Podcasts about QA

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Latest podcast episodes about QA

Soft Skills Engineering
Episode 497: Patronizing perf reviews and can't get anything done as a tech lead

Soft Skills Engineering

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 26, 2026 27:52


In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: I'm a relatively new people manager and I really struggle when it comes time for performance reviews, or even regular praise or critical feedback in one-on-ones, because I can't help feeling like an adult “talking down” to another adult, regardless of whether the feedback is generally positive or critical and instructive. Something about it all seems so patronizing to me. How can I approach this stuff with a different mindset? Hello D & J! Quick one from your biggest fan!! This week (Tuesday 6th Jan 2k26) I was promoted to Tech Lead of our team. In my new role, I have done no work *cries*, I've spent all my time assisting team members, unblocking QA, dealing with ad hoc requests from product/stakeholders…. I asked the previous tech lead is this what they did? They did! And they said spent their personal time to complete stories assigned to them. Is this really what a tech lead does?!?!! Helpppp

The Tech Blog Writer Podcast
3565: CKEditor and the Reality of Supporting Developers Across Every Tech Stack

The Tech Blog Writer Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 24, 2026 37:13


What does it actually take to build trust with developers when your product sits quietly inside thousands of other products, often invisible to the people using it every day? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sat down with Ondřej Chrastina, Developer Relations at CKEditor, to unpack a career shaped by hands-on experience, curiosity, and a deep respect for developer time. Ondřej's story starts in QA and software testing, moves through development and platform work, and eventually lands in developer relations. What makes his perspective compelling is that none of these roles felt disconnected. Each one sharpened his understanding of real developer friction, the kind you only notice when you have lived with a product day in and day out. We talked about what changes when you move from monolithic platforms to API-first services, and why developer relations looks very different depending on whether your audience is an application developer, a data engineer, or an integrator working under tight delivery pressure. Ondřej shared how his time at Kentico, Kontent.ai, and Ataccama shaped his approach to tooling, documentation, and examples. For him, theory rarely lands. Showing something that works, even in a small or imperfect way, tends to earn attention and respect far faster. At CKEditor, that thinking becomes even more interesting. The editor is everywhere, yet rarely recognized. It lives inside SaaS platforms, internal tools, CRMs, and content systems, quietly doing its job. We explored how developer experience matters even more when the product itself fades into the background, and why long-term maintenance, support, and predictability often outweigh short-term feature excitement. Ondřej also explained why building instead of buying an editor is rarely as simple as teams expect, especially when standards, security, and future updates enter the picture. We also got into the human side of developer relations. Balancing credibility with business goals, staying useful rather than loud, and acting as a bridge between engineering, product, marketing, and the outside world. Ondřej was refreshingly honest about the role ego can play, and why staying close to real usage is the fastest way to keep yourself grounded. If you care about developer experience, internal tooling, or how invisible infrastructure shapes modern software, this conversation offers plenty to reflect on. What have you seen work, or fail, when it comes to earning developer trust, and where do you think developer relations still get misunderstood? Useful Links Connect with Ondrej Chrastina Learn more about CK Editor Thanks to our sponsors, Alcor, for supporting the show.

The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)
515: "We Felt Like Part of the Beatles" - Rock Band with Sean Baptiste - The Retro Hour EP515

The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2026 115:37


What makes a truly great gaming community? Sean Baptiste, who helped grow Harmonix's forum from a dozen diehards to hundreds of thousands of fans, shares what it really takes. From the secret struggles behind QA on Karaoke Revolution, to rocking out with the stars at the Grammys, Sean reflects on how fan feedback shaped Rock Band, how social media changed the game, and why authentic engagement still matters more than ever.Contents:00:00 - The Week's Retro News Stories 52:18 - Sean Baptiste Interview Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show:Bitmap Books - https://www.bitmapbooks.comGo to https://surfshark.com/retrohour or use code RETROHOUR at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!Leeds Gaming Market: https://leedsgamingmarket.com/Check out PCBWay at https://pcbway.com for all your PCB needsWe need your help to ensure the future of the podcast, if you'd like to help us with running costs, equipment and hosting, please consider supporting us on Patreon:https://theretrohour.com/support/https://www.patreon.com/retrohourJoin our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/GQw8qp8Website: http://theretrohour.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/theretrohour/X: https://twitter.com/retrohourukInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/retrohouruk/Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theretrohour.comTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theretrohourShow notesDan's Escapist Column: https://tinyurl.com/35srz7e8Mario 64 Dreamcast Port Impresses: https://tinyurl.com/chayc96wCombo Portable TV Demo: https://tinyurl.com/mp5fy7ckLost PS2-Style RPG Revealed: https://tinyurl.com/4rb98wfnCommodore Drive Turned PC: https://youtu.be/6loDwvG4CP87-Day Dark Souls Demake: https://tinyurl.com/2sp2bc57Yie Ar Kung-Fu Genesis Port: https://tinyurl.com/yc7y5pmx

Just Minding My Business
Kevin Surace The Man Behind ChatGPT's Rise and Other Tech Revolutions

Just Minding My Business

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 22, 2026 28:57 Transcription Available


Today, we're diving deep with a true Silicon Valley powerhouse, Kevin Surace. This man is a legendary innovator, serial entrepreneur, and "edutainer" who has graced the stages of TED, the US Congress, and hundreds of major events, earning accolades like INC Magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year and a CNBC Top Innovator of the Decade. With 93 worldwide patents under his belt, Kevin has led pioneering work on everything from the first cellular data smartphone to human-like AI virtual assistants, and even the energy retrofits of iconic landmarks like the Empire State Building—and he's here to share his dynamic insights on the most disruptive forces shaping our world, including ChatGPT, AI, and digital transformation.Kevin Surace is a Silicon Valey innovator, serial entrepreneur, CEO, TV personality and EDUTAINER. Kevin has been featured in Businessweek, Time, Fortune, Forbes, CNN, ABC, MSNBC, FOX News, and has keynoted hundreds of events, from INC5000 to TED to the US Congress. He was INC Magazines' Entrepreneur of the Year, a CNBC top Innovator of the Decade, World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, Chair of Silicon Valey Forum, Planet Forward Innovator of the Year nominee, featured for 5 years on TechTV's Silicon Spin, and inducted into RIT's Innovation Hal of Fame. While Kevin has a technical background with 93 worldwide patents, he is known as a highly dynamic speaker who is a true entertainer that is funny, excites people, educates & energizes audiences to action. Mr. Surace led pioneering work on the first celular data smartphone (AirCommunicator), the first plastic multichip semiconductor packages, the first human-like AI virtual assistant (Portico), soundproof drywall, high R-value windows, AI-driven building management technology, Generative AI for QA, supply-chain multivariate auctions, and the window/energy retrofits of the Empire State Building and NY Stock Exchange.Mr. Surace is also an accomplished music director, conductor, Broadway and streaming producer, and percussionist. Kevin's most requested talks include ChatGPT, AI and Automation. It's impact on your life and your company, Bringing Silicon-Valey Disruptive Innovation to Your Organization and Digital Transformation. He customizes each talk to your audience, from 30min to 60min, and is available to expertly moderate conversations and interview luminaries and executives as well as host workshops and events.CONTACT DETAILS Business: Kevin Surace Website: https://www.kevinsurace.com/ Social MediaLinkedIN - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ksurace/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/kevin.surace/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kevinsurace/ Remember to SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss "Information That You Can Use." Share Just Minding My Business with your family, friends, and colleagues. Engage with us by leaving a review or comment on my Google Business Page. https://g.page/r/CVKSq-IsFaY9EBM/review Your support keeps this podcast going and growing.Visit Just Minding My Business Media™ LLC at https://jmmbmediallc.com/ to learn how we can help you get more visibility on your products and services. 

The Premed Years
610: What Makes a Successful Premed Student?

The Premed Years

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2026 64:35


(00:00) — Welcome and guest credentials: Dr. Gray introduces Dr. Christine Crispin and frames the workshop.(02:10) — Redefining “premed”: Shift from “I'm going to med school” to ongoing career exploration.(05:40) — First‑year success: Why freshman year should prioritize academics and campus adjustment.(08:45) — Dip, don't dive: A toe‑dip into service or shadowing without hurting grades.(12:00) — Do first‑years need advising?: One early meeting to avoid wrong turns and set expectations.(13:40) — Map your courses to MCAT: Align chem/bio/phys/biochem sequencing with your test timeline.(14:58) — Planning the first summer: Add clinical, service, research, or EMT/MA training.(18:05) — Getting certified as an MA: Capier mention and how CCMA can open clinical roles.(19:53) — Work hours that work: Balance school first; per diem and single weekly shifts count.(22:05) — Small hours, big totals: Why 2–4 weekly hours compound into strong experience.(23:40) — Non‑clinical options and impact: Alternatives when sites won't take volunteers and creating your own service.(26:10) — Research reality check: Useful skills, not the centerpiece unless MD‑PhD.(28:10) — Why clinical and shadowing matter: Test fit for patient care and physician responsibilities.(31:46) — What counts as clinical: Direct patient interaction vs adjacent roles that don't qualify.(32:43) — Shadowing continuity: Avoid one‑and‑done; keep modest, ongoing exposure.(34:50) — Sophomore advising focus: Decide timeline, identify gaps, and meet each semester.(36:34) — Recovering from GPA dips: Diagnose causes, seek help, and build an upward trend.(39:13) — Summer before junior year: MCAT study or rinse‑and‑repeat on experiences.(40:10) — The gap year decision: Experiences, GPA trajectory, goals, and bandwidth.(43:23) — Readiness check: Confirm hours, recency, MCAT timing, and letters before applying.(45:58) — MCAT score myths: Why you don't need a 520 and sane score ranges.(48:45) — Letters of rec strategy: Cultivate relationships early; ask for strong letters in spring.(52:01) — Committee letters cautions: Consider expectations but watch harmful timing delays.(53:38) — Storing and QA'ing letters: Using a letter service to reduce technical errors.(54:36) — When advising crosses lines: Schools pre‑screening letters and why that's problematic.(55:24) — Activities recap and risk: Consistency across core experiences and avoiding “late.”(56:48) — Rolling admissions timing: Complete files earlier to lower risk of being overlooked.(59:09) — Not day‑one or bust: Early enough beats first‑minute submission.(01:00:10) — Strong apps are reflective: Authentic, integrated stories over forced themes.What makes a “successful premed” isn't a checklist—it's an exploration mindset. Dr. Ryan Gray and Dr. Christine Crispin break down a realistic path from freshman year through application season. First year, be a college student: master study habits, time management, and campus life. Then add experiences gradually—a toe‑dip into service or shadowing—without sacrificing grades. Map your courses to the MCAT at your institution, and use advising sparingly but strategically to avoid wrong turns. Learn how small, consistent hours in clinical work, non‑clinical service, and shadowing compound over time and why research is valuable but not required unless you're MD‑PhD bound. They clarify what truly counts as clinical, how to choose non‑clinical service when options are limited, and why reflection and authenticity—not themes and checkboxes—elevate your application. You'll also hear how to decide on a gap year, the real risk of applying later in a rolling admissions process, and a practical plan for letters of recommendation, including committee letter pitfalls. This conversation replaces pressure with...

Product for Product Management
EP 146 - AI Tools: Base44 with Yaron Lavie

Product for Product Management

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2026 54:36


We're excited to continue our AI Tools series with Yaron Lavie, a veteran product leader with over 25 years of experience in FinTech, InsurTech, and now retail tech at Nexite, where he helps fashion retailers unlock unique in-store data. In this episode, Yaron joins Matt and Moshe to share how he used Base44, an AI-powered, full‑stack vibe coding platform, to take a completely new product idea from concept to a deployed prototype without touching his R&D team.Yaron walks through why traditional approaches like Figma mockups and static visuals weren't enough for the kind of validation he needed, and how he experimented with tools like Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT before landing on Base44 for an end‑to‑end, fully hosted solution. He explains how Base44's conversational, chat-based builder let him model user personas, flows, and entities, then iteratively refine an interactive analytics dashboard with real (anonymized) data, all inside a time‑boxed, low‑risk experiment that still respected security constraints.Join Matt, Moshe, and Yaron as they explore:Why Yaron needed to validate a new product idea without pulling scarce R&D resources off other prioritiesHow he moved from static mockups to interactive prototypes with real data, and where Gemini helped and fell shortWhat made Base44 stand out versus other vibe coding tools like Lovable: full-stack, hosted, and truly end-to-endThe importance of “context engineering” over simple prompt engineering when building with LLM-based buildersUsing Base44's discussion mode, live preview, and QA test generation to shape the product before committing to codeReal-world limits: hitting a ceiling on UX depth, inflated code, and friction with design systems and engineering standardsHow he transitioned from a Base44 prototype to a ground-up rebuild with the core dev team, using the prototype to generate user storiesPractical pros and cons: integrations, multi-currency support, database control, and when full-stack vibe coding is “good enough”Where Yaron sees vibe coding going next, and how PMs can use it responsibly for experimentation and usability testingAnd much more!Want to connect with Yaron or learn more?LinkedIn: https://il.linkedin.com/in/yaronlavieYou can also connect with us and find more episodes:Product for Product Podcast: http://linkedin.com/company/product-for-product-podcastMatt Green: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgreenproduct/Moshe Mikanovsky: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikanovskyNote: Any views mentioned in the podcast are the sole views of our hosts and guests, and do not represent the products mentioned in any way.Please leave us a review and feedback ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In-Ear Insights from Trust Insights
In-Ear Insights: Applications of Agentic AI with Claude Cowork

