Frontend Coffee Break - Podcast

Ep. #55: CSS is getting a boost in 2026

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:16:57 +0100

We discuss a bunch of new CSS features you should know in 2026. Not all of them are baseline available but we should be ready for when they are. Here are the new things we talk about:

corner-shape: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Properties/corner-shape
Custom Select: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Extensions/Forms/Customizable_select
Scroll State: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Conditional_rules/Container_scroll-state_queries
Text Box: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Properties/text-box
Sibling Index: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Values/sibling-index
Sibling Count: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Values/sibling-count
if() functions: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Values/if
Custom Functions: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Custom_functions_and_mixins/Using_custom_functions
width, height: stretch https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Properties/width#stretch
shape function: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Values/basic-shape/shape
Scroll Markers: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Selectors/::scroll-marker

Ep. #54: From "Works on Chrome" to "Works on Web"

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 08:30:00 +0100

We discuss Interop 2025 and the upcoming 2026 edition that has opened the call to action for feature suggestions. Chucho and Ricard explain you how they used to hack browsers to get that cross-browser support with JavaScript polyfills and CSS conditional rules. These days are gone, we look forward to more browser interoperability. We have a small wishlist for 2026, what's yours?

https://wpt.fyi/interop-2025

Ep. #53: The raise of the amateur website and AI

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 09:00:00 +0100

We discuss how inexperienced developers are leveling up, how no-code solutions are taking over, and do you even need to know how to code anymore? Is vibe coding the new go-to for everything or just certain use cases?

Ep. #52: The Importance of Taking Time Off

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 09:13:48 +0100

Long vacations, short vacations? How to take time off, how to plan your vacations? How do you unplug from coding in your time off? Or do you keep coding on personal projects while you're off work?

Ep. #51: The State of the Framework in 2025

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 11:59:08 +0200

The State of JS survey is open. We discuss React, Svelte, Vue, vanilla JS... We have opinions about it and we want to hear yours too.

Ep. #50: How to deal with impossible deadlines

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 11:10:23 +0200

We've all been there, you're thrown into a very tight project schedule that might be impossible to deliver. What can we do in these situations?

Ep. #49: FE is complex, can we make it simpler?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 09:20:32 +0200

Frontend has gone from FTP to the frameworks war, to complicated pipelines with hundreds of node modules. Why did we do this? Is it getting better? Should we do something about it?

Ep. #48: FE Journey Through the Remote Work Revolution

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 09:20:09 +0200

Chucho and Ricard discuss how remote work has changed, where are they more productive now and invite you to share your take. What's your best work setup?

Ep. #47: What motivates FE Developers?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:54:04 +0200

We talk what lights a fire under us, what motivates us to continue working FE. Is it the stack? A new shiny framework? UI? UX? Have a listen and let us know what motivates you to code.

Ep. #46: Are Frontend Developers going away?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 16:23:37 +0200

We discuss how AI is making FE developers obsolete (maybe!). Are we going to disappear? What can we do to ensure we continue to exist? How to embrace AI to be more productive?

Ep. #45: Storybook, Web Components and Figma Tokens

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 16:24:32 +0200

This is an angular-free podcast but we do talk web components. Chucho and Ricard discuss Storybook, what to consider when thinking about using it. Are Figma tokens the future? Sources of truth are nice but are they worth it?

What's your experience with these tools?

Ep. #44: Technical Interviews in the age of AI

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 07 May 2025 10:00:00 +0200

We discuss how AI has changed the way we do interviews. Remote only, plus access to AI chats has forced the industry to work differently. How should we conduct interviews? What should we ask? What should we look for in candidates?

Ep. #43: Mobile First in 2025: Why Are We Still Getting It Wrong?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 09:08:52 +0200

Ricard today complains about sites not being mobile-first and Chucho drops a history lesson. What is mobile first? Why are we still talking about this? How can we deliver better experiences?

Ep. #42: Accessibility in 2025, tips to be ready

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 09:02:50 +0200

We discuss the European Accessibility Act (EAA) that might affect your website, how to check, and deal with common issues. How hard is it to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA? We give you an insight and share our experience.

What's your experience with accessibility?

Ep. #41: How we manage stress in the FE world

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 09:00:00 +0100

We chat about things that can be stressful as a FE developer, we suggest things that work for us on how to deal and mitigate it (for you and you team).

