Escaping the Enshittification Trap: Systems Thinking for Sustainable Quality

In this talk, we’ll explore quality as an emergent property of our teams, tools, and processes—not just something we test at the end. We’ll look at challenges like speed to market and enshittification(1), and how they impact our approach to quality.

We’ll introduce practical ways to think about quality through attributes like testability, observability, and recoverability. Most importantly, we’ll explore why a quality strategy—not just a testing strategy—is key to building better products.

(1) “Enshittification is a pattern in which two-sided online products and services decline in quality over time” by Cory Doctorow source

I’m an electronic engineer by trade, but software testing found me while I was working on Layer 4 protocols—and I’ve been hooked ever since. In the past, I taught software testing as an adjunct professor at UTS. These days, I work in engineering leadership, consult with teams on quality I bring a systems thinking lens to building quality in products, shaped by years working across startups, enterprises, and tech companies. I also wrote The Quality Coach’s Handbook, which you can find on Amazon or Leanpub.