpack needs clearer storytelling, refreshed messaging, and more marketing investment to match the product’s internal momentum. He’s also working to be transparent and gather feedback—from internal P2s to external channels—and has published internal posts mapping expertise across teams. He invited users to share input through Jetpack’s feedback channels and his public profiles.
Near-term goals and next steps
Short-term work focuses on onboarding, a major forms upgrade, UI consolidation, and building a foundation for AI-driven features. The measurable goals include improving review scores, decreasing breakage, and making Jetpack’s value proposition obvious to new and existing users. Devin suggested checking back in 12 months to evaluate progress.
Conclusion
Devin stepped into Jetpack to lead a high-visibility, high-impact product that already delivers major value but needs clarity, better UX, stronger marketing, and deeper cross-product collaboration. His approach combines careful, phased releases with targeted improvements and an ambitious AI agenda aimed at making Jetpack a cleaner, more cohesive, and more compelling suite for most WordPress users.