Tip: This is how much money is saved by testing 👈🏻

"So my recommendation is not to Care too much about the audience face expressions while you're talking from the stage because you never know what it means." - Maryia Tuleika

In this episode, I talk with Maryia Tuleika about stepping on stage in tech and testing. We explore why people speak: joy of sharing, stage energy, and community. The hard part is fear and stress. If you fear the stage, you will hear simple moves that help. Maryia shows how to switch stress to excitement: prep well, record dry runs, collect feedback, use box breathing, slow down, and stand tall.

Maryia Tuleika is a Quality Engineering Leader who leads teams, creates testing strategies, drives education programs and actively contributes to the testing community. As a mentor, speaker and conference organiser she helps new test professionals build their skills and confidence. She is a podcast host and a co-founder of Beyond Quality community of practice. Maryia believes that great testing brings both technical excellence and knowing what to prioritize, think critically and enjoy the process.

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Tip: This is how much money is saved by testing 👈🏻

"And this is probably the most common way when you build UI test automation framework to use Page Object design pattern. Doesn't matter what programming language, what test automation framework. It's just a common thing." - Kostiantyn Teltov

In this episode, I talk with Kostiantyn Teltov about design patterns in test automation. Kosta shows why test code needs the same care as product code. Page Object to cut duplication. Builder to shape data like choosing a burger. Facade as a reception that guides you to the right service. We touch creational patterns and even pools for drivers. DRY, KISS, and YAGNI keep us honest and stop overdesign.

Kostiantyn Teltov was born in Dnipro, Ukraine, and lives in Kraków, Poland, for the past three years.

He has been working in software testing since 2008 and writing code for over 11 years.

He is passionate about mentoring and educating others, especially in Test Automation.

Currently, he works as a QA Lead at Metso, managing five projects and focusing on building QA processes and automation frameworks with limited QA resources.

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"But a lot of people I know, especially in this technical area we are working, they don't have good contact to themselves in this way." - Linda Van De Vooren

In this episode, I talk with Linda Van De Vooren about impostor syndrome, mental health, and growth in testing. Linda shares stories, from eating disorders to the inner critic she named Hannibal Lecter. We look at how doubt hits our work, like writing a test plan that feels too easy. Her tactics: Share openly. Check basic needs. Treat your comfort zone like a rainbow and pick a color you can handle today. Build an honest feedback circle.

In her daily life, Linda Van De Vooren is an amateur (baritone!) saxophonist and an experienced software tester. Living in the center of the Netherlands, she can be found exploring nature, attending concerts, or visiting the theater.

She enjoys working in complex environments and does not shy away from a challenge, whether it stems from technical difficulties or a politically complex environment. In any free time that is left, she is an avid gamer (Nintendo!) and enjoys reading.

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Tip: This is how much money is saved by testing 👈🏻

"I think we need to use the skills and knowledge that we have and the skepticism that we ought to have and make sure that we pass that on." - Steve Watson

In this episode, I talk with Steve Watson about critical thinking in the age of AI in testing. Steve says treat AI like a smart teammate. Useful, but you still check its work. We talk bias, missing context, and why lazy shortcuts tempt us. He shares where AI helped, like clustering survey responses, and where it missed ambiguities in requirements. We look at our craft: Ask better questions. Focus on the user. Let tools draft, but you decide. Train the next generation in skepticism and analysis. Same mission. New habits.

Steve Watson is an experienced Quality Engineering Manager who leads and coaches testing teams to help them to be the best testers they can be.

As a Senior Quality Engineering Manager at easyJet, he is responsible for the overall testing strategy and standards within the Airline Operations area, managing an offshore testing function and the testing budget. His mission is to ensure that Quality Engineering is embedded as early as possible to add value, working with key business and IT stakeholders to identify improvement areas and gain buy-in and support to implement change.

Steve has vast experience in a variety of domains - banking & finance, vehicle leasing, chemical pricing and aerospace, and other than a brief stint as a Product Manager and then Project Manager in 2018, he has spent most of his professional career in the testing & quality engineering space.

As a member of the British Computer Society, Steve cares about improving how we test as an industry, and he writes a blog to share his personal thoughts and ideas.

Steve has spoken at a number of conferences over the past 12 years, including the National Software Testing Conference, Test Expo, UKStar and HUSTEF, facilitated a Zoom roundtable event, ran a BDD interactive workshop at a UK Meetup, and has been a guest on the Testing Peers podcast.

When Steve is not testing, you’ll find him broadcasting a Saturday morning radio show on a local community station in East Sussex, UK, where he has volunteered for the past 12 years.

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Tip: This is how much money is saved by testing 👈🏻

"If you cannot measure what you change, it's really hard to lead the change and it's really hard to understand are you doing something right or should you try something else?" - Jani Grönman

In this episode, I talk with Jani Grönman about KPIs for quality. We ask what to measure, and why. Jani shares pairs that keep teams honest. Test pass rate with escaped defects or flaky tests. Mean time to recovery with reopen rate. Lead time to production with customer impact. One team, one number. Keep it to three or four KPIs, own them, and act. We talk about agency at work and product sense. Your tests are not a scoreboard. They are a feedback loop. Bring product and engineering together, do root cause analysis. I left inspired to pick fewer numbers, tell stories, and ship with care.

Jani works as a Managing Partner at Hidden Trail, his mission being turning quality from a cost into competitive advantage.