Share your tips and tricks with us!

Ep. #40: CSS in 2024 was fun

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 09:00:00 +0100

We share what we loved most about the 2024 CSS Wrapped as well as other CSS changes we've witnessed over the years that changed our way of working (yes, we will talk about border-radius).

What where CSS changes that blew your mind?
https://chrome.dev/css-wrapped-2024/

Ep. #39: Best practices, standards and guidelines

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 13:34:07 +0100

We discuss how we work with guidelines, standards and best practices at Cognizant Netcentric. Including our very own ESLint and Stylelint open source configurations.

Do you follow any guidelines when coding FE?

Ep. #38: Morals, ethics and being eco-friendly as a FE Developer

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 10:30:30 +0100

We discuss the moral of working for certain industries, how can we be more green (spoiler: it's web performance) as developers, as well as open source.

Ep. #37: Lessons learned as FE Developers

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 00:41:08 +0100

Chucho and Ricard have been coding for more than 18 years. These old time developers will share some of their hard learned lessons on being a developer and/or a FE Lead.

Share your sips of wisdom with us.

Ep. #36: How to keep up to date with FE?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 15:19:32 +0200

Why is it important to be on the loop for the latest and greatest FE technologies out there? The latest JavaScript framework? What's possible with the latest CSS? Performance and SEO... There's just so much. We share our tips and tricks to stay fresh and relevant.

Ep. #35: Patterns, anti-patterns and dark patterns

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 14:29:36 +0200

We explain the differences, share examples and give you plenty resources to get you started. Chucho can't stress enough that you should read these at least once!

patterns.dev
Gang Of Four GOF Design Patterns Design Patterns
deceptive.design

Ep. #34: Development conferences. Worth it?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 22:00:16 +0200

We talk about web development conferences, going in-person or attending online. Are they worth it? What's the benefit? Couldn't you just watch a recording?

What's the most interesting conference you've ever attended? If you haven't yet, any conferences you'd like to go to?

Ep. #33: How to write quality and maintainable code?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 13:34:56 +0200

We chat what is code quality, what are code smells, tips and tricks to make your code readable and maintainable.

What are your tips?
Code quality metrics: https://www.sealights.io/code-quality/code-quality-metrics-is-your-code-any-good/

Ep. #32: Knowledge Sharing in your Team

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 11:15:39 +0200

We discuss different ways to do knowledge sharing in your team or company. The challenges we've faced and what has worked for us.
Find out about our Netcentric Academy https://www.netcentric.biz/jobs

Ep. #31: How we started 2 frontend podcasts

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 11:47:54 +0200

Did you know we have both this and a different internal FE podcast? The internal podcast started first and gave us the idea to start one on YouTube. Tune in to know how it all began and what we learned along the way.

Ep. #30: Accessibility Month

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 28 May 2024 14:21:39 +0200

What is Accessibility? What's your experience with Web Accessibility? What does it mean a website is accessible? Keyboard navigation? Labels? These and more in today's episode.

https://accessibility.day/
https://www.w3.org/WAI/
https://dynomapper.com/blog/27-accessibility-testing/273-wcag-the-web-content-accessibility-guidelines-explained

Ep. #29: Should you use Web Components?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 28 May 2024 10:00:00 +0200

What's your take on Web Components? What are the best use cases? Should you use them for regular AEM projects? What's the best thing about Web Components?

Check out a performance comparison of different frameworks and techniques to create Web Components: https://webcomponents.dev/blog/all-the-ways-to-make-a-web-component/

Ep. #28: Chucho loves Single Page Apps

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 12:50:25 +0100

SPA? MPA? Are these still relevant in 2024? When would you use an SPA vs a regular MPA? Have you heard about the new View Transitions API?

Ep. #27: What is a FE Lead?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 08:00:00 +0100

FE Manager, FE Lead... there are many names for what we think might be the same thing. We discuss what a FE Lead is accountable for. What to expect from a FE Lead? Types of leaderships. Join the conversation and tell us what's the your ideal type of FE Lead.

Ep. #26: How much UX should a FE developer know?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 14:23:26 +0100

We discuss UI, UX, design and the role of the frontend developer.

