Our “Apple-like” Strategy
If you are anything like us, you like two things: 1) Apple; and 2) learning from other great companies & entrepreneurs. So when we came across this post about Apple’s recent success (and their strategies in this regard), we figured it’d be a great idea to latch onto that and explain some of our strategic decisions in the last year.
Taken from Jason’s post, here’s how we have applied some of those strategies in a very similar way…
1) “You don’t need to be first.”
You should know by now that we have a “release when ready” mindset with regards to putting out new stuff, which means that sometimes things simply take longer to see the light of day. We also love innovating and pushing unique awesomeness your way, but we have never tried to be the first to market with everything.
This is probably most evident in our recent real estate theme – Estate – which most definitely isn’t the first to market. We’ve been more than happy to bide our time and develop something that will blow your mind, instead of trying to rush a product simply to be first. Quality takes time; sometimes you’ll be first, other times you won’t.
2) “Often the first to get it right.”
After years of working very closely with our user base (a diverse bunch we may add), we have a great idea in terms of what will & won’t work within our community. New WordPress theming companies that continue to pop up may be able to bring something unique to the table in the functionality they offer, but they often don’t have the experience to be perfect in providing what the WP users really want and need – specifically not at the first go.
When working with thousands of users on a daily basis – each within unique environments – the experience we have in solving UX / UI enhancements to our themes has become invaluable. Maybe we haven’t gotten it perfectly right in every single time, but we’re damn close to hitting that sweet-spot on most occasions. 
3) “Benefits are primary, features are secondary.”
So many of you have noted that we haven’t been releasing as many new themes in the last 6 months, say in comparison to 2009. But we’ve spent a lot of time optimizing our themes, adding more value and increasing your (theme) choices. We have also avoided a strategy where we simply feature bloat every single theme (causing massive code bloat) and have preferred a balance where we can release niche themes targeted at doing one or two things really well.
The main benefits currently almost go unnoticed because our users have taken them for granted: The WooFramework is constantly updated to be more stable, optimized and provide you with more enhancements to your WordPress + WooThemes experience.
4) “Be as proud of what you say no to than what you say yes to.”
We don’t implement every single feature request that is thrown our way, but when we do, that implementation is neat and of real value.
In our opinion, we need to exercise some “control” over what gets added to our themes and what doesn’t. What is good for the goose is not always good for the gander; and sometimes custom development is a better option for an individual, instead of bloating a theme for everyone else.
Hopefully this helps explain the WooStrategy in releasing themes a little better.
Original post by Adii Rockstar
