20: Building Better and Happier Engineering Teams with Ashley Hunsberger

In this episode of Engineering Quality, Veronika, Ale, and Royalee are joined by developer experience leader and quality advocate Ashley Hunsberger to explore the connection between developer wellbeing, psychological safety, and software quality.

Ashley shares her journey from manual tester to Director of Developer Experience, and explains why creating great engineering teams is about much more than tools: it’s about people, trust, learning, and feedback.

We discuss:

• Why developer experience is about enabling people, not just improving tooling
• How psychological safety impacts collaboration, innovation, and delivery
• Practical ways leaders can build trust and healthier engineering cultures
• How teams can learn from failure without blame
• Why feedback loops and continuous learning improve software quality
• How to measure developer experience and connect it to business outcomes
• Advice for engineers and testers looking to grow into leadership and advocacy roles

The conversation also explores the role of empathy, communication, and human psychology in building stronger engineering organizations and better software.

Resource recommendations from Ashley:

• Lisa Crispin blog: ​​https://lisacrispin.com/agile-testing-blog/  
• Amy Edmondson - psychological safety research
• Brené Brown - job crafting and values
• Adam Grant - Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

Connect with Ashley:

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyhunsberger/ 

Follow us on social:

💼LinkedIn: Engineering Quality

🎥 YouTube: @EngineeringQuality

🌐 Website: https://www.engineeringqualitypodcast.com

Email: [email protected]