Current projects

Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)

  • (video) Nicole van der Hoeven, a YouTube channel about using Obsidian, taking notes, and general productivity.
  • (text) Doing It in Public: A book about learning in public– and I’m writing the book itself in public.
  • (text) Thinking in Public: A free newsletter about making things in public and the process and tools I use to do it.
  • (community) pkm.social is a federated Mastodon server for PKM enthusiasts that I own and manage.
  • (notes) Fork My Brain: Obsidian Publish site with majority of my (non-confidential) notes.
  • (code repository) Xio’s Guide to Monsters: 5e monsters in Markdown format, plus the code used to generate them.
  • (code repository) pf2e-monsters: Pathfinder 2e monsters in Markdown format, plus the code used to generate them.
  • (code repository) Deroamify: Python scripts that may be useful for those moving to Obsidian from Roam Research. I have a full migration guide here.

Observability, Reliability, and Software Engineering

Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Places I’ve worked

Grafana Labs (2020-Present)

Senior Developer Advocate (Performance Testing)

(remote)

I joined k6.io in November 2020 as a Developer Advocate, specializing in Performance Testing. k6 is a free and open source tool for load testing, with the goal of making the process as developer-friendly as possible. The company also has a related SaaS platform, k6 Cloud, which is an easy way to scale up load tests on the cloud.

I make a lot of content on the k6 YouTube channel, starting with my Week of Testing videos that I made in my real first week to document how I learned the k6 ecosystem. I co-host a weekly livestream I thought up, called k6 Office Hours, where we talk about different ways to use k6 to improve application performance. I speak at conferences, engage with the community, and generally try out new things and tell people how cool k6 is.

k6 was acquired by Grafana Labs in May 2021, and I’m now part of the Grafana Labs Developer Advocacy team.

#k6 #grafana #tempo #loki #mimir

flood.io (2018-2020)

Performance Testing Advocate

(remote)

Tricentis Flood is a SaaS load testing platform for running load testing scripts of leading open source tools. I had a very mixed role where I created written, video, and audio content on load testing and how to use Flood, gave presentations at conferences, managed social media accounts and the company blog, responded to customer support queries, and coached clients all over the world on how to use load testing to improve software quality. I really enjoyed working for a small, closely-knit team and being able to jump into different roles at the drop of a hat. I also got to write a book on API load testing.

#JMeter, Gatling, Selenium, Element (Puppeteer), AWS, Azure, Google Cloud

Accenture (2017-2018)

Test Engineering Associate Manager

Heerlen, the Netherlands

I worked at APG, a large pension provider in the Netherlands, as a performance testing consultant. I was able to help several projects identify performance issues before go-live and set up a stubbing tool to virtualise key components that interfered with testing. I also worked on a test strategy for load testing a blockchain. All communication was in Dutch.

#Neoload, Mountebank, Ethereum, JMeter, AWS, Tableau

Tabcorp Holdings Ltd. (2016-2017)

Performance Test Analyst

Melbourne, Australia

I was part of the closely-knit performance testing team that carried out load and resilience testing for Tabcorp, the largest gaming corporation in Australia, including preparation for the world-famous Melbourne Cup racing carnival. This was a massive and exciting undertaking, with multiple traffic channels and applications that needed to be tested.

#JMeter, Gatling, in-house tool, AWS, Logstash, Grafana

Planit Software Testing (2014-2016)

Senior Technical Test Analyst

Melbourne and Sydney, Australia

Planit is a multinational professional services consultancy. I worked as a technical testing consultant to set up performance testing frameworks, formulate test strategies, and execute load testing for companies in a variety of industries. Consulting is a frenzied period of rapid-pace learning, and I actually relished the new challenges that came with every new project.

#JMeter, Gatling, Neoload, LoadRunner, Visual Studio Load Testing, Silk Performer, Selenium, Kibana, Tableau, CA LISA

Access HQ (2012-2014)

Test Analyst

Melbourne, Australia

This was my first official job as a tester for Access HQ, a testing consultancy company. I was lucky enough to find a mentor and get a headstart in performance testing right away. As a testing consultant, I helped teams write realistic load tests and analyze the results. I also crossed over into functional testing for a time, appreciating the need for more rigid testing practices at some projects.

#Selenium, LoadRunner, Neoload, SauceLabs, HP Application Lifecycle Management, Tableau

Jetstar Airways (2011-2012)

Engineering Records supervisor, junior test analyst

Melbourne, Australia

At Jetstar, the low-cost branch of the national airline, I analyzed aircraft engine component records to determine maintenance schedules. I led a team of 8 analysts. Towards the end, I discovered software testing when I was asked to test and assess a tool that the company wanted to purchase.

Intrinsic Technologies (2008-2011)

Data analyst

Melbourne, Australia

While I worked on my permanent visa in Australia, I worked part-time as a data analyst at a small startup. I helped improve Intrinsic Technologies’s predictive analysis software for forecasting project outcomes in software testing.

EnergyOpt, Inc. (2007-2008)

Data analyst

Manila, the Philippines

I joined EnergyOpt right out of university. EnergyOpt was working on software to facilitate the purchase and sale of electricity, in line with the country’s impending electricity privatization act. I employed econometric techniques to set prices and improve the software’s responsiveness to market demand.