The Founder and President of Digital Polygon, John Doyle, was mainly a "consumer of Drupal" in his early Drupal Days. He has been working with Drupal for over 13 years, refining skills and gaining expertise as an architect implementing enterprise-level Drupal systems.

TheDropTimes (TDT) contacted John over Slack to start a chat to learn more about his Drupal journey.

My journey with Drupal has been an exciting one, and I have seen the platform evolve and grow tremendously over the years. I am proud to be a part of the Drupal community, 

says John. 

His key principles of #giveback and #builditbetter are what stand out. He explains these core values of Digital Polygon as they coincide with his values. Alethia Braganza leads the conversation with John Doyle. Read on to know what he shares with the community. 

TDT [1]: Could You brief us about your Journey with Drupal?

John Doyle: I have worked with Drupal for over 13 years, and my journey with the platform has been very rewarding. I started my career as a Drupal developer. Over time, I grew my skills and experience to become an architect implementing enterprise-level Drupal applications for some of the largest organizations in the world.

In the early stages of my career, I was mainly a consumer of Drupal, using the platform to develop websites and applications for clients. However, gaining more experience, I became more involved in the Drupal community and started exploring new ways to #giveback. Over the years, I have contributed to various Drupal projects and sponsored, supported, and presented at Drupal conferences.

My journey with Drupal has been an exciting one, and I have seen the platform evolve and grow tremendously over the years. I am proud to be a part of the Drupal community and look forward to continuing to contribute to the platform in the years to come.

TDT [2]: Two of your core principles that you abide by are #giveback and #builditbetter. Can you talk about what this is aimed towards and how certain of your life examples radiate these principles?

John Doyle: Absolutely! When I was developing the core values of Digital Polygon, I wanted to leverage values that I attributed to my career success. Ultimately I summed these up to #ownit, #giveback, and #builditbetter.

At Digital Polygon, we own what we do and our mistakes because even mistakes are learning experiences. We build things we would want to own, that we’re proud to put our stamp on, and have our name associated with. We do it better because the companies we work with are our partners; we understand their missions and take the time to understand their short- and long-term goals to deliver a product that is uniquely theirs.

When I talk about giving back, it must be said that I’ve been given so much already from the Drupal community and the clients we partner with. It’s important to me that we, as a company, provide just as much as we take or even more. Our values of #ownit, #giveback, and #builditbetter drive us. These principles guide us in everything we do, and we believe they are key to our continued success.

TDT [3]: Everything has a starting point. You are the Founder and President of Digital Polygon. What is Digital Polygon aimed towards, and could you tell us how it came to be?

John Doyle: The idea for Digital Polygon came from what I saw missing and lacking in the organizations I worked with and associated with. That’s not inherently bad for those companies, but I noticed a shift in the clients I was working with. They wanted to know what I was doing and how I was doing it, and why I was doing it. They didn’t want to be handed a site after months of sprints that they felt disconnected from. They wanted to be in lock-step with us, partnering with us and learning jointly as we provided the digital solutions their organization needed to survive and thrive.

I chose the name Digital Polygon because a polygon is a shape that doesn’t have a fixed outline but is always continuous. It can be a box, but it doesn’t have to be. This is how we approach our work with our clients and partners. We identify a path but are not afraid to change direction when new information comes to light. We are a successful company because of our ability to be nimble and adapt to the fast-paced digital landscape as it changes around us.

TDT [4]: PHP has long been a favorite programming language for those looking to create online applications. However, according to recent GitHub programming language statistics, PHP has been losing ground in recent years. What are your thoughts on Drupal’s future in this context? How can we get skilled individuals to collaborate on Drupal?

John Doyle: There is no doubt that newer technologies are showing up daily, and the landscape will continue to change as time goes on. Data is powerful, but there are many different viewpoints to look at. PHP applications collectively continue to see an increase in the CMS market share, and I hope to see this trend continue. PHP, particularly Drupal, will have to contend with these new players and continue to adapt and evolve to stay relevant.

The PHP and Drupal communities will define the platforms’ future success. It is extremely important to continue to grow and attract new talent to these communities to innovate and drive change.

Specifically looking at Drupal, I think headless CMS capabilities will be critical to the platform’s long-term success. Leveraging Drupal for its core content management capabilities and enabling robust, streamlined integrations with newer, faster, more modern client-side platforms will enable a bridge between communities. We see the relationships between Drupal, Gatsby, and Next.js continue to grow stronger. If Drupal can remain a strong player to complement these communities, it also expands the talent pool.

TDT [5]: You are a Drupal Association member and have often spoken about “Focus on the community.” Why is community a salient aspect of Drupal, and for you?

John Doyle: I genuinely believe that Drupal has become this successful because of the community members that drive it forward and advocate for its use. Like many others, I built much of my career on top of Drupal and the community that supports it. I want to #giveback and continue to support the vibrant community that welcomed me when I was starting and has continued to foster my growth from developer to architect to a small business owner.