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Gary Hawkes
QA Lead
He/Him

Software QA Lead and tester who loves to see people grow, processes continuously improve and help organisations understand and support Quality Engineering

Ambassador
April 2026
It was good to talk
Great to speak with you on a Call for Insights. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, experience and advice for hiring managers.
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đź–– Unlocking the World through Inclusive Design
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1.2.0 of Quality Coaching essentials
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Evals in practice for an AI coding agent
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1.1.0 of Quality Coaching essentials
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1.0.0 of Quality Coaching essentials
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Performance reviews are like marmite Ep 98
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Curiosity killed the chat - Ep 109
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TWIQ or treat: Ghostly bug stories - Ep 110
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Quality Coaching: Fizzy minds and quality problems - Ep 115
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What is the AI–quality–human loop? - Ep 118
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Small posts, big learnings: Why sharing matters more than ever - Ep 120
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The curse of the live demo… and other testing superstitions - Ep 123
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Eggs, toilet seats and fundamental quality career advice - Ep 125
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It depends - Ask MoTaverse Anything - Ep 128
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The transition from specialist to generalist
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The transition from specialist to generalist
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đź–– The hidden leadership of Quality Professionals: skills you only earn when everything goes to hell
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Small posts, big learnings: Why sharing matters more than ever - Ep 120
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TWiQ Episode 132 - AI debate extended version
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My AI tool stack
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My AI tool stack
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đź–– When systems stop behaving: controlled chaos in practice
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The AI Collaboration Paradox - Robert Herbig
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Prompt engineering isn't the bottleneck anymore. Observability is.
Learner listened to your podcast episode
The curse of the live demo… and other testing superstitions - Ep 123
Learner listened to your podcast episode
Eggs, toilet seats and fundamental quality career advice - Ep 125
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It depends - Ask MoTaverse Anything - Ep 128
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4.2.0 of MoT Software Quality Engineering Certificate
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4.1.0 of MoT Software Quality Engineering Certificate
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TWiQ Episode 132 - AI debate extended version
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TWiQ Episode 132 - AI debate extended version
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TWiQ Episode 132 - AI debate extended version
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It depends - Ask MoTaverse Anything - Ep 128
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TWiQ Episode 132 - AI debate extended version
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The power of proactive patience
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Stop trying to engineer your way out of listening to people
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We’ll soon find out what is truly special about human writing
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Do I belong in tech anymore?
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Evals in practice for an AI coding agent
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TWiQ Episode 132 - AI debate extended version
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đź–– Build your own Quality Management System
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The forgotten part of quality: paying attention to production
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TWiQ Episode 132 - AI debate extended version
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TWiQ Episode 132 - AI debate extended version
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TWiQ Episode 132 - AI debate extended version
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This Week in Quality
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I love hate AI: It will replace all human creativity, but...
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I love hate AI: It makes me feel like I'll never keep up, but...
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Hot take testers love and feel guilty about "I told you so" moments
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Write about something that worries you
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The goldilocks of chaos
Participated in This Week in Quality
Really enjoyed listening to your insights (especially talking about AI) on this weeks episode.
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The forgotten part of quality: paying attention to production
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Thank you for your great insights at the weeks TWiQ
Talking on stage
Thank you for bringing your hot take today!! 
Participated in This Week in Quality
Great to hear your hot take during TWiQ. Thanks for taking to the stage!
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This Week in Quality
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đź–– Stability is a system, not a metric: lessons from scaling mobile test automation
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What I think about when I edit
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đź–– Beyond the exception with Root Cause Analysis
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Make a list of what you are good at
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Software Testing Live: Episode 06 - Don't automate everything, review everything
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đź–– Stop guessing, start seeing: the rise of Observability-Driven Testing
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Visited an Observatory link
Thoughts from a woman in tech on Dunelm’s Women In Tech Week
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Does Soft skills can be the turning point?
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Write about something you’re enjoying right now
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MoTaverse Match
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How would someone deal with a developer who was reluctant to take testing lessons from a tester/quality person?
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How do we balance championing the Quality Assistance model with the reality that many early‑career quality engineers haven’t yet experienced working this way?