Reading recommendations

Links
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/
Books by Donald Norman
- The design of Everyday Things
- Emotional Design
Books by Jakob Nielsen
- Usability Engineering
- Designing Web Usability
- Eyetracking Web Usability
Books by Steve Krug
- Don't make me think
- Rocket Surgery Made Easy
Books by Robin Williams (not the actor or singer)
- The Non-Designer's Design Book
Books by Jason Beaird
- The Principals of Beautiful Web Design

Ep. #25: Open sourcing our FE Build

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0100

Today we're joined by Dragan Filipovic, Senior Front-end Software Engineer at Cognizant Netcentric. We talk how he spearheaded the initiative to open source our FE Build.

A Frontend build system that can be used in both AEM and non-AEM projects.

Try it out here:
https://github.com/Netcentric/fe-build

Ep. #24: Content management, decisions or options?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 15:45:00 +0100

When creating web components for content editors, do you give them all the options? or take decisions that will work best for development and maintenance?

We discuss headless vs server-side rendering as well. Ricard loves JSON files. Chucho? Maybe not.

Ep. #23: Impostor Syndrome in Frontend

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 09:00:00 +0100

What is the Impostor Syndrome? How to fight it? Why is it more common than we think in Frontend development? We discuss this and offer some tips that have worked for us!

Ep. #22: AI tools in our every day work

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 12:42:54 +0200

We talk about GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, phind, and Bard. We share how we use it for coding. How about you?

Ep. #21: How to find time for career development?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 15:56:32 +0200

How can you find time for your career development? ⏱️ Here’s our take on it:

In the latest episode of the hit Frontend Coffee Break podcast, we discuss the strategies that frontend leads and managers employ to make room for growth amidst their daily responsibilities.

Ep. #20: Is Mobile First still a thing in 2023?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 10:00:00 +0200

Is the mobile-first mindset still relevant in the world of development? 🧐 Here’s the deal:

Today we discuss the best practices and approaches for developing websites and apps for mobile devices.

Chucho mentions Ricard's library for Two Way Data Binding, here it is: https://github.com/quicoto/two-way-data-binding

Ep. #19: Should you be constantly challenged?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 13:59:07 +0200

What benefits frontend developers the most: working on long-term projects, or switching every six months? 🤝

We discuss the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) on new technologies in the changing world of frontend development.

Ep. #18: Core Web Vitals in 2023

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 10:00:00 +0200

Looking for a better way to optimize and improve your project’s web performance? 🚀 We’ve got you covered:

Today Chucho and Ricard are joined by Ines Akrap, Senior Web Performance Engineer, for insights into Core Web Vitals in 2023.

Additional resources:
🔗 https://github.com/Netcentric/progux

Ep. #17: How to work with images on the web in 2023

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 10:00:00 +0200

Are you a web developer or designer passionate about creating visually stunning, high-performance websites? 🤩

We review the optimal ways how to upload images in 2023.

Additional resources:
- https://web.dev/learn/images
- https://squoosh.app

Ep. #16: Reacting to Rich Harris' video on frameworks and the web

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 10:00:00 +0200

Today we react! It's not necessary but it would give you more context if you watched first Rich Harris' video before listening to the episode. If not, that's ok too, we'll try to give you as much context as possible.

Rich Harris' video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXCipjbcQfM

Ep. #15: Is progressive enhancement worth it?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Thu, 18 May 2023 10:00:00 +0200

There is one question on the minds of web developers and tech enthusiasts everywhere: How 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 relevant is progressive enhancement and graceful degradation in 2023?

In the latest episode of the Frontend Coffee Break podcast, we spill the tea on whether these approaches are still worth it, as well as the best techniques to get the most out of them according to the device you’re using.

Ep. #14: FE Web Performance: the good stuff

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 10:00:00 +0200

We talk about what we look for on a website when it comes to web performance. What are the basic things we first check? What tools do we use?

FE developers even if not web performance experts need to be able to identify issues and how to solve them.

At Cognizant Netcentric we've written some articles about web performance, have a look:
https://www.netcentric.biz/insights/2019/01/web-font-performance
https://www.netcentric.biz/insights/2021/08/css-loading-strategies-1
https://www.netcentric.biz/insights/2021/09/css-loading-strategies-2

Ep. #13: Should you document your code?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 10:00:00 +0200

Time to get real: Should you 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 document your code?

We’re breaking it down in the latest episode of the Frontend Coffee Break podcast.

Our resident experts, Jesús and Ricard, weigh in on whether you should document your code, how often this should be done, and why every developer should use JSDoc on a daily basis.

