Ricardo Moutinho

"It's a really simple bug. I could totally go and fix it myself. But it's much faster for me to prompt it out of the agent than to type it myself" - David Gomes from Cursor shared with us on stage how developers can solve bugs faster. At LisbonAI we were looking at the future of coding, how developers can be more efficient and have agents helping them on tasks. Check the full talk available on our YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/dgaDemUm

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It is always an immense pleasure to share the stage with Giorgio Polvara. For the second consecutive year, we co-hosted a workshop at #BuildCon2025, the annual conference of the Builders team at TravelPerk. As Giorgio said, our workshop, "Keep it Clean: modern practices for frontend excellence", focused on a core principle: software architectures degrade over time, and it's our job to keep them clean. We reflected on the key lessons learned while maintaining and evolving our applications to avoid the "big ball of mud." This included exploring some counterintuitive insights we've gained, such as learning when to duplicate code and when to abstract it, or discovering alternatives to layered architecture that simplify code base splitting. These moments of shared reflection and learning, as Giorgio mentioned, are truly what help us grow stronger as a team. Thanks to everyone who joined for the great discussion! #BuildCon2025 #FrontendExcellence #SoftwareArchitecture #EngineeringLife #TravelPerk

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Meet Dr.Flávio Lisboa, a seasoned technology analyst, certified software architect, and acclaimed author, as he introduces his new book: "Mastering Test-Driven Development with PHP 8." This practical guide empowers you to build bug-free, high-quality PHP applications from the ground up! With over a decade as a speaker at PHP Conference Brazil and extensive experience in software architecture, open-source software, and various database technologies at Serpro, Latin America's largest public IT company, Dr. Lisboa brings unparalleled expertise to this guide. In this book, you'll embark on a structured learning journey, mastering TDD principles using PHPUnit and Composer. You'll write tests for fundamental PHP concepts, handle web interactions, and build a real-world book registration application using MySQL and MongoDB. Dive into Object-Oriented PHP 8, explore design patterns, API development, and tackle critical aspects like security, authentication, and authorization. By the end, you'll possess the skills and confidence to implement TDD effectively, leading to more stable and maintainable applications. This book is perfect for PHP developers of all levels looking to adopt TDD and significantly improve their application architecture. Ready to become a highly competent PHP 8 developer? Your journey to TDD mastery starts here! Grab your copy today! https://lnkd.in/gwCrnE2s https://lnkd.in/gBBxRmyi #PHP #PHP8 #TDD #TestDrivenDevelopment #CleanCode #MySQL #MongoDB #BPBPublications #TechBook

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The middle-management crisis in tech isn't a bug. It's a feature. Summer 2018. Portugal. Living my dream as an international EM. But I felt like shit. I wasn't coding anymore. Every attempt to touch code made me a bottleneck for my team. I was delaying instead of enabling them. The mythical idea of "leading while staying technical" crumbled in my face. I was in crisis. Here's what I learned after years of this love-hate relationship with management: 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹. For years, you measured success by: - Tickets closed - Features shipped   - Code reviews completed Linear. Tangible. Dopamine-inducing. Now, your success is measured by other people's success. No PRs with your name. No tickets assigned to you. No Jira metrics computed for your user. You're orchestrating from the backstage while others take the spotlight. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲. Your team doesn't need you to close their tasks. They need you to enable them to close their cards. That restless feeling you get when you see your team diving deep into code while you're stuck in your fourth meeting of the day? That's not failure. That's growth. It's your brain trying to reconcile who you were with who you're becoming. I remember working late nights on a mission-critical project while my wife was breastfeeding our newborn. When we finally delivered, I felt invisible. No recognition. No appreciation. Just a void. But that taught me something powerful: 𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲. I set them up for success. I was the shit-funnel. I removed the noise so they could do their best work. The crisis will follow you even when you're not in middle management anymore. The desire to go back to IC will always be there. Sometimes dormant. Sometimes screaming. But remember this: every great leader has walked this path. Your impact has multiplied beyond any single feature you could have built. The problems you solve now are bigger than any code you could have written. So embrace the crisis. Sit with the discomfort. That's a high worth chasing.

