Gary Murray – Product Lead

Thoughts

  • AI as a Consumer Advocate

    Let me preface all of this by saying I’m not a lawyer.

    I’m just someone who bought something (a fairly expensive thing at that)…and then a safety recall on a part of that product turned that shiny new purchase into something I couldn’t use a few months later.

    What followed was a maze: the seller of the product pointed one way, the manufacturer of the recalled parts another, I got different case numbers, mixed shipping instructions, and at one point there weren’t even boxes available to send the part in for inspection.

    Meanwhile, my new product was for all intents and purposes rendered unusable unless I was willing to incur additional costs to make it temporarily usable.

    The turning point in my experience wasn’t a magic phone call. It was opening ChatGPT and saying, “Here’s my issue, explain my rights like I’m five, and help me ask for the right fix if there is one.”

    The TL;DR on what I faced

    • Mixed messages between seller and manufacturer
    • Confusing “send it here / no, send it there” instructions
    • Logistics issues (even simple packaging became a blocker)
    • Weeks of waiting with an unusable product

    I didn’t want drama; I wanted a safe, working product, without incurring extra costs or having to deal with very unclear timeframes.

    How ChatGPT actually helped me

    ChatGPT helped point out that the part manufacturer in this case offered only one solution which came with significant inconvenience.

    ChatGPT helped me understand that legally this was not correct, and further to this, that legally, the seller was actually obliged to fix it free of charge, within a reasonable time, and without significant inconvenience; and when it’s a recall, consumers should have a real choice of remedies (if repair isn’t possible, that usually means replacement or refund).

    This meant that I could actually contact the seller of the product (who at this point was trying to quietly stay out of things) and ask for a solution.

    ChatGPT helped write the emails I’d probably have spent ages trying to write – keeping them short, calm and specific. It helped me:

    • Summarise my timeline
    • Ask for practical outcomes (safe replacement or refund)
    • Include logistics (collection, packaging, fitting)
    • Set a clear, short deadline

    And maybe more importantly, it kept my tone steady, even when the first response I got from the supplier was pretty patronising and had me getting even more frustrated!

    But, with ChatGPT, there were no rants. Just a consistent “Here’s the problem, here’s what the rules say, here’s what I’m asking for.”

    It also gave me a backup of an escalation map. If things stalled, I knew the next steps (consumer mediation, small-claims-style routes). Just knowing that made me more confident in my communications with both the seller and manufacturer.

    The key rights that mattered (EU-flavoured, in plain English)

    • Seller responsibility: Your contract is with the seller. They’re on the hook to make it right free of charge, as quickly as reasonably possible, and without major hassle for you—collection, packaging, and fitting included.
    • Recall remedies: In a recall, you should get a genuine choice (often replacement or refund if repair isn’t feasible). If it drags on or becomes a pain, you can push for a refund.
    • No extra costs: You shouldn’t pay to fix a safety problem with something you already bought.

    Note: this is a practical summary. It’s not legal advice.

    The playbook I used (steal this if you want!)

    1. Write a timeline. Dates, who said what, any blockers (routing mistakes, no packaging, etc.).
    2. Ask ChatGPT for a checklist of your rights tailored to your situation.
    3. Send a calm, clear email to the seller (cc the manufacturer if helpful):
      • “The product is unusable due to a safety issue.”
      • “Please provide a safe replacement or an adequate refund.”
      • “Cover the logistics and fitting.”
      • “Please confirm by [specific date].”
    4. Don’t confuse goodwill with the fix. The seller tried this, but reimbursing small costs is nice; it’s not the remedy.
    5. Follow up on your deadline with the same message—polite and persistent.
    6. Escalate if needed. Knowing you have options keeps things moving.

    How it ended

    After a few firm, well-structured exchanges, I got a free replacement within a week that solved the safety issue and made the product usable again. Not instant, but once the requests were precise and grounded in the right standards, things clicked.

    Why this matters

    Most of us don’t speak “legal.” We shouldn’t have to.

    ChatGPT didn’t argue in court; it helped me ask for the right thing, the right way, at the right time. That alone turned a frustrating recall into a manageable process, and a better outcome (for me at least).

    Prompts you can copy/paste

    “Explain my rights in the EU when a product I bought is affected by a safety recall. Keep it plain English and actionable.”

    “Draft a short, polite email to the seller asking for a remedy within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience. Include collection/packaging/fitting and a deadline.”

    “Turn this timeline into a concise email with dates.”

    “If the manufacturer only offers replacement, when can I ask for a refund? Keep it brief.”

    “Write a firm but friendly follow-up if I don’t have tracking/ETA by [date].”

    Legal disclaimer

    This was one person’s experience (mine), and as such is not legal advice. But if you’re stuck in a similar mess, this approach may help you move from confusion to resolution—without needing a law degree.

