In this episode of the Vernon Richard Show, Vernon and Richard discuss various topics, including personal updates, mental health, the role of gatekeeping in quality assurance, mentoring experiences, and effective onboarding strategies. They emphasise the importance of community support, advocating for mental health awareness, and the nuances of being a gatekeeper in professional settings. The conversation also delves into the dynamics of mentoring, the significance of setting clear goals, and the art of making suggestions in new environments.

00:00 - Intro

01:06 - Where have we been for a month?

06:16 - Men's Mental Health

09:46 - The Questions!

10:10 - QUESTION: To gate-keep, or not to gate-keep? That is the question from Deb Sherwood

22:05 - Olly impersonates Emily

22:33 - QUESTION: Mentorship advice

27:25 - Coaching vs Mentoring

28:10 - Vern's good and bad with experiences mentoring

28:57 - What role does accountability play in this?

29:38 - Informal mentoring

30:48 - Rich shares his experience mentoring a colleague

31:46 - Rich's good and bad experiences with mentoring

33:44 - Putting 💰 on the line

35:45 - Energy Vampires 🧛🏾

37:16 - The upside of being a mentor

39:17 - QUESTION: Onboarding into a new team or to a new product

40:40 - Rich's two-step process when he's in this situation

43:50 - Vern's kids teach him a valuable communication technique

45:24 - "Asking" & "Suggesting"

48:28 - The danger of suggesting things blindly

51:15 - Leadership inception

54:40 - Outro

Links to stuff we mentioned during the pod:

• 06:16 - Manchester Tech Festival
  • The MTF Mixer: Male Mental Health featuring
  • Kofi Josephs
    • Kofi's website for Why Not I
    • Kofi's Instagram
    • Kofi's LinkedIn
  • Jamie Lee Dennis
    • Jamie's LinkedIn
    • Jamie's website for Mandem Meetup
  • Dmitry Leyko
    • Dmitry's LinkedIn
  • James Davies
    • James' LinkedIn
• 08:56 - Vern's travels
  • Frankfurt for German Testing Days with Beren Van Daele
    • RiskStorming Online
  • Prague to meet my Phrase teammates
  • Manchester Tech Festival in... Manchester!
  • Zurich for GreaTest Conference
  • Liverpool to celebrate Liverpool FC winning the Premier League!
• 10:10 - Deb Sherwood
  • Deb's LinkedIn
• 15:37 - Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)
  • Courtesy of Perplexity, here are some references you might find useful that explain the JTBD concept
• 25:00 - S.M.A.R.T. goals
• 27:25 - The coaching vs mentoring rabbit hole on earlier episodes
• 29:13 - Ryan Cox
  • Ryan's website (if you check him out, tell him Vern sent you!)
  • Ryan's LinkedIn
• 35:45 - The Software Testers Journey book, written by Nicola Lindgren and me
• 40:30 - Automation in Testing references (via Perplexity)
• 41:18 - Resources about the 10 Ps of Testability
  • Article on testability featuring the 10 Ps
  • The book Team Guide to Software Testability by Ash Winter & Rob Meaney