Kato Coaching
@kato-coaching
Turning testers into trusted advisors. | Keynote speaker | Coach | Trainer Free resources and my book:
I am working on a food tracker for my very specific needs, and Claude just turned into every developer I ever worked with.
Merry Christmas if that’s your jam, or happy holidays if you’re just enjoying the quiet and some marzipan. I’m signing off for cheese, films, and beating Godrick. Have a great break, however you spend it. See you next year. *Of course the image is AI created. Helga would never wear a Santa hat.
AI in testing isn’t just shiny tooling. It comes with real traps: de-skilling, burnout, liability gaps, and vendor lock-in. I made a short infographic with the six risks I see most often. AI can help, but only if you understand the trade offs before you adopt it.
I built Stakeholder Ready for that moment when you see something that matters and hesitate to speak. It is a short, practical course that helps testers find their voice and speak with confidence when it counts. Get notified when it launches (soon): courses.kato-coaching.com/stakeholder-ready
After two days at home I'm now in Copenhagen for the #ISTQB GA, and to meet my workgroup for the Quality in DevOps syllabus, which is now officially on the ISTQB homepage and is currently in it's beta review phase. Exciting times!
It's almost time for my presentation "Your metrics are lying", and I am excited to present this new thing here today: a lightweight framework that can shape how you use metrics to actually learn stuff. #hustef #hustef2025
A lovely day in Budapest, and I have a few free hours to enjoy the beautiful weather. Tomorrow it’s #hustef time!
I just taught my new workshop, We’re not Spotify: Imperfect Metrics. The big takeaway? AI can generate more data than ever, but it can’t tell you what matters. That’s where testers add real value. Not in counting bugs, but in translating data into decisions.
I’ve just come back from two testing conferences, and nearly every talk circled the same question: How do humans add value in an AI-driven workflow? AI gives you data. Humans give it direction. The future of testing isn’t automation, it’s discernment.
So much good stuff yesterday! And it turns out I'm not at #testBash2025 at all, I'm at #MoTaCon2025. Congrats to everyone for being present at the birth of something great! #motaverse @ministryoftesting.com
I'm looking forward to running my new workshop "We are not Spotify: How to do metrics in smaller teams" at #TestBash2025 on Thursday morning. If you've wondered what metrics you can collect to assist your team improve quality, do come along.
If it keeps happening, it’s not just annoying. It’s your next problem statement. Reopened bugs, last-minute clarifications, weird handoffs Those aren’t one-offs. They’re patterns. And patterns are where your influence starts. https://resources.kato-coaching.com/influencer-cheat-sheet
QA is the only profession I know where people regularly say “critical thinking is our most important skill” Like that’s the crown jewel of our identity. Curious where you stand on this. Do you think we overplay “critical thinking” as a skill in QA? Or am I just in a Friday mood?
Stuck waiting to get it right? Try something small and see what changes. You’ll learn faster by doing, not perfecting. #qed #qualityengineering
Confidence isn't the starting point. It's the outcome. You don’t need to feel confident before you act. Learn just enough to take the next step with more confidence than before. No dashboard required. Just a question, a signal, and the courage to try something small.
One shift changed how I share my work: Jeff Walker’s Sideways Sales Letter. Teach first, frame problems in their language, link to business goals. That’s how you get heard. Lesson 1’s released, all free. Watch now, Lesson 2’s tomorrow. https://tinyurl.com/PLFquality
Why did I sign up for the PLF Masterclass? Because yelling “BUT QUALITY MATTERS” into the void wasn’t getting the traction I hoped for. PLF (Product Launch Formula) gave me the tools to build my own business. https://productlaunchformula.com/go?p=a5562&w=launch_masterclass25
The free Masterclass that helped me stop overthinking. If you’ve been sitting on an idea, waiting for the right time, this will give you a better way to start. https://productlaunchformula.com/go?p=a5562&w=launch_masterclass25 (affiliate link - I only share what I’ve used myself)
I tried to measure code quality, but the metric ran away screaming.
Great day at the #LeedsTestingAtelier yesterday. Met and chatted with too many people to name them all, the weather was English summer at its very best (yes, I know it's spring), and the program was outstanding.
It's always a pleasure to attend these in-person meetings to work on our upcoming #QualityInDevOps syllabus.
As I'm finding my way back to the day to routine (which is also about to be interrupted again, but more of that later), this notification from the Ministry of Testing made me smile. I'm proud to be a contributor to something that hopefully makes it easier for testers to learn.
How does a QA engineer exercise? They do test runs! #FridayFunny #DadJokes #HappyWeekender
Why was the QA engineer terrible at fishing? Because they kept throwing back the "good enough" catches while insisting they were representing what the customer would want!
Last week I travelled to London and then to Nottingham, presenting two different talks, at #ctoCraftCon and at #peersCon25. Both were very enjoyable, in different ways. I have some thoughts on community coming out of this, and will try to get them into a coherent form on my blog soon.
I thought our new AI-powered testing tool would solve all our QA problems. Turns out it just created more sophisticated ways to tell us our code is terrible. #FridayFun
Why did the QA tool get promoted? It had outstanding bug retention! #FridayFun
A lot of what a good QA engineer does is engineering the right environment for quality output, but it's rarely rewarded and often treated as invisible. So I'm particularly pleased to be able to speak about this on the stage of CTO Craft Con in London in March - come say hi!