It was a pleasure to speak with Jamie Marsland, Head of WordPress YouTube at Automattic, a role he stepped into after being personally recruited by the company’s CEO, Matt Mullenweg.
Jamie has an impressive YouTube channel with around 210,000 subscribers. If you’ve ever searched for WordPress tutorials, you’ve likely come across his channel. He has published hundreds of videos explaining how WordPress works, its latest features, and the process of building websites. With a deep understanding of his audience, he creates his content based on a clear premise: “to make his subscribers feel smart,” as he explains in the interview.
His direct experience in plugin development, website building, and user training has been a key factor in the content he produces today, because he approaches each topic from a practical perspective, not just a theoretical one. His background has enabled him to understand both the technical challenges and the needs of users, which is reflected in content that is clear, applied, and aligned with the evolution of WordPress and digital creation.
His channel is now 11 years old, although he began working on it more seriously about four years ago. After nearly a decade, his content documents the changes in WordPress and the broader web ecosystem. The videos he publishes include tutorials, demonstrations of new features, real-time website builds, tool analysis, and reflections on the future of WordPress and digital creation.
Among all this content, the Speed Build Challenge stands out. In this format, two participants build a complete website in real time, from scratch, within a limited period. The goal is to show the real process of building with WordPress, without cuts or editing, allowing the audience to see every decision, mistake, and solution as it happens.
This format emerged as a natural evolution of his work as an educator and content creator on YouTube. After years of producing traditional tutorials, Jamie began experimenting with more dynamic and interactive formats that better reflect the real workflow of a developer. The Speed Build Challenge introduces an element of pressure and authenticity.
Over time, the format evolved to include live audiences, streaming broadcasts, and more challenging contexts, such as recreating real websites or building pages based on well-known brands. One of the most notable examples is the recreation of the Apple Store website using WordPress.
The Speed Build Challenge has also been brought to live events such as WordCamp Europe (2024 and 2025), WordCamp US 2024, WordCamp Asia 2025, and WordCamp Valencia 2025. These were dynamic sessions where both learning and real-time execution were central to the experience.
This format reflects the changes occurring in the WordPress ecosystem, where visual tools, blocks, and builders continue to evolve in tandem with technological advancements. At the same time, it shows that experience, technical judgment, and decision-making remain essential elements in the web development process.
In this interview, we delve into the details of his work at Automattic, his YouTube channel, and his thoughts on artificial intelligence. We also discuss the predictions he made two years ago in his webinar “AI Lessons and WordPress” for Human Made.
You can find him on YouTube as Jamie Marsland and in Pootlepress with his newsletter.
