About

Hi,
I’m Julian. At heart I am a lead-developer-turned-entrepreneur.

I learn by doing, so the way I explore a new language or technique is to approach it hands-on.

A while back I was practicing a technique called "TDD As If You Meant It". I was getting better at it but a question started popping up in my head. It was more like a concern. When should you introduce a new technique to your production work?
If you do it too early it might affect your productivity.

Up to that point I was practicing using simple code katas so moving from the practice katas to a live system felt like a big leap.
I needed something in-between, something like a simulation of a real-world scenario.

This is how I came with the idea of simulating multiple incremental requirements to create a more complex, real-world challenge. The principle was that I would use this challenge until I have mastered the new technique and it would not affect my productivity. Only then I would start applying the technique in my day to day business work.
This worked very well for me as it provided objective metrics on how well I was doing.

In 2016 I have decided to share this approach with the community and this lead to the creation of BeFaster.io, a data-driven workshop were people put their development technique to the test.

Given the objective feedback that people were getting from the coding challenge, a friend suggested that these insights would be really useful during the recruitment process.
Having interviewed developers myself, I would have loved to have such detailed insights into someone coding style and delivery speed. This lead to the creation of the Accelerate.ioA platform in 2017.

I like to think that I am making the recruitment experience better by turning this into a learning experience for the candidate.
This is my way of giving back to the community.