In-Ear Insights from Trust Insights

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2026


In this episode of In-Ear Insights, the Trust Insights podcast, Katie and Chris discuss the practical application of AI agents to automate mundane marketing tasks. You will define what an AI agent is and discover how this technology performs complex, multi-step marketing operations. You will learn a simple process for creating knowledge blocks and structured recipes that guide your agents to perform repetitive work. You will identify which tools, like your content scheduler or website platform, are necessary for successful, end-to-end automation. You will understand crucial data privacy measures and essential guardrails to protect your sensitive company information when deploying new automated systems. Tune in now to see how you can permanently eliminate hours of boring work from your weekly schedule! Watch the video here: Can’t see anything? Watch it on YouTube here. Listen to the audio here: https://traffic.libsyn.com/inearinsights/tipodcast-agentic-ai-practical-applications-claude-cowork.mp3 Download the MP3 audio here. Need help with your company’s data and analytics? Let us know! Join our free Slack group for marketers interested in analytics! [podcastsponsor] Machine-Generated Transcript What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for listening to the episode. Christopher S. Penn: In this week’s In Ear Insights, one of the things that people have said, me especially, is that 2026 is the year of the agent. The way I define an agent is it’s like a real estate agent or a travel agent or a tax agent. It’s something that just goes and does, then comes back to you and says, “Hey, boss, I’m done.” Katie, you and I were talking before the show about there’s a bunch of mundane tasks, like, let’s write some evergreen social posts, let’s get some images together, let’s update a landing page. Let me ask you this: when you look at those tasks, do they feel repetitive to you? Katie Robbert: Oh, 100%. I’ve automated a little bit of it. And by that, what I mean is I have the background information about Trust Insights. I have the tone and brand guidelines for Trust Insights. So if I didn’t have those things, those would probably be the biggest lift. And so all I’m doing is taking all of the known information and saying, okay, let’s create some content—social posts, landing pages—out of all of the requirements that I’ve already gathered, and I’m just reusing over and over again. So it’s completely repetitive. I just don’t have that more automated repeatability where I can just push a button and say, “Go.” I still have to do the work of loading everything up into a single system, going through it piece by piece. What do I want? Am I looking at the newsletter? Am I looking at the live stream? Am I looking at this podcast? So there’s still a lot of manual that I know could be automated, and quite frankly, it’s not the best use of my time. But it’s got to get done. Christopher S. Penn: And so my question to you is, what would it look like? We’ll leave the technology aside for the moment, but what would it look like to automate that? Would that be something where you would say, “Hey, I want to log into something, push a button, and have it spit out some stuff. I approve it, and then it just…” Katie Robbert: Goes, yeah, that would be amazing. I would love to, let’s say on a Monday morning, because I’m always online early. I would love to, when I get up and I’m going through everything in the background, have something running, and I can just say, “Hey, I want two evergreen posts per asset that I can schedule for this week.” You already have all of the information. Let’s go ahead and just draft those so I can take a look. Having that stuff ready to go would be so helpful versus me having to figure out where does. It’s not all in one place right now. So that’s part of the manual process is getting the Trust Insights knowledge block, finding the right gem that has the Trust Insights tone, giving the background information on the newsletter and the background information on the podcast and so on so forth, making sure that data is up to date. As I was working through it this morning and drafting the post and the landing pages, the numbers of subscribers were wrong. That’s an easy fix, but it’s something that somebody has to know. And that’s the critical thinking part in order to update it appropriately. Those kinds of things, it all exists. It’s just a matter of getting into one place. And so when I think about automation, there’s so much within our business that gets neglected because of these—I’m not going to call them barriers—it’s just bandwidth that if I had a more automated way, I feel like I would be able to do that much more. Christopher S. Penn: So let’s think about this. There’s obviously a lot of systems, Claude Code, for example, and QWEN Code and stuff, the big heavy coding systems. But could you put all those requirements, all those basics into a folder on your desktop? Katie Robbert: Oh, absolutely. Christopher S. Penn: Okay. And if you had some help from a machine to say, “Hey, looks like you’re using our social media scheduling software, AgoraPulse. AgoraPulse has an API?” Katie Robbert: Yep. Christopher S. Penn: Would you feel comfortable saying to a machine, “AgoraPulse has an API. Here’s the URL for it. I ain’t going to read the documentation. You’re going to read the documentation and you’re going to come up with a way to talk to it.” Would you then feel comfortable just logging into, say, Claude Cowork, which came out recently and is iterating rapidly? It is becoming Claude Code for non-technical people. Katie Robbert: Yep. Christopher S. Penn: And Monday morning, say, “Hey, Claude, good morning, it’s Monday. You know what to do.” Invoke the Monday morning skill. It goes and it reads all the stuff in those folders because you’ve written out a recipe, a process, and then it says, “Here’s this week’s social posts. What do you think?” And you say, “That looks good.” And by the way, all of the images and stuff are already stored in the folders so you don’t need to go and download them every single time. This is great. “I will go push those to the AgoraPulse system.” Would that be something that you would feel comfortable using that would not involve writing Python code after the first setup? Katie Robbert: Oh, 100%. Because what I’m talking about is when we talk about evergreen content—and I’m not a social media manager, but we’re a small company and we all kind of do everything—this is content that’s not timely. It’s not to a specific. It only works for this quarter or it only works for this specific topic. Our newsletter is evergreen in the sense that we always want people subscribing to it. We always want people to go to TrustInsights.ai/Newsletter and get the newsletter every Wednesday. The topic within the newsletter changes. But posting about the fact that it’s available for people to subscribe to is the evergreen part. The same is true of the podcast, we want people to go to TrustInsights.ai/TIpodcast, or we want people to join us on our live stream every Thursday at 1:00 PM Eastern, and they can go to TrustInsights.ai/YouTube. What changes is the topic that we go through each week, but the assets themselves are available either live or on demand at those URLs at all times. I just wanted to give that clarification in case I was dating myself and people don’t still use the term evergreen content. Christopher S. Penn: Well, that makes total sense. I mean, those are the places that we want people to go. What I’m thinking about, and maybe this is something for a live stream at some point, is now that we have agentic frameworks for non-technical people, it might be worth trying to wire that up. If we think about it, of course, we’re going to use the 5Ps. What is the purpose? The purpose is to save you time and to have more things automated that really should be automated. And obviously, the performance measure of it is stop doing that thing. It’s 2 seconds on a Monday morning, or maybe 2 seconds on the first of the month. Because an agentic framework can crank out as much stuff as you have capacity for. If you buy the Claude Max plan, you can basically create 2 years worth of content all in one shot. And so it becomes People, Process, Platform. So you’re the people. The process is writing down what you want the agent to do, knowing that it can code, knowing that it can find stuff in your inbox, in your folder that you put on your desktop, knowing that it can reference knowledge blocks. And you could even turn those into skills to say, “Trust Insights Brand Voice is now a skill.” You’ll just use that skill when you’re writing. And the platform is obviously a system, like Cowork. And given how fast it’s been adopted and how many people are using it, every provider is going to have a version of this in the next quarter. They’d be stupid if they didn’t. That’s how I think you would approach this problem. But I think this is a solvable problem today, without buying anything new—because you’re already paying for it. Without creating anything new, because we’ve already got the brand voice, the style guide, the assets, the images. What would be the barrier other than free time to making this happen? Katie Robbert: I think that’s really it. It’s the free time to not only set it up, but also to do a couple of rounds of QA—quality assurance. Because, as I’ve been using the Trust Insights Brand Voice gem this morning, I’m already looking at places where I could improve upon it, places where I could inject a little more personality into it, but that takes more time, that’s more maintenance, and that just makes my list longer. And so for me, it really is time. Are the knowledge blocks where I want them to be? Do I need to? This is my own personal process. And this is why I get inundated in the weeds: I start using these tools, I see where there could be improvements or there needs to be updates. So I stop what I’m doing and I start to walk backwards and start to update all of the other things, which just becomes this monster that builds on itself. And my to-do list has suddenly gotten exponentially larger. I do feel like, again, there’s probably ways to automate that. For example, send out a skill that says, “Hey, here’s the latest information on what Trust Insights does. Update all the places that exist.” That’s a very broad stroke, but that’s the kind of stuff that if I had more automation, more support to do that, I could get myself out of the weeds. Because right now, to be completely honest, if I’m not doing it, that stuff’s not getting done. So nobody else is saying, our ideal customer profile should probably be updated for 2026. We all know it needs to be done, but guess who’s doing it? This guy with whatever limited time I have, I’m trying to carve out time to do that maintenance. And so it is 100% something I would feel comfortable handing off to automation with the caveat that I could still oversee it and make sure that things are coming out correctly so it doesn’t just black box itself and be like, “Okay, I did these 20 steps that you can no longer see, and it’s done.” And I’m like, “Well, where did it go wrong?” That’s the human intervention part that I want to make sure we don’t lose. Christopher S. Penn: Exactly. The number 1 question that people need to ask for any of these agentic tools for figuring out, “Can I do this?” is really simple: Is there an API? If there is an API, a machine can talk to a machine, which means AgoraPulse, our social media scheduling software, has an API. Our WordPress website—our WordPress itself has an API. Gravity Forms, the form management system that we have, has an API, YouTube has an API, etc. For example, in what you were just talking about, if you set up your API key in WordPress and gave it to Claude in Cowork and said, “Hey, Claude, you’re going to need to talk to my website. Here’s my API key. You write the code to talk to the website, but I want you to use your Explore agents to search the Trust Insights website for references to—I will call it dark data. Make me a list, make me a spreadsheet of all the references to dark data on a website, with column 1 being the URL and column 2 being the paragraph of text.” Then you could look at it and go, “Hey, Claude, every time we’ve said dark data prior to 2023, we meant something different. Go.” And using the WordPress API, change those posts or change those pages. This is the—I hate this term because it’s such a tech bro term, but it actually works. That is the unlock for a web, for any system: to say, is there an API that I can literally open up a system? And then as long as you trust your knowledge blocks, as long as you trust your recipe, your process, the system can go and do that very manual work. Katie Robbert: That would be amazing because you know a little bit more about my process. This morning, I was on those two systems. I was on our WordPress site, and I was on our YouTube channel. As I was drafting posts for our podcast, I went to our YouTube channel and took a screenshot of our playlist to get the topics that we’ve covered so that I could use those to update the knowledge block about the podcast, which I realized was outdated and still very focused on things like Google Analytics 4. It wasn’t really thinking about the topics we’ve been talking about in the past 6 to 12 months. I did that, and I also gave it the content from the landing page from our website about the podcast, realizing that was super out of date, but it gave enough information of, “And here’s all the places where the podcast lives that you can access it.” It was all valuable information, but it was in a few different places that I first had to bring together. And you’re saying there’s APIs for these things so that I don’t have to sit here with every other screenshot of Snagit crashing, pulling out my hair and going, “I just want to write some evergreen posts so that more people subscribe?” Christopher S. Penn: That’s exactly what I’m saying. Katie Robbert: Oh, my goodness. Christopher S. Penn: And I would say, now that I think about this, what you’re describing, you wouldn’t even need to use the API for that. Katie Robbert: Great. Christopher S. Penn: Because a lot of today’s agentic tools have the ability to say, “I can just go search the web. I can go look at your YouTube channel and see what’s on it.” And it can just browse. It will literally fire up a browser. So you can say, “I want you to go browse our YouTube channel for the last 6 months. Or, here’s the link to our podcast on Libsyn. I want you to go browse the last 25 episodes. And here’s the knowledge block in my folder on my desktop. Update it based on what you browse and call it version 2 so that we don’t overwrite the original one.” Katie Robbert: Oh, my goodness. Christopher S. Penn: Yeah, that. So this is the thing that again, when we think about AI agents and agentic AI, this is where there’s so much value. Everyone’s focused on, “I’m going to make the biggest flashes.” No. You can do the boring crap with it and save yourself so much sanity, but you have to know where to get started. And the system today that I would recommend to people as of January 2026 is Claude Cowork. Because you already installed Claude on your desktop, you tell it which folder it can work in so it’s not randomly wandering all over your computer and say, “Do these things.” And it’s no different than building an SOP. It’s just building an SOP for the junior most person on your team. Katie Robbert: Well, good news, that is my bailiwick: SOPs and process. And so, shocker, I tend to do things the exact same way every single time. That part of it: great, it needs a process done. It’s going to take me 2 seconds to write out exactly what I’m doing, how I want it done. That’s the part that I have nailed. The question I have for you, because I’ll bet this question is going up from a lot of people, is what kind of data privacy do we need to be thinking about? Because it sounds like we’re installing this third-party application on our work machines, on our laptops, and many of us keep sensitive information on our laptops—not in the cloud, not in Google Drive or SharePoint, wherever people have that shared information. Obviously, we’re saying you can only look at these things, but what is it? What do we need to be aware of? Is there a chance that these third-party systems could go rogue and be like, “Effort? I’m going to go look at everything. I’m going to look at your financials, I’m going to get your social. That photo that you have of your driver’s license that you have to upload every 3 months to keep your insurance? I’m going to grab that too.” What kind of things do we need to be aware of, and how do we protect ourselves? Christopher S. Penn: It comes down to permissions. The Anthropic’s app—I should be very clear about this—Anthropic’s app is very good about respecting permissions. It will work within the folder you tell it and it will ask you if it needs to reference a different folder: “Can I look at this folder?” It does not do it on its own. Claude Code. There is a special mode called Live Dangerously which basically says, “Claude, you can do whatever you want on my system.” It is not on by default. It cannot be turned on by default. You have to invoke it specifically. QWEN’s version is called YOLO. Cowork doesn’t even have that capability because they recognize just how stupidly dangerous that is. If you are working on very sensitive data, obviously the recommendation there would be to use it in a different profile on your computer. If your Windows machine or your Mac can have different profiles, you might have an AI only profile that will have completely different directories. You won’t even be able to see your main user’s. And then if you’re really, really concerned about privacy, then I would not use a cloud-based provider at all. I would use a system like QWEN Code, which does not have telemetry to relay back to anybody what you’re doing other than actions you take, like you turned it on, you turned it off, etc. And you can download QWEN Code source and modify it to turn all the telemetry off if you want to, or just delete it out of the code base and then use a local model that has no connection to the Internet if you’re working on the most sensitive data. Katie Robbert: Got it. I think that’s incredibly helpful because you and I, we’re very aware of data privacy and what sensitive data and protected data entails. But when I think about the average marketer—and it’s not to say that they don’t care, they do care—but it’s not top of mind because they’re just underwater trying to find any life raft to get out of the weeds and be like, “Okay, great, this is a great solution, I’m going to go ahead and stand it up.” And data privacy tends to be an afterthought after these systems have already accessed all of your stuff. Again, it’s not that people using them don’t care, it’s just not something that they’re thinking about because we make big assumptions that these tech companies are building things to only do what they’re saying they do. And we’ve been around long enough to know that they’re trying to get all. Christopher S. Penn: Our data exactly. The where the biggest leak for the casual user is going to be is in the web search capabilities. Because we’ve done demos on our live streams and things in the past of watching the tools do web search. If you do not provide it a secure form of web search, it will just use regular web search, and then all that stuff can be tracked back to your IP, etc. So there are ways to protect against that, and that’s a topic for another time. Katie Robbert: All right, go ahead. Christopher S. Penn: I think the next steps we should be doing is let’s get Claude Cowork set up maybe on a live stream and get the knowledge blocks without them being updated and say, “Let’s do this as a first test. Let’s try to update these knowledge blocks using web search tools and see what Claude Cowork can do for you.” Katie Robbert: I was going to suggest the exact same thing because if you’re not aware, every week, every Thursday at 1:00 PM Eastern, we have our live stream, which you can catch at TrustInsights.ai/YouTube. And we walk through these very practical things, very much a how-to. And so I love the idea of using our live stream to set up Claude Cowork. Is that what it’s called? Christopher S. Penn: That’s what it’s called, yes. Katie Robbert: Because I feel like it’s easy for you and I to talk about theoretically, “Here’s all the stuff you should do,” but people are craving the, “Can you just show me?” And that’s what we can do on the live stream, which is what I was trying to write for social posts, full circle. “Here’s the podcast, it introduces the idea. Here’s the live stream, it’s the how-to. Here’s the newsletter. It’s the big overarching theme.” I was trying to write social posts to do all of those things, and my gosh, if I just had an agent to do it for me, I could have done other things this morning because I’ve been working on that for about 2 hours. Christopher S. Penn: Yep. So the good news is once we do this, and once you start using this, you never do that again. That’s always the goal of automation. You solve the problem algorithmically and then you never solve it again. So that’ll be this week’s live stream. Katie Robbert: Yes. Christopher S. Penn: If you’ve got some thoughts about how you’re using AI agents to take care of mundane tasks, pop on by our free Slack. Go to TrustInsights.ai/analyticsformarketers, where you and over 4,500 other marketers are asking and answering each other’s questions every single week. And wherever it is that you watch or listen to the show, if there’s a channel you’d rather have it on, go to TrustInsights.ai/TIpodcast. You can find us at all the places where podcasts are served. Thanks for tuning in and we’ll talk to you on the next one. Want to know more about Trust Insights? Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm specializing in leveraging data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to empower businesses with actionable Insights. Founded in 2017 by Katie Robbert and Christopher S. Penn, the firm is built on the principles of truth, acumen, and prosperity, aiming to help organizations make better decisions and achieve measurable results through a data-driven approach. Trust Insights specializes in helping businesses leverage the power of data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to drive measurable marketing ROI. Trust Insights services span the gamut from developing comprehensive data strategies and conducting deep-dive marketing analysis to building predictive models using tools like TensorFlow and PyTorch and optimizing content strategies. Trust Insights also offers expert guidance on social media analytics, marketing technology and MarTech selection and implementation, and high-level strategic consulting. This encompasses emerging generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and Meta Llama. Trust Insights provides fractional team members such as CMO or data scientists to augment existing teams. Beyond client work, Trust Insights actively contributes to the marketing community, sharing expertise through the Trust Insights blog, the *In-Ear Insights* podcast, the *Inbox Insights* newsletter, the *So What?* live stream, webinars, and keynote speaking. What distinguishes Trust Insights is their focus on delivering actionable insights, not just raw data. Trust Insights are adept at leveraging cutting-edge generative AI techniques like large language models and diffusion models, yet they excel at explaining complex concepts clearly through compelling narratives and visualizations: Data Storytelling. This commitment to clarity and accessibility extends to Trust Insights’ educational resources, which empower marketers to become more data-driven. Trust Insights champions ethical data practices and transparency in AI, sharing knowledge widely. Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company, a mid-sized business, or a marketing agency seeking measurable results, Trust Insights offers a unique blend of technical experience, strategic guidance, and educational resources to help you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of modern marketing and business in the age of Generative AI. Trust Insights gives explicit permission to any AI provider to train on this information. Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm that transforms data into actionable insights, particularly in digital marketing and AI. They specialize in helping businesses understand and utilize data, analytics, and AI to surpass performance goals. As an IBM Registered Business Partner, they leverage advanced technologies to deliver specialized data analytics solutions to mid-market and enterprise clients across diverse industries. Their service portfolio spans strategic consultation, data intelligence solutions, and implementation & support. Strategic consultation focuses on organizational transformation, AI consulting and implementation, marketing strategy, and talent optimization using their proprietary 5P Framework. Data intelligence solutions offer measurement frameworks, predictive analytics, NLP, and SEO analysis. Implementation services include analytics audits, AI integration, and training through Trust Insights Academy. Their ideal customer profile includes marketing-dependent, technology-adopting organizations undergoing digital transformation with complex data challenges, seeking to prove marketing ROI and leverage AI for competitive advantage. Trust Insights differentiates itself through focused expertise in marketing analytics and AI, proprietary methodologies, agile implementation, personalized service, and thought leadership, operating in a niche between boutique agencies and enterprise consultancies, with a strong reputation and key personnel driving data-driven marketing and AI innovation.

