Talks, workshops and moderation
I’ve been speaking at conferences since 2009 and giving keynotes since 2015, to audiences of up to 1,000 people. My talks come from experience rather than theory: what happened, what I noticed, and what I’d try next.
Keynotes at EuroSTAR, Agile Testing Days, HUSTEF, Romanian Testing Conference, Nordic Testing Days and Testing Assembly Finland, among others. Voted Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person in 2018; Best Talk at German Testing Days 2021.
See all 193 talks since 2009Moderation, workshops and training
Topics
Leadership & strategy
Leading in complexity, strategy as a series of experiments, technology, methodology and AI adoption, and explaining how I think so others can follow.
- Souverän in Komplexität: Experimente statt Best Practices mit KI
Why best practices break down in complex situations, and how small, deliberate experiments help an organisation stay in control while it adopts AI.
- Leadership Observability
Making a leader’s thinking, priorities and decisions visible, so teams can follow them, challenge them and grow into them.
- Dirigent werden oder zweite Geige spielen? Wandlung, Chancen und Risiken mit KI
What AI changes for companies and roles, and how to decide whether to lead that change or follow it.
Quality & agility
Whole-team and holistic quality, exploration and pairing.
My talk on microheuristics in exploratory testing won Best Talk at German Testing Days 2021.
- DeveloPairing: two people, one driver – magic?
What happens when a developer and a tester share one keyboard, with and without AI, told by two people who tried it.
- Tests! Dashboards! Monitoring! I don’t care what it’s called as long as you can show it works
Less arguing about labels, more evidence: how teams can show their software works, wherever that evidence comes from.
- Cultivating the explorer’s mindset to succeed in holistic teams
Why curiosity and exploration are the skills holistic teams need most, and how to grow them.
People & communication
Conflict, feedback and appreciation, mental health in teams, and asking better questions.
- A Fighting Chance – Learning the Art of Conflict Resolution
Conflict is normal. Recognising it, understanding it and handling it well is a skill anyone can learn.
- Question Askers
Why the people asking questions are often the most valuable in a team, and how to become one of them.
- Mentale Gesundheit für agile Teams und Organisationen
Stress and mental load in agile teams, and what leaders and organisations can do about it.
Moderation, workshops and training
I’ve moderated the Open Space at Agile Testing Days every year since 2014, along with lean coffees, panels, conference days and company strategy weekends.
Open Space
Self-organised sessions where participants set the agenda. My favourite format for conferences and company events.
Lean Coffee
Short, democratic discussions that get a group to what matters most, fast.
Conferences and panels
Hosting days and tracks, and asking the questions that get panellists past their prepared answers.
Workshops and training
Designed with you, for your people: from a half-day impulse to multi-day training.
- Leadership through change and transformation
- Agile principles for leadership
- Agile leadership training and coaching
- Mental health in teams and organisations
- Communication, conflict and appreciation
- Pragmatic decisions in software projects
- Strategic quality improvement
- Holistic Testing master trainer
- Exploratory testing
- Time to Lead communication and enablement for testers
- Speaker coaching and mentoring new testers