Stop Guessing about my STAR presentation

For anyone who recently attended STAR East and saw my presentation, thank you for attending, and for reading my blog. Some of you have viewed the slides on the proceedings CD and noticed that it’s not really like what I presented. I tend to change quite a bit of material between the date the slides are due and the actual presentation (In fact, I added a new slide about an hour before the conference).

Here are the slides I presented last week. Stop Guessing How Customers Use Your Software

And here is the video I showed about what happens with Windows error reports.

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7 Comments

  1. Send me your snail mail address, and I’ll get a book sent to you. If you’re on twitter, you can DM me – otherwise, send an email to (alanpa at microsoft dot com)

  2. ROFL! Love the video. Thank you for sharing the final slides.

    I’ve been trying to bring in user data to testing for years. The variety of responses by team concern me to some extent. Many testers are glad to have any data, but question it. I have more respect for the testers who question it than those who just accept the data given to them as fact, but some testers don’t question it. They dismiss it! To them, why does it matter what customers are doing with what we already have since they are more interested in the future (features they now find boring). I’d try to point out that if we don’t learn what we can from the past and present we can’t make the future better. The amount of attention user data gets seems to depend more on the mindset of the test manager than that of individual testers.

    Great job of nailing the keynote. I heard multiple attendees saying this was the best Star conference ever.

  3. So glad you posted the video. I loved it at the conference and am sharing with my team today.

    Speaking in the afternoon when our brains are full is no mean feat and you did a great job Alan to keep us focused and entertained and to share some great information as well. Thanks!

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