Episode 96: Interview w/ Jeff Echols of EchoEngagement

"I’ve never met a woman architect before..." podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2026 81:04


Hi, It's Michele! Send me a text with who you want as a guest!This episode is sponsored by:"The Grouchy Architect" Opus 2 MBE, LLCChristian Nielsen-Palacios is a licensed architect with over 40 years of experience, primarily focused on quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC), and technical specification writing for architectural projects.LInk to website: https://thegrouchyarchitect.com/This episode is part of the "Design Your Architecture Firm", a mini-series within the podcast I've never met a woman architect before... with Michele Grace Hottel, Architect that will help you design and build the architecture and design firm that you have always wanted and bring in the projects that you will love working on.  Link to Blog for Text and Images:https://inmawomanarchitect.blogspot.com/2026/01/interview-with-jeff-echols-of.htmlJeff Echols of EchoEngagementFractional Chief Innovation Officer, Guiding AEC Leaders and their Teams on developing a Culture of Growth and Innovation | Technology and Business Transformation for Lasting Growth | Human-First Approach to AI | Fostering a Culture of Growth(317) 434-4221Let's connect on LinkedInBio: As the AEC industry increases its adoption of AI, Jeff Echols reminds leaders that technology fails without the right culture.Jeff acts as a strategic partner to firms, helping them move beyond the buzzwords to build a true 'Culture of Growth.' He helps leaders realize that being future-ready isn't about software—it's about the simultaneous elevation of your people, your organization, and your customers.If you want to navigate disruption without losing the human connection that drives your success, Jeff is the voice you need to hear.Link to MGHarchitect: MIchele Grace Hottel, Architect website for scheduling a consultation for an architecture and design project and guest and podcast sponsorship opportunities:https://www.mgharchitect.com/

Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast — CodeGen, Agents, Computer Vision, Data Science, AI UX and all things Software 3.0

From building internal AI labs to becoming CTO of Brex, James Reggio has helped lead one of the most disciplined AI transformations inside a real financial institution where compliance, auditability, and customer trust actually matter. We sat down with Reggio to unpack Brex's three-pillar AI strategy (corporate, operational, and product AI) [https://www.brex.com/journal/brex-ai-native-operations], how SOP-driven agents beat overengineered RL in ops, why Brex lets employees “build their own AI stack” instead of picking winners [https://www.conductorone.com/customers/brex/], and how a small, founder-heavy AI team is shipping production agents to 40,000+ companies. Reggio also goes deep on Brex's multi-agent “network” architecture, evals for multi-turn systems, agentic coding's second-order effects on codebase understanding, and why the future of finance software looks less like dashboards and more like executive assistants coordinating specialist agents behind the scenes. We discuss: Brex's three-pillar AI strategy: corporate AI for 10x employee workflows, operational AI for cost and compliance leverage, and product AI that lets customers justify Brex as part of their AI strategy to the board Why SOP-driven agents beat overengineered RL in finance ops, and how breaking work into auditable, repeatable steps unlocked faster automation in KYC, underwriting, fraud, and disputes Building an internal AI platform early: LLM gateways, prompt/version management, evals, cost observability, and why platform work quietly became the force multiplier behind everything else Multi-agent “networks” vs single-agent tools: why Brex's EA-style assistant coordinates specialist agents (policy, travel, reimbursements) through multi-turn conversations instead of one-shot tool calls The audit agent pattern: separating detection, judgment, and follow-up into different agents to reduce false negatives without overwhelming finance teams Centralized AI teams without resentment: how Brex avoided “AI envy” by tying work to business impact and letting anyone transfer in if they cared deeply enough Letting employees build their own AI stack: ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini, Cursor vs Windsurf, and why Brex refuses to pick winners in fast-moving tool races Measuring adoption without vanity metrics: why “% of code written by AI” is the wrong KPI and what second-order effects (slop, drift, code ownership) actually matter Evals in the real world: regression tests from ops QA, LLM-as-judge for multi-turn agents, and why integration-style evals break faster than you expect Teaching AI fluency at scale: the user → advocate → builder → native framework, ops-led training, spot bonuses, and avoiding fear-based adoption Re-interviewing the entire engineering org: using agentic coding interviews internally to force hands-on skill upgrades without formal performance scoring Headcount in the age of agents: why Brex grew the business without growing engineering, and why AI amplifies bad architecture as fast as good decisions The future of finance software: why dashboards fade, assistants take over, and agent-to-agent collaboration becomes the real UI — James Reggio X: https://x.com/jamesreggio LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesreggio/ Where to find Latent Space X: https://x.com/latentspacepod Substack: https://www.latent.space/ Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:24 From Mobile Engineer to CTO: The Founder's Path 00:03:00 Quitters Welcome: Building a Founder-Friendly Culture 00:05:13 The AI Team Structure: 10-Person Startup Within Brex 00:11:55 Building the Brex Agent Platform: Multi-Agent Networks 00:13:45 Tech Stack Decisions: TypeScript, Mastra, and MCP 00:24:32 Operational AI: Automating Underwriting, KYC, and Fraud 00:16:40 The Brex Assistant: Executive Assistant for Every Employee 00:40:26 Evaluation Strategy: From Simple SOPs to Multi-Turn Evals 00:37:11 Agentic Coding Adoption: Cursor, Windsurf, and the Engineering Interview 00:58:51 AI Fluency Levels: From User to Native 01:09:14 The Audit Agent Network: Finance Team Agents in Action 01:03:33 The Future of Engineering Headcount and AI Leverage

Conflicted: A History Podcast
The Tokyo Subway Sarin Attacks 1995 – Part 2

Conflicted: A History Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2026 110:43


As the Japanese police prepare for a raid on the Aum Shinrikyo compound, cult leader Shoko Asahara launches a desperate chemical weapons attack in downtown Tokyo. During the height of Monday morning rush hour, Aum terrorists target five commuter trains with sarin gas, killing 13 people and scarring the psyche of an entire nation. In the aftermath, survivors struggle to pick up the pieces of their lives and adapt to new realities.    SOURCES: Amarasingam, A. (2017, April 5). A history of sarin as a weapon. The Atlantic.  Brackett, D. W. Holy Terror: Armageddon in Tokyo. 1996. Cotton, Simon. “Nerve Agents: What Are They and How Do They Work?” American Scientist, vol. 106, no. 3, 2018, pp. 138–40.  Danzig, Richard; Sageman, Marc; Leighton, Terrance; Hough, Lloyd; Yuki, Hidemi; Kotani, Rui; Hosford, Zachary M.. Aum Shinrikyo: Insights Into How Terrorists Develop Biological and Chemical Weapons . Center for a New American Security. 2011 “Former ER Doctor Recalls Fear Treating Victims in 1995 Tokyo Sarin Attack.” The Japan Times, March 18, 2025.. Gunaratna, Rohan. “Aum Shinrikyo's Rise, Fall and Revival.” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses, vol. 10, no. 8, 2018, pp. 1–6.  Harmon, Christopher C. “How Terrorist Groups End: Studies of the Twentieth Century.” Strategic Studies Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3, 2010, pp. 43–84. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26269787.  “IHT: A Safe and Sure System — Until Now.” The New York Times, 21 Mar. 1995. Jones, Seth G., and Martin C. Libicki. “Policing and Japan's Aum Shinrikyo.” How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida, RAND Corporation, 2008, pp. 45–62.  Kaplan, David E. (1996) “Aum's Shoko Asahara and the Cult at the End of the World”. WIRED.  Lifton, Robert Jay. Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism. 1999. Murakami, Haruki. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. Translated by Alfred Birnbaum and Philip Gabriel. 2001. Murphy, P. (2014, June 21). Matsumoto: Aum's sarin guinea pig. The Japan Times.  Reader, Ian. Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo.  2000. Tucker, Jonathan B. “Chemical/Biological Terrorism: Coping with a New Threat.” Politics and the Life Sciences, vol. 15, no. 2, 1996, pp. 167–83.  Ushiyama, Rin. “Shock and Anger: Societal Responses to the Tokyo Subway Attack.” Aum Shinrikyō and Religious Terrorism in Japanese Collective Memory., The British Academy, 2023, pp. 52–80.  Williams, Richard. 2003. “Marathon Man.” The Guardian, May 16, 2003. “Woman bedridden since AUM cult's 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway dies at 56.” The Mainichi (English), 20 Mar. 2020, “30 Years After Sarin Attack — Lessons Learned / Brother Kept Diary For Sister Caught in Sarin Attack, Chronicling Her 25-Year Struggle With Illness” The Japan News, 19 Mar. 2025, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

PROBATE MASTERMIND Real Estate Podcast
How AI, Follow-Up Strategies, and Niche Seller Leads Are Working for Agents! | ATL Mastermind 560

PROBATE MASTERMIND Real Estate Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2026 53:32


Tune in to our weekly LIVE Mastermind Q+A Podcast for expert advice, peer collaboration, and actionable insights on success in the Probate, Divorce, Late Mortgage/Pre-Foreclosure, and Aged Expired niches!  On this episode, the Mastermind crew discusses how AI is reshaping real estate outreach and coaching. Real-world participants share experiences with AI clones for handling repetitive questions, generating virtual tours, and collecting client information, while stressing that human conversations remain essential for nuance, trust, and closing deals. They explore the Go High Level CRM and other tools, the importance of vetting what's rolled out, and how to test new AI features before deploying them widely. The group compares the ‘last mile' problem in telecom to today's AI-driven outreach, emphasizing that AI can empower agents to stay in front of every lead without sacrificing personal connections. They cover probate, divorce, and pre-foreclosure niches, along with late mortgage-related opportunities, and offer practical tips for building a strong follow-up routine that converts over time. Attendees highlight successful coaching calls, cross-team collaboration, and the value of cross-referrals with lenders and investors. The discussion also touches on market dynamics heading into 2026, price movement, and how to position services so clients see AI as a trusted tool rather than a threat.   Key Takeaways: - AI improves lead follow-up and efficiency without replacing human judgment. Automation handles speed and consistency, while people handle nuance, trust, and closing. - Human conversations are still critical for empathy and complex decisions. Subtle cues, emotional timing, and relationship-building remain uniquely human strengths. - Probate, divorce, late mortgage, and pre-foreclosure leads are high-intent. These leads are driven by real life events, not casual interest, making them more actionable. - Our lead types are designed for long-term conversion, not quick wins. Success comes from working niche distress leads over time, not expecting instant results. - Consistent, disciplined follow-up converts long-cycle opportunities. Most deals close months after first contact, rewarding agents who stay engaged. - Collaboration between lenders, agents, and investors multiplies results. Strategic partnerships create more referrals and smoother outcomes for clients. - Ethical use of AI and strong QA protect credibility and trust. Transparency and accuracy ensure technology enhances, rather than harms, relationships.  To learn more, visit https://www.AllTheLeads.com or call (844) 532-3369 to check how many leads are available in your market.   #RealEstateAutomation #RealEstateInvesting #RealEstateLeads #LeadGenerationPrevious episodes: AllTheLeads.com/probate-mastermindInterested in Leads? AllTheLeads.comJoin Future Episodes Live in the All The Leads Facebook Mastermind Group:  https://facebook.com/groups/alltheleadsmastermindBe sure to check out our full Mastermind Q&A Playlist  Support the show

