Development Strategy

It's important to be aware of the Etch development strategy, because it differs from most software, especially software in the WordPress ecosystem.

Here are the basic principles:

1. Don't build in the dark of night––development should involve real users.
2. Functionality first, UI second.
3. Release something weekly, no matter what.
4. Progress is better than perfection.
5. The sooner you can use it, the sooner you can break it, the sooner we can get it right.
6. Surface area is more important than depth in early stages.
7. Real-world use, not theory, should drive feature prioritization.
8. Release bug fixes as soon as they're available.

As a customer, this means that you're going to get weekly releases. And in some cases, you might get more than one release per week.

We don't sit around accumulating bug fixes only to release them in a batch at some predetermined time. Rather, we release them as soon as they're available because this makes your life better.

When it comes to feature releases, it's common to get multiple partial releases instead of a single finished release. Why? Because the sooner we get something in your hands, the sooner we can start getting feedback on the parts that are available. This prevents us from going too deep in the wrong direction.

This strategy – along with a highly skilled team – is precisely why we've been able to build a working, functional tool that people love on an unprecedented timeline.

It does require a little discipline on the part of users, though. You have to be OK with releases that contain partial new features, unpolished parts of the UI, etc. And you have to tailor your feedback to what's available, not what's missing.

If you can do that, you'll come to appreciate the process and the results.