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"When you have to make hard decisions for the right decisions, do it. Do not feel bad, you're doing the right thing." - Laveena Ramchandani

In this episode, I talk with Laveena Ramchandani about thought leadership in testing and the changing role of testers. Laveena sees testers as engineers who lead by example, ask smart questions, and break silos. She coaches teams to share knowledge, speak up, and aim for team goals, not vanity KPIs. We touch hard calls too, like stepping in or reshaping a team when delivery slips. On AI, we agree to use the tools, then add human sense and the feel of quality, like accessibility and emotion. Testing stays very human.

Laveena Ramchandani is a seasoned Test Manager at easyJet with over a decade of hands-on experience in quality assurance, data science testing and digital transformation. She holds a degree in Business Computing from Queen Mary University of London and has built her career bridging the technical and business worlds. As a passionate advocate for inclusive and accessible digital products, Laveena has spoken internationally on topics such as accessibility, AI and data science in testing and scalable automation. She’s also a blogger, trainer and community leader who enjoys demystifying complex testing science and helping new testers find their voice. When she’s not testing code or delivering workshops, you’ll find her diving into the latest data models, tooling, or exploring how teams can build high-quality products that truly meet user needs.

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Tip: This is how much money is saved by testing 👈🏻

"If you have stakeholders that want to understand test cases like they want to be in kind of a very human readable format, then robot framework has that." - Pekka Klärck

In this episode, I talk with Pekka Klärck about Robot Framework. We start with 2004, his thesis roots, and Nokia Networks turning a prototype into an open source project in 2008. He explains the core idea: a generic engine with reusable libraries, human readable tests, and one set of reports. Best fit in mixed tech stacks. We revisit milestones like the move to plain text, a new parser, and a thriving ecosystem. Pekka previews secret variables in 7.4, a modern user guide, markdown docs, and a cleaner namespace with backward compatibility. He even tests Robot Framework with Robot Framework.

Pekka Klärck is the inventor and lead developer of Robot Framework. He started the project in 2005 as part of his master’s thesis at Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University) and has been steering its development ever since.

Pekka is known not only for his technical expertise but also for his dedication to fostering an open-source community. He actively collaborates with contributors worldwide and regularly shares his insights at conferences and events.

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"If you only rely on very slow UI tests, you can do parallel testing all you want, but it's never going to be as fast without a test environment spinning up then all the unit tests that you could have written and run in that same time." - Martijn Goossens

In this episode, I talk with Martijn Goossens about DevEx, DORA, and how we put the Q into developer experience. We walk through the four DORA metrics and where testers make real impact with CI, smart coverage, and fast feedback. Martijn shares a simple fix that unlocked speed: give each team a test environment. We explore coaching with small experiments, clear metrics, and regular check ins. Start with the State of DevOps report. Map your QA work to these metrics. Speak value, stay visible, and grow with your team and community.

Martijn Goossens has over 20 years of experience in the QA field. He started as an Agile QA automation engineer and has fulfilled various QA leadership roles for the past 8 years. Martijn is ISTQB and TMAP certified and is a frequent participant in QA meetups and conferences. In recent years he found the international conference stages where he is keen to share his experiences from the trenches.

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"We are only there because there is the EU Accessibility Act. I would say if that would not be there, this topic would be a nice to have topic. Not for everybody, of course, but for many decision makers who have to spend money and things like that." - Florian Fieber

In this episode, I talk with Florian Fieber about what 2025 taught testers and how to get ready for 2026. AI boosts productivity, it does not replace us. The sweet spot is generation of artifacts like test ideas, cases, scripts, and data. Accessibility grew due to the EU AI act, yet many underestimate the work. A plugin is not enough. You need manual checks and early design. For 2026 we expect agentic AI and a pilot role for testers. AI literacy becomes company wide.

Florian Fieber is a senior consultant, product strategist, and recognized expert in software quality assurance with more than 20 years of experience in the field. His work at TestSolutions focuses on test strategy, test process assessment and improvement, and the design of scalable QA operating models across the entire software lifecycle. He is responsible for strategic product management and portfolio development for testing services, as well as for internal upskilling and knowledge management in software testing.

With a background in media informatics and information systems, Florian started his career as a software developer and research assistant before moving into quality assurance. He has co-founded several consulting and training companies and has supported organizations across industries in establishing effective and sustainable testing practices. Since 2022, he has served as President of the German Testing Board, contributing actively to the advancement of professional standards and education in software testing.

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Tip: This is how much money is saved by testing 👈🏻

"Anytime we get to some team, we get to some group of people, we become a part of that informal network and that also influences our behavior." - Yuliia Pieskova

In this episode, I talk with Yuliia Pieskova about informal networks in software teams. We explore how spontaneous ties lift trust, speed, and quality in remote and hybrid setups. Formal charts set limits, people move work through friends. Yuliia shares stories from startups, hackathons, and product discovery where cross team groups watch users, swap ideas, then return with shared context. Remote work exposes old cracks yet levels locations and opens doors for new links.

Yuliia Pieskova is the co-founder of Alpha Affinity, a data startup, as well as a Certified Agile and Organizational Coach and consultant with over 13 years of IT experience in operational and leadership roles. She has successfully guided startups through scaling journeys, building distributed international product teams from the ground up, and has collaborated with corporations like SimCorp and SAP on complex transformations and change management initiatives. As a contributor to Agile Alliance and a keynote speaker, Yuliia drives forward-thinking discussions on Agile practices, remote work, and emerging technologies. She also designs and delivers AI workshops and training sessions, empowering leaders and coaches with practical tools to seamlessly integrate AI into their workflows.

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