What makes an effective 1-on-1? What are the key aspects of valuable 1-on-1s? Is there a difference between a leader and a manager? Why does the language we use matter?

Tune in to this episode to learn more from Farai Madzima. Farai is a people leader who challenges our misconceptions about 1-on-1s and shares valuable tips on making these meetings much more helpful. In addition, during the conversation, Lina used the word "superior" instead of "supervisor" or "manager," and that sparked some interesting discussions on the significance of the language and different cultures people come from.

Find Farai on:

• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/farai/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/heyfarai
• Farai's website: https://faraimadzima.com/ 

Mentions and resources:

• Farai's newsletter: https://www.heyfarai.com/newsletter/
• Farai's article on 1-on-1s from his newsletter: https://www.heyfarai.com/im-1-wait-did-we-agree-on-why-we-need-1-1-meetings/
• Recap of Farai's "Working with Strangers well" session: https://www.mindtheproduct.com/sunday-rewind-working-with-strangers-well-by-farai-madzima/ 
• Seth Godin: https://www.sethgodin.com/
• Lina's summary of "Nonviolent Communication" book: https://qualitybits.tech/writing/book-impressions-nonviolent-communication
• Books:
  • "Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life" by Marshall B. Rosenberg
  • "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable" by Patrick M. Lencioni

If you liked this episode, you may enjoy this one:
Radical Candor: Effective Feedback and Helping People We Work with Shine with Amy Sandler
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2037134/12259658

Follow Quality Bits host Lina Zubyte on:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/buggylina
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linazubyte/
- Website: https://qualitybits.tech/

Links to books are to Amazon and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Follow Quality Bits on your favorite listening platform and Twitter: https://twitter.com/qualitybitstech to stay updated with future content.

If you like this podcast and would like to support its making, feel free to buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/linazubyte

Thank you for listening! 

User experience (UX) research is a field that can help us prevent issues before they take place. Greta Ruskiene knows this first-hand: she used to work as a QA and made a career shift to UX with time.

In this episode, we discuss UX research, the art of question-asking, and how frequently, even when we truly believe we know our users, we may not.

Find Greta on:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greta-ru%C5%A1kien%C4%97-53183a55/

Mentions and resources:

• WomenGoTech mentoring program: https://womengotech.com/
• On sunk-cost fallacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost
• Figma: https://www.figma.com/
• Paul C. Nutt - "Why Decisions Fail"
• Conferences:
  • Figma's conference: https://config.figma.com/
  • Zeplin conferences: https://zeplin.io/harmony/
  • HFI conference: https://hfi.training/na/thinkers-invited/events
• Google UX design certificate: https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalworkshop-eu/course/gccs-ux-design
• UX research repository: https://condens.io/ux-research-repository/
• WIX UX mentorship: https://www.wixuxmentorship.com/
• Meetups in Lithuania:
  • Fresh meetups: https://www.facebook.com/freshmeetups/ 
  • UX Salon: https://www.meetup.com/ux-salon-vilnius/ 
  • UX Writer Talks: https://www.meetup.com/wix-vilnius-ux-writer-talks/

If you liked this episode, you may enjoy this one:
Creating Valuable Products with Andrea Sipos
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2037134/12123103

Follow Quality Bits host Lina Zubyte on:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/buggylina
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linazubyte/
- Website: https://qualitybits.tech/

Follow Quality Bits on your favorite listening platform and Twitter: https://twitter.com/qualitybitstech to stay updated with future content.

If you like this podcast and would like to support its making, feel free to buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/linazubyte

Thank you for listening! 

What's the difference between observability and monitoring? What's a telemetry? Why do they matter, and how could we use them more beneficially?

Abby Bangser shares her journey from a QA to a platform engineer in this episode. We discuss the similarities between testing and infrastructure-related areas like site reliability engineering. In addition, Abby explains observability and shares some sound advice regarding implementing it.

Find Abby on:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbybangser/
- Mastodon: https://hachyderm.io/@abangser
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/a_bangser

Mentions and resources:

• Abby's talk on measuring quality in production at Ministry of Testing (free sign up is enough to access it): https://www.ministryoftesting.com/talks/567372c2?s_id=14698896 
• Abby's course on Test Automation University - Introduction to Observability for Test Automation: https://testautomationu.applitools.com/observability-for-test-automation/
• ThoughtWorks graph showing different roles and overlaps by Laura Paterson
• Some more fun readings suggested by Abby:
  • https://oschvr.com/posts/what-id-like-as-sre/
  • https://blog.alicegoldfuss.com/how-to-get-into-sre/
  • https://surfingcomplexity.blog/2021/08/13/root-cause-of-failure-root-cause-of-success/
  • https://www.learningfromincidents.io/
  • https://kratix.io
  • cncf.io/blog/2023/04/11/announcing-a-white-paper-on-platforms-for-cloud-native-computing/
  • https://www.syntasso.io/post/the-12-platform-challenges-recap

If you liked this episode, you may enjoy this one:
Testing in Production with Rouan Wilsenach https://www.buzzsprout.com/2037134/11623978 

Follow Quality Bits host Lina Zubyte on:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/buggylina
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linazubyte/
- Website: https://qualitybits.tech/

Follow Quality Bits on your favorite listening platform and Twitter: https://twitter.com/qualitybitstech to stay updated with future content.