What's your take on this topic? Any recommendations we might’ve missed?

Ep. #12: JavaScript debugging process

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 24 Mar 2023 00:09:00 +0100

Take a moment to consider your current JavaScript debugging process.

Thankfully, we're dropping some hot tips to make things run smoothly.

In the latest episode of the hit Frontend Coffee Break podcast, Ricard and Chucho delve into the most effective ways to debug JavaScript in 2023, which’ll save every developer loads of time and frustration.

What’s your preferred way to debug JavaScript? Any tips or recommendations we might’ve missed? 🐛

Ep. #11: What is a skill map and why you should have one

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 18:10:34 +0100

How do you know what to learn next? What's the required skills to move to the next level of your career?
Do the skills in job offers reflect what you do on your day to day?

Today we discuss that and how we've implemented for FE at Cognizant Netcentric.

Here some roadmaps to get inspired:

What do you recommend?

Ep. #10: Unit Testing, love it or hate it?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 11:54:37 +0100

Ricard loves unit testing! Chucho will challenge it, is it worth it? A waste of time? Who's going to win today's fight? Do you write unit tests in your projects?

Ep. #9: Remote Interviews

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 12:24:23 +0100

We've been interviewing for a very long time, now that we only do remote interviews we share our tips, do's, best stories and some horrors too.

Share with us what was your best interview, or any tips you can give the rest of the listeners.

Ep. #8: We love side projects

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 09:00:00 +0100

We love to build side projects, to learn something new, have fun, or just solve a problem.

Today we discuss what these are and some tips, as well as ideas.

Question for you: do you usually do side projects? Share the latest you've done!

Ep. #7: Public speaking, knowledge sharing and why you should try it!

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 09:00:00 +0100

We give you our take on why we think knowledge sharing is important and some of the ways we do it at Cognizant Netcentric.
What's your experience with public speaking?

Ep. #6: Which CSS should you learn in 2023?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:13:35 +0100

CSS has come so far, we share what we used to do, what we do in JS and what can we do in CSS. What are you most looking for in CSS for 2023? Is there any change that has surprised you this year?

Learn more:
https://smolcss.dev/
https://www.udemy.com/course/css-grid-mastering/
https://flexboxfroggy.com/
https://cssgridgarden.com/

Ep. #5: How much is too much JavaScript?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 14:01:50 +0100

When starting a website do you always think about the JavaScript framework first? Can we reduce the amount of JavaScript? Server Side Rendering is still the best approach?

Learn more:

- https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Progressive_Enhancement
- https://qwik.builder.io

Ep. #4: Why TypeScript?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 10:00:00 +0100

Do you use TypeScript? Should you? When is it a good approach? Large projects, small projects...
Join in on the discussion.

Learn more:
- https://www.typescriptlang.org/
- https://github.com/tc39/proposal-type-annotations
- https://github.com/features/copilot

Ep. #3: What is a FrontEnd Developer?

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 09:50:56 +0200

In this episode, we share our perspectives on the must-have knowledge, understanding of frameworks and the kinds skills Frontend Developers need to have today.

Learn more:
- https://frontendmasters.com/guides/learning-roadmap/
- https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS
- https://www.amazon.es/Secrets-JavaScript-Ninja-John-Resig/dp /193398869X

Ep. #2: How to create desktop apps using Frontend stack

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 12:48:43 +0200

Our topic for today is desktop apps, specifically applications created using Frontend technologies (HTML, JS, and CSS), which are specifically designed for desktop use.

Is it your first time coding a desktop application? Then tune in and listen to how they create desktop apps using Frontend stack and get your insights.

Learn more:

Ep. #1: Why should you have a blog?!

Chucho Castañeda & Ricard Torres — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 17:37:39 +0200

In a world of vlogs, is blogging something from the last decade?
We dare to say blogging is still a trending topic!
In this episode of Frontend Coffee Break, Chucho and Ricard discuss the basics, the latest technology stack, and the benefits of blogging.

Tune in and listen to their personal and professional blogging experiences!

Do you have a blog? Any FE related blogs you read?

Learn more:

- https://jekyllrb.com
- https://github.com/barryclark/jekyll-now
- https://brew.sh/
- https://gohugo.io/getting-started/quick-start/
- https://github.com/features/actions
- https://netcentric.github.io/