Tech Effect

Hosted by TestDevLab

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Aug 2026

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About the show

TestDevLab's Tech Effect is a podcast where host Josh explores software engineering and tech innovation through conversations with diverse industry professionals. Covering testing, development, and emerging trends, each episode delivers insights valuable for both technical and business roles—ideal for anyone interested in technology's impact across industries

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41 recent

August 24, 202652 min

#40 Ergo Esken (Microsoft): The Hardware and Science Behind Sounding Good on a Call

Season 2 Episode #21: What happens when a hi-fi hobbyist who was manufacturing driver's licenses gets a tip from his brother about a new audio lab being built at Skype? Ergo Esken, Principal Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft, shares how that moment launched nearly two decades of ensuring the call quality millions of people take for granted every day.We explore why getting hardware right still matters more than most people realise, how design teams wanting thinner devices force engineers into impossible tradeoffs, and what it actually looks like to test a call using head and torso simulators in anechoic chambers. We also dig into why users blame the platform, not the device, how you write test specs for ML features that behave differently every time, and why algorithms will happily calculate numbers from completely scrambled audio that only a human can catch. 👉 Hit "Follow" on our podcast page to receive updates on future episodes of "Tech Effect," where we bring you the latest news, trends, and expert insights from the world of technology. Together, let's unlock the potential of software solutions and embrace the future of innovation. 🔔 Follow TestDevLab for more technology & software related content: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdevlab/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TestDevLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testdevlablv/#TechEffect

August 12, 202654 min

#39 Dennis Thisner (Rebtel): Code First, AI Second - Why Knowing the Basics Matters More Than Ever

Season 2 Episode #20: Dennis Thisner quit his first job out of pride, called his mom to brag, and realized he had no plan. A friend's tip and some truly terrible bug reports later, he was a QA engineer. Ten years on, he's built quality processes from the ground up across gaming, enterprise SaaS, agency work, and now telecom at Rebtel.We explore what it takes to build QA where none exists, why developer buy-in is the hardest first step, and why he tells his team to code first and use AI second. Dennis also shares where test automation is heading when you can just hand AI your test cases, and why quality has less to do with attention to detail and more to do with the atmosphere around your team.You can check out Dennis's work on his GitHub: https://github.com/dthisner 👉 Hit "Follow" on our podcast page to receive updates on future episodes of "Tech Effect," where we bring you the latest news, trends, and expert insights from the world of technology. Together, let's unlock the potential of software solutions and embrace the future of innovation. 🔔 Follow TestDevLab for more technology & software related content: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdevlab/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TestDevLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testdevlablv/#TechEffect

August 10, 20261 hr 11 min

#38 Fawzi Mesmar: A Burger King Booth to Award-Winning AAAs— 20+ Years in Game Design

Season 2 Episode #19: Fawzi Mesmar wrote "I want to make games in Japan" in kindergarten. That compass took him across five countries and studios like King, DICE, and EA.We explore why leadership is servitude, why defining the problem matters more than judging the idea, and Creative Sobriety, his framework for understanding why thousands of people keep having the same ideas. Fawzi also shares how he fit an orchestral soundtrack into 500 kilobytes, why constraints breed the best solutions, and why AI will own the inevitable ideas but can never replicate a lived human experience.Check out Fawzi's blog here: https://fawzi.zone/awards/ 👉 Hit "Follow" on our podcast page to receive updates on future episodes of "Tech Effect," where we bring you the latest news, trends, and expert insights from the world of technology. Together, let's unlock the potential of software solutions and embrace the future of innovation. 🔔 Follow TestDevLab for more technology & software related content: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdevlab/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TestDevLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testdevlablv/#TechEffect

July 28, 202639 min

#37 Vaidas Kavaliunas (CUJO AI): Test Inflation, Flaky Tests & How AI Won't Save Test Automation

Season 2 Episode #18: The 2008 financial crisis forced Vaidas Kavaliunas to choose between switching to QA or losing his job. That decision launched a 17-year journey across fintech, insurance, gaming, and cybersecurity, each teaching him something different about quality. We explore what stays the same when you test across radically different domains, what makes a test automation framework succeed or fail, and why AI is like a drunken genius in your passenger seat. Vaidas also shares the real risk of test inflation in CI/CD pipelines and why quality engineers will be in higher demand than ever. 👉 Hit "Follow" on our podcast page to receive updates on future episodes of "Tech Effect," where we bring you the latest news, trends, and expert insights from the world of technology. Together, let's unlock the potential of software solutions and embrace the future of innovation. 🔔 Follow TestDevLab for more technology & software related content: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdevlab/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TestDevLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testdevlablv/#TechEffect

July 24, 20261 hr 5 min

#36 Aleodor Tabarcea (Stripe): AI, Burnout, & Why Great Work Doesn't Speak for Itself

Season 2 Episode #17: What happens when a kid whose family wanted him to become a priest falls in love with code and ends up managing engineering teams at one of the world's most respected fintech companies? Aleodor Tabarcea, Engineering Manager at Stripe, shares how curiosity, resilience through 23 failed interviews, and a willingness to burn out and learn from it shaped his approach to leadership.We explore what it really takes to go from developer to leader, how Stripe's Bucharest office grew from 26 people copying US culture to 120 building their own identity, and why the DISC personality framework matters when assembling high-performing teams. We also dig into why AI is commoditizing execution and what that means for engineers, how Aleodor evaluates whether AI tools are genuinely helping his team or just adding noise, and why he believes humanity is facing a choice between a creative renaissance and a million more notifications on our phones.Follow Aleodor:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleodor-tabarceaWebsite and Sunday Field Notes: https://aleodor.com/ 👉 Hit "Follow" on our podcast page to receive updates on future episodes of "Tech Effect," where we bring you the latest news, trends, and expert insights from the world of technology. Together, let's unlock the potential of software solutions and embrace the future of innovation. 🔔 Follow TestDevLab for more technology & software related content: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdevlab/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TestDevLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testdevlablv/#TechEffect

