What methods have you found helpful to ensure exploratory testing stays focused?

Great question from Megan Ozanne.

Setting a test exploration goal, or test charter, is super important. It's the overarching focus for an exploratory testing session.

I've also found the following to be super helpful.

Do Not Disturb/Focus mode
Ping, ping and ping again go our notifications. Slack, email, text, whatever. Any one of these is a distraction from focusing purely on the exploratory testing session in progress. 🫠 Switching on a Do Not Disturb/Focus mode can make all the difference.

Time-boxing a session
Nothing beats the power of time to give focus. I'm usually super strict on how long I'd spend exploring. It's fascinating how much you can cover and how many notes you can take in 30 minutes. 45 minutes or 60 minute timers work well too. And occasionally 90 minutes if there's real complexity to the session. However, any more and I find it hard to focus.

The cool thing about a timer is that the sooner you stop the clock the sooner you can tidy your exploration notes and start a debrief. And it's at the debrief where the good stuff happens, conversations are had and decisions are made. The timer creates focus and faster feedback loops. The outcome of using a timer is that it informs the next exploratory testing session sooner rather than later.

One challenge of using a timer is actually stopping when the timer beeps at you. It's a skill to do that as we're often tempted to do just one more thing, particularly if we're onto something. You can always go again so don't sweat it when that timer tells you to stop and regroup. 

Tagging items off-charter
We never quite know what we'll discover during an exploratory testing session, which is part of the appeal! So what happens when we spot something that's unrelated to the charter/test exploration goal? Make a note of it and tag it "Off-charter". Then move on and get back to the original goal of the session. Oof, that's tricky yet your future self will thank you for it. Once the session has stopped gather all items marked as "Off-charter" and see what you want to do with them. Perhaps some have revealed risks that were previously unknown and maybe some spark ideas for a future charter idea.

Praise sessions
These are pretty niche sessions yet sometimes I'll just put my head in a space that says, "I'm only gonna make a note of things I think are really good." And just do that, resisting the urge to ask questions, share ideas or note problems. So I guess a kind of exploratory tour session that's all about being upbeat. It's a surprising way to delight the colleagues you work with.

Focus/Defocus
Sometimes I'll just force myself to look away from my screen for 60 seconds, usually by turning around to the face the opposite direction of my screen/device. A quick defocus can shake your brain from being stuck and spark a test idea.

Personas
Cassandra H. Leung describes how personas are helpful: How do personas support quality beyond correctness?

Thanks again for your question, Megan. Hope it helps! Lemme know if you need me to elaborate on or clarify anything.

See more questions and answers in the AMA about Exploratory Testing collection.