Tailwind CSS: A Divisive Darling or Just Divisive?
22 April 2025
A tale told through the lenses of a frontend software engineer battling with a piece of technology that he wasn't paid to play with.
Leonardo Lemos
Frontend engineer, software architecture enthusiast, and open-source contributor.
Experience
Software Engineer, Frontend
Dec 2024 - PresentSkills:React, TypeScript, JavaScript, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, CSS/HTML, Figma, Storybook, Jest, Cypress, Prettier, Technical Writing, ESLint, CI/CD, Agile, Scrum, Nx, Git, GitHub, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, Cursor
Software Engineer, Frontend
Jul 2022 - Dec 2024- Achieved an 87.5% decrease in the application's first paint time, improving it from 6.4 seconds to 0.8 seconds through backend-for-frontend service development with NestJS, handling 30 HTTP requests efficiently.
- Collaborate with designers and backend developers to integrate front-end components and conduct code reviews and provided feedback to team members.
- Implemented scalable and efficient front-end solutions to optimize website performance and loading times for better user engagement.
- Utilised debugging tools and techniques to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues promptly. Document technical specifications, guidelines, and best practices to facilitate knowledge sharing and support efficient onboarding of new team members.
- Instrumental in securing 63% of AB-InBev's $57.8B revenue for 2022 by spearheading digital transformation initiatives, enabling seamless transactions with various renowned vendors.
- Significantly slashed bugs and code smells by 38% utilizing Chat GPT (AI), LangChain, and Azure pipelines, and meticulously crafted 180 unit and end-to-end tests across three repositories to ensure bug-free operations.
- Streamlined development process by 60% by independently architect-ing the organisation's web application design system for B2B e-commerce, now catering to over 3M monthly active users.
- Mentored and onboarded a team of four professionals, offering transparent guidance on roles and responsibilities, and creating intuitive software documentation to enhance UX.
Skills:React, JavaScript, TypeScript, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, CSS, Redux, Jotai, Node.js, NestJS, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Azure DevOps, Git, GitHub, Jest, Storybook, Cypress, Prettier, ESLint, CI/CD, Agile, Scrum, Cursor, LangChain, ChatGPT
Software Engineer, Frontend
Feb 2020 - Jul 2022- Boosted net promoter score by 15% points through deployment of accessible fiscal and legal automation features, significantly improving customer satisfaction.
- Captivated over 15K new customers to organization by creating a minimal viable product in just three months at age of 16, using React.js, TypeScript, Next.js, and GitLab
- Mentored and onboarded four new professionals, enhancing team capabilities and ensuring robust cross-functional collaboration.
- Enhanced user experience and operational efficiency at Smarten Venture Builder by spearheading development of 12 user-centric applications, including all testing, planning, rollout, and debugging efforts.
- Drove adoption of new technologies tailored to specific products and features, contributing to continuous innovation of development process.
- Increased feature delivery threefold by transitioning monolith and semi-monolith applications to microservice and micro front-end architectures.
- Streamlined legal document release process, reducing average user's time to under one minute and expanding monthly active user base to over 70K within a year.
- Applied industry best practices to foster developer rotation and improve team culture, while rigorously testing SaaS platform quality using frameworks like Cypress, Jest, and Playwright
Skills:React, JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS/HTML, Figma, Jest, Storybook, Cypress, Prettier, ESLint, Redux, GitLab, GitLab CI/CD, Git, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, Terraform, CI/CD, Agile, Scrum