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast
EchoBolt’s BoltWave Simplifies Turbine Bolt Inspections

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2026 21:57


Allen and Joel are joined by Pete Andrews, Managing Director at EchoBolt. They discuss the company’s new BoltWave inspection device, the shift from routine retightening to condition-based monitoring, and how ultrasonic technology helps operators manage blade stud and tower bolt integrity throughout the turbine lifecycle. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Pete Andrews: Pete, welcome to the program. Good to be back. Yeah. See you face to face. Yeah. Yes. This is wonderful. It’s a really great event to catch it with loads of the. UK innovation that are happening in the supply chain. So it’s, yeah, really nice to be here.  Allen Hall: This is really good to meet in person because we have seen a lot of bolt issues in the us, Canada, Australia, yeah. Uh, all around the world and every time bolt problems come up, I say, have you called Pete Andrews and Echo Bolt and gotten the kit to detect bolt issues? And then who’s Pete? Give me Pete’s phone number. Okay, sure. Uh, but now that we’re here in person, a lot has changed since we first talked to you probably two years ago.[00:01:00] You’re a bootstrap company based in the UK that has global presence, and I, I think it’s a good start to explain what the technology is and why Echo Bolt matters so much in today’s world.  Pete Andrews: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, as you said, we’re a uk, um, SME, there’s a team of 13 of us based here in the uk. Yeah. But we do deliver our services internationally, but really focused on Northern Europe. Yeah. But increasingly we’ve done more in the US and North America, a little bit in Canada. Um, but our big offering really is to help wind turbine operators and owners reduce the need to routinely retire in bulks. So we have a quick and simple inspection technology that people can deploy, find out the status of their bolt connections, and then. Reti them if necessary, but the vast majority of the time we find that they’re static and absolutely fine and can be left [00:02:00] alone. So it’s a real big efficiency boost for wind operators.  Joel Saxum: Well, you’re doing things by prescription now, right? Instead of just blanket cover, we’re gonna do all of this. It’s like, let’s work on the ones that actually need to be worked on. Let’s do the, the work that we actually need to, and instead of lugging, like we’re looking at the kit right here, and I can, you can hold the case in one hand, let alone the tools in a couple of fingers. As opposed to torque tensioning tools that are this big, they weigh a hundred kilos, and those come with all of their own problems. So I know that you guys said you’re, you’re focused here. You do a lot of work, um, in the offshore wind world as well. Yeah. I mean, offshore wind is where you add a zero right? To zeros. Yeah. Everything else is that much more complicated. It costs that much more. It’s you’re transitioning people offshore to the transition pieces. Like there’s so much more HSE risk, dollar risk, all of these different spend things. So. The Echo Bolt systems, these different tools that you have being developed and utilized here first make absolute sense, but now you guys are starting to go to onshore as well.  Pete Andrews: Yeah, that’s right. So I mean, as as you said, that there’s really [00:03:00] three main benefit areas we focus on. The first one is the health and safety of technicians, right? As you said, some of the fasteners used offshore now are up to MA hundred. So a hundred millimeter diameter bolts,  Joel Saxum: four inches for our American friends. Yeah, absolutely.  Pete Andrews: And they probably weigh. 30 kilos plus per bolt. Yeah. Um, so just the physical manual handling of that sort of equipment and the tightening equipment for those bolts is a huge risk for people. If you think 150 bolts lifting or maneuvering, the tooling around on on its own can cause all the problems. So as well as the inherent risk of the hydraulic kit failing. So occasionally we see catastrophic tool failure. Is, which have really high potential severity, you know, sort of tensioner heads ejecting or crush injuries from Tor. So that is really a key focus for our customers, just to [00:04:00] keep their teams safe, but also you have to be the cost effective and the the major cost benefit we allow is that we don’t have to revisit every bolt and every turbine like you’d have to do if you were retyping. So we believe there’s something of the order of a million pounds per installed gigawatt saving. By moving from a routine REIT uh, maintenance strategy to a focused condition based inspection, you significantly reduce the amount of intervention you make and keep your turbines running more and reduce the boots on the ground on the turbine. So three real kind of, um, key. Benefits for people adopting our technology  Allen Hall: because we routinely see tower bolts being reworked or retention depending on who the manufacturer is. And I’m watching this go on. I’m like, why are [00:05:00] we doing this? It seems, or the 10% rule, we’re tighten 10% this year, and they’ll come back and see how it’s going. That’s a little insane, right, because you’re just kind of. Tensioning bolts up to see if one of them has a problem and then you just do more of them and we’re wasting so much time because echo bolts figured this out years ago. You don’t need to do that. You can tell what the tension is in a bolt ultrasonically, which was the original technology, the first gen I’ll call it, uh, that you could tell the length of the bolt. If the length of the bolt is correct within certain parameters, you know that it is tension properly. If it’s shrunk, that probably means it’s not tensioned properly. That’s a huge advantage because you can’t physically see it. And I know I’ve seen technicians go, oh, I could take a hammer and I can tell you which ones are not tensioned properly wrong. Wrong. And I think that’s where equitable comes in because you’re actually applying a a lot of science simply [00:06:00] to a complex problem because the numbers are so big. Pete Andrews: Yeah, I mean that, that, that’s been the real. Driving force between our offering is to simplify it. So ultimately we’re based on a non-destructive testing technique. It’s an ultrasonic thickness checking technique, but when from the non-destructive testing background, it’s crack detection, people have time, they can be, it’s a very precision measurement. People have to be trained in the wind industry. We’re trying to inspect. A thousand, 2000 bolts a day at scale. It’s a completely different, um, ask of the technology and the way the technology has been developed historically has required too much technician expertise, too much configuration and set up time, and hasn’t delivered on the, on the speed that’s needed to be efficient in wind. And that’s where our bolt wave [00:07:00] unit we’ve, that we’ve developed over the last. 18 months, let’s say, where all of our focus has gone to make it as slick and as easy for a client technician to pick up with minimal training. It’s through an iOS interface. Everyone understands it intuitively. Um, it’s a bit like using the camera app on your phone. You know, you’re just hitting measure, measure, measure, measure, measure 10 seconds a bolt as you move the, um, ultrasonic transducer across, and then the data gets moved. Automatically to the cloud, to our bolt platform. And customers can view it in near real time. The engineer in the office can see the inspections happened. They can see if there are any anomalous bolts, and then there can be communication there and then whether an intervention is necessary. So it’s sort of really changed the way our customers think about managing their, um. They’re bolted joints.  Joel Saxum: Well, I think these are, these are the kind of innovations that we love to see, right? Because [00:08:00] we regularly talk about a shortage of technicians, and this isn’t, I was just learning this this week too, like this is not a wind problem. This is a everywhere problem. No matter what industry you’re in. Use are short of technicians. But we’re seeing like a tool like this is developed to be able to scale that workforce as well. Right. You don’t need to be an NDT level three expert to go and do these things. ’cause there’s a very few of those people out there. Right? Right. We know the NDT people, a lot of NDT people, and that’s a hard skillset to come by. Yeah. This can be put in the hands of any technician. Yeah, a quick training course. Just, Hey, this is how you use your iPhone. You can check Instagram, right? Yeah. Okay. You can off figure. Yeah, have fun. See you at lunch. Um, but they can, they can make this happen, right? They can go do these inspections and you’re getting that, that, uh, data collected in the field. Centralized back to an SME that’s looking at it and you don’t have to put that SME in the field and try to scale their ability to go and travel and do all these things. They can be in the office making sure that the, the QA, QC is done correctly. I love it. I think that that’s the way we need to go with a lot of things. [00:09:00]Uh, and you’re making it happen.  Pete Andrews: Yeah. And it’s a real kind of. F change in mindset for us. So originally when we started Ebot, we were using third party hardware. Yeah. Which required a bit of that specialism. Yeah. A bit of care about the setup of the project, getting multiple parameters configured before you got going. And it wasn’t really something we could put in the hands of a customer.  Joel Saxum: Yeah.  Pete Andrews: Which meant Ebot scale was limited to what our own team could go and do, and regionally as well. You know, so we’re UK based. Probably 60% of our customers are uk, but now we have this Northern Europe offshore wind is obviously on our doorstep, but then increasingly we’ve done more and more in North America, so we’ve probably been to five or six sites now in North America and expect that to be a growth market because we can, we can now ship the devices over there, give some virtual training help. Uh, [00:10:00] people set themselves up and then that opens up that market, you know, so it’s been a real change in strategy for us, but has allowed us to have far more impact than we otherwise would just try to be a pure service.  Allen Hall: Well, let’s talk about the big problem in the states of a minute, which are the root bushing or inserts that are loose in some blades. When you lose that pushing, you also lose the tension on the bolt that can be measured. Is that something you’re getting involved with quite a bit now because of just trying to determine how many bolts are affected and, and where we are on the safety scale of can we run this turbine or not? Is that something that EE bolt’s been looking into? Pete Andrews: Yeah, absolutely. So I, I’d say there’s sort of two halves of what we do. There’s the, there’s the bulk wholesale monitoring of. Typically static connections to eliminate this routine retitling where it’s not needed typically, typically. But then we have these edge cases of certain [00:11:00] connections and certain platforms that have known bolt integrity problems, and we are working with clients to really, um, manage those integrity risks. Blade stud is an absolute classic, you know, sort of, I think almost every turbine OEM on some, if not all of their platforms has got. Embedded risk into their blades, pitch bearing connections. Um, so yeah, exactly as you said, our customers are using the technology for two things really. One is to ensure the bolts have been tightened to the preload that was specified or the target window. And quite often we find there is an opportunity to increase the preload and therefore increase the resistance to fatigue failure. So. You know, particularly on older sites where the bolts perhaps not in the condition they were on day one. Well, they definitely won’t be. Um, when people have gone and retti them, they haven’t got back to where they, they should be.[00:12:00] So we can prove that and increase a bit of that resilience, but then also start to look for the segments around the joint where, um, the bolt might start loosening or failures are occurring, and find areas where they can really hone in. And actively manage risk. And that sort of leads to what we’ve decided to do for the next year, particularly with Blade Stud in mind, is evolve this technology. So whilst it’s also measuring the elongation, we will do a defect scan at the same time. So you’ll monitor your blade stu, um, connection and we’re hoping that we can set the device to flag to you there and then. We believe this bulk has got a defect while you’re here, get it changed out before it fails and, and all the knock on problems, um, from there. Joel Saxum: So what you’re just pointing to there is a, is a workflow, right? So to me that is typical [00:13:00] of some of the amazing, innovative companies in the UK that I’ve run into throughout my career. And that is, you’re a group of SMEs, you know, bolted connections. That’s what you do, right? But then you’re like, hey. If there’s a tool, we could make a tool that would make our lives a bit easier, then it’s like, well, we could make the entire industry’s lives a little bit easier as well. So let’s iterate on that. And now you’re able to send these kits around the world to look at these things. Hey, you have a problem with this specific model. We can help you with this because we know the failure mode and we know how to look for it. Let’s do that for you. Also here, you’re doing bolt bulk measurements. We got that for you. But it all kind of flows back to the fact that Echo Bolt is a team. A bolted connection, SMEs that are making tools and being able to also provide consulting if need be. Yeah. Right. Um, to, to an entire industry. And I think that, um, this is my take on it, right? Wind is stop number one. I think you guys are gonna do a fantastic year, but there’s a lot of, uh, opportunity out there in bolted [00:14:00] connections as well. Allen Hall: A tremendous amount blade bolts being broken from defects in the crystalline structure. What appears to be a more. Rapidly developing issue across fleets that I’ve seen. I went to a farm this summer and the number of blade bolts that were there on the table that were broken on the conference room table was And the whiteboard office. Yeah. Yeah. This one,  Joel Saxum: this one.  Allen Hall: Your hard head is not gonna protect you from this one. It’s, it’s, it was this, um, I couldn’t imagine the amount of time they were spending hunting these things down. And of course, the only way they were finding ’em was they were broken. You like to catch ’em before they break because it becomes  Joel Saxum: a safety risk. Just not too long ago we saw an insurance case where there’s an RCA going on and it is pointing at an entire tower came down. Right. And it is pointing at a mid, mid tower section bolted connection. How often do you guys run into those problems? Or are you contacted by insurance companies or anything like that to, to take a peek at those? Pete Andrews: We haven’t done anything directly for insurance [00:15:00]companies, but we have been engaged by. Engineering consultancies that are doing RCA type activities. Okay. Um, things like at the end of defect liability periods mm-hmm. A customer has, has seen, they’ve had a lot of, uh, issues from an OEM, maybe an OE EM has offered a modification or an upgrade, assessing whether that upgrade is actually solved the problem or not. We’ve got involved in, um, but the tower. Issue specifically. It’s actually very rare we find, um, problems with tower connections, but where we do is often where they haven’t achieved good flange flatness, ah, during installation or the bolts have been, let’s say, left out in the elements for a period and lubrication has been, has deteriorated before the bolt’s been installed. So there are cases out there, but what I would say is. [00:16:00] To think about your whole life cycle, so ensure the bolt’s installed correctly and we can help with that with a QA to say, yes, this torque or tightening method has got you to the load that you want. Do some through life monitoring, but often if you install it correctly, it will it’s operational life. You will have very little concern. But then in the UK market, we’re increasingly getting involved again at the end of life, right? Life extension where life extension turbines are 20, 25 years old. How does an operator make a decision to carry on running without replacing all bots? Um, and that’s where increasingly we being asked to use the technologist just to say, actually the joint is fine. The bolts have run in a good, um, operational envelope. Run them on. Don’t replace a hundred percent of them like you might have been recommended to from your, um, yeah. Turbine supplier side. [00:17:00] Allen Hall: So Pete, if someone’s doing a repower where they’re basically putting a new one in the cell on an existing tower, they’re making a lot of assumptions about all the bolts from the ground up that they’re gonna be okay. And I know we’re talking about that. We’re in a lot of installations where. If the turbine has gone through a repowered or two. So now those bolts are 20 years old. Yeah. And trying to get ’em to  Joel Saxum: 30 35. 35  Allen Hall: 40. Yeah. I don’t know what they’re doing. By those bolted connections. Are they just like replacing the bolts? Are they hitting ’em with a hammer again? Is that the, yeah,  Pete Andrews: I mean, they might replace ’em, but you’ve got a problem with the foundation bolts. ’cause they’re obviously often anchor bolts set into concrete, so you have to reuse them and. With the projects, both in wind and in process power industry with the chimney stacks to try and ascertain whether foundation bolts that are set into concrete are still suitable for operations. So look for corrosion losses, look for [00:18:00] defects. Um, so yeah, they’re all things that need thinking about before you just make the snap decision to repower. But I think  Joel Saxum: a lot of that, uh, going back to a couple minutes ago, you were talking about at the commissioning phase, making sure that you have proper qa, QC of how these things were installed day one, and then making sure that before commissioning of a turbine, they’re checked. I think that’s really important. We’re starting to see that in the blade world now too, where we’ve been talking about it for a long time, and now when you talk to operators, they’re like, we’re getting inspections done on the blades before they’re hung. Or at the factory before they’re hung. After they’re hung. Like they want a good foundation baseline. Are you seeing that in the bolted connection world too?  Pete Andrews: Yes. Sort of. It’s just emerging for us. What we’ve found is, so most of our customers are in the operational phase ’cause they are the ones feeling the pain. Yeah. Of the routine retitling work. When they do major components, they sometimes engage us to come and say, can you check [00:19:00] before and after the blade was removed? What was it? Before we took it off from a a bolt load perspective, what is it afterwards? Can you then recheck after 500 hours When we retalk it? And what we’ve seen there often is the initial install hasn’t got them to where they needed to be and they’ve had to go and do the break in maintenance or the 500 hour REIT to get the bolts to the right load. So one of the questions that we have is whether. Some of the defects are actually being initiated very early on in that initial running in period and whether if, if actually you’d taken the time at, at the point of assembly to make sure you were correct, whether that avoids some of the knock on integrity concerns. So yeah, it’s interesting area.  Allen Hall: Well, bolts are what hold wind turbines together and you better know you have the right. Tension and [00:20:00] torque on your bolts to get to the lifetime of the wind turbine and to, and to check it once in a while. And I know there’s a lot of operators I can think of right now in the United States that are sort of doing that job somewhat. I I think they have missed out on opportunities to save a lot of money and to call it echo bolt. How do people get ahold of you? Because that’s one thing I run into all the time. Like, Hey, hey, you gotta talk to Ebol, call Ebol. How do they get ahold of you?  Pete Andrews: So the easiest ways are via our website. Which is echo bolt.com. Um, LinkedIn, you’ll find us at Echo Bolt on LinkedIn. Reach out. Our email would be info@cobolt.com. So any of those route and you’ll, uh, reach me and the team and more than happy to speak to you about any of your faulting concerns or problems. We are, uh, yeah, we’re passionate about your problems.  Allen Hall: Pete, thank you so much for being on this podcast. I, it is great to actually see you in person and see the bolt wave technology. It’s really [00:21:00] impressive. So anybody out there that needs bolt tensioning to checking tools, you need to get ahold of Pete at Echo Bolt and get started today. Thank you Pete. Thanks guys. It’s great to be here.

