Into The MoTaverse

Rosie Sherry sits down with Paul Reinheimer, co-founder of WonderProxy, for a wide-ranging founder-to-founder conversation that goes well beyond localization testing. Paul shares the origin story of WonderProxy, which was born out of a favour to a friend stuck testing websites with dodgy free proxies, and reflects on what it means to build a company slowly and deliberately over two decades, turning away more than 80% of free trial requests because the wrong customers simply aren't worth it.The conversation covers the unglamorous realities of founding: wearing five hats at once, managing employment law across borders, navigating a decade-overdue price increase, and learning, sometimes reluctantly, to let your team make decisions without you.Follow Paul and Rosie in the MoTaverse.

Join Rosie Sherry and Dan Moore (developer, former DevRel lead, and now Senior Director of CIAM Strategy at FusionAuth) for an honest conversation about what it actually means to navigate a tech career that just won’t hold still.Dan's own path, from developer to CTO to DevRel to identity standards strategist, is less a career ladder and more a career stack. Each layer built on the last, shaped by curiosity, self-awareness, and knowing when a role no longer fits.Together they explore what's driving this shift for everyone in tech right now: the generalist pressure pulling developers, testers, and community builders into each other's territory. And how this impacts the many little things in our everyday work.Follow Dan Moore and Rosie Sherry in the MoTaverse.

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

It was such a pleasure to have Alan Page on Into the MoTaverse. Alan is a titan in the testing community, known for his work at Microsoft, his "Modern Testing" principles, and the AB Testing podcast. We caught up on his recent 3,000-mile hike of the Pacific Crest Trail and how that "slow mode" gave him a fresh perspective on a tech world that is moving faster than ever.The heart of the conversation centered on staying curious in the age of AI. Alan shared how he’s using agentic AI to build personal tools, like a custom job scraper and why he believes the "right-brain" skills of creativity, judgment, and systems thinking are now more valuable than the ability to write code.We explored the idea of quality as a systemic outcome rather than a department, and why the best leaders focus on transparency and psychological safety to let their teams truly innovate.

In this episode of Into the MoTaverse, Rosie Sherry sits down with QA Team Lead Megan Ozanne to tackle the Heffalump in the room: the relentless pressure to move faster in an AI-driven industry.Megan shares a poignant analogy from Winnie the Pooh to illustrate how teams are rushing into automation and AI-generated requirements without stopping to ask the most fundamental question—why?They explore the psychological impact of the "announcement economy" and the self-imposed pressure to match the unrealistic speeds seen on social media.The conversation dives deep into the risks of losing core testing fundamentals as the industry shifts toward "agentic" tools and rapid-fire development.Follow Megan Ozanne and Rosie Sherry in the MoTaverse.

In this episode of Into the MoTaverse, Rosie Sherry sits down with Andrew Easter, Co-Founder and CTO of Claimer, to discuss the turbulent but rewarding journey of scaling and pivoting a tech startup. Andrew shares the adjustment of transitioning Claimer from a 30-person tech-enabled consultancy to a lean, 11-person pure software business. He provides a transparent look at the human cost of restructuring and the heavy responsibility of leadership during times of radical AI change.The conversation dives deep into the unprecedented shift in software engineering practices. Andrew reveals how his team moved from 20% to nearly 80% AI-generated code in just a few months. Beyond the productivity gains, he and Rosie explore the psychological implications for developers—specifically the challenge of achieving flow state when the role shifts from creative creator to AI facilitator and reviewer.Follow Andrew Easter and Rosie Sherry in the MoTaverse

As AI begins to act as a massive productivity multiplier for individual developers, engineering leaders are facing a widening disconnect between rapid code generation and the human-centric processes that ensure its quality. This episode explores hidden friction created when technical output outpaces a team’s ability to plan, test, and communicate effectively. It challenges the assumption that faster always means better, highlighting the growing tension between automated speed and the sustainable pace of a healthy engineering culture.The focus shifts from simply managing tools to navigating the human change burden that comes with this new paradigm. By examining the shifting ratios of development to quality assurance, this piece looks at how modern leaders can maintain team cohesion and high standards without falling into a cycle of reactive firefighting.It's a look at the strategic slowing down required to ensure that technological leaps don't leave the people behind them in the dust.Follow Emma Armstrong and Rosie Sherry in the MoTaverse.