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Most businesses keep redesigning their website every year… but ignore the one thing that actually powers growth: The architecture holding everything together. Beautiful UI doesn’t matter if your foundation is weak. Here’s what I keep seeing again and again: 🔻 A fancy homepage sitting on a slow, poorly configured server 🔻 Modern UI running on outdated PHP or Node versions 🔻 New features built on top of unstructured, messy code 🔻 Plugins added without checking conflicts or performance impact 🔻 No caching, no optimization, no load strategy And then business owners wonder: “Why does my website crash?” “Why is speed getting worse?” “Why are conversions dropping?” Because design doesn’t fix architecture. Only proper engineering does. Here’s how strong architecture changes everything: ✅ 40–60% faster load speed ✅ Smoother scalability during traffic peaks ✅ Stronger security against attacks ✅ Clean, maintainable code for future growth ✅ Higher conversions because nothing breaks If your website looks new but performs old, you’re not scaling you’re leaking. In 2025, brands that win aren’t the ones with the most features. They’re the ones whose architecture is built to grow, not collapse.

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When I asked a visually impaired developer to review the accessibility of four popular iOS apps, he made a surprising discovery. All four were making the same big accessibility mistake… They built interactive elements without telling blind users what they are - or even that they exist at all. This was the finding of Diogo Melo, a mobile app developer who is himself blind, who I engaged at Welldone Consulting to undertake a research project to analyse the accessibility of four popular UK not-for-profit apps. For each of the four, he found that custom-built buttons and interactive components were never assigned the correct accessibility trait (iOS accessibility specialist Rob W. has also previously written about how critical these are!). Why is this a problem? To a sighted user, a button can be made to look like a button with the help of graphic design. That type of visual motif doesn’t benefit a visually impaired user. It’s vital that instead, accessibility software like Apple’s VoiceOver is given the necessary context to indicate an interactive element accurately. Without it, visually impaired users don’t know a button is there, and aren’t able to interact with it. In my last post on this research I mentioned a terms and conditions tickbox at the outset of using an app, which Diogo was unable to interact with. This was an example of a missing accessibility trait. But the problems stretch deeper across all four apps - with accessibility traits missing from… - Donation method options - Text fields (meaning they can’t be completed) - Buy buttons - Back buttons (a significant barrier to basic navigation) - Event listings …and many more. What’s intriguing is that in principle, the fix here is simple - assign the correct trait. Yet all four apps are missing these. It’s a must that they’re implemented. Without it, the work done throughout the rest of the app to optimise for accessibility is wasted. For me, it points to a systemic gap in how accessibility is considered during development. So often that gap presents as a lack of consistency. For accessibility optimisation to be effective, consistency is key. When the consistency isn’t there, any good work that might have been performed to make an app accessible is so quickly undone. But when it is, a rising tide raises all ships - a clearer, more flexible design that improves the experience for everyone. . . . Image alt text: Two smartphone screens are shown side by side. On the left hand side smartphone screen, large text reads ‘What sighted users see’. Underneath this text is: 1) A turqoise-coloured button with text reading ‘Donate now’ 2) A white text entry field with light grey text reading ‘Enter email address’ 3) A smaller dark blue coloured button with text reading ‘Sign up’ On the right hand side smartphone screen, large text reads ‘What a blind user’s screen reader hears’. Underneath this text are four small grey buttons, each with a question mark overlaid. 

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Moltbook, the new social network for AI agents such as Openclaw, has provided us with a fascinating glimpse into a future shaped by AI. For decades, software was written to provide humans with an interface with computers. We evolved from Xerox, the first Apple PCs, Windows, Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and beyond today. In the near future software will prioritize interfaces for AI agents. UI/UX will be entirely AI-focused. The days of navigating dashboards, interfaces, and CRMs will give way to a future where we tell our Claude agents to interface with our applications for us. Fetch messages, reach out to leads, collect data, and so forth. Although there isn't true autonomy in these agent posts, the door to the future has been opened. This is akin to you first hearing about Facebook in 2004. Agent Web 1.0 has just started. Get ready.

