Build a Movement, Not a Product
Give people a philosophy to believe in and rituals to gather around, not just working software.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
Mullenweg's core lesson from building the WordPress community (now powering ~40% of the web): durable adoption comes from attaching a worldview, art, and participation rituals to the software, so contributors get more than a paycheck or base utility. He credits systems-thinking (economics) and collaboration (jazz) as the two lenses that shaped it.
Origin
Mullenweg's own synthesis from 20+ years leading the WordPress open-source project, explicitly informed by his background in economics (incentive/systems thinking) and jazz (collaboration).
Core principles
- 01A movement gives people something to believe in beyond the software's utility
- 02Incentive structures and systems thinking determine whether a community self-sustains
- 03Art and soul (naming, taglines, fun) create emotional attachment code alone can't
- 04Participation surface area — meetups, forums, office hours, Q&As — is what converts users into contributors
- 05Whatever a person's talent (translation, docs, events, design, code), there must be a visible on-ramp for it
How to run it
- 1
Anchor the software to a worldview
Articulate a philosophy the software advances (for WordPress: open source increases freedom and liberty). Make the mission the reason to contribute, not the feature set.
Pro tip Even a footer tagline like 'Code is poetry' signals the project is about more than shipping code.
Watch out If the only reason to join is utility, contributors leave the moment a marginally better tool appears.
- 2
Inject art and ritual
Add recurring cultural touches that make participation fun — WordPress names every release after a jazz musician (60+ releases).
Pro tip Rituals compound: a naming convention or ceremony becomes shared identity over dozens of cycles.
- 3
Engineer the incentive structure
Use systems thinking to design how contributions are recognised and how people advance (the meritocracy of earning commit rights, leading releases). Map the incentives before scaling.
Pro tip Study existing platforms (Microsoft, others) to learn what incentive structures retained ecosystems.
Watch out Unclear advancement paths breed resentment from people who want status they haven't earned through contribution.
- 4
Build a wide participation surface
Create many concrete ways to get involved — meetups, forums, events, translation, documentation, support, design, code — so every talent has an entry point.
Pro tip Run frequent open Q&As and town halls; Mullenweg has done hundreds and says you never know what value surfaces.
In the wild
From the start, WordPress put 'Code is poetry' in the wordpress.org footer and named every release after a jazz musician, framing contribution as a creative act rather than labour. Combined with make.wordpress.org groups for design, accessibility, docs, events and code, this gave every kind of contributor a home.
→ WordPress grew a self-reinforcing flywheel to ~40% of all websites — 10x the number-two CMS — sustained by hundreds of daily volunteer contributors.
Common mistakes
Selling only base utility
If the community is offered nothing beyond the software's functional value, there is no emotional or philosophical glue; people won't contribute unpaid time and won't defend the project when it's attacked.
No visible contribution on-ramp
Without clearly separated ways to help (translation, docs, support, events, code), willing contributors bounce off because they can't find where their specific talent fits.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders or open-source maintainers building a platform or ecosystem who need contributors and advocates, not just users.
Not ideal for
A single-purpose internal tool or a small commodity product where no community is needed and the overhead of movement-building isn't justified.
From the transcript
“don't just build a product build a movement”
“we give people Something to Believe In You know a philosophy a worldview”
“we name every word press release after a jazz musician”
“whatever you feel like your your talent in the world is either that you have or that you want to cultivate you know there's so…”
From the episode
The creator of WordPress opens up about becoming an internet villain, why he’s taking a stand, and the future of open source
Matt Mullenweg (founder and CEO, Automattic)