In this episode of Into the MoTaverse, Rosie Sherry sits down with quality engineer and MoTaverse ambassador Judy Mosley to discuss her unconventional path into tech and the realities of being a "lone tester." Judy reflects on her transition from a stay-at-home mom to a tech professional, highlighting how seeing relatable, authentic women in leadership gave her the permission to lead as her true self. Their conversation explores the "world-building" aspect of quality, where establishing the right environment and communication style is just as important as finding bugs.The dialogue shifts into the practicalities of working as a solo QA, where Judy emphasizes that trust is the primary currency. She shares her innovative uses of Slack, from using "lists" to document team decisions to being transparent about using AI to assist with tedious bug reporting.The episode concludes with a powerful reminder on the importance of community: when you are the only advocate for quality in a company, finding your people is essential for growth, sanity, and staying challenged in an ever-evolving industry.Learn more about Judy MosleyLearn more about Rosie Sherry

In this episode of Into the MoTaverse, Rosie Sherry speaks with Shawn Vernier, a quality advocate based in Canada, about his journey from software developer to quality engineer and his evolving perspective on testing, automation, and product quality. Sean shares how his curiosity and excitement of asking “why?” led him toward quality engineering.Together, they expand the MoTaverse by exploring:The gap between industry hype and real-world practice,test automation and AI tentacles 🐙the maintenance burden of automationthe value of test artifacts as living documentationwhy quality cannot be treated like a factory assembly lineand, documentation, data as a form of product knowledge

In this episode of Into the MoTaverse, Rosie Sherry sits down with Brazilian testing leader Julio de Lima to explore the evolution of software testing across borders.Julio shares his journey from developer to educator, training over 22,000 testers in Brazil, and reflects on how language barriers, limited resources, and community growth shaped his career. Together, they compare the Brazilian and U.S. testing markets, unpacking surprising data from Julio’s research into job postings—including the explosion of QA job titles, shifting automation expectations, and the reality of remote work trends.It’s an honest, global conversation about learning, leadership, positioning, and how quality and testing people can adapt without losing their identity and worth.Follow Julio de Lima and Rosie Sherry.

In this episode of Into the MoTaverse, Rosie Sherry catches up with long-time friend and community member Kim Knup to explore her journey from tester to internal DevRel Manager at Legal & General. Together they unpack platform engineering, communities of practice, quality as care, and what it really means to grow your career without losing your roots.Key Takeaways:Career growth isn’t always linear. Stepping “back” can open unexpected doors.Internal DevRel is about visibility, connection, and making work flow better across teams.Platform engineering should be treated like a product. With real customers and real use cases.Quality and community both start with care, for people, systems, and outcomes.In a changing job market, your network and relationships matter more than ever.

In this episode, Rosie Sherry sits down with Nataliia Burmei to talk candidly about navigating today’s tech job market, building confidence in leadership roles, and redefining what quality really means.Nataliia shares her recent experience of what brought on the the decision of making the brave move of leaving a role without a new one to go to.Together they explored refining CVs and building tangible technical proof, to learning how to “sell shamelessly” by leading with strengths. She reflects on the mental game of job hunting, especially how confidence fluctuates after rejection or redundancy, and why mindset can matter as much as skill.They explore:Why job descriptions are often the least helpful part of the processQuestions Nataliia asks hiring managers to uncover real challengesWhy companies should build strategy collaboratively instead of “selling” itThe difference between transactional testing and creative quality workHow community and giving back build deeper confidence than just consuming knowledge

This conversation between Rosie Sherry, founder of Ministry of Testing, and Chris Miles, Head of Platform Engineering at Legal & General, explores the evolving landscape of quality engineering. With over 25 years in the field, Chris shares how a "testing mindset" serves as a foundation for leadership and why the future of quality lies in communication, language, and the democratization of technical skills through AI.

What happens when you stop seeing software testing as a "quality gate" and start seeing it as a creative loop? In this episode of Into the MoTaverse, we sit down with Luke Lattimer-Rogers, a seasoned quality lead with over 14 years of experience across fashion, gaming, and even prison software.Luke challenges the traditional delineation between science and art, arguing that coding and QA are fundamentally creative acts of problem-solving.We dive deep into:The automation treadmill: Why focusing solely on automation can zap the creativity and exploratory joy out of a role.Quality voyeurism: How "sitting back" can actually lead to better insights.Quality through happiness: Why the best products start with happy creators and ethical HR policies, not just bug reports.AI as an "Electric Drill": Using AI as a tool to empower our "second brains" rather than replacing our human intuition.

In this episode of Into the MoTaverse, host Rosie Sherry is joined by Simon Tomes to pull back the curtain on the evolution of the Ministry of Testing, aka The MoTaverse.They dive into the idea of Community as a Service (CaaS) and how it becomes so much more powerful to offer many different opportunities for their people under the banner of CaaS. Community is everywhere, everything is intertwined, being able to build and offer events, learning, and opportunities under one banner passes the “Aaah Test”.

"I can't believe it hasn't even been a year!"What has felt like years of knowing Eamon, in reality it has been less than a year. This partly shows the power of the people, but also what is possible in community. We're launching our new podcast Into the MoTaverse, hosted by Rosie Sherry and our first guest had to be Eamon Droko.As we were chatting, and as I was scrolling through his MoT Profile I couldn't believe it was less than a year since he dived into and embraced MoT, and of course we embraced him back. From attending meetups, to finding a new role after a 2 year struggle, to doing 99 second talks and attending MoTaCon.It's been amazing to get to know Eamon and to continue to grow together. Come and listen to our conversation. We explore his journey, diversity and bias, job hunting, creativity (and Bug Rug!), and building confidence through community.