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If you run a business, or lead an organization, and you are looking for how you can lead your team further into AI adoption, give this interview a watch. Ben Fanning interviews Lucas Mendes, the CEO of Revelo, and they go deep on some great content to help you accelerate your AI adoption. Context is king, and data is currency. How does this impact your AI implementation? This interview goes into that. Links in the comments. #GetLucky #AIinTech #DataIsLuck

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🚀 React & JavaScript performance optimization: beyond the myths. We’re excited to announce that Carles Nuñez Tomeo, Product Engineer at Framer, is joining #devbcn25! With over a decade of experience across frontend development, platform refactors, and CMS engines, Carles has helped teams scale with speed and elegance. His talk: “Demystifying React and JavaScript Web Performance Optimization Patterns, Tips and Tricks” You’ll walk away with practical ways to level up your app’s performance—rooted in real data, smart patterns, and years of battle-tested engineering. 🎯 If you’re building for the web, this one’s unmissable. 📍 La Farga, Hospitalet de Llobregat 📅 July 8–10, 2025 🌐 https://buff.ly/J94mzOw #devbcn25 #ReactJS #JavaScript #WebPerformance #FrontendEngineering #TechConference #Barcelona #Framer

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AI is Awesome, But It Won’t Solve All Your Problems. Even if it comes with cute little avatars. So… I signed up for Sintra AI (the little characters were too cute, do not judge me I fell for the marketing), I have ChatGPT, and plenty of AI memberships, yet I am running super late on my posts, have yet to analyze the data I said I would, do my rotator cuff rehab I promised to my trainer, and I’ve gotta remember to call my father once in a while.. cause I talked to him the other day and honestly he's a great guy, I love him, and also I put him on a project but he's not a techie as you could imagine, so he won't be updating Jira or Clickup 🙄 Despite all this AI, why do I still hire people? Should I just replace everyone with a GPT-powered clone and keep my dad on the team since I don’t pay him anyway? Nope. Because — here’s the truth — AI won’t do it all. Especially not in places where human connection, intuition, and cultural nuance matter (like my work with my dad cause .. anything in Algeria needs people skills as we say 'l3arf' where I come from, that AI would never achieve haha). Also, let’s be honest: Half the time I either a) don’t know what to prompt, b) don’t have time to prompt, or c) forget what I even needed because I got distracted writing a post about prompting. Yes, I build AI solutions for a living. Yes, I might be putting myself out of a job by saying this. But I genuinely believe this: AI is here to enhance human work, not erase it. If you're scared it’s going to take your job — remember this: Even in a car, you still need legs to brake. (I don’t drive, but I’m pretty sure that’s still how it works.) And that’s exactly the philosophy behind HoliHOP — the platform I’m building. It uses AI to recommend workouts, trainers, and meal plans… but the real value is in the human professionals behind it. The dietitians. The personal trainers. The physios. Tech supports them, it doesn’t replace them. Automation doesn’t replace our humanity — it’s a tool. A very smart, occasionally sassy tool, but a tool nonetheless. So let’s use it where it matters. Let it take the repetitive stuff off your plate so you can focus on what actually makes an impact. Let’s keep the soul in our work, and maybe also call our dads more often. 💡 Let AI amplify your skills, not replace your value. (but just in case my designer is creating a little 3D avatar for HoliHOP called Holly) holihop.ai

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What's one process that kills team productivity and no one dares to shut it down? Fábio, Director of Engineer at Infraspeak, dared to answer: Scrum. 🔍 #Craftmatters2025