If you like this podcast and would like to support its making, feel free to buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/linazubyte

Thank you for listening! 

With over a decade in data-related roles, working with Data Science, Data Engineering, Machine Learning, and MLOps Engineering, Aurimas Griciūnas is a great role model for many people wanting to learn more about data. The author of the SwirlAI newsletter with over 7000 subscribers, Aurimas' posts with visuals explaining data have reached many more people on LinkedIn.

In this episode, Aurimas shares valuable insights about what working with data means. Is it just a trend to be data-driven, or, a reality? Are all the data products big data products? Who and how should help define good business success metrics? Tune in to learn the answers to these questions and much more. 

Find Aurimas on:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aurimas-griciunas/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aurimas_Gr
- SwirlAI newsletter: https://www.newsletter.swirlai.com 

Mentions and resources:

• Chat GPT: https://chat.openai.com/
• Tools to help with data quality:
  • Great Expectations: https://greatexpectations.io
  • dbt-expectations: https://github.com/calogica/dbt-expectations
• On techniques for testing Machine Learning Models:
  • A/B testing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing
  • Multi-arm bandits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-armed_bandit

Follow Quality Bits host Lina Zubyte on:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/buggylina
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linazubyte/
- Website: https://qualitybits.tech/

Follow Quality Bits on your favorite listening platform and Twitter: https://twitter.com/qualitybitstech to stay updated with future content.

If you like this podcast and would like to support its making, feel free to buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/linazubyte

Thank you for listening! 

We've all worked with "heroes," great professionals who frequently "save the day" in the company. What if we'd instead prevent the day from needing the saving altogether?

Dan Abel believes in 10x teams rather than 10x engineers. Listen to this episode to learn more about it and what aspects to concentrate on when setting up the teams for success.

Find Dan on:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-abel/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/twicezer0
- Dan's 10x Teams website: https://ten-x.team
- Dan's blog: https://engineeringandcareering.co.uk/

Mentions and resources:

• Dan's 10x Teams initial article: https://ten-x.team/2023/02/22/build-10x-teams-for-delivery-effectiveness/
• Article on unblocking meetings: https://www.spydergrrl.com/2019/08/the-unstuck-meeting-safe-failure-space.html
• "Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words" by Randall Munroe
• "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
• "The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness" by Steve Peters
• Team topologies: https://teamtopologies.com/
• Dunbar's theories:
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grooming,_Gossip_and_the_Evolution_of_Language
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

Follow Quality Bits host Lina Zubyte on:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/buggylina
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linazubyte/
- Website: https://qualitybits.tech/

Follow Quality Bits on your favorite listening platform and Twitter: https://twitter.com/qualitybitstech to stay updated with future content.

If you like this podcast and would like to support its making, feel free to buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/linazubyte

Thank you for listening! 

It's no surprise that this episode's guest Lewis Prescott has a website called "pactman". Pact is a popular contract testing tool, and Lewis is indeed a man who can tell quite a bit about Pact and contract testing. In this conversation, you'll learn more about contract testing, its benefits, misconceptions, and where to start. 

Find Lewis on:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewis-prescott-12409a44/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/WuigPrescott
- Lewis' website: https://www.pactman.co.uk/

Mentions and resources:

• Spotify Testing Honeycomb model: https://engineering.atspotify.com/2018/01/testing-of-microservices/
• Pactflow's Bi-Directional Contract Testing: https://pactflow.io/bi-directional-contract-testing/
• Lewis' How To Start API Contract Testing Podcast: https://www.pactman.co.uk/contract-testing-podcast
• Youtube video that was Lewis' first intro to contract testing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ0UGY2-YYI

Follow Quality Bits host Lina Zubyte on:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/buggylina
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linazubyte/
- Website: https://qualitybits.tech/

Follow Quality Bits on your favorite listening platform and Twitter: https://twitter.com/qualitybitstech to stay updated with future content.

If you like this podcast and would like to support its making, feel free to buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/linazubyte

Thank you for listening! 