July 17, 202644 min

#35 Luke Gill (Zego): The Hidden Complexity of Insurance Tech and What AI Makes Possible

Season 2 Episode #16: What happens when a Flash developer with a passion for problem-solving ends up reshaping how an entire insurance company thinks about technology? Luke Gill, Head of Product and Technology at Zego, shares how curiosity, creativity, and a love for talking to customers led him to one of the most data-rich industries in tech.We explore why motor insurance demands a different standard of product quality, how Zego is using telematics and driver behavior data to price risk more fairly, and why Luke believes building great teams always starts with people, never tooling. We also dig into the real challenges of deploying AI responsibly in a regulated industry, and what it actually takes to measure whether it's working. 👉 Hit "Follow" on our podcast page to receive updates on future episodes of "Tech Effect," where we bring you the latest news, trends, and expert insights from the world of technology. Together, let's unlock the potential of software solutions and embrace the future of innovation. 🔔 Follow TestDevLab for more technology & software related content: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdevlab/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TestDevLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testdevlablv/#TechEffect

June 3, 202654 min

#34 Tsahi Levent-Levi (BlogGeek.me): The Hidden Infrastructure Behind Every Video Call You've Made

Season 2 Episode #15: Most of us use Zoom, Google Meet, or similar tools every day without thinking about what is actually happening under the hood. Tsahi Levent-Levi, independent consultant and founder of BlogGeek.me, has spent 25 years working on exactly that - the technology that makes real-time communication work.We get into what WebRTC actually is, why building with it is harder than it looks, and what most companies get wrong when they try. We also talk about how AI is changing real-time communication, why latency is back as the central problem to solve, and what it takes to test and monitor communication products properly.Follow Tsahi:Main website and articles: https://bloggeek.me/Courses on WebRTC: https://webrtccourse.com/Tools for debugging WebRTC applications: https://www.rtcstats.com/ 👉 Hit "Follow" on our podcast page to receive updates on future episodes of "Tech Effect," where we bring you the latest news, trends, and expert insights from the world of technology. Together, let's unlock the potential of software solutions and embrace the future of innovation. 🔔 Follow TestDevLab for more technology & software related content: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdevlab/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TestDevLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testdevlablv/#TechEffect

April 21, 202645 min

#33 Kinga Asbóth (YouTube): What Users Say vs What They Do - A Psychologist PM's Perspective

Season 2 Episode #14: What happens when a trained psychologist takes on the fast-paced Tech Industry? Kinga, Product Manager at YouTube, shares how studying human behaviour shaped her approach to building products at global companies like Spotify and YouTube.Kinga also explains how her psychology background helps give her a deeper understanding of what users actually need versus what they say. How AI and vibe coding are reshaping how PM leads development, and why taste and quality are the most underrated skills a product manager can develop. 👉 Hit "Follow" on our podcast page to receive updates on future episodes of "Tech Effect," where we bring you the latest news, trends, and expert insights from the world of technology. Together, let's unlock the potential of software solutions and embrace the future of innovation. 🔔 Follow TestDevLab for more technology & software related content: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdevlab/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TestDevLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testdevlablv/#TechEffect

March 30, 202642 min

#32 Boban Ljubinoski (Klarna): The "Vibe-Coding" Revolution & The New Technical Skills for PMs

Season 2 Episode #13: What happens when your mother’s career advice, “Have you tried computers?”, leads to a decade-long journey through foodtech and fintech? Boban Ljubinoski, Senior Product Manager at Klarna, shares how he accidentally fell into tech and what he's learned navigating one of the most rapidly changing roles in the industry.We explore what the post-COVID AI boom did to team structures, why most companies get AI strategy completely wrong, and where shopping is headed with agentic commerce. Boban also gets into the tough calls between shipping fast and shipping right, and why the answer almost always starts with fixing what's already broken. 👉 Hit "Follow" on our podcast page to receive updates on future episodes of "Tech Effect," where we bring you the latest news, trends, and expert insights from the world of technology. Together, let's unlock the potential of software solutions and embrace the future of innovation. 🔔 Follow TestDevLab for more technology & software related content: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdevlab/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TestDevLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testdevlablv/#TechEffect

March 9, 202643 min

#31 Fiona Ryder (Bonza Music): From Film School to Music Tech - Building for Creativity in the Age of AI

Season 2 Episode #12: What happens when an entrepreneur with roots in film, music, and physics sets out to solve one of music tech's hardest problems? Fiona Ryder, Co-Founder and COO of Bonza Music, shares how decades of building companies across music, media, and broadcasting shaped her approach to creative collaboration. We explore why existing tools fail creative professionals, how spatial audio and digital twin acoustics bring back the "feel" that musicians depend on, what role AI should and shouldn't play in the creative process, and why the best technology should be invisible. 👉 Hit "Follow" on our podcast page to receive updates on future episodes of "Tech Effect," where we bring you the latest news, trends, and expert insights from the world of technology. Together, let's unlock the potential of software solutions and embrace the future of innovation. 🔔 Follow TestDevLab for more technology & software related content: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdevlab/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TestDevLab/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/testdevlablv/#TechEffect