Pablo López Mestre
In the interview, Pablo mentioned that he has 15+ years of experience in Software development. Also, he mentioned that he was the co-organizer of WordCamp Madrid 2017, and 2018. In his free time, he likes to travel, cook and eat.
Introduction:
I was born in Madrid (Spain). Father of two children, husband of a wonderful wife, and developer advocate. I have more than 15 years’ experience in software development, mostly specialized in WordPress. I have a blog based on WordPress development where I write about it: https://desarrollowp.com
Currently, I am Tech Lead at Nateevo. I like clean code, best practices, standards and WPO…
I was part of the WordPress Madrid Meetup organization and WordCamp Madrid 2017 & 2018 co-organizer. Also, I was speaker at some WordCamps around Spain over the last few years.
Q. How did you get to know about WordPress? Share if there is an interesting story.
Ans: I had heard about WordPress for some time and then in 2012 I had to do a project based on WordPress, because the client wanted it.
I called a friend that usually worked with WordPress, and I met him at a coffee shop, and he taught me how to create a theme and how WordPress works (template hierarchy, page templates, the loop, functions.php file…)
From there, I was learning how to develop plugins and themes with WordPress, reading the codex, learning from the community, attending events like meetups and WordCamps…
Q. What’s the most interesting project you have done to date in WordPress? What were your responsibilities?
Ans: In 2017, I started to create a framework based on WordPress to build corporate sites (with a lot of functionalities and 3rd party integrations). We used Visual Composer as a builder. This builder has a development API.
Basically, we removed everything but the skeleton and we created a bunch of custom components to build sites. We didn’t use the WordPress templates, the builder was able to build the entire site (something like full site editing 
We worked with layouts. We built a specific site to create these layouts and components and share them between corporate sites through WordPress REST API.
I led a team of 5 people for 3 years building and improving this ecosystem.
Q. Have you ever been to any WordPress meetups or WordCamps? Share your thoughts on WordPress Community.
Ans: Yes. In fact, I was a WordPress Madrid Meetup & WordCamp co-organizer for two years (2017 & 2018).
I met a lot of people, but it was so tiring to combine work, family and these events… and I stepped aside.
Q. How does your workstation look like? Can you send us a picture?
Ans: Quite simple. I have some rules, principles and philosophies in my life and in my work. Some of them are KISS (Keep it simple, stupid), YAGNI (You aren’t gonna need it), less is more…
I only work with a Macbook Pro (16”). No mouse, no keyboard, no second screen… nothing. Well, truthfully I have (need) headphones with noise cancellation, that allow me to concentrate while listening to music.
Years ago I used to use a second screen, but it broke down and I thought: ok, I will wait for an offer or sales… and I got used to working only with the laptop.
Q. What interesting feature do you think you would like to see in WordPress and is currently missing?
Ans: For example… Native integration with frameworks like Symfony (like Drupal) to build standard APIs to develop more powerful headless WordPress sites, twig templates…
Or editable archive pages (content, metas…)
Some Performance and Security features by default (or at least with some configurations…)
Q. Out of the current plugins and themes which one do you like the most and why?
Ans: I usually use only a few plugins and I always develop my own theme.
But one of my favourite plugins is ACF, because it lets you extend WordPress to another level. This was very good with classic editor, but now you can easily create custom blocks and adapt to your needs.
This plugin should be in WordPress core!!!
Q. Any awesome technology you want to share other than WordPress?
Ans: I think Symfony is a really good framework. For many years now, there have been a lot of JavaScript frameworks but I haven’t worked with any of them. I have in my to-do list to learn React or Vue, but I don’t have time for it.
Q. Do you like/love what you currently do in WordPress?
Ans: Lately, my position is more management than development. But sometimes I write code.
My last WordPress project was an e-commerce site with WooCommerce with a high customization. The two most important challenges were: product importation and to sell two products in one step (lenses: one for right eye and other for left eye)
The client had a lot of products (+60K), stored in several xlsx files, each one different, and it was a madness to import them to WooCommerce. The native importer was not able to import, and we need to create a custom importer through CLI command.
Lenses are independent products, because you have two eyes and each eye has a different axis, diameter, graduation… but they wanted to sell two products in the same step to improve user experience.
Q. Where do you find yourself after 5 years
Ans: Well, I don’t know, it’s a difficult question. Nowadays I have a huge challenge in my work. I hope that in 5 years’ time I can look back and be proud of the work I have done.
Same with my family.
Q. Share something about your life other than work
Ans: In my free time I try to be with my family. I like cooking, especially at weekends where I have more time to cook. I usually cook paella, lentils, Iberic meat…
I don’t usually watch much TV, but I never miss a Real Madrid match.
And I am studying English once a week! I hope my English teacher will be proud of this interview.
Q. To whom you give credit for your success?
Ans: Especially to my parents. They gave me an education for life, and they are my reference. When I have a problem, I always think about what my father would do to resolve this, or my mother’s advice…
Now, I have formed a family that always supported me, and they are my life and where I found my peace.
Q. Can you give us some references for whom we should conduct an interview next and why?
Ans: I know a lot of people inside the WordPress community, all of them great professionals and for references: Pablo Poveda, Javier de Juan, Marta Rey, David Navia, Mauricio Gelves, Ignacio Cruz, Dario Balbontín, Juanka Díaz…
Q. How do you reward yourself?
Ans: I like to travel, I like eating, I like beer… sometimes I try to do all these things at the same time 
Q. Any suggestion for WordPress beginners?
Ans: If you want to learn how to develop with WordPress, you must to start with the codex (now developer resources: https://developer.wordpress.org/), and obviously visit my blog
I recommend attending events and trying to be informed of all the new features of each new WordPress version.
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