Amy Sandler is a lead coach and podcast host at Radical Candor. Most of the people in tech (and not only) know the Radical Candor framework and its bestselling book. In this story-fuelled podcast episode, you'll learn what the Radical Candor framework is, why dreams matter, what communication mistakes we make and how to avoid them, and how to give effective feedback and help people we work with shine.

Find Amy on:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amysandler/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/amysandler
- Amy's Website: https://www.amysandler.com/

Mentions and resources:

•  "Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity" by Kim Scott
• Radical Candor Podcast: https://www.radicalcandor.com/candor-podcast/ 
• On CORE feedback model: https://www.radicalcandor.com/core-feedback/ 
• "Mindset - Updated Edition: Changing The Way You think To Fulfil Your Potential" by Dr. Carol Dweck

Links to books are to Amazon and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Follow Quality Bits host Lina Zubyte on:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/buggylina
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linazubyte/
- Website: https://qualitybits.tech/

Follow Quality Bits on your favorite listening platform and Twitter: https://twitter.com/qualitybitstech to stay updated with future content.

If you like this podcast and would like to support its making, feel free to buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/linazubyte

Thank you for listening! 

Aleksandra Kornecka turned from a QA into a Security Engineer. In this episode, Lina talks to Aleksandra to learn more about this switch, the importance of security, and its parallels with quality. You'll learn about threat modeling, where to start when learning more about security, and so much more, including some anecdotes referencing the most famous hacker in pop culture - Mr. Robot.

Find Aleksandra on:
- Her Website: https://aleksandrakornecka.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandrakornecka/

Mentions and resources:

• Elevation of privilege: https://github.com/adamshostack/eop
• OWASP: https://owasp.org/projects/
• Free Cyber Security Certification Training: https://www.isc2.org/

Follow Quality Bits host Lina Zubyte on:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/buggylina
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linazubyte/
- Website: https://qualitybits.tech/

Follow Quality Bits on your favorite listening platform and Twitter: https://twitter.com/qualitybitstech to stay updated with future content.

If you like this podcast and would like to support its making, feel free to buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/linazubyte

Thank you for listening! 

Are you curious about the behind-the-scenes workings of product development? Want to know who's really responsible for the products we build and how to ensure they're valuable?

Tune in to this episode of our podcast, where we sit down with guest Andrea Sipos, a seasoned product manager who shares her insights and expertise on the role of a product manager, the differences between product and project management, and the importance of a collaborative team effort in creating successful products.

Andrea worked at various companies, such as Prezi, Skyscanner, and Oda, and also served as the Head of Product at OptiMonk. She works as a freelance product manager with companies like LABA and Craft.

Join us for an enlightening and informative conversation that will give you a deeper understanding of the product management and development process.

Find Andrea on:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AASipos
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasiposb/

Mentions and references:

• Quality Bits episode with Nadine Oldorf about building the right product mentioning Continuous Discovery: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2037134/11279363
• Quality Bits episode with Rouan Wilsenah mentioning courage as Extreme Programming value: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2037134/11623978 
• Andrea's book and article recommendations:
  • "INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love" by Marty Cagan
  •  "Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making" by Tony Fadell
  • Teresa Torres's blog: https://www.producttalk.org/
  • Lenny Rachitsky's Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/

Links to books are to Amazon and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Follow Quality Bits host Lina Zubyte on:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/buggylina
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linazubyte/
- Website: https://qualitybits.tech/

Follow Quality Bits on your favorite listening platform and Twitter: https://twitter.com/qualitybitstech to stay updated with future content.

If you like this podcast and would like to support its making, feel free to buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/linazubyte

Thank you for listening! 

Testing in production: scary abnormality or familiar regularity?

In this episode, Lina talks to Rouan about the role of a QA that is more than testing and testing in production. You'll hear about the misconceptions of testing in production, the requirements for reliable testing in production, and even how to clean up your messy alerting systems.

Find Rouan on:
- His website: https://www.rouanw.com
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rouanw
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rouanw/

Mentions and references:

• Rouan's website with ideas for more interesting standups: https://funstandups.com 
• Quality Bits episode with Steve Upton on the definition of quality: https://qualitybits.buzzsprout.com/2037134/11248422
• Rouan's article about the QA role "Is QA dead?": https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/qa-dead
• Testing in Production:
  • Rouan's article on Martin Fowler's blog: https://martinfowler.com/articles/qa-in-production.html
• Elizabeth Hendrickson on Agile Testing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqi_T2B8DvY
• Kent Beck on Facebook Engineering Process: https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2020/12/10/facebook-engineering-process-with-kent-beck-repeat/ 

Follow Quality Bits host Lina Zubyte on:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/buggylina
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linazubyte/
- Website: https://qualitybits.tech/

Follow Quality Bits on your favorite listening platform and Twitter: https://twitter.com/qualitybitstech to stay updated with future content.

Thank you for listening!