The idea for OpinionCamp had been sitting in my head for a long time. I first thought about it around 2021 or 2022, but like many ideas, it stayed parked while we focused on our other plugins – WP Table Builder and Ultimate Blocks.
This year, as WordCamp Dhaka 2025 was approaching, an idea came to my mind.
The event was happening after six long years, the last one being in 2019. Back then, we were one of the sponsors. But this year, we decided not to sponsor – which suddenly opened up a rare opportunity: a free weekend with the whole team together in Dhaka.
So I thought — why not use that time to build something new?
Something we’ve been meaning to do for years.
That’s how the OpinionCamp hackathon was born.
Planning the Hackathon
A few weeks before WordCamp Dhaka, I shared the idea during one of our weekly team meetings – a WordPress plugin to collect feedback through polls, reactions, and surveys. Everyone instantly liked the idea.
I asked Arif to do some research on other poll plugins, especially those that were block-based. He did an excellent job. He came back with solid insights and a simple plan we could execute within a short time.
My initial idea was to have two types of polls — one for specific posts or pages, and another for site-wide or campaign-level polls. But after some discussion, we decided to focus only on the post/page-level poll for the first version. That decision made the scope manageable for a hackathon.
The Hackathon Day
The hackathon took place the day after WordCamp Dhaka, on October 19, 2025.
We booked an Airbnb near Zahin bhai’s house for three nights. It became our little headquarters for the weekend.
It wasn’t fancy, just a few chairs, laptops, and a TV connected as a big screen. But it was enough. Zahin bhai and his wife kindly took care of tea and coffee for everyone that day, which honestly kept us going.
It was the first time in a while that most of us worked side by side. Usually, we’re a remote team, each working from our own setup. But this time, it was different — we were brainstorming, writing code, testing ideas, fixing bugs, all together in one room.
There was a certain energy in that room — the kind you only get when a team truly clicks.
Crafting the Brand Identity
While the developers were preparing for the build, Arif also worked on creating a visual identity for OpinionCamp.
He designed the logo, picked the brand colors, and set the overall design direction that would guide both the plugin UI and the website.
The logo perfectly reflects the essence of the product — a clean, modern “C” shape that subtly forms a dialogue bubble, symbolizing conversation and feedback.
The color palette he chose balances trust and energy, using deep blue for reliability and a bright accent color for interactivity.
These design decisions set the tone for everything that followed — from the plugin interface to the coming soon page.
12+ Hours of Building
We started in the morning and kept going for more than 12 hours straight. By the end of the day, we had finished around 80% of the first version of the plugin — including the core feature: the Poll Block.
Saad bhai took the lead on development, while Zahin bhai worked in parallel on rebuilding the Tableberg plugin structure. Arif handled the design direction and planning side. I mostly oversaw the flow, made product decisions, and helped with coordination.
For a first hackathon, it was a huge success. The poll creation block was fully functional — you could create a poll right inside the WordPress block editor, customize it, and preview it live. Seeing that first version working was a special feeling.
And even though Imtiaz couldn’t join in person from New York, he called us on Messenger for a few minutes, just to say hi and cheer us on.
Reflections & What’s Next
By the time we wrapped up, we were exhausted but incredibly satisfied.
We had turned an old idea into a real product — in a single day.
We’ll definitely be doing more hackathons in the future. Not necessarily to build new plugins every time, but to collaborate in person, experiment, and push our products forward. As a remote team, these meetups give us the chance to bond, share ideas, and build things faster than ever.
OpinionCamp will continue to evolve from here. This is just the beginning — the first step in our journey to make feedback collection in WordPress simple and block-native.
If you’d like to try the first version, you can now download it from our site.
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