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Marcel Tannich
In the interview, Marcel mentioned some reasons that why he has chosen WordPress. Also, here we will learn about the most interesting project that Marcel has done to date in WordPress.
Introduction
Hello! I’m Marcel Tannich, a passionate coder & WordPress enthusiast originally from Austria, now living in Spain. I work as a WordPress Technical Supporter at OnTheGoSystems, the company behind the popular WordPress plugins WPML and Toolset, where I’m helping people worldwide to make their WordPress projects multilingual.
Before working full-time with WordPress, I worked for many years in IT, providing support, and developing and maintaining enterprise software (CRM/ERP/Reporting) in the woodworking industry.
Q. How did you get to know about WordPress? Share if there is an interesting story.
Ans: I needed a user-friendly CMS for a client and after reading some articles, I tried WordPress and have stuck to it for around 10 years now.
I have chosen WordPress because of the flexibility, the incredible amount of available plugins and themes to extend your project, and the lovely, helpful community. Also, there were tons of resources available to get a good start to expand it with custom code.
Over the years, the ecosystem has grown enormous, and it’s great to see what excellent services and tools the ecosystem still produces.
Q. What’s the most interesting project you have done to date in WordPress? What were your responsibilities?
Ans: Everything that is a challenge is an interesting project. 🙂 I remember a white-label webshop I did a few years ago with many customizations, where requirements constantly changed near the deadline. These kinds of projects can be very challenging.
But the most exciting projects are the ones I work on in my role at OnTheGoSystems. I work daily with different small and big WordPress projects and it’s so interesting to see how every client uses WordPress in another way, as you have so many opportunities to get your outcome.
Q. Have you ever been to any WordPress meetups or WordCamps? Share your thoughts on WordPress Community.
Ans: Yes, I regularly visit WordCamps and I’m an active speaker. My last talk was online because of COVID-19.
I hosted a workshop about WP-CLI at WordCamp Europe 2021. The next WordCamp I plan to visit will be in Vienna in April 2022 and WC Europe in Portugal in June. After attending all these online Wordcamp events, I’m looking forward to attending WordCamps in person again.
Q. How does your workstation look like? Can you send us a picture?
Ans: Sure! I’m using an Ikea standing desk with 2 monitors, a self-built PC, and a Dell XPS 15. But as I’m working 100% remotely, I often also work from different places.
Q. What interesting feature do you think you would like to see in WordPress and is currently missing?
Ans: Personally, 2FA or a Backend Activity Log would be nice in the core, as those functions currently depend on 3rd party plugins.
The WordPress project philosophy follows the “Pareto Principe”, meaning the core should provide features that 80% or more of end users will appreciate and use. So the question is if 80% of them really would appreciate that. I will check on trac if something like this was already asked… 🙂
Q. Out of the current plugins and themes which one do you like the most and why?
Ans: WooCommerce is one of my favourites because it’s a very flexible shop system. It’s expandable and there are already many great solutions for nearly any use case.
For themes, I like Astra because it’s lightweight and fast. When creating a custom theme, I enjoy minimal boilerplate themes such as “understrap” and “tailpress”, as they are very flexible and use a modern development workflow.
Q. Any awesome technology you want to share other than WordPress?
Ans: I like Flask, a very lightweight web framework for Python. It’s perfect for simple web applications or smaller websites.
Q. Do you like/love what you currently do in WordPress?
Ans: Absolutely! I enjoy working with the tools I love, in combination with an awesome, like-minded team.
Q. Where do you find yourself after 5 years
Ans: Definitely still in the WordPress ecosystem.
Q. Share something about your life other than work
Ans: When I’m not working, I love to travel, read, listen to music, walk with my 2-year-old dog Paco in the mountains, or enjoy the day at the beach. I also enjoy playing the piano.
My girlfriend and I love to visit rural places around Spain to relax after a hard week and enjoy time together surrounded by nature.
Q. To whom you give credit for your success?
Ans: I would like to give credit to my team at OnTheGoSystems.
Q. Can you give us some references for whom we should conduct an interview next and why?
Ans: Dario Jazbec Hrvatin, our awesome Documentation Team Leader at WPML. If you ever checked the WPML or Toolset doc, I’m sure you already saw or heard him in one of the videos he produced.
He is also very active in the WordPress scene and a frequent speaker on several WordCamps and Meetups. I’m sure he has an exciting story to tell.
Q. How do you reward yourself?
Ans: Doing what you love is already the biggest reward you can give yourself. But traveling is a reward I enjoy most.
Q. Any suggestion for WordPress beginners?
Ans: Ask! Don’t be shy and ask for help when needed. The WordPress community will be happy to help you!
I also recommend reading the official WordPress documentation and studying https://developer.wordpress.org/, as there you will find answers to most questions you will struggle with at the beginning. And I can only recommend you visit a WordCamp if you didn’t visit once before
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