Simon Long: Building Shorthand for WordPress

By Ricky Robinson

In our latest episode of Shorthanding, we sat down with Simon Long, senior platform engineer at Shorthand, to discuss his journey from heavy C++ and Python development to crafting a seamless WordPress publishing experience.

A Seamless WordPress Integration

When designing the Shorthand for WordPress integration, Simon and the small project team stayed focused on a singular, clear objective: keep the user inside their existing workflow. “We wanted to make it very WordPress-y,” Simon says. “We wanted it to feel like they were in WordPress and that they didn't have to get out of WordPress and jump through a lot of hoops.”

By building directly on top of WordPress user accounts, tools, and terminology, they succeeded in bringing elite, editorial-grade storytelling to the CMS without adding friction. It gives publishers the best of both worlds: Shorthand's rich visual narrative tools inside the familiar dashboard they use every day.

Collaboration & What's Next

As WordPress approaches major updates and rolls out more native AI functionality, Shorthand remains ahead of the curve. For instance, while native real-time collaboration has been slow to arrive in WordPress proper, it is already a core feature of the Shorthand experience—even inside WordPress.

Looking ahead, Simon has big plans for deepening this relationship even further. “I want shorthand to be more visible in somebody's WordPress site,” he shares, pointing to upcoming goals like better search visibility, richer excerpts in native themes, and tighter connections to WordPress media libraries.

From Heavy Engineering to Collaborative Platforms

Before joining Shorthand, Simon spent his career in the heavy engineering worlds of C++, Python, ground-penetrating radar, road scanning, and 3D game engines. Transitioning to Shorthand was “a breath of fresh air,” bringing him into a highly collaborative, communicative culture where his deep mathematical and rendering background could help build long-term platform systems like publishing lifecycles and authentication protocols.

Simon also has eyes on the broader industry, particularly how AI is shifting digital publishing. He warns of content inflation, where tools make it easy to produce text that is ⁓ten times less concise than before. To combat this, Simon focuses on the “lifecycle of communication rather than the lifecycle of a web page,” designing systems that help readers and creators connect meaningfully rather than just exchange automated outputs.