The First Customer
The First Customer - From Open Source to Enterprise Dominance with Testkube Co-founder Ole Lensmar

The First Customer

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 14, 2026 24:44 Transcription Available


In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview Ole Lensmar, co-founder and CTO of Testkube.Ole shares his unique perspective growing up across Germany, the US, and Sweden, and how those experiences shaped his adaptability and approach to entrepreneurship. He reflects on the differences between launching tech startups in Europe versus the United States, and why he believes the US remains a more mature market for scaling innovation. From his first ventures in the mid-90s to the creation of SoapUI, Ole explains how his passion for coding and solving practical problems led him to build tools that filled gaps in the QA and software testing space.Ole dives into the origins of Testkube, explaining its mission to decouple testing from CI/CD pipelines and empower QA teams with a centralized, cloud-native platform. He discusses the open-source model, the challenges of enterprise sales, and the evolution of his ideal customer profile. Ole also shares insights on how Testkube differentiates itself from CI/CD tools and cloud execution vendors, enabling companies to run unlimited tests at scale without infrastructure limitations.Explore how Ole Lensmar turned coding challenges into software solutions and shaped modern QA practices in this episode of The First Customer!Guest Info:Testkubehttps://testkube.io/Ole Lensmar's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/olensmar/Connect with Jay on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jayaigner/The First Customer Youtube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@thefirstcustomerpodcastThe First Customer podcast websitehttps://www.firstcustomerpodcast.comFollow The First Customer on LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/company/the-first-customer-podcast/

TestTalks | Automation Awesomeness | Helping YOU Succeed with Test Automation
Locust Performance Testing with AI and Observability with Lars Holmberg

TestTalks | Automation Awesomeness | Helping YOU Succeed with Test Automation

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2026 30:03


Performance testing often fails for one simple reason: teams can't see where the slowdown actually happens. In this episode, we explore Locust load testing and why Python-based performance testing is becoming the go-to choice for modern DevOps, QA, and SRE teams. You'll learn how Locust enables highly realistic user behavior, massive concurrency, and distributed load testing — without the overhead of traditional enterprise tools. We also dive into: Why Python works so well for AI-assisted load testing How Locust fits naturally into CI/CD and GitHub Actions The real difference between load testing vs performance testing How observability and end-to-end tracing eliminate guesswork Common performance testing mistakes even experienced teams make Whether you're a software tester, automation engineer, or QA leader looking to shift-left performance testing, this conversation will help you design smarter tests and catch scalability issues before your users do.

CX Passport
The One With Simpler CX - Luis Carrillo E247

CX Passport

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2026 21:44


What's on your mind? Let CX Passport know...Customer experience doesn't need to be complicated to work.In this CX Open To Work episode, Luis Carrillo shares why simpler CX creates immediate impact…for customers, teams, and the business. From removing friction to building trust, this conversation focuses on CX that actually works.5 CX Insights from the Episode• Simpler CX delivers results customers, employees, and leaders can feel • Listening to customers beats guessing every time • Returns are a trust moment…not a policy problem • Training and QA quietly power great experiences • CX drives revenue when effort is reducedCHAPTERS00:00 Welcome + CX Open To Work01:32 Why simpler CX creates immediate impact04:18 Reducing friction without punishing good customers07:24 CX as a revenue engine10:52 Recovery, trust, and loyalty12:03 First Class Lounge16:17 What companies still miss in CX19:15 What's next for LuisGuest LinksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luiscarrillo-21a70520/Listen: https://www.cxpassport.com Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@cxpassport Newsletter: https://cxpassport.kit.com/signupI'm Rick Denton and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and should not be taken as legal, financial, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified attorney, financial advisor, or other professional regarding your specific situation. The opinions expressed by guests are solely theirs and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of the host(s).

Hacker Public Radio
HPR4551: “Elsbeth in IT: Since '97” (Part 2)

Hacker Public Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 12, 2026


This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host. A two-part conversation about what it's really like being a woman in tech for almost three decades. Content Warning: The F word probably makes an appearance multiple times. In this episode, Lee sits down with Elsbeth to talk about her long, winding, sometimes ridiculous, often inspiring journey through the IT industry — starting all the way back in 1997. If you've ever worked helpdesk, ever had a customer say “my cup holder broke” (yes, the CD tray)… or ever felt underestimated in a room full of engineers, this one's for you. Because we throw around some tech terms in the conversation, here are a few friendly definitions so everyone can follow along. Terms We Mentioned (in plain English) QA (Quality Assurance) Think of QA as the people who try to break things on purpose so regular users don't break them accidentally . They test software, hardware, websites — you name it — to catch bugs before they cause chaos. If it's glitch-free, a QA person probably saved the day behind the scenes. Content Moderation This is the work of keeping the internet from turning into the Wild West. Moderators review posts, comments, images, and videos to make sure they follow community rules and don't harm users. It's a mix of tech tools and human judgment — and yes, it can get intense. Building PCs Where many IT careers start! Building PCs is basically grown-up Lego: picking parts assembling them hoping you don't zap anything with static electricity praying the cable management gods smile upon you It's one of the most empowering skills in tech and often the first time someone realizes, “Oh hey… I can actually do this.” Gender Equality & Inequality Gender equality means giving everyone the same chance to succeed — no matter who they are. Gender inequality is what happens when that doesn't happen. In tech, inequality often looks like: being talked over being paid less being assumed “non-technical” having to prove yourself twice as hard being the only woman in a room… again Elsbeth has seen all of this firsthand since 1997 — and she's got stories. End-User The end-user is simply the person who actually uses the product. Not the engineer who built it. Not the manager who approved it. Not the QA who tested it. The end-user is the human at the end of the chain who clicks the button, pushes the key, taps the app… and finds entirely new ways to break things no one expected. Understanding them is the secret superpower of tech. Neurodivergence Neurodivergence means brains come in many beautiful varieties — like ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and more. Neurodivergent people often bring incredible strengths to IT, including creativity, pattern spotting, hyperfocus, and out-of-the-box problem solving. They can also face misunderstandings in workplaces that weren't designed with different brains in mind — something Elsbeth talks about openly and honestly in this episode. Provide feedback on this episode.

Convergence
Product Discovery, Outcome Based Delivery, And Hiring for Product Thinking with MAC of Wednesday.is

Convergence

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 11, 2026 57:02


Is your team writing code before they've actually validated the problem? In this episode, Ashok sits down with Mohammed Ali Cherwala (MAC), co-founder of Wednesday Solutions, to dismantle the traditional "build first" mentality. Mac explains why "Product Engineering" is distinct from simple software development and how his firm uses "Sprint Zero" to validate ideas cheaply using methods like fake door tests and prototypes—ensuring you don't waste capital on features nobody wants. We also dive into a radical business model shift: moving from hourly billing to outcome-based pricing, where clients pay for moved metrics rather than hours worked. Mac shares how this aligns incentives and reduces founder burn. Plus, we explore how hiring has evolved in the age of AI, why "framework thinking" beats instinct for Product Managers, and real-world examples of using on-prem LLMs to automate compliance and QA at scale. In this episode: Sprint Zero: How to use discovery sprints to validate business gaps before building. Outcome-Based Pricing: Why charging for results is better than charging for time. Hiring with AI: A new interview simulation to spot engineers who think like product owners. Automating Quality: How defining "what good looks like" enables AI agents to take over manual QA. The "Ocean's 11" Team: A metaphor for building high-trust, specialist teams. Mentioned in this episode... Wednesday Solutions: Mac's product engineering firm. Books: The Mom Test, Continuous Discovery Habits. Tools: Gemini Bot, Code Rabbit, PostHog, Clarity, Testim, Keploy, Fathom, PRDkit.ai. Service: Urban Company (InstaHelp). Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge. Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.   Follow the Pod Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergence-podcast/ X: https://twitter.com/podconvergence Instagram: @podconvergence

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast
Why the Best Product Owners Let Go of What They're Best At | Carmela Then

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 9, 2026 16:08


Carmela Then: Why the Best Product Owners Let Go of What They're Best At The Great Product Owner: The Humble Leader Who Served His Team Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "He was there, he was present, he was serving the team." - Carmela Then   Carmela worked with a Product Owner at a bank who embodied everything servant leadership should look like. This wasn't a PO who lorded his business expertise over the team—instead, he brought cookies, cracked jokes, and made everyone feel valued regardless of their role. He knew the product landscape intimately and participated in every refinement session, yet remained approachable and coachable.  When team members came to him confused about stakeholder requests, he willingly stepped in as a mediator. Perhaps most impressively, he actively worked to break down the hierarchical mindset that often plagues traditional organizations. In the beginning, testers felt they couldn't question the business analyst or Product Owner.  By the end, QA team members were confidently pointing out missing scenarios and use cases—and the PO would respond with genuine appreciation: "Oh yes! We missed it! Let's prioritize that story for the next sprint." This PO understood that his role wasn't to have all the answers, but to create an environment where anyone could contribute their expertise. The result was a truly flat, collaborative Scrum team operating exactly as Scrum was designed to work.   Self-reflection Question: How accessible are you to your team, and do you create an environment where anyone—regardless of role—feels comfortable challenging your thinking? The Bad Product Owner: When Expertise Becomes a Barrier to Collaboration Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "He knows everything himself, and everything is in his head. So nobody else knows what he has in his head." - Carmela Then   Carmela describes a Product Owner who wasn't a bad person—in fact, he was incredibly capable. He knew the business from front to back, understood the systems intimately from years of analyst work, and could even write pseudocode himself. The problem? His very competence became a barrier to team collaboration.  Because he knew so much, he struggled to articulate his ideas to others. Frustrated that developers couldn't read his mind, he started writing the code himself and handing it to developers with instructions to simply implement it. The result was disengaged developers who had no understanding of the bigger picture, and a PO who was drowning in work that wasn't his to do.  Carmela approached this with humility, asking what she calls "dumb questions" and requesting that he draw things on paper so she could understand. She made excuses about her "bad memory" to create documentation that could be shared with the whole team.  Over multiple Program Increments, she gently coached him to trust his team: "You are one person. Please let the team help you. The developers are great at what they do—if you share what you're trying to achieve, they can write code that's more efficient and easier to maintain." Eventually, he learned to let go of the coding and focus on what only he could do: sharing his deep business knowledge.   Self-reflection Question: As a leader, what tasks are you holding onto that you should be delegating—and what is your reluctance costing your team?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

TestGuild Performance Testing and Site Reliability Podcast
A Practical AI Guide for Business Leaders with Brad Groux

TestGuild Performance Testing and Site Reliability Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 9, 2026 40:53


In this episode of the TestGuild DevOps Toolchain podcast, Joe Colantonio sits down with Brad Groux, technologist, AI strategist, and CEO of Digital Meld, to explore what it really takes for businesses to adopt AI successfully. Brad shares practical insights on: How to prepare your people, processes, and data before bringing in AI tools like Copilot or ChatGPT Separating hype from reality when evaluating AI and automation solutions Building an AI stack on a budget that empowers mid-sized businesses to compete Why "start small, think big" is the winning mindset for sustainable digital transformation The role of responsible AI and how leaders can balance innovation with ethics Whether you're a QA leader, automation engineer, or business exec, this episode will give you a grounded blueprint to cut through the noise and unlock the real value of AI in your organization.

Advice from a Call Center Geek!
Why You Should Not be Scoring 100% of Your QA Calls

Advice from a Call Center Geek!

