How do you engage stakeholders, such as devs & product, with the findings from your exploratory testing session?

20 Mar 2026

In this moment: Richard Adams
Richard Adams asks:

How do you engage stakeholders, such as devs & product, with the findings from your exploratory testing session?

Things that I've found helpful:
  • Establishing an agreement that after every exploratory testing session, a formal debrief will happen. Sometimes group a few sessions and then debrief the group of sessions. Use a call/in person chat to share discoveries. Sometimes this would also be done asynchronously with summarised and detailed testing notes. Or via a recorded video update.
  • During the debrief pitch what I think the recipient/s might be interested in first. While we might have this super bug that we must tell them about pick an interesting observation first to break the debrief ice.
  • Ask what your recipients would like to hear about first. I'd say, "I've categorised my findings as Problems, Questions, Ideas and Praise. Which would you like to hear first?"
  • Keeping sessions short e.g. 30 minutes and max of 90 mins, can still lead to a lot of discoveries. It's hard yet important to not overwhelm devs and product people with so much information. They've already got a lot on their plate! I'd use a value - risks - questions approach to link my exploration back to risks and the value we're trying to deliver with the thing we're building. The aim is to speak in a language of risks.
  • Find allies who welcome your approach. I once had a program manager fascinated by my notes. They couldn't believe what I did as I'd attached them to the relevant JIRA. A developer once told me they appreciated seeing all the smiley faces on my testing notes, those that I'd labelled as "praise".
  • Keep trying if debriefs don't land. Folks might not initially be ready for them and it's easy to feel disheartened. Just keep going for it.

Thanks for your question, Richard. I hope it helps!

FootMoTes
Simon Tomes
Community Lead at MoTaverse
he/him

Hello, I'm Simon. Since 2003 I've had various roles in testing, tech leadership and coaching. I believe in the power of collaboration, creativity and community. 🎓 MoT-STEC qualified.

MoTaverse Team
Chapter Lead
Richard Adams
Thanks Simon! Some great ideas to help me with debriefs. I've liked PQIP and is something that I shared with dev teams on exploratory testing.

Simon Tomes
Nice one, Richard. Thanks for reading. Glad to hear it was helpful. If it sparks anything else let me know. Feel free to create a new Moment with reflections or more tips and advice.

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