Understanding your customer goes beyond empathy; it involves recognising and challenging your own assumptions. In this talk, Principal Test Engineer at Audacia, Emily O’Connor, will delve into how well you really know your customer – after all, all delivery teams have subconscious biases and assumptions.
Emily, who has aphantasia — a condition where she cannot create images in her mind’s eye — offers a unique perspective. This characteristic enables her to approach problems without pre-conceived notions of how a product might look and feel to its users. Not being able to visualise a solution, she is vocal in questioning what our products will do and how this will be represented to users who can’t see behind the scenes.
Aphantasia, combined with her tester-mindset, contribute to an atypical ability to identify assumptions and context that development teams might take for granted. Her inability to visualise, especially advertising or film scenes, allows her to maintain a clear and unbiased memory, which is crucial in her role as quality advocate.
This talk is essential for anyone involved in the development lifecycle, including product owners, developers, and testers. The session will explore common assumptions made by development teams about end-users and questions you may wish to consider when designing, building and testing your own products. By reflecting on real-world examples and experiences from delivered projects, Emily will illustrate how breaking free from personal biases can drive quality in software development
Principal Test Engineer, Audacia