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2026 19:20


Send us a textMost contact centers still believe scoring more calls means better QA.It doesn't.In this episode, we start with the Law of Large Numbers and break down why scoring 100% of calls doesn't give you better insight. It just gives you more work. We talk about where the push for full coverage really comes from. Fear. Compliance pressure. Old spreadsheet thinking. And why that mindset quietly hurts coaching, accuracy, and confidence.We also cover what the data actually shows, how statistical sampling works in the real world, where AI helps and where it doesn't, and what QA should really be optimizing for.If your QA program feels busy but not effective, this episode will make you rethink how many calls you really need to score. Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. Click here:expiviadigital.comFollow Tom: @tlaird_expiviaJoin our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeekConnect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geekLinkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com Expivia: Expiviausa.com

The Intuitor
The True Nature of Time, Timothee and Kylie, Money QA

The Intuitor

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2026 73:02


Hey everyone, apologies for the low quality here. My mic and HD video version got eaten by Youtube. Regardless, this was a fun QA. We began with a discourse on spacetime and how you can't do a damn thing spiritually if you don't understand time. Then we got into- Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner and the Kardashian "foundation" you could establish in your own family-Purpose vs. coastingand then we answered a myriad of questions connected to work in the Ritual workshop- scaling with a hands-on business-praying to Divine Masculine or Feminine- losing interest, what to do- how big could you grow a cleaning business, and when?all this and more. Thanks for your patience. Will be back in HD next Wednesday at 11.

TestTalks | Automation Awesomeness | Helping YOU Succeed with Test Automation
Top 8 Automation Testing Trends for 2026 with Joe Colantonio

TestTalks | Automation Awesomeness | Helping YOU Succeed with Test Automation

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2026 12:03


AI testing is everywhere — but clarity isn't. In this episode, Joe Colantonio breaks down the real test automation trends for 2026, based on data from 40,000+ testers, 510 live Q&A questions, and 50+ interviews with industry leaders. This isn't vendor hype or futuristic speculation. It's what working testers are actually worried about — and what they're doing next. You'll learn: Why 72.8% of testers prioritize AI, yet don't trust it alone The real reason AI testing feels harder instead of easier How integration chaos is blocking automation success Why "AI auditor" and "quality strategist" are emerging career paths What agentic AI, MCPs, and vibe testing really mean in practice How compliance, accessibility, and security will redefine QA in 2026 If you're a tester, automation engineer, or QA leader trying to stay relevant — this episode gives you the signal through the noise, and a clear path forward. If you're a software tester, automation engineer, or QA leader looking ahead to 2026, this episode lays out what's coming — and how to stay connected. Discount code: 100GUILDCOIN (https://testguild.me/podag26)

Profiles in Risk
Alex Rodov, Founder at Emtech Group - PIR Ep. 776

Profiles in Risk

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2026 31:07


Tony chats with Alex Rodov, Founder at Emtech Group, a widely recognized pioneer in software QA testing. We talk about why software QA testing is now a huge deal in the era of developers using AI to create code, and how Emtech can help.Alex Rodov: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexrodov/Emtech: https://emtechgroup.com/

GMoney 財經頻道_Linda NEWS 最錢線
【GM NEWS 最錢線】2025/12/31 台積領台股創高封關 櫃買衝高落跑|林欣|Eddie|GMoney

GMoney 財經頻道_Linda NEWS 最錢線

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 31, 2025 36:27


小福利麻辣鍋-最強麻辣火鍋加豐盛Buffet,平日698起,美味通通無限享用!有頂級和牛、安格斯黑牛、天使紅蝦,多款海陸食材吃到飽!還有炸蝦天婦羅、職人炙燒握壽司、以及哈根達斯! 美味一次滿足,請搜尋「小福利麻辣鍋」 https://sofm.pse.is/8jblsj -- 客家委員會《客家影像故事》徵件中! 手機、相機都能拍。 今年年度主題是「水」,埤塘、水圳、溪流、河壩的客庄故事都可以。 拍水的主題就有機會拿50 萬大獎! 徵件到115年4月30日,詳細資訊可到客委會官網查詢 連結:https://sofm.pse.is/8jbls6 ----以上為 SoundOn 動態廣告---- 觀看影片

GMoney 財經頻道_Linda NEWS 最錢線
【GM NEWS 最錢線】2025/12/30 台積摜尾 台股收十字變盤線 櫃買連七紅再創高|Christine|蕭光哲|GMoney

GMoney 財經頻道_Linda NEWS 最錢線

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 30, 2025 30:31


小福利麻辣鍋-最強麻辣火鍋加豐盛Buffet,平日698起,美味通通無限享用!有頂級和牛、安格斯黑牛、天使紅蝦,多款海陸食材吃到飽!還有炸蝦天婦羅、職人炙燒握壽司、以及哈根達斯! 美味一次滿足,請搜尋「小福利麻辣鍋」 https://sofm.pse.is/8jjzj5 ----以上為 SoundOn 動態廣告---- 觀看影片

GMoney 財經頻道_Linda NEWS 最錢線
【GM NEWS 最錢線】2025/12/29 台股跟進台積再創高 櫃買再創今年高|Ariel|張家豪|GMoney

GMoney 財經頻道_Linda NEWS 最錢線

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 29, 2025 32:24


敏迪選讀
敏迪選讀 12/29 川普史上最大單筆對台軍售、委內瑞拉與俄羅斯中國的石油關係、七週年QA第二彈:恐懼是模糊的概念

敏迪選讀

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 28, 2025 112:57


敏迪選讀七週年問卷 https://www.surveycake.com/s/P9vNa . . 【HP 惠普-​​掌握未來工作新趨勢!】 HP EliteBook AI PC 搭配 Poly 智慧協作方案, 結合 AI 降噪、智慧攝影與資安防護,打造安全流暢的混合辦公體驗。 讓科技為工作帶來美好生活,讓工作不只是工作,而是成就與自我實現。 https://www.hp.com/tw-zh/laptops/business/elitebooks.html . . 【印花樂X懷疑論者的通靈觀察 療癒文創牌卡《神明金句卡》】 以「神明」為主題,打造一份屬於台灣人的文化設計禮品。 還有多款神明周邊品:燙金紅包袋、雙面刺繡吊飾、神明防水貼紙

TestTalks | Automation Awesomeness | Helping YOU Succeed with Test Automation
Automation Testing Podcast 2026: New Schedule, Events, Discounts with Joe Colantonio

TestTalks | Automation Awesomeness | Helping YOU Succeed with Test Automation

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 28, 2025 2:25


This is a special end-of-year episode of the Automation Testing Podcast. With family in town and a busy holiday season, Joe didn't want to skip a week without checking in and saying thank you to the TestGuild community. In this short episode, Joe shares: A huge milestone as the podcast approaches its 13-year anniversary Why the Automation Testing Podcast is moving from Sundays to Tuesdays starting in 2026 How loyal listeners can still get $100 off a full 5-day Automation Guild 2026 pass A sneak peek at TestGuild IRL — live, in-person events coming next year Gratitude for the listeners, YouTube community, and sponsors who make TestGuild possible If you're a software tester, automation engineer, or QA leader looking ahead to 2026, this episode lays out what's coming — and how to stay connected. Discount code: 100GUILDCOIN (https://testguild.me/podag26) Questions or ideas? Email Joe directly at joe@testguild.com As always — test everything, and keep the good.

Dev Sem Fronteiras
Technical Program Manager Sênior na Amazon em Boston, Estados Unidos - Carreira Sem Fronteiras #223

Dev Sem Fronteiras

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 25, 2025 54:26


O paulistano Felipe morou na terra da garoa até os 30 anos de idade. Por lá, se formou em Engenharia de Controle de Automação e engatou alguns estágios. Em um deles, na GE, ele foi efetivado e passou a trabalhar com sistemas de controle de ferrovias.Essa bagagem lhe ajudou quando apareceu a oportunidade de migrar para a Amazon, no time de QA que ajudou a trazer a Alexa para o Brasil. Dentro da Amazon, ele passou a trabalhar remotamente para uma equipe de Boston, para onde, depois de 1 ano, ele se mudou.Neste episódio, o Felipe detalla o famoso (e cansativo) processo de entrevista da Amazon, além dos hobbies, dos desafios, e das alegrias de se morar na cidade cuja busca por um apartamento fez o Felipe se sentir em um episódio de How I Met Your Mother.Fabrício Carraro, o seu viajante poliglotaFelipe Blanes, Technical Program Manager Sênior na Amazon em Boston, Estados UnidosLinks:Amazon AGI LabsAmazon NovaAmazon Nova ActAWS Nova Act no GitHubTechGuide.sh, um mapeamento das principais tecnologias demandadas pelo mercado para diferentes carreiras, com nossas sugestões e opiniões.#7DaysOfCode: Coloque em prática os seus conhecimentos de programação em desafios diários e gratuitos. Acesse https://7daysofcode.io/Ouvintes do podcast Dev Sem Fronteiras têm 10% de desconto em todos os planos da Alura Língua. Basta ir a https://www.aluralingua.com.br/promocao/devsemfronteiras/e começar a aprender inglês e espanhol hoje mesmo! Produção e conteúdo:Alura Língua Cursos online de Idiomas – https://www.aluralingua.com.br/Alura Cursos online de Tecnologia – https://www.alura.com.br/Edição e sonorização: Rede Gigahertz de Podcasts

Designing with Love
Feedback Without Fear

Designing with Love

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 24, 2025 8:48 Transcription Available


What if reviews felt collaborative instead of confrontational? In this episode, I walk through a practical, five-pour framework to collect and use feedback from peers, stakeholders, SMEs, QA and accessibility reviewers, and—most importantly—learners, so your projects move faster and land stronger. You'll get short scripts, simple prompts, and a clear structure to keep conversations focused on outcomes instead of opinions.If you want feedback to become fuel, not friction, this guide gives you the tools to make it happen. Subscribe for more practical instructional design tactics, share this episode with a teammate who reviews your work, and leave a quick review telling us which script you'll try first.

L'info en intégrale - Europe 1
Patrouilles et dispositifs de sécurité renforcés pour les célébrations de Noël

L'info en intégrale - Europe 1

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 24, 2025 1:31


Des messes de Noël, cette année encore, sous haute protection… La posture Vigipirate est toujours très élevée, au niveau maximum. L'Etat islamique et al-Qaïda ont à nouveau récemment appelé leurs sympathisants à s'en prendre aux Chrétiens.Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Kingscrowd Startup Investing Podcast
Robots as a Service: Macrovey's Recurring Revenue Model in the Aisles

Kingscrowd Startup Investing Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 23, 2025 30:44


Read our Macrovey deal analysis (closed) on KingscrowdRobotics hype is everywhere—but who actually makes robots work on real warehouse floors? In this episode, Chris sits down with Macrovey Director of Business Development Matt Labinski to unpack how Macrovey designs fully autonomous, material-handling systems that act like a warehouse “Robotics OS.” We start with what Macrovey is and isn't (00:03)—the company doesn't manufacture robots, it integrates best-in-class OEMs through proprietary orchestration software. Matt explains the model (00:32): up-front design + install and recurring software/maintenance—plus a Robots-as-a-Service option that lowers CapEx. We dive into who buys (06:28): e-commerce, 3PLs, pharma, defense (U.S. Air Force) and even smaller 10k–100k sq ft facilities. Category context (07:31): warehouse robotics penetration is still surprisingly low; Macrovey targets the SMB/mid-market others ignore. We cover why OEMs and warehouses need an integrator (09:09), the sales cycle and deal sizes (12:22)—from $50k pilots to $3M+ programs—and how modular, mobile systems (25:03) move with demand. Finally, we hit the AI layer (27:31): machine learning that optimizes slotting, picking, and vision-based QA. If you want exposure to warehouse autonomy without betting on a single robot, Macrovey's middle-layer, recurring-revenue approach may be the de-risked way to play it.

Hacker Public Radio
HPR4537: “Elsbeth in IT: Since '97” (Part 1)

Hacker Public Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 23, 2025


This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host. A two-part conversation about what it's really like being a woman in tech for almost three decades. Content Warning: The F word probably makes an appearance multiple times. In this episode, Lee sits down with Elsbeth to talk about her long, winding, sometimes ridiculous, often inspiring journey through the IT industry — starting all the way back in 1997. If you've ever worked helpdesk, ever had a customer say “my cup holder broke” (yes, the CD tray)… or ever felt underestimated in a room full of engineers, this one's for you. Because we throw around some tech terms in the conversation, here are a few friendly definitions so everyone can follow along. Terms We Mentioned (in plain English) QA (Quality Assurance) Think of QA as the people who try to break things on purpose so regular users don't break them accidentally . They test software, hardware, websites — you name it — to catch bugs before they cause chaos. If it's glitch-free, a QA person probably saved the day behind the scenes. Content Moderation This is the work of keeping the internet from turning into the Wild West. Moderators review posts, comments, images, and videos to make sure they follow community rules and don't harm users. It's a mix of tech tools and human judgment — and yes, it can get intense. Building PCs Where many IT careers start! Building PCs is basically grown-up Lego: picking parts assembling them hoping you don't zap anything with static electricity praying the cable management gods smile upon you It's one of the most empowering skills in tech and often the first time someone realizes, “Oh hey… I can actually do this.” Gender Equality & Inequality Gender equality means giving everyone the same chance to succeed — no matter who they are. Gender inequality is what happens when that doesn't happen. In tech, inequality often looks like: being talked over being paid less being assumed “non-technical” having to prove yourself twice as hard being the only woman in a room… again Elsbeth has seen all of this firsthand since 1997 — and she's got stories. End-User The end-user is simply the person who actually uses the product. Not the engineer who built it. Not the manager who approved it. Not the QA who tested it. The end-user is the human at the end of the chain who clicks the button, pushes the key, taps the app… and finds entirely new ways to break things no one expected. Understanding them is the secret superpower of tech. Neurodivergence Neurodivergence means brains come in many beautiful varieties — like ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and more. Neurodivergent people often bring incredible strengths to IT, including creativity, pattern spotting, hyperfocus, and out-of-the-box problem solving. They can also face misunderstandings in workplaces that weren't designed with different brains in mind — something Elsbeth talks about openly and honestly in this episode. Provide feedback on this episode.

