Coding has accelerated. Everything else hasn't. In this episode, Rosie talks with Dan Faulkner, CEO of SmartBear, about what happens when one part of the software development lifecycle runs ahead and leaves the rest behind. It's a conversation that will resonate with anyone in quality, security, design, or DevOps who's felt the pressure of more software arriving faster, with the same size team and the same tools to handle it.

They get into why intent validation, checking whether agentic code actually built what you asked for, is becoming one of the most important new steps in the SDLC, and why quality professionals are better placed than most to own it. Dan also makes the case for frameworks over fixed opinions, experimental thinking over endless debate, and building bridges across disciplines rather than defending territory. If you've been trying to articulate why quality still matters in an AI-accelerated world, this episode gives you some language to do it with.

Rahul Parwal is a MoTaverse Ambassador, MoTaCon speaker, and Masterclass contributor, course creator, and so much more! In this episode he joins Rosie to talk through what it actually looks like to level up with AI as a quality professional.

They cover where to start (primary sources, not social media hype), how to build consistency through community, and why the thirty days of AI and testing sprint was Rahul's own entry point into serious AI experimentation.

The conversation gets practical fast: Rahul introduces a useful two-axis framework: algorithmic vs. creative work, siloed vs. social work, to help people decide where AI genuinely adds value and where it burns tokens for little return.

They also tackle the cost of AI head-on, using the Uber example of exhausting an annual AI budget by April, and discuss what sustainable AI practices might look like. Claude's artifacts and co-work mode, MCP, the MoT glossary project, and the consolidation of AI tooling all get a mention.

Rosie Sherry is joined by Amy Phillips, a senior engineering manager with a career spanning test consultancy, startup life, and leading infrastructure and product teams. Amy reflects on what's stayed constant across fifteen years of change (it’s the people!) and what's shifted dramatically.

They dig into the tension between process and creativity, why removing things matters as much as building them, and how AI is reshaping both individual contributor roles and management itself. Amy shares practical thinking on guardrails, platform mindset, and how to make it easy for people to do the right thing.

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Tristan Lombard, marketer, community builder, ghost author, and self-described Stage Mom, joins Rosie Sherry to talk about one of the most pressing questions in tech right now: what do you do when the traditional career path stops working for you?

Drawing on three years of solopreneurship and a decade of community-building before that, Tristan makes a compelling, data-backed, and deeply human case for going it alone, particularly for quality engineers whose roles are shifting under the pressure of AI and ongoing layoffs.

This episode is less about theory and more about the practical stuff: how to identify what you're actually known for, how to build a brand of value (not a personal brand) on LinkedIn, how to approach DMs without being predatory, how to price your work, and how to protect your energy when clients push past the boundaries of your SOW.

Tristan brings the warmth, the receipts, and the occasional sharp word for life coaches who slide into DMs uninvited.

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Rosie Sherry sits down with Paul Reinheimer, co-founder of WonderProxy, for a wide-ranging founder-to-founder conversation that goes well beyond localization testing. Paul shares the origin story of WonderProxy, which was born out of a favour to a friend stuck testing websites with dodgy free proxies, and reflects on what it means to build a company slowly and deliberately over two decades, turning away more than 80% of free trial requests because the wrong customers simply aren't worth it.

The conversation covers the unglamorous realities of founding: wearing five hats at once, managing employment law across borders, navigating a decade-overdue price increase, and learning, sometimes reluctantly, to let your team make decisions without you.

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Join Rosie Sherry and Dan Moore (developer, former DevRel lead, and now Senior Director of CIAM Strategy at FusionAuth) for an honest conversation about what it actually means to navigate a tech career that just won’t hold still.

Dan's own path, from developer to CTO to DevRel to identity standards strategist, is less a career ladder and more a career stack. Each layer built on the last, shaped by curiosity, self-awareness, and knowing when a role no longer fits.

Together they explore what's driving this shift for everyone in tech right now: the generalist pressure pulling developers, testers, and community builders into each other's territory. And how this impacts the many little things in our everyday work.

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In this episode of Into the MoTaverse, Rosie Sherry sits down with Susanne Abdelrahman for a conversation that keeps circling back to one quietly powerful idea: influencing without authority. Susanne traces how this skill born out of the structural reality of being a tester, where you can't simply tell developers their code needs to meet a certain bar, became the defining thread of her career as she moved from IC testing to engineering management and now into technical program management. What started as a way to survive in QA turned into her "jam," a practice she now applies across entire product development lifecycles, influencing not just engineering teams but the stakeholders whose decisions shape them.

The conversation digs into how influence actually works in practice: distilling information, surfacing themes, coaching rather than mandating, and earning the kind of trust that only comes from people believing you genuinely care.

It was such a pleasure to have Alan Page on Into the MoTaverse. Alan is a titan in the testing community, known for his work at Microsoft, his "Modern Testing" principles, and the AB Testing podcast. We caught up on his recent 3,000-mile hike of the Pacific Crest Trail and how that "slow mode" gave him a fresh perspective on a tech world that is moving faster than ever.

The heart of the conversation centered on staying curious in the age of AI. Alan shared how he’s using agentic AI to build personal tools, like a custom job scraper and why he believes the "right-brain" skills of creativity, judgment, and systems thinking are now more valuable than the ability to write code.

We explored the idea of quality as a systemic outcome rather than a department, and why the best leaders focus on transparency and psychological safety to let their teams truly innovate.

In this episode of Into the MoTaverse, Rosie Sherry sits down with QA Team Lead Megan Ozanne to tackle the Heffalump in the room: the relentless pressure to move faster in an AI-driven industry.

Megan shares a poignant analogy from Winnie the Pooh to illustrate how teams are rushing into automation and AI-generated requirements without stopping to ask the most fundamental question—why?

They explore the psychological impact of the "announcement economy" and the self-imposed pressure to match the unrealistic speeds seen on social media.

The conversation dives deep into the risks of losing core testing fundamentals as the industry shifts toward "agentic" tools and rapid-fire development.

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In this episode of Into the MoTaverse, Rosie Sherry sits down with Andrew Easter, Co-Founder and CTO of Claimer, to discuss the turbulent but rewarding journey of scaling and pivoting a tech startup. Andrew shares the adjustment of transitioning Claimer from a 30-person tech-enabled consultancy to a lean, 11-person pure software business. He provides a transparent look at the human cost of restructuring and the heavy responsibility of leadership during times of radical AI change.

The conversation dives deep into the unprecedented shift in software engineering practices. Andrew reveals how his team moved from 20% to nearly 80% AI-generated code in just a few months. Beyond the productivity gains, he and Rosie explore the psychological implications for developers—specifically the challenge of achieving flow state when the role shifts from creative creator to AI facilitator and reviewer.

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