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𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗪𝗲 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝟮𝘅 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝗧𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲.. Three years ago, we built booking app for a local gym in Ireland. The budget wasn’t great. The margins weren’t there. Honestly, it didn’t look profitable at first. But we made a decision: deliver value as if the product was our own. 𝗪𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱: ✅ A mobile app for iOS and Android ✅ An administrative CRM ✅ Play Store & App Store publishing ✅ 2 months of free post-launch maintenance That small post-launch maintenance step: prioritizing minor fixes with speed and quality left a strong impression. The client converted to a 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁. Fast forward 3 years… We’ve earned 𝟮𝘅 the original development cost just from ongoing maintenance, added new features, and built a reputation that brings in referrals whenever needed. And this is the real answer when people ask us at InfinityBits: “How do you do business development? What’s your sales funnel? What’s your lead gen source?” 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: we retain clients by giving them more value than they expect. That retention creates referrals, which create new opportunities. Not every project is profitable upfront. But if you build with integrity and ownership, the long-term payoff is always bigger than the short-term margin. That’s how we grow.

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Recently I was asked to create a short video for a talk I'll be presenting in September in Portugal. It's something I had never done before and honestly I didn't feel up to the task, but at the same time I didn't want to give up this opportunity to make myself known as a professional Ruby expert to a wide audience. After several attempts I finally managed to get a satisfactory result and based on this experience I feel like giving some advice if you find yourself in the same situation: - unless you're masters of improvisation, you need to memorize the text you want to say in the video and you need to learn to do it naturally, balancing emphasis and pauses; reading from a text would make the video artificial and if you don't know well what you're going to say the speech will be less fluid and pleasant to follow; - there's no need to have a cinematic set, but lighting and settings make a huge difference even in an amateur video; - there's no need to put on makeup or go to the hairdresser before recording the video, but present yourself tidily and with clothes suitable for the context; - even when you know perfectly well the text, record the video as many times as you think necessary for it to meet expectations; at the end of each recording, rewatch yourself (I know, it's scary!) and try to identify the points to improve (I have rerecorded 50 times for a video of less than a minute!); - involve people you trust to ask for advice and suggestions; these people won't necessarily be right and you won't have to follow their advice, but they can help you fix unexpected details (regarding this, thanks to Andrea Carratta, Antonio Tancredi and Marco Villani for their help and patience!) ; If you have any other advice or comments about this, speak up!

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Software engineering is becoming more about orchestration than production. It's becoming less about building software directly, and more about building the systems that build software. Agentic software development is still in its early days, yet it is already remarkably powerful. At inference level alone, it is now very easy to spin up multiple parallel teams of agentes (for example, an architect, a backend specialist, a frontend specialist, plus QA and security roles) assign them independent large tasks, align the architects upfront, and let them delegate execution across the other agents following a fairly standard SDLC flow. What is striking is that this can now be orchestrated FROM ONE SINGLE PROMPT. My sense is that specialised agents will eventually outperform general ones in many scenarios. But even without a highly complex setup, the current generation of general-purpose agents is already capable of producing surprisingly strong results. The real constraint is elsewhere: you cannot rush quality. Verification and validation are becoming the new bottlenecks. Not only from a technical validation perspective, but especially in ensuring that requirements, intent and implementation remain aligned throughout the process with dozens of agents working simultaneously and interdependently. My bet is that roles such as Business Analysts and QA Engineers will become even more valuable in the coming years. And software engineers who do not adapt to this new reality, where the job increasingly includes designing and governing the systems that build on their behalf, risk being left behind. --- Helping organisations scale engineering teams, strengthen technology strategy, and build high-performing tech hubs. https://lnkd.in/e3-vuCCX

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Lisbon AI last week was eye-opening: 1) AI agents aren’t a fad, they’re reshaping how we build software. 2) Vibe coding isn’t amateur hacking - it’s a legitimate development mode: fast, intuitive, and creative. Since switching careers, I’ve watched AI adoption go through hyper-rapid iterations. Yet, it was hard to know what other teams—or even developers on my own team—were doing. For a long time, there was little conversation around these shifts. Only recently has the industry started naming these practices and openly discussing prompt engineering and AI-assisted workflows. Now it's clear: it's a true fundamental shapeshift of how we develop apps. But we’re still using old paradigms for hiring and team design while stepping into new territory. And we're also looking at it in a binary way: someone is either a vibe coder or isn't. Does seniority matter if tomorrow someone can ramp up in a completely new stack? Is stack specialization still relevant? I think we’re ready to turn a new leaf and adopt new models for delivering code and hiring developers. I'm calling it The Vibe–Structure Scale (VSS)™. I’m preparing a white paper, and next week I’ll share a preview plus a deck that explains practical ways to apply it to your workflow today. DM to learn more! Because here’s the key: vibe coding and structure aren’t opposites - they coexist on a spectrum. Understanding that spectrum is essential for building modern workflows.