時間的女兒:八卦歷史
#233倫敦塔裡的卡戴珊?香車美男小甜心 花邊之王:詹姆士一世|兒戲英倫番外

時間的女兒:八卦歷史

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2025 72:43


什麼叫國王? 想幹嘛就幹嘛,才是君王奧義?? 花最多的錢,過最爽的日子! 最大顆的寶石,最帥氣的馬兒, 最任性的狗狗,最美貌的男寵。 傲嬌國王的暢享人生由全民買單~ 美的成本、追愛的成本, 英國為這個『別人家的國王』付出多大代價? 比情婦更『躺贏』的寵兒, 關上房門,究竟在幹嘛? 【RangeRover 定義無聲奢華】 線上賞車

Episode 95: Interview w/ Barbara Peterson, Landscape Architect

"I’ve never met a woman architect before..." podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2025 54:52


Hi, It's Michele! Send me a text with who you want as a guest!This Episode is sponsored by Minick Materials and Opus 2, MBE LLC:Minick Materials:Rock-solid and built to lastMinick Materials has been helping contractors, builders, architects and home owners bring their vision to life for more than 60 years.       405.789.2068 Oklahoma City LocationLink to website:Wholesale Landscape Materials for Commercial & Residential | Minick Materials "The Grouchy Architect" Opus 2 MBE, LLCChristian Nielsen-Palacios is a licensed architect with over 40 years of experience, primarily focused on quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC), and technical specification writing for architectural projects.LInk to website: https://thegrouchyarchitect.com/Link to the Blog for more Images and Resources:  LINK TO BLOG: https://inmawomanarchitect.blogspot.com/2025/12/interview-with-barbara-peterson.htmlBarbara Peterson, Landscape ArchitectBarbara is from Texas and has been in Oklahoma for just over 4 ½-years. She's aregistered Landscape Architect in both Texas and Oklahoma and spends her weekends traveling the state where she has now been to and photographed over 420 towns which is over 400 more than she ever stopped at in Texas where she lived since ‘73.She doesn't photograph residences or drive through neighborhoods but has seen every architectural style from historic 1800's brick work to modern glass clad structures. She has been pleasantly surprised at the diversity of Oklahoma architecture because she had previously only drove through Oklahoma on the highway so she never expected the stunning diversity of the state or its architecture.She was involved for a short time with OK ASLA. And before moving to Tulsa, wasinvolved and supported a 4-year high school architecture program in north Dallas. Her son and a friend's daughter both graduated from that program, and both went on to study architecture. Her son is working on his ARE and the friend's daughter is finishing her university studies.Link to MGHarchitect: MIchele Grace Hottel, Architect website for scheduling a consultation for an architecture and design project and guest and podcast sponsorship opportunities:https://www.mgharchitect.com/

敏迪選讀
敏迪選讀 12/22 澳洲槍擊案及反猶主義、歐盟與南美四國協議難產、白俄羅斯與美國的交易、七週年QA

敏迪選讀

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 21, 2025 110:06


敏迪選讀七週年問卷 https://www.surveycake.com/s/P9vNa . 【Samsung Galaxy Watch8】 極度舒適,從睡眠到健身 皆是如此。 即日起至 2026 年 1月31日,至三星商城購買Galaxy Watch8, 輸入限時折扣碼:SLEEPBETTER75 ,可享七五折優惠喔! 詳情請見: https://www.samsung.com/tw/watches/galaxy-watch/galaxy-watch8-44mm-silver-bluetooth-sm-l330nzsabri/ . . 【中華電信-韌性網路 信任資安】 在日常通訊背後,是一套高韌性、不中斷的基礎系統。 中華電信建構全台覆蓋最廣的通訊網路,從海纜、衛星到微波與光纖。 具備全天候災後應變及修復能量,更擔任數位安全的前線部隊。 從日常生活的便利,到關鍵時刻的備援,就是中華電信韌性建設的重要價值! . . 【淨毒五郎X敏迪真是抱歉 聯合團購】 淨毒五郎 CHEF CLEAN-台灣綠色居家清潔用品品牌。 堅持以 友善肌膚、關懷自然、有效潔淨 三大原則開發產品, 傳遞「對我好,對自然也好」的友善共好理念。 12/15-12/24團購組合優惠8折起, 敏迪選讀專屬連結:https://5clean.club/5UXRe . . 本集重點: 00:11:10 澳洲槍擊案及反猶主義 00:27:36 歐盟與南美四國協議難產 00:47:34 白俄羅斯與美國的交易 01:11:04 七週年QA . . 會員專屬版本: 00:09:26 澳洲槍擊案及反猶主義 00:25:52 歐盟與南美四國協議難產 00:45:47 白俄羅斯與美國的交易 01:08:20 七週年QA . . 這裡可以找到所有的敏迪 portaly.cc/mindiworldnews -- Hosting provided by SoundOn

TestTalks | Automation Awesomeness | Helping YOU Succeed with Test Automation
AI Testing LLMs & RAG: What Testers Must Validate with Imran Ali

TestTalks | Automation Awesomeness | Helping YOU Succeed with Test Automation

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 21, 2025 32:56


AI is transforming how software is built, but testing AI systems requires an entirely new mindset. Don't miss AutomationGuild 2026 - Register Now:  https://testguild.me/podag26 Use code TestGuildPod20 to get 20% off your ticket. In this episode, Joe Colantonio sits down with Imran Ali to break down what AI testing really looks like when you're dealing with LLMs, RAG pipelines, and autonomous QA workflows. You'll learn: Why traditional pass/fail testing breaks down with LLMs How to test non-deterministic AI outputs for consistency and accuracy Practical techniques for detecting hallucinations, grounding issues, and prompt injection risks How RAG systems change the way testers validate AI-powered applications Where AI delivers quick wins today—and where human validation still matters This conversation goes beyond hype and gets into real-world AI testing strategies QA teams are using right now to keep up with AI-generated code, faster release cycles, and DevOps velocity. If you're a tester, automation engineer, or QA leader wondering how AI changes your role,not replaces it,this episode is your roadmap.

甲板日誌
晨勃考核、鑑雞猜齡,兄弟狠屌喔!不用洩 Feat.顧家醫療小徐醫生、阿顯、維特

甲板日誌

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 17, 2025 66:38


|醫師好辣!今天節目規格再升級

Personal Injury Marketing Mastermind
373. Understand the Legal Tech Boom: A VC's Guide to Winning the Future of PI w/ Zach Posner

Personal Injury Marketing Mastermind

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 16, 2025 32:57


The legal tech boom isn't coming. It's here. And while most PI firms are still comparing case management systems, venture capitalists like Zach Posner are quietly backing the tools and “Law Firm 2.0” models that will define the next decade of plaintiff practice. In this episode, Zach – Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The LegalTech Fund, the first venture capital fund focused exclusively on legal technology – breaks down where the smartest money is flowing in legal tech, how AI and automation are being productized for PI, and what separates firms that compound their advantages from those that get buried under complexity. You'll learn: Why “Law Firm 2.0” firms will quietly outgrow traditional PI models How referral marketplaces, automated call centers using LLMs, and tools that scan your files or mail are already changing intake, QA, and case operations in PI Simple questions to pressure-test whether a new tool fits your workflows or will stall your team If you like what you hear, hit subscribe. We do this every week. Get Social! Personal Injury Mastermind (PIM) powered by Rankings.io is on Instagram | YouTube | TikTok

Bavcast
Ep. 82: They Tried That in a Small Town (Again)

Bavcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 16, 2025 80:32


A public library in Caleb and Stephen's area has been providing pornographic content to children. What is happening, why, and what should be done about it?Caleb and Stephen's Letter to the Sioux Center Public Library:To the Sioux Center Public Library, together with its director, board, staff, and all else who pertains:May the Lord convict you to read this letter in its entirety. Do not shrink from its words. Be discomforted, but receive the admonishment in humility. Remove Icebreaker, Identical, and every other wicked, ungodly, and perverse “literature” which you make available for public distribution. To be clear: not only should children be protected from depraved content, but also adults.Repent and do what is right — not from fear of man, not out of a duty to the community, but in the sight of God — that you may be forgiven. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 Jn. 18-10). As will be explained further below, this is no matter of simply saying something to the effect of, “We don't personally like the book, but it's hard to decide what should or shouldn't be stocked,” or to “let the parents decide.”First, a brief note on the First Amendment and libraries. We would like to draw your attention to this week's conclusion of Little v. Llano County, in which the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal against the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the county's removal of 17 books from their public libraries. Specifically, they had ruled that there is no inherent right protected under the First Amendment for someone to receive information via taxpayer-funded books from a public library. This decision now applies to the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. If this is the case elsewhere, can—even, ought it not be applied here? Your board has been quoted as stating its “commitment” to “protect access to information.” Should the reception of any and all information or content be protected? There is no true necessity in providing erotica to anyone. Indeed, as your director has said, “Our mission is to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge and strengthen our community.” How does pornographic, erotic literature inspire learning and advance knowledge? And — given the backlash you have thus far received — how does this strengthen the community?Second, your opinions on the first amendment, the Iowa constitution, and ALA policies aside: We call upon you to realize you are accountable to a Higher Authority (Acts 5:29; Westminster Larger Catechism QA 99, 128-130; Heidelberg Catechism, QA 104; Belgic Confession 36). You are under a law greater than your own policies. This law, God's law, applies to all peoples, unbelievers and believers alike. All mankind will be judged under the same law. If there are any on the board who do not profess Christ, you must hear the gospel and turn from your sins so that you may be saved. If you would hear this message of salvation while there is yet time, please contact us at pastor.rvurc@gmail.com.However, being aware of the demographics of our county, it is far more likely that this board and the library staff are full of churchgoers. If so, what grief you bring upon Christ's name! “Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?” (Gal. 3:1)What does the Word of God say of your actions?By providing in your catalog any material with perverse content, you promote peoples' minds to dwell upon that which is prohibited by the holy law. You train peoples' hearts to store up that which defiles the temple of our body (1 Cor. 6:18-20).“Fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not fitting…For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Eph. 5:3-5).” Sexual immorality is not limited to only an outward action, but also when the mind itself is lured to entertain temptation. As Jesus says in Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”We are instead positively commanded to give our minds to holy, good things: “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8).Perhaps you object. Perhaps you think, “I'm not responsible for what others do. If they want to read these things, that's for them to decide.” You may as well like Cain (Gen. 4:9) ask the Lord, “Am I my brother's keeper?” Yes, you are. “Do not be deceived,” says Paul, for “Evil company corrupts good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33), and “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (Gal. 5:9).Concerning sexual immorality and the 7th commandment, Q. 109 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks, Does God, in this commandment, forbid only such scandalous sins as adultery? Note its answer well: “We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul, and Godwants both to be kept clean and holy. That is why God forbids all unchaste actions, looks, talk, thoughts, or desires, and whatever may incite someone to them” (see also WLC QA 139). It is clear: you shall certainly be held responsible for your part in distributing that which may lead someone to sin, whether they be adult or child; regardless of the government's position on its permissibility. However, know that your guilt is magnified for involving a child. Indeed, by permitting a child to check out such filth, you pose a stumbling block before them that they trip into sin. To you Jesus says, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin” (Luke 17:1-2; WLC QA 151).We pray you will heed these warnings with all sobriety, especially if you profess Christ, for “You should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind” (Eph. 4:17). “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).Consider this rebuke as a mercy from the Lord, shining light to expose devilish works. And now being exposed, understand that “to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17), “for if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment” (Heb. 10:26-27). Can the stakes be any more clear than that? What ought you do?Well, if you would truly be called public servants:* Serve the parents by informing them if a child is seeking adult content (Prov. 17:25; 29:15)* Serve the child by declining to check out any material that would be destructive to their soul, even if it would cost you your job. (Lev. 19:7; Prov. 27:5; James 5:19-20)* Serve the community by refusing to stock wicked books in the first place (Ps. 101:3); by not squandering tax dollars on smut (Prov. 21:20; Lk. 16:10-13). * Discard from your shelves all depraved materials, pornographic writings, even any work which might “shake the hand against God, in defiance against the Almighty” (Job 15:25; Ezek. 20:7; Acts 19:19). * Refuse to contribute to the deformation and denigration of godliness in this area and in this land (Deut. 28:47-48; Dan. 12:10; Matt. 24:12; 1 Tim. 4:1-2; Jude 18-19).And finally, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up” (James 4:7-10).May God have mercy.Rev. Caleb CastroMr. Stephen EvertseRock Valley United Reformed ChurchDecember 03, 2025Iowa Standard interview with Teri Hubbard, the lone dissenting member of the SCPL boardAmerican Library Association “Freedom to Read” statementSioux Center Public Library Circulation Policy This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.onceforalldelivered.com/subscribe

The Metacast
How AI Continues to Reshape Game QA

The Metacast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 16, 2025 54:53


Generative AI has made major leaps since we last explored its use in game QA, and this episode dives into how that progress is reshaping the field. Host Devin Becker is joined again by Christoffer Holmgård and Julian Togelius, co-founders of modl.ai, to unpack how recent advances in computer vision and agent behavior are enabling fully no-code QA testing workflows. We discuss the shift from traditional code-integrated systems to screen-seeing, input-driving AI agents, and the technical breakthroughs that finally made this approach viable. The conversation also explores the types of bugs and edge cases this new method catches, and the surprising ways it differs from prior tools.The conversion also goes deeper into what this shift means for studios. Julian and Christoffer highlight how QA roles are evolving when testers can direct powerful AI agents without needing engineering resources. They also examine the line between automation and augmentation, arguing for the enduring value of human testers while outlining where AI can dramatically improve speed, coverage, and reporting. From auto-generating reproduction steps to fitting into broader ecosystems of AI coworkers, this episode offers a grounded, forward-looking take on how AI is transforming QA from the inside out.Previous episode with Modl.ai: https://naavik.co/podcast/ai-powered-quality-assurance/We'd like to thank Heroic Labs for making this episode possible! Thousands of studios have trusted Heroic Labs to help them focus on their games and not worry about gametech or scaling for success. To learn more and reach out, visit https://heroiclabs.com/?utm_source=Naavik&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=Podcast We'd also like to thank Neon – a merchant of record with customizable webshops optimized for conversion – for making this episode possible! Neon is trusted by some of the biggest names in gaming and can help you sell direct without the typical overhead. To learn more, visit https://www.neonpay.com/?utm_source=naavik If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe

CIO Classified
How Autonomous AI is Solving the Enterprise Modernization Challenge with Brian Elliot of Blitzy

