I’m Lucian Ghinda — a senior product engineer based in Bucharest, Romania. I have been writing Ruby and Rails since 2007, and in 20+ years in tech I wore most of the hats a software company has: developer, tech lead, engineering manager, product owner, and trainer.
That mix was not planned, but I learned to like it. Most of my work sits where product thinking meets engineering: shipping things people actually use, and helping the developers around me get better at the craft. If I had to compress it into one line: I build products, I teach testing, and I grow the Ruby community.
What I’m focused on now
- Product engineering in Ruby and Rails — building features end to end, from the product conversation to the deploy.
- AI-assisted development — I write a series about using LLMs to write Ruby and Rails code, and at EuRuKo 2025 I ran a workshop called “Don’t Let Your AI Guess: Teach It to Test!” I think test design matters more now that code is cheap to generate.
- Test design — teaching developers how to write fewer tests that cover more cases, through Good Enough Testing.
What I make
- Short Ruby — a weekly newsletter I have curated every Monday since 2022: a summary of the articles, discussions, and news from the Ruby community, read by 6,000+ Ruby developers.
- Good Enough Testing — my testing course and workshops, teaching systematic test-design techniques (equivalence partitioning, boundary values, decision tables, state transitions) through live sessions and video. I am an ISTQB certified trainer.
- Friendly.rb — a European Ruby conference I co-organize in Bucharest.
- Field Notes — short, practical notes from my workbench: Ruby, testing, AI-assisted development, building products.
Teaching and community
I have been teaching developers for a long time. In 2013 I founded DevAcademy (now Digital Nation), a mentoring program for junior developers, where I am now a strategic advisor and board member. I maintain rubyandrails.info, an open source directory of Ruby learning resources, and I speak and run workshops at Ruby conferences — most recently EuRuKo 2024 and EuRuKo 2025.
Work with me
Here is what I can help you or your company with:
- Senior product engineering — full-time or fractional. I am at my best in a team that ships: Ruby, Rails, Hotwire, and lately a lot of AI-assisted workflows — because someone on the team has to figure out how to use these tools well, and I enjoy being that person.
- Team training on test design — a practical workshop that teaches your developers to write the minimum number of tests covering the widest surface of your app — because most teams write too many of the wrong tests and too few of the right ones.
- Reaching Ruby developers — sponsoring Short Ruby puts your product or job ad in front of an engaged Ruby audience every Monday.
You can also read testimonials from developers who came to my workshops and people I worked with.
The best way to start a conversation is by email at ideas@ghinda.com.
Short bio
If you are introducing me on a podcast or at a conference, feel free to use this:
Lucian Ghinda is a senior product engineer who has worked with Ruby and Rails since 2007. He curates Short Ruby, a weekly newsletter read by 6,000+ Ruby developers, teaches test design at Good Enough Testing, and co-organizes Friendly.rb, a European Ruby conference in Bucharest.
Where I write
- All About Coding — my Ruby, Rails, and Hotwire technical writing, including the AI code-generation series.
- Short Notes — quick thoughts and links, posted as I go.
- Here — longer, personal pieces on products, teams, and creative work.
Elsewhere
You’ll find me as @lucianghinda most places — on GitHub, X, Mastodon, Bluesky, and LinkedIn. The best way to reach me directly is by email at ideas@ghinda.com.