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one cool thing about working with such talented devs like Neliton Mateus is that theres always a really quick response (fresh code) to new info from business or backend. one not cool thing is that means im always in rebase hell. so ive become a pro at rebasing. if anyone needs any tips, heres my tried and true workflow: 1. quickly review everything ive been doing on my local branch, and everything on the branch im going to rebase off of so i know whats going on. also be sure that my working branch is pushed to remote, *this is important for later.* 2. give up on that review about 45 seconds in and just chanceum instead 3. run git rebase command 4. spend three minutes starting to fix conflicts, then get very confused. forget if "incoming changes" means the ones i made, or the ones im trying to rebase from. start seeing stuff like incoming change is just an added empty line. why is this in the conflicts? surely that can just be added. also going back, wouldnt it be incoming as in the changes i made, because im laying these on top of the rebase? or is it cuz the rebased code is incoming to my local machine? also, for keep ours/theirs which is "ours" and which is "theirs"??? who even chose these relative terms anyway? okay look it up, incoming changes are my working branches changes. and "ours" equals rebase branch, "theirs" is actually mine, my local changes. decide this does make sense. tell myself ill remember this, because i have to google it every time. 5. go get a refill of coffee, hoping that the rebase magically finishes while im gone 6. no it has not magically fixed, and now i forgot which is "theirs" and which is "ours" again. 7. abort rebase. go back to checkout the rebasing branch. create a new branch. this is where that earlier published branch comes in. copy paste over the changes i made on my now useless confused branch to my new fresh happy branch. optional: delete shameful branches to hide evidence of what happened. this is less effective if naming new branch something like "feature/persist-data.2-electric-boogaloo" 8. pray i can pr this new branch before Neliton Mateus does another pr. if not, go back to step 1. hope this helps.

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🤖 From Code Suggestions to Code Intentions — Agentic AI in Action We’re entering a new phase of AI in software development — not just assistive, but agentic. Tried out Windsurf inside IntelliJ IDEA recently, and it felt less like an autocomplete engine… and more like a collaborator. 💡 What stood out: • It understood what I was building, not just the line I was on • It followed through across files, patterns, and naming conventions • It anticipated structural decisions, not just syntax This is what Agentic AI looks like in practice: An AI that acts with awareness of goal, context, and consistency — not just local code completion. It’s a subtle shift, but a profound one: From typing faster ➡️ to thinking less about the small stuff so you can focus on design, architecture, and solving real problems. If you’re building in IntelliJ, Windsurf is worth exploring. Agentic development is no longer just a research paper — it’s landing in our IDEs. #AgenticAI #Windsurf #IntelliJIDEA #AIinSoftware #DeveloperExperience #JetBrains #FutureOfCoding #AIProductivity #DevTools

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Day 1 at Web Summit in Lisbon ✅ Great energy, clear insights, and a strong sense of where the industry is heading. One of today’s highlights was the talk from Lovable showcasing how AI can lower the barrier for building real products, not just prototypes. The vision of “building for the 99%” really stood out. Empowering people who don’t come from traditional engineering backgrounds to actually create, launch, and iterate products is a powerful shift. It’s a reminder that innovation isn’t only about sophistication, it’s about accessibility, simplicity, and real-world impact. On to Day 2, momentum is real. 🚀 #WebSummit #Lisbon #AI #Tech #Innovation #Lovable #BuildInPublic #FutureOfWork

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