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Joined Software Testing Live chapter
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The product-led approach to Quality: What I learnt working side-by-side with testers and engineers
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Book author and big fan reader to meet for the first time at MoTaCon '26
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AOREN is a five-part framework for talks, meetings and presentations
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All it takes are a few words
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Visited an Observatory link
Thousands of CEOs admit AI had no impact on employment or productivity—and it has economists resurrecting a paradox from 40 years ago
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Big spike or small hike
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đź–– Testing as a Party: Inclusive ensemble testing for the whole team
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Testing with feature flags: what we expected and what actually happened
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Registered for an event
This Week in Quality
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Registered for an event
A tester’s guide to AI guardrails
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đź–– Make it joyful: How to build products that make people smile
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Stop shaming yourself into doing more—it won't work
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Color Memory Game
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The ultimate hosting duo returns!
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Ready to Go PRO
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Added a definition
Bugnetism
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This Week in Quality
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Joined a Chapter
Joined TWiQ — This Week in Quality chapter
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Test Impact Analysis Explained
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Visited an Observatory link
AI Testing: How Solo Testers Stay Confident in Releases with Christine Pinto
Thanks for your contribution
My blog therapy
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If your exploratory testing uncovers an area that may be an ideal candidate for automation, what steps would you go about communicating that to the developers/automators to get it done?
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The Beginnings of The Ahh Test
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What is The Ahh Test?
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My blog therapy
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🖖 Rahul is he’s in the top 1% of the world...
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We can probably do better on social media - Hashtags
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My blog therapy
Thanks for your contribution
My blog therapy
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Registered for an event
Ship with confidence: Agentic AI-Driven Quality with Rovo Dev and Xray
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Added a moment
My blog therapy
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Registered for an event
This Week in Quality
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Thanking contributors
Come for the knowledge, stay for the career growth
Learner completed your lesson
4.2.0 of MoT Software Quality Engineering Certificate
Learner completed your lesson
4.1.0 of MoT Software Quality Engineering Certificate
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Credited with an item for the MoT Observatory
Why Quality Engineers Matter in the AI Era
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Recommend an item for the MoT Observatory
Why Quality Engineers Matter in the AI Era
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Software Quality Engineering Certificate - Check!
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From knowing manual testing to learning automation, what have you learned that can be sone to bridge the gap between manual testing and automated testing being separate jobs done by separate people? ...
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Added to a Moment, expanded the MoTaverse
From knowing manual testing to learning automation, what have you learned that can be sone to bridge the gap between manual testing and automated testing being separate jobs done by separate people? ...
Thanks for your contribution
What are your do's and don'ts to producing a quality podcast?
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I am a good tester but a bad developer
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Celebrating 313 community stars!
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STEC and SQEC certified baby!!!! woooooow
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My biggest issue is, unfortunately, time. Do you have any advice on finding the time to learn when all the work still needs doing and there isn't really room in your working day to focus on automation?
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It's official, I'm competent!
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Finding joy in your role
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From manual to automated: a tester’s journey into AI
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System design interview for test engineers
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Watched a talk
System design interview for test engineers
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Small group, big ideas: MoT Berlin April 2026
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This Week in Quality
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The demise of software engineering jobs has been greatly exaggerated
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Autocomplete is enough of a miracle
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Insights from the MoT London Chapter: Advancing quality engineering
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Human skills matter more in the age of AI noise
Learner watched your talk
99 Second Talks – Day 1 – TestBash Brighton / MoTaCon 2025
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From The Royal Air Force to Leading Quality with Stephen Platten
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Two ways to use the “5 whys” method: Root cause of bugs and identifying continuous improvements
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Visited an Observatory link
The Sisyphean Tragedy of Planning
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Absolutely Fit to Lead
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Stories that sound true, but (probably) aren't.
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Visited an Observatory link
JUnit Tutorial: Setting Up, Writing, and Running Java Unit Tests
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Bug Hunter Game - Testing Titbits
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The true impact
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When you receive glowing feedback for glue work
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When you know how to cheat at browser game
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The book that doesn't overwhelm nor bore me
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