Pooja Derashri: Improving Others, Improving Ourselves

Pooja Derashri is a co-founder of WPVibes, an India-based plugin development agency. Since 2017, she has been actively contributing to varied WordPress teams, most notably the Training team, to create and maintain WordPress learning resources.

Pooja’s passion for helping others and making meaningful contributions has propelled her further in her WordPress journey. She was chosen as a Team Representative and have become a release lead twice, all while enriching her WordPress know-how.

Read on to see how Pooja has proven that helping others succeed can result in your personal success.

Entering the WordPress World

Pooja first dipped her toes into the WordPress world in 2013. Fresh into her first job, her first project was a small WordPress-powered eCommerce website. She was tasked with adding a homepage slider and customizing a product page’s Add to Cart button.

At the moment, coding was an unfamiliar territory for Pooja, so she turned to plugins. Shortly after, the benefit of using plugins sparked her curiosity.

“I began diving deep into WordPress’s code structure. I discovered it interesting and decided I needed to explore further,” recalls Pooja.

Fast-forward to 2017, Pooja took her WordPress engagement up a notch by contributing to the community. Her first contributing experience was at WordCamp Ahmedabad 2017. She attended Contributor Day, where she took part within the WordPress TV team.

After that, she contributed in other ways. She ventured into the Polyglots team, where she helped with Hindi translations.

Pooja didn’t stop there. She prolonged her contributions to the Training team and involved herself more in meetups and WordCamps.

Within the last two years, she has been a Team Rep for the Training team, making her presence felt in various facets of WordPress.

“I never desired to limit my contributions. I’ve at all times desired to explore beyond what I’ve been doing, for instance in core testing,” she says.

Over time, Pooja became intrigued by the concept of being a part of a release squad. Due to this fact, she began attending beta releases, release parties, and contributed to testing multiple WordPress versions.

When WordPress 6.3 was announced, she saw her likelihood, so she expressed her interest in joining the discharge squad. Recognized for her consistent contributions, she was chosen as a Test lead within the WordPress 6.3 release squad, marking her first experience in such a task.

Currently, Pooja continues her stride as a Test lead for WordPress 6.4. For Pooja, that is just the start. Her WordPress origin story exemplifies the great thing about starting small but dreaming big – and the way it will possibly open doors to varied opportunities down the road.

Shaping Knowledge with Learn WordPress

In WordPress contribution, the Training team is accountable for managing and maintaining Learn WordPress. It’s an internet site with resources to learn, develop, and contribute to WordPress.

Before Learn WordPress went live, WordPress users had text-only documentation as their primary source of information base.

With Learn WordPress, the Training team elevated the educational experience by offering text-based articles, tutorials, and video content. People can now select how they need to learn WordPress, whether by reading or watching videos.

The Training team had been curating the location’s content and dealing on its development since 2013, a monumental seven-year journey until its 2020 launch.

Pooja has been deeply engaged with the WordPress Training team since 2019, even before the Learn WordPress website officially launched.

Pooja contributed to its pilot version, participating in shaping and managing its content. She enjoyed working on it since it aligns along with her philosophy of helping nevertheless she will.

“I at all times love to assist people make a contribution. I would like people to get more involved, and I’ll attempt to assist in any way I can. That is the core spirit of the WordPress community – people help people,” Pooja says.

Being an lively participant within the Training team, Pooja caught the eye of then-Team Reps Hauwa Abashiya and Courtney Robertson. They approached her to tackle the team rep position, while also helping her to learn the way the team works.

Pooja was each surprised and delighted to just accept this responsibility. The role was not only handed to her, she was nominated and later elected by team members, affirming her strong standing throughout the community.

As a Training team rep, her tasks include representing the team, collaborating with other teams, in addition to raising, managing, and addressing any issues that occur throughout the team.

After serving the Training team for 2 years, she is now able to expand her experience much more. Pooja will take the mantle as one in all the Test team representatives for the 2023-2024 term, while still helping the Training team now and again.

Being a Woman in Tech

Coming from a small village in India, being a startup co-founder shouldn’t be a well-liked profession selection, especially for a lady.