  • If your design only works in colour, it doesn’t work

    Over the weekend, I signed up for a product that asked me to create a password:

    Said signup form…

    Simple enough, right?

    Except the form showed which rules I’d met with little red and green dots. No text, no icons, no context. Just colors.

    Guess what? If you’re one of the 300 million people worldwide with colour blindness, that signup form might as well be written in invisible ink.

    And let’s be clear: this isn’t just bad design. It’s exclusion.

    The Ugly Truth About Color-Only Design

    When you rely on colour alone, you’re silently telling 8% of men and 0.5% of women this product wasn’t built for you.

    That’s thousands of potential customers bouncing at the very first step because they can’t tell which requirement they failed. Imagine investing in ads, marketing, onboarding flows…and then losing users because you couldn’t be bothered to add an icon or a line of text.

    This isn’t just an accessibility issue. It’s a conversion killer.

    Why We Should All Care

    Accessibility isn’t niche. If your product scales, color blind users aren’t “edge cases” — they’re paying customers.

    It’s lazy design. Adding an icon or some microcopy is hardly expensive, yet it prevents real exclusion.

    We’re all one bad design choice away from alienating people who would love to use what we’ve built.

    And honestly? It’s 2025. We should know better by now.

    What Good Looks Like

    Here’s the bare minimum we owe our users:

    ✔️ Pair color with symbols (✔️ / ✖️ or clear icons)
    ✔️ Add short text (“Needs a special character”)
    ✔️ Test your work with color-blindness simulators
    ✔️ Follow WCAG – they’ve been telling us this for years

    Accessibility isn’t rocket science. It’s empathy in interface form.

    A Call-Out to Our Industry

    The next time you design a flow and reach for green = good, red = bad… STOP!

    Ask yourself:

    • What happens if someone can’t see the difference?
    • Would they still understand what to do?
    • Would they still feel welcome here?

    If the answer’s no, you’ve just built a gate that keeps people out.

    And that’s on you — not them.

    Let’s Do Better

    Every time we ignore accessibility, we exclude real people. People trying to give us their money, time, and trust.

    Design isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about inclusion.
    And exclusion, whether intentional or not, is always bad design.

  • The Silent Grief of Remote Work

    I’ve always believed in the immense benefits of remote work—the flexibility, the freedom, the ability to connect with brilliant people from all over the world. I’ve had the privilege of working alongside colleagues from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and time zones, and these digital connections have enriched my life in ways I never expected. Remote work allows for a kind of collaboration that transcends borders, and in many ways, it’s become my ideal work environment.

    But, as with any system, there are costs that we don’t always talk about, and one of the most difficult challenges I’ve faced working remotely is the loss of colleagues due to layoffs. Recently, nearly 300 of my colleagues were let go, and the impact was profound. It wasn’t just a professional shift—it felt personal. These weren’t just coworkers; some of them were people I had built deep, meaningful relationships with, people who had become a part of my remote “family.”

    What’s unique about remote work is that our relationships are built through digital spaces. We don’t have the spontaneous, in-person moments that often create bonds in a physical office. There are no coffee breaks or impromptu chats by the water cooler. Instead, our connections form through Slack messages, video calls, and shared projects. We celebrate wins, we support each other through challenges, and we often lean on each other in ways that go beyond work.

    When those bonds are severed, the void left behind is stark. The absence of a colleague, a friend, or a mentor is felt deeply, even though the only thing we shared was a screen and a sense of purpose. It’s a loss that doesn’t fit neatly into the conversation about remote work’s advantages. There’s no physical office to return to for closure, no in-person goodbye that marks the end of a chapter. It’s just the silence that follows when someone who has been a part of your work life is no longer there.

    And yet, even with this emotional cost, I still stand firmly behind the overall benefits of remote work. The flexibility it provides, the opportunities for collaboration, and the ability to connect with incredible people all over the world far outweigh the challenges. Remote work has changed my life for the better, and I believe it’s the future of work for many.

    But this loss—the silent grief that comes with losing colleagues who were once integral to your daily rhythm—is one of the real costs that we need to acknowledge. It’s a challenge that doesn’t have an easy solution, and it’s one that I think is often overlooked in the broader conversation about remote work’s many benefits.

    When we talk about remote work, we often focus on the positives—productivity, work-life balance, global collaboration. But the emotional impact of losing people who have become family is something we don’t always address. It’s not a flaw of remote work itself, but rather a reality that comes with the territory. The relationships we build in this digital space are real, and when they are lost, it’s a grief that doesn’t fit neatly into the usual narratives.

    I believe we can continue to make remote work better, more inclusive, and more connected. But in doing so, it’s important that we don’t forget the emotional cost of these virtual connections—because in some ways, they are as real as any physical relationship, and their loss can leave a lasting impact.

