About the Visibility of Testers - Cassandra H. Leung

In this episode, I talk with Cassandra H. Leung about why testers still feel unseen and what we can do about it. We unpack impostor syndrome, the shy voice that says keep quiet, and how it holds many of us back. Cassandra shares a simple frame: show, share, shine. Put testing work on the board, share notes and dashboards, and keep a brag board for wins. We explore the wider role of testers across product talks, pipelines, and coaching the team.

"If you're doing testing right and everything is going well, no one notices. But if you make a mistake, then everyone pays attention." - Cassandra H. Leung

Cassandra H. Leung is a trained Quality Engineer, certified Scrum Master, and UX enthusiast. She specialises in exploratory testing and test strategy, and enjoys supporting teams towards better quality products and processes. Cassandra has spoken at events around the world, writes about topics relevant to the technology industry, and creates content to educate future generations of testing specialists. She's active in the online testing community, and hopes to inspire others to share their stories and learnings.

Highlights:

• Testers who omit their work from team boards because it lacks "releasable features" make their contributions invisible; adding exploratory sessions and automated checks to shared boards generates questions and draws colleagues in.
• Testing is a social discipline: personal relationships with developers and other colleagues surface pain points that formal observation alone misses, and trusted colleagues share problems they would otherwise keep to themselves.
• Visibility without buy-in fails; identifying what already hurts the team and addressing those pain points first is what makes quality improvements stick and earns support for broader changes.
• The core skills that matter most for testers are communication, critical thinking, empathy, and adaptability, not the current buzzwords, because those fundamentals outlast any single tool or trend.

📌 Testing is a people business, humanity as a superpower. That is my talk on October 7 at HUSTEF 2026 in Budapest: See programme and tickets