“In my hometown, it’s still unusual to decide on a profession within the IT field. Individuals are more encouraged to pursue educational professions. On top of that, people generally see tech jobs as not for ladies,” says Pooja.

Despite this, Pooja and her husband, Anand Upadhyay, took the daring step to quit their jobs and launch WP Vibes, a plugin development agency, right from their small-town home. She becomes a beacon of change in a field often noted for its lack of diversity.

Pooja acknowledges that constructing the business isn’t any small feat. Nevertheless, she emphasizes that geographical limitations have gotten increasingly irrelevant.

In today’s world, even when you’re working from a small town or are a stay-at-home mom, the web has democratized access to global opportunities. “The sky and web connection are the one limits,” Pooja says.

Pooja is a powerful advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in tech spaces. As a lady and as a component of the WordPress 6.4 release squad – a release helmed by folks from underrepresented gender groups – she is thrilled.

Pooja is confident that this latest release will set one other benchmark for achievement and send a robust message: “Women usually are not lesser than. We will do many things. We now have knowledge. We now have passion.”

Her advice for people of underrepresented genders questioning their place in tech is easy but profound: “Stop overthinking and begin reacting.” Pooja knows firsthand that overthinking generally is a barrier to motion. She encourages everyone to take the primary mandatory step to realize their goal by breaking through self-doubt.

The Power of Community and Contribution

For Pooja, her journey with WordPress isn’t nearly improving technical proficiency, it’s also in regards to the community and the doors it opens.

Two of her most memorable moments with the WordPress community encapsulate this spirit perfectly: being featured within the People of WordPress article series and receiving the Kim Parsell Memorial scholarship for WordCamp US in 2022. Though visa issues kept her from attending, receiving the award was an honor.

2023 marked one other milestone for Pooja – she was one in all the organizers of the inaugural WordCamp Asia, where she worked with the Speakers team. “It’s a busy but rewarding experience. I’m comfortable WordCamp Asia will probably be an annual event,” she beams.

To begin contributing, she suggests getting in contact with the local WordPress community. “Get more involved in local meetups or WordCamps. Ask them about their contribution journey. They are going to inform you how you may become involved, and you may learn from their experiences.”

It’s possible to do self-onboarding just by reading the contribution Handbook, but engaging with the community will provide you with the total experience of being a component of the WordPress ecosystem.

Pooja also emphasizes that WordPress isn’t only for coders. “Every small contribution makes a giant difference. There’s at all times room for everybody’s skills,” she says.

Pooja points out that there are such a lot of areas in WordPress development apart from coding. For instance, when you don’t have technical knowledge, you may join the Polyglots team to translate WordPress into local languages or the Training team to create learning resources. Should you’re involved in the more technical points, join the Test team.

Should you’re still unsure the right way to start, just reach out to the community. Everyone will probably be greater than comfortable to aid you start contributing.

Pooja’s involvement in the present 6.4 WordPress release showcases the collaborative nature of the WordPress community. Unlike within the WordPress 6.3 release, where she worked in a team with two other Test co-leads, this time, she is a solo Test lead.

“I handled similar tasks to the previous one. Nevertheless, being a solo Test lead is difficult as a consequence of a more substantial responsibility, time management demands, and the necessity to make critical decisions independently,” Pooja elaborates. “But I had incredible support from Birgit Olzem and Anne-Mieke Bovelett, my Test team cohorts, who helped me so much in preparing the Call for Testing post. And special because of Anne McCarthy, who helped me so much in making tough decisions, like what to incorporate and what to remove from the testing post.”

Birgit, Anne-Mieke, and Anne are all experienced contributors in navigating a WordPress release cycle. They’re all willing to assist newer release leads achieve their roles.

“Within the 6.3 release, I used to be learning in regards to the role of the Test lead and the right way to fulfill its responsibilities effectively. I hope that on this 6.4 release, I’ll fulfill my duty higher,” Pooja says.

Pooja’s story emphasizes what makes WordPress so unique – its openness to anyone willing to contribute, irrespective of their background or skillset. It’s not nearly constructing web sites or writing code, it’s about constructing a supportive and diverse community that propels everyone forward.