Keeping new products on the market is critical to your business. With the WordPress theme industry as well, sales are growing by introducing new products, and existing products are also attracting attention and selling well again.

Because of such circulation, we have also released a total of 62 WordPress themes in eight years.(Actually I develop more than that, but due to various circumstances they are not included in the number this time.)Idea is essential to keep releasing products, but environment and human resources that can be developed are also necessary.
This time, I would like to talk about the other side of development about how they were solved.

First, look at the yearbook in which the TCD theme was released.

TCD Theme Release Yearbook

October 19, 2010 TCD001
December 8, 2010 TCD002
February 22, 2011 TCD003
March 24, 2011 TCD004
July 4, 2011 TCD005
September 29, 2011 TCD006
July 5, 2012 TCD007
September 19, 2012 TCD008
November 12, 2012 TCD009
February 07, 2013 TCD010
April 22, 2013 TCD011
June 28, 2013 TCD012
August 19, 2013 TCD013(Gorgeous)
October 18, 2013 TCD014(AN)
December 16, 2013 TCD015(Grider)
February 15, 2014 TCD016(Chill)
May 12, 2014 TCD017(Canvas)
July 7, 2014 TCD018(Opinion)
September 18, 2014 TCD019(Precious)
October 27, 2014 TCD020(Logue)
December 25, 2014　TCD021(NXTAGE)
February 20, 2015　TCD022(LUXE)
May 13, 2015　TCD023(CUBEY)
June 10, 2015　TCD024(PHOTEK)
July 22, 2015　TCD025(INNOVATE HACK)
August 24, 2015　TCD026(Reviwer)
September 28, 2015　TCD027(CORE)
October 26, 2015　TCD028(AMORE)
November 30, 2015　TCD029(SWEETY)
December 24, 2015　TCD030(FOCUS)
January 25, 2016　TCD031(LAW)
February 29, 2016　TCD032(VIEW)
April 9, 2016　TCD033(AGENT)
April 28, 2016　TCD034(IZM)
May 31, 2016　TCD035(BLOC)
June 29, 2016　TCD036(MAG)
July 29, 2016　TCD037(ORION)
August 30, 2016　TCD038(VENUS)
October 4, 2016　TCD039(LOTUS)
October 31, 2016　TCD040(AVALON)
December 6, 2016　TCD041(STORY)
December 22, 2016　TCD042(MONOLITH)
January 26, 2017　TCD043(MAXX)
February 23, 2017　TCD044(UNIQUE)
March 23, 2017　TCD045(SOURCE)
April 21, 2017　TCD046(SKIN)
May 30, 2017　TCD047(ANGEL)
June 20, 2017　TCD048(OOPS!)
July 24, 2017　TCD049(BRIDGE)
August 28, 2017　TCD050(GENSEN)
September 26, 2017　TCD051(VOGUE)
October 31, 2017　TCD052(STYLY)
November 28, 2017　TCD053(BLOOM)
December 26, 2017　TCD054(Beauty)
January 30, 2018　TCD055(ZERO)
March 1, 2018　TCD056(KADAN)
March 30, 2018　TCD057(BIRTH)
April 27, 2018　TCD058(RUMBLE)
May 31, 2018　TCD059(AGENDA)
June 28, 2018　TCD060(AVANT)
July 31, 2018　TCD061(ONE)
August 30, 2018　TCD062(ICONIC)
September 25, 2018　TCD063(Switch)
October 26, 2018　TCD064(FAMOUSE)

It was hard just to examine the history..
Now, let’s check the number of releases per year.

Number of releases per year

2010　2 themes
2011　4 themes
2012　3 themes
2013　6 themes
2014　6 themes
2015　9 themes
2016　12 themes
2017　12 themes
2018　11 themes(as of November)

Benefits of increasing the frequency of product releases

Since May 2015, we started releasing themes at one interval per month. I will list the benefits obtained by that.

1. Skill up of all members
2. Performance improvement
3. A next stage becomes clear

Simply increasing the production amount does not lead to skill up

Increasing the frequency of release means increasing speed. But, even if the quantity increases it does not make sense if the quality drops. If the release frequency increases and the quality drops, it is better not to accelerate production.It would be better to take time to complete that. However, the development of TCD was considered in both quantity and quality. Here’s a critical point in increasing the frequency of releases.

Originally, quality goes up by increasing quantity. The quantity surpasses the quality. Maximizing a person’s growth cycle is also proportional to the “quantity” achieved. In other words, we wanted to raise the quality of themes more and more and make innovative products, so we increased the frequency of product release.

Determine the release cycle by looking at user trends

The ability to release a lot of products is linked to the profitability of the organization and the team. Increasing the variation of the product is easy to directly connect with the improvement of the service.

However, the limit is important and if the release speed is too fast, the user may not be able to follow. The release of new products also involves promotion. If you repeat the release of a product with insufficient promotion, the user will be left behind. Increasing the release frequency can also be a disadvantage.

It just needs to be good timing in order to be linked to the release and promotion. The right timing for this is, in my personal sense, “a little quicker”.

If you lean forward, you’ll see what to do next

When you are leaning forward, you can afford the work. The afford xpands the view. If visibility spreads, you can act while looking at the next stage. That’s why we do tasks more and more without spending much time. Since such a good cycle is created within the team, TCD releases are overwhelmingly faster than other companies.

However, it was difficult in 2015 when we started releasing one theme every month.We were unable to finish the work within the due date and the release was often postponed to the following month.
In the first place, the development of WordPress theme is not enough in the period of one month. TCD themes are like software, so it’s very different in concept and structure when compared to a simple WordPress theme. So, despite the small number of people, it was difficult for a director to have multiple projects, and it was also difficult to have human resources.

However, by clearing up the difficult issues little by little, our team’s speed and capacity have certainly increased, and now we can run projects that are not related to the theme developement. Eight years seems long and short. It was in a flash. I hope the team’s staff will grow as TCD continues its history.