  • Imagine a product that evolved as your needs changed

    At a recent product team meetup for WooCommerce I remembered one of the first ‘ideas’ I had after joining Automattic as part of the WooThemes acquisition in 2015. After joining I was intrigued by all the different products Automattic had within the company, but found myself wondering if there was not a way that all these products could work together to create a unique product experience and vision.

    I shared this vision at the 2015 Grand Meetup (a time where the entire company came together for a week in a chosen location) as my flash talk and actually found the notes for it in Simple Note (interestingly enough) when looking for it during that meetup – and thought I’d share it here again for posterity.

    It was written as if someone was recounting their experience to someone else:

    I had so many ideas.

    I just needed a way to keep track of them all.

    I decided to install this note taking app I’d heard everyone talking about. (Simplenote).

    It offered such a clean and simple interface – it was all I needed to help me keep track of my ideas and thoughts. I found I could use it anywhere and anytime, it magically synced everything seamlessly between my phone and my computer. It kept all my information safe, secure and private. (VaultPress).

    I found it made it so easy to start capturing and storing my ideas, when all I had at that stage were lots of ideas and I just needed a way of capturing them for future reference. For a good few years all I did with the app was take notes as well as store and share photos and links with friends (Cloudup).

    Later, after much prompting from friends and family, I decided that some of the ideas I was storing in that little app would be much better shared with the world.

    So I decided to find my voice, vocalise my ideas and share them with the world (.blog). With just a simple swipe I was able to take one of my favourite ‘ideas’, converted it into a draft ‘post’ and had started my my own place on the internet (WordPress.com).

    With what felt like just a “tap of a button” I had published that idea, and now it was out there – for the world to read!

    A few weeks later I received a notification on my mobile phone – an alert that traffic to that post I had published had been unusually high! Apparently my article had been shared on some ‘feed’ (Reader) that curated the best articles of the week I think, and it now been shared all over the internet!

    That idea was no longer just ‘my’ idea! I ended up spending most of that morning looking through various stats and insights (Jetpack) that gave me some clarity on just where all that traffic had come from and where my idea had been shared and I quickly start engaging with all the feedback via the comments (Akismet).

    After fair amount of time and effort, that first post had now become the spark for a thriving blog and community and I was starting to think – where to from here – what’s next? I had seen a lot of people were getting into ecommerce and setting up their own stores online – but the idea of creating an online store was intimidating – the time and money needed, added to the uncertainty of success – that was just scary!

    But, what if I could simply add a product to my existing blog – and start selling to the loyal following I had already spent all this time creating?

    To get started I took five of my most popular ‘posts’ and created a poll (Crowdsignal) which I sent out to my readers to get a better idea of what product might resonate with them – it did not take long and the answers came in. There was interest. There was potential to take this further. It was time to started selling!

    Instead of writing a new post now though I chose to add a product to my blog. After uploading a photo, adding a product description, setting a price and some basic shipping details I was ready to start selling (Payments Block). The best thing about it was that I never had to worry about ‘what was happening in the background’ it just worked.

    I kept adding products to my site and sales kept growing as did the demand for new products. I started to realise that the future of my business lay in adding a fully-fledged online store (WooCommerce) to my blog and to start offering more complex features like earning recurring revenue through creating subscription based products and started putting a bigger emphasis into optimising my site and customer experience to take my business to the next level.

    Now, several years later, I am the owner of a very succcesful company with multiple employees. I still struggle to believe where it all started – with that simple ‘app’. I am now considered a VIP customer apparently (WordPress VIP) – which gives me access to a team that have come alongside me to help me grow and scale my business to meet the continuously changing demands of my customers and stay ahead of my competitors. All this would not have been possible without that app it feels – it just worked, automatically.

    Imagine it.

    It’s Automattic.

    Now in 2024, I feel that vision could be quite different with the additional products Automattic now owns, and if anything, it could be even more compelling. I do acknowledge that this is just ‘one’ way someone could encounter all these products, and that they could well exist independently. To me though, there was something powerful about a product like this, if it could be pulled off of course!

  • The rise of online checkout and identity products

    It was interesting to note recently that Fast.co closed a $102 million Series B. As that TechCrunch article goes on to share:

    In the “last month we’ve seen $927 million — at least — flow into startups with overlapping ecommerce infrastructure market targets.

    TechCrunch

    That’s a pretty significant amount of investment into a relatively ‘new’ space — but obviously COVID has also increased the amount of people shopping online — and the need to solve this problem is one of growing importance and opportunity which a few companies are clearly looking to take advantage.

    Personally I look forward to see how these products grow and how they plan to differentiate themselves from each other — as having one or two solutions in this space will make things easier as a shopper — but getting presented with multiple options might only serve to create additional friction during the already friction-filled checkout process.