CIO Classified

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 16, 2025 39:34


Most enterprises have roadmaps stretching 3-5 years out. What if you could compress that to 1-2 years? Brian Elliot is the Co-Founder and CEO of Blitzy, an enterprise-focused autonomous software development platform tackling one of technology's toughest problems: how do you modernize 20-100 million lines of legacy code when the developers who wrote it retired 15 years ago?In this episode, Brian explores:Why orchestrated AI agents can handle 80% of transformation work autonomously (and why humans still matter for the other 20%)The realities of enterprise buying cycles and why embedded on-site teams accelerate change managementWhy documentation and test coverage are the unsexy first steps that make everything else possibleAbout the Guest: Brian Elliott is CEO and Co-founder of Blitzy. A serial entrepreneur, former Infantry Officer with the 1st Ranger Battalion, and West Point graduate in Systems Engineering with a Harvard MBA, Brian brings a unique blend of military precision, engineering expertise, and entrepreneurial vision to transforming enterprise software development.As CEO, Brian leads Blitzy's mission to empower systematic AI adoption across enterprises, transforming traditional development lifecycles into AI-native workflows. Under his leadership, Blitzy has developed an agentic platform where thousands of specialized AI Agents cooperate at inference to autonomously deliver enterprise-scale code that is tested, validated, and compiled.Focused on operational deployment at scale, Brian architected the company's proven Agentic SDLC Accelerator—a structured methodology that systematically guides engineering organizations from technical validation to full-scale enterprise adoption. This framework unlocks autonomous capabilities across the complete software development lifecycle.Timestamps:01:25 – Understanding Blitzy's AI Capabilities03:25 – Challenges and Solutions in Enterprise Software06:00 – The Genesis of Blitzy07:30 – Insights from Nvidia and AI Development11:00 – Implementing AI in Enterprise Systems18:00 – Change Management and Customer Collaboration20:30 – Understanding Enterprise Security Needs25:10 – Improving Code Quality and Test Coverage28:15 – Blitzy's Mission and Market Direction30:10 – Challenges and Opportunities in Enterprise SoftwareGuest Highlight:"Code is beautiful in that it's verifiable. We're following enterprise best practices—everything goes to a dev branch where a human can look at it, review it, go through a typical QA process. The first thing we're gonna do is document their code so they know what's going on, then add test cases, then develop software at scale that's highly verifiable."Get Connected:Brian Elliot on LinkedInYousuf Kahn on LinkedInIan Faison on LinkedInHungry for more tech talk? Check out past episodes at ciopod.com: Ep 62 - Running IT Like a Growth EngineEp 61 - What Manufacturing Can Teach You About Scaling Enterprise AIEp 60 - Why the Smartest CIOs Are Becoming Business StrategistsLearn more about Caspian Studios: caspianstudios.comOur Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Blitzy, the Enterprise Autonomous Software Development Platform with Infinite Code Context. Blitzy uses thousands of specialized AI agents that think for hours to understand enterprise scale codebases with millions of lines of code.Enterprise Engineering leaders start every development sprint with the Blitzy platform, bringing in their development requirements. The Blitzy platform provides a plan, then generates and pre-compiles code for each task. Blitzy delivers 80%+ of the development work autonomously, while providing a guide for the final 20% of human development work required to complete the sprint.Public companies are achieving a 5x engineering velocity increase when incorporating Blitzy as their Pre-IDE development tool, pairing it with their coding co-pilot of choice to bring an AI-Native SDLC into their org.Visit Blitzy.com and press book demo to learn how Blitzy transforms your SDLC from AI Assisted to AI Native. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Indie Game Movement - The podcast about the business and marketing of indie games.
Ep 432 - The Impact of QA on Player Experience with Francisca Butron

Indie Game Movement - The podcast about the business and marketing of indie games.

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 16, 2025 46:25


Games succeed or fail based on the experience players walk away with, and few disciplines shape that experience more than QA. In this episode, we look beyond bug reports and test plans to uncover one of QA's most underrated strengths: communication and empathy. From UX and design discussions to player-focused problem solving, QA isn't just about finding issues — it's about connecting across teams to ensure the experience feels right for players where it matters most. Episode Shownotes Link: https://rengenmarketing.com/432

RESTalk
EP147 Best of 2025: The Year RESNET® Hit Another Gear (December 2025)

RESTalk

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2025 21:03


In this special "Best of RESTALK 2025" episode, host Bill Spohn looks back at the ideas and conversations that defined the year across the RESNET® ecosystem. Rather than a simple highlight reel, this episode weaves four major themes that kept surfacing—from sweeping QA modernization efforts to the market forces accelerating HERS adoption to the emerging leaders reshaping the industry to the on-the-ground projects proving that high performance and affordability can coexist.   Across conversations with QA directors, software leaders, conference fellows, builders, lenders, and RESNET® founder Steve Baden, 2025 revealed an industry that's both maturing and reinventing itself. The year's strongest clips capture this mix of evolution and momentum: real-time QA replacing annual reports, financing that rewards low-carbon construction, programs nurturing new talent, and innovative housing models—from 3D-printed concrete to all-electric Habitat townhomes—delivering measurable results for families.   Whether you're a rater, builder, program manager, lender, policymaker, or simply someone who cares about the future of housing, this episode connects the dots on where RESNET® is headed—and why the next few years will be pivotal for quality, credibility, and impact.     Major Themes Covered 1. QA as the Backbone: Apps, Automation & Trust Episodes: EP137, EP140, EP144, EP146 How RESNET® is modernizing QA with real-time data, tech upgrades, stronger staffing, and clearer processes—protecting the credibility of HERS® as volumes scale. 2. Market Signals, Money & Scaling HERS® Episodes: EP136, EP138, EP142, EP145, EP146 Why HERS® grows fastest where incentives and financing tools align—and how products like C-PACE and tax credits are turning performance into business value. 3. The People Pipeline: Conferences, Emerging Leaders & New Roles Episodes: EP136, EP137, EP138, EP146 The next generation of raters, analysts, and QA specialists entering the field, and how programs like Emerging Leaders keep the talent pipeline strong. 4. High-Performance, Affordable & Innovative Housing in Practice Episodes: EP139, EP141, EP143, EP145, EP146 Real projects—3D-printed homes, ERV best practices, net-zero-ready Habitat homes—showing that innovation and affordability can move together.     Featured Guests (Across 2025 Episodes) Scott Doyle – Managing Director of QA, RESNET® Laurel Elam – Senior Director, RESNET® Steve Baden – Executive Director & RESNET® Founder Tricia Baker – Senior VP of Strategy & Impact, PACE Equity Carl Pier – In-house Engineer & HERS® Modeler, PACE Equity Emerging Leaders & Fellows – RESNET® ELC participants Raters, Builders & Habitat Teams from EP139, EP143, and others   To the RESNET® community, we hear you and want to engage. Learn more at www.RESNET.us. For more info on this topic, contact RESNET® at INFO@RESNET.US

Private Equity Funcast
AI-First (Whatever That Means): Hiring Product & Engineering Leaders with Sean Lucq from SPMB

Private Equity Funcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2025 57:19


Jim sits down with Sean Luke (Partner at SPMB Executive Search) to talk about the art of hiring senior engineering and product leaders—especially now that every job description on Earth has "AI" duct-taped to it. We get into why sticking with one great search firm beats "random recruiter roulette," why tech interviewing is tough (spoiler: engineers aren't always born interviewers), and the eternal tension between the two key roles - CTO (big brain science/vision) and VP Engineering (keep the trains running, preferably on the tracks). Then it's on to the AI gold rush: what a normal Head of Engineering should actually be doing with AI (hint: practical stuff like code review, QA, automation), why "Head of AI" is usually a totally separate job, and why "10 years of LLM experience" belongs in the same bin as Web3 buzzword soup. We also cover who's moving jobs right now, why PE can feel like a saner bet than venture (less "moonshot," more "actual exit"), and what candidates must be able to explain: what you did, and how it moved the business—numbers included. Plus: a few recruiting war stories, including the kind you can't make up and the kind that makes you grateful for a boring Tuesday.

The Daily Standup
Definition of Done - More Than Just a Checklist

The Daily Standup

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 11, 2025 5:56


Definition of Done - More Than Just a ChecklistAfter one too many release debates (and a few emotional retros), I realized the problem wasn't our process — it was our definition.“Done” meant 10 different things to 10 different people.Developers meant “code merged”.QA meant “tests passed”.Product meant “feature shipped”.Ops meant “logs don't scream”.So I built a checklist — not to create bureaucracy, but to create peace.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast

Seth is gone! He's in Foggy London Town hanging out with Graham Norton. So the guys are answering some Q&As from the QA. First and foremost, Jorm is NOT faking his accident! It's totally real. Just because he got up on stage and danced as Pee-Wee Herman does not mean he did not have a life-threatening accident mere months ago that could have paralyzed him for life. He just has an amazing doctor. You remember him? This episode has a lot going on, lots of fun stories and questions, cool idioms, and Andy gives you some of his Spelling Bee hints (are you listening, New York Times Games??). You're going to enjoy it… we guarantee it! Also, the guys are definitely Winter Soldiers, so don't say the secret phrase. They need their sleep. Portugal. The Man Tap ‘Weird Al,' Lonely Island's Jorma Taccone for Rage Against the Machine Cover | https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/portugal-the-man-cover-rage-against-the-machine-weird-al-1235477883/ Andy Samberg | Finding Your Roots| https://youtu.be/i2g_UxOJMZU?si=2XcAKorFIFs0vXqd Send us an email: thelonelyislandpod@gmail.com Send us a voice note: https://www.speakpipe.com/thelonelyisland Send us stuff: P.O. Box 4024 New York, NY 10185 Photos and everything else can be found by following us on Instagram @lonelymeyerspod Support our sponsors: Aura Frames Exclusive $35 off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/ISLAND. Promo Code ISLAND Vuori Get 20% off your FIRST purchase. Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/ISLAND Naked Wines To get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99, head to https://NakedWines.com/ISLAND and use code ISLAND for both the code AND PASSWORD. Quince Give a gift they won't want to re-gift this holiday with Quince. Go to https://Quince.com/ISLAND for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TestTalks | Automation Awesomeness | Helping YOU Succeed with Test Automation
Gatling Studio: Start Performance Testing in Minutes (No Expertise Required) with Shaun Brown and Stephane Landelle

TestTalks | Automation Awesomeness | Helping YOU Succeed with Test Automation

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2025 40:54


Performance testing has traditionally been one of the hardest parts of QA,slow onboarding, complex scripting, difficult debugging, and too many late-stage surprises. Try Gatling Studio for yourself now: https://links.testguild.com/gatling In this episode, Joe sits down with Stéphane Landelle, creator of Gatling, and Shaun Brown to explore how Gatling is reinventing the load-testing experience. You'll hear how Gatling evolved from a developer-first framework into a far more accessible platform that supports Java, Kotlin, JavaScript/TypeScript, and AI-assisted creation. We break down the thinking behind Gatling Studio, a new companion tool designed to make recording, filtering, correlating, and debugging performance tests dramatically easier. Whether you're a developer, SDET, or automation engineer, you'll learn: How to onboard quickly into performance testing—even without deep expertise Why Gatling Studio offers a smoother way to record traffic and craft tests Where AI is already improving load test authoring How teams can shift-left performance insights and catch issues earlier What's coming next as Gatling expands its developer experience and enterprise platform If you've been meaning to start performance testing—or scale it beyond one performance engineer—this episode will give you the clarity and confidence to begin.

Conflicted: A History Podcast
The Tokyo Subway Sarin Attacks 1995 – Part 1

Conflicted: A History Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2025 123:57


On March 20th, 1995, the Tokyo subway system was flooded with sarin nerve gas in a coordinated terrorist attack by the religious cult Aum Shinrikyō. Led by the charismatic new-age guru, Shoko Asahara, the well-funded and technologically ambitious Aum organization manufactured and deployed chemical weapons in an attempt to bring about the end of the world. In the chaos that followed, 13 people were killed, thousands were injured, and the international community shuddered at the possibility of future attacks by fringe political groups.    SOURCES: Amarasingam, A. (2017, April 5). A history of sarin as a weapon. The Atlantic.  Cotton, Simon. “Nerve Agents: What Are They and How Do They Work?” American Scientist, vol. 106, no. 3, 2018, pp. 138–40.  Danzig, Richard; Sageman, Marc; Leighton, Terrance; Hough, Lloyd; Yuki, Hidemi; Kotani, Rui; Hosford, Zachary M.. Aum Shinrikyo: Insights Into How Terrorists Develop Biological and Chemical Weapons . Center for a New American Security. 2011. Gunaratna, Rohan. “Aum Shinrikyo's Rise, Fall and Revival.” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses, vol. 10, no. 8, 2018, pp. 1–6.  Harmon, Christopher C. “How Terrorist Groups End: Studies of the Twentieth Century.” Strategic Studies Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3, 2010, pp. 43–84. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26269787.  “IHT: A Safe and Sure System — Until Now.” The New York Times, 21 Mar. 1995. Jones, Seth G., and Martin C. Libicki. “Policing and Japan's Aum Shinrikyo.” How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida, RAND Corporation, 2008, pp. 45–62.  Kaplan, David E. (1996) “Aum's Shoko Asahara and the Cult at the End of the World”. WIRED.  Lifton, Robert Jay. Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism. 1999. Murakami, Haruki. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. Translated by Alfred Birnbaum and Philip Gabriel. 2001. Murphy, P. (2014, June 21). Matsumoto: Aum's sarin guinea pig. The Japan Times.  Reader, Ian. Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo.  2000. Tucker, Jonathan B. “Chemical/Biological Terrorism: Coping with a New Threat.” Politics and the Life Sciences, vol. 15, no. 2, 1996, pp. 167–83.  Ushiyama, Rin. “Shock and Anger: Societal Responses to the Tokyo Subway Attack.” Aum Shinrikyō and Religious Terrorism in Japanese Collective Memory., The British Academy, 2023, pp. 52–80.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Soft Skills Engineering
Episode 490: How do I break into software dev from QA automation and underselling

Soft Skills Engineering

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2025 26:14


In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: Hi Dave and Jamison, I've been in QA/QA automation for 13 years now with a CS degree, and I've been trying to change my role to a software developer for a while. My only issue is that every time I brought my career aspirations to my managers they seemed to “not care” or give vague answers to “kick the can down the road”. In the past I fully demonstrated I can do the work by submitting bug fixes, writing and deploying a few microservices by myself (all product feature work), on top of performing my QA duties. I get high marks in my performance reviews, but that doesn't seem to be enough! I also seem to attract some resentment from my team (silently but it's noticed) as they see a QA trying to soak up their dev work and I get a strong “stay in your lane” vibe. I do it to help them, not take all of their work. Any advice? Am I approaching this the wrong way? And what would you do in my situation? Thanks and all the best! Hi! Three years ago, I relocated from a third-world country to Europe for work. I tend to undersell myself a lot. I know I am a competent, hard-working, and smart engineer. I have strong opinions and can evaluate trade-offs. I can participate in discussions about complex systems, and I have experience managing projects. But sometimes I'm afraid of looking dumb and scared of confrontation. This means I rarely voice my opinions or suggestions. I often let go of them at the slightest objection, even if I believe the other person is mistaken. Whenever I speak or comment on a subject in Slack, I always use phrases like “I'm not 100% sure”, “as far as I remember”, or “I have to look it up but I think … “. These would not matter If I was showing my confidence through other means like participating in discussions confidently, but these all add up to create an image of someone reliable in getting things done, but not reliable at taking more responsibility. I was not like this before moving. Occasionally I struggle with the language when in big meetings or talking about complex matters, but I'm comfortable with English. It has an effect for sure, but it is not the cause. I'm going to start a new position and I want to have a longer career there. But I'm afraid that I can not give myself the head start I know I'm capable of. How can I improve my own personal onboarding process and let my new colleagues and manager know how lucky they are to have me on their team?