Through using one video from users to make a point, we created a habit of users sharing videos of problems. That is kind of awesome. But there's certain amount of pain watching people in pain, even if it wasn't always the software failing in software ways, but the software failing in people ways.
There was one video that I got to watch that was particularly embarrassing. It was embarrassing, because the problem shown in that video did not need a video. It was simply a basic thing breaking in an easy way. One where the fix is probably as fast as the video - with only a bit of exaggeration. But what made it embarrassing was the fact that while I had tested that stuff earlier, I had not recently and felt personal ownership.
The sound track of that video was particularly painful. The discussion was around 'how do you test this stuff, you just can't test this stuff' - words I've heard so many times in my career. A lot of times the problems attributed to lack of testing are known issues incorrectly prioritized for fixing. But this one was very clearly just it - lack of testing.
It again left me thinking of over reliance on test automation (I've written about that before) and how in my previous place of work lack of automation made us more careful.
Beating oneself up isn't useful, but one heuristic I can come up with this learning: when all eyes are on you, the small and obvious becomes more relevant. The time dimension matters.
I know how I will test next week. And that will include pairing on exploratory testing.
