In this episode of This Week in Testing, co-hosts Nataliia Burmei and Simon Tomes gather the community for Episode 98 and steer the conversation toward the spicy topic of performance reviews. Joined on stage by Eamon Droko, Olly Fairhall, and Milan Kumar, they explore how testers experience reviews, why they can feel so Marmite, and whether they can be made more useful, fair, or even enjoyable.

From using community contributions as evidence of impact to running bug hunts that reveal unexpected insights, the group reflects on the power of visibility, feedback, and shared learning. Nataliia shares her experiments with white-box coding using Cursor AI, while Simon spotlights MoT’s latest platform features, including new Community Stars stats and a much-requested way to follow user profiles.

Along the way, Eamon describes how community work creates value inside the workplace, Milan shares his dream of one test stack to rule them all, and Olly celebrates the fresh eyes a team-wide bug hunt can bring. And yes, there’s a surprise mic appearance from Gary Hawkes, setting the stage for the long-awaited chaos of Episode 99, next week!

Whether you dread your next review cycle or want ideas for making your work more visible, this episode offers honest stories, smart tactics, and a few Marmite moments that every tester will relate to.

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#MarmiteDebate

#CommunityStars

#AIinTesting

#BugHunts

#CareerGrowth

#TestingCommunity

#MoTPlatform

#TeamQuality

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