From Tester to Evangelist: Finding a calling in Live Site Quality, Jon Bach, eBay
In December 2010, Jon Bach felt at the top of his game when it came to testing projects at Quardev. As Manager for Corporate Intellect, his job was to inspire confidence that any client would be impressed at the array of ideas to find bugs and the speed at which they could be found. He felt like he could help clients get more from testing with Quardev than from any other company. He was famous for being a passionate tester who delighted in practicing ways to reveal weaknesses and vulnerabilities that mattered.
But a Voice beckoned. The Voice was eBay and it had things to teach Jon in its Silicon Valley headquarters. The offer was not one he could refuse – to change the world by improving an economic platform that enabled millions around the world to have a livelihood.
Not long after he started work, he went from Quality Manager of Search Front End to Director of Live Site Quality – making sure a vast array of existing bugs got fixed. Suddenly it wasn’t about testing and finding bugs, but driving an answer to “now what do we do?” This talk is about an idea that isn’t talked about much in testing – Customer Advocacy. This is his story of going from ardent treasure-hunter to customer ambassador and how that may affect the way you approach the pursuit of bugs.
