Hi I’m Derin Tolu.
For over a decade I’ve worked at the intersection of technology, design, learning and storytelling. I build digital platforms, architect AI-powered tools, and shape how organizations and individuals show up online.
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WordPress as an operating system
The argument I am making at WordCamp US: one login, every business unit, and the honest boundary of what WordPress should not do.
WordCamp US 2026 is more than just a conference. It’s a chance to expand your network, get inspired, and walk away with practical tips to implement right away. I’m really looking forward to meeting new people and sharing new ideas.
Come see my talk:
📌 WordPress as an Operating System
📅 Monday August 17th 11:15 am – 12:00 pm
📍 Phoenix Convention Center, Phoenix, AZ
Don’t miss it!
#WCUS #WordCamp
The web belongs to all of us. Those building it and those using it. Stop renting your digital precense. Own it. Come see me speak at at WordCamp US 2026. I will be discussing "WordPress as an Operating System”. August 16- 19 at the Phoenix Convention center. https://lnkd.in/gvRTNcKQ
#WCUS #WordCamp #wordpress
Selected Work
Hub21
Three brands ran three toolchains and a loan officer existed as a different record in each. Hub21 makes the person the record: authored once in the hub, pushed to every public site by signed webhook with a nightly reconciliation behind it, so a licence change reaches the marketing site without anyone retyping it.
Rebuilding Relationships
Cancellation calls were being handled as paperwork rather than conversations. This built an eight-point retention rubric advisors were measured against — empathy, diagnosis, a real solution — while explicitly ruling out the retention dark patterns the industry was busy adopting.
Translation & Localisation
A 30-course compliance library had to ship in twelve languages without losing its voice or breaking its layouts. This is the blueprint that made that repeatable — including the parts that go wrong.
New Agent Onboarding
Agents were sending consumers to Century 21 sites without their referral link attached, quietly losing attribution on their own traffic. This course teaches the referral system and service markets as one connected idea, so the habit sticks.
New Member Orientation
Most orientation asks you to read about a place. This one sends you into it — post to the member feed, find a colleague you haven’t met, message them — so a new member finishes having actually used the network instead of having been told it exists.
Learning 2.0
A prototype for a learning platform organised around the person taking the course rather than the team publishing it — role-scoped libraries, spaces that mirror how the business actually runs, and learning links dropped into the tools where the questions come up.
Health and Safety Hustle
OSHA training is legally required and almost universally endured. This one runs 34 minutes across 46 interactions and ends in five branching incident scenarios using the company’s own role ladder — so people practise the judgement call rather than memorise the policy.