Building Enterprise-Level WordPress Projects and the Power of Community: A Conversation with Noel Tock from Human Made

On this episode of Osom To Know, Maciej speaks with Noel Tock, a partner at Human Made and a long‑time leader in enterprise WordPress product development. Across his career, Noel has combined service delivery with platform building: from SaaS beginnings (Happy Tables) to running high‑stakes cloud hosting and shipping Altis features, he’s worked end‑to‑end on enterprise WordPress programs – strategy, product development, operations, and go‑to‑market.

💡 We unpack enterprise WordPress projects and product development at scale: how to position WordPress for C‑level buyers, when to productize, how to speak in outcomes (headless, integrations, journeys), and why community still powers innovation. If you’re leading enterprise initiatives on WordPress – agency or product side – this episode is your field guide.

Enterprise WordPress: Scope Outcomes, Not Just Sites

Enterprise projects aren’t “launch and done.” They’re portfolios of outcomes: performance, compliance, integrations, and change management. Noel’s experience is clear—services and products have both matured, and teams must be multidisciplinary.

You can’t just build… a random website for a customer that doesn’t have outcomes.

Today, buyers expect measurable impact (attribution, revenue contribution), plus clean integrations (CRM, CDP, analytics). Treat the CMS as a platform that must be observable, scalable, and extensible – then price and plan against those outcomes.

Product vs. Services: Build a Portfolio, Not a Binary

Human Made keeps a foot in both worlds: high‑touch services and product bets. The risk isn’t reputation when you operate transparently – it’s time and capital.

If you fail and… talk about it openly… anything you do, if you do it the right way, it’s reputation building, even if you fail.

That’s why Cloud runs like its own business (SLAs, uptime, incident response) while Altis Accelerate takes the startup path. Dedicated teams, clear ownership, and validation loops differentiate enduring products from bench‑time experiments.

Marketing WordPress to B2B: Speak Enterprise, Not Jargon

C‑level buyers don’t buy REST APIs—they buy headless, integrations, and outcomes. Noel argues WordPress needs stronger B2B product marketing so agencies don’t have to resell the platform in every pitch.

We don’t say REST API, we say headless… we don’t talk about plugins, we talk about integrations.

The job: map WordPress to buyer language (UX, personalization, customer journeys), show compatibility with modern stacks (Next.js, CDPs), and publish landing pages that answer RFI/RFP checklists up front.

Competing in Enterprise: Be Present Where Buyers Decide

Agencies routinely face platform prejudice: proprietary suites walk into the room pre‑sold. That’s a visibility problem.

We need industry analysts to recognize WordPress as a whole… and to have respect for a larger visible… ecosystem that speaks the language of B2B.

Win by showing:

• Reference architectures: Share 1–2 blueprints (authoring core + headless front end + CRM/CDP/analytics) with integration points, SLAs, and indicative cost ranges.
• Performance/Security evidence: Provide before/after performance data (Core Web Vitals, TTFB) alongside security proof (pen‑test summaries, WAF/DDoS posture, incident MTTR).
• Proof of scale: Cite traffic and content volumes, uptime during major launches, and multi‑region deployments to demonstrate reliability under load.

WordPress can be the authoring core in a composable stack – sell that pattern, not just pages.

From VIP to Human Made Cloud: Why Infrastructure Matters

Enterprise WordPress must run under pressure. Noel recalls the rationale for leaving VIP years ago: offer more control over infrastructure and customized setups for complex clients.

We were always on the upper end of… bespoke customized hosting… between a top‑tier host… and a client saying, ‘we’re just gonna do this ourselves.’

Owning the stack means SLAs, observability, and DDoS readiness – the unglamorous parts that decide if a global launch succeeds or craters.

Content Systems and the Next Opportunity

Noel points to a bigger play beyond single‑site builds: a shared, organization‑wide source of truth for content (analogy: CDPs for customer data). Think atomic content building blocks synced across channels.

What is that same single source of truth for your content globally across your entire organization?

Until that matures, the priority is still onboarding and editor experience—bringing more users confidently into the block editor while connecting to the wider stack.

Community Power: Why It Still Matters

For Noel, community isn’t just contributions—it’s momentum, diversity of participants, and a shared baseline: open source is good for the web.

Those moments are timeless… the aspect of being in it together and… open source is cool.

Human Made aims to return to Five for the Future, but he’s candid about the trade‑offs between delivery, product, and contribution time.

Key Takeaways for Enterprise WordPress Leaders

• Sell outcomes. Tie work to revenue, reach, and risk reduction.
• Package the stack. Authoring core + integrations (CRM, CDP, search, analytics).
• Market to B2B. Translate features to buyer language (headless, journeys, personalization).
• Own reliability. SLAs, observability, DDoS, and incident muscle.
• Invest in community. Talent, credibility, and long‑term resilience come from participation.

Full Conversation with Noel Tock

Want to hear the full conversation with Noel? Check out the latest 🎙️ Osom to Know podcast.

You can also watch us on our YouTube – don’t forget to hit subscribe! 📩

When you’re ready to take an enterprise WordPress program from pitch to production, Osom Studio can help you plan architectures, evidence outcomes, and ship with confidence.