November 2020 Updates

November 2020 Updates

Somehow Thanksgiving is over but I’ve been buying Christmas presents for weeks. It’s amazing how quickly (but not quietly) 2020 is flying by now that it is nearly December. As with most of my updates, these are mostly for my own clarity on what has transpired but I hope they are of interest to bystanders and friends too.

About two months ago my company BloomNation announced it was rebranding itself to Promenade Group to better reflect how our business was now positioned to help 3 different verticals gain traction online: flower shops (BloomNation), liquor and wine stores (Swigg) and restaurants (Dig In). The company is growing rapidly and is in a strong position during Pandemic (thankfully). Most companies I’ve joined have been duds so working for a startup that is succeeding is a nice change of pace.

A few months prior to this, I hired my first direct report. I spent at least a full month recruiting and interviewing people for a mid-level Software Test Engineer. I’ll have more to say in the near future but suffice it to say over 100 people applied and only 1 got the job.

So many other things come to mind:

  • A little over 2 weeks ago was my first AST Board Meeting as President. I spent the past two years as Treasurer, et al. Not much has changed, but then again so much has.
  • There’s lots of cool stuff happening within the AST that I hope to be able to share in the next few months! So much good stuff. In the meantime I’ve got to bite my tongue.
  • I’m currently teaching the final AST-BBST course of the year, Test Design. One of the most under-rated courses we have. Lots to look forward to in 2021 with regard to courses!

While I’m not speaking at it, the original online testing conference (the aptly named) OnlineTestConf is coming in December is always worth checking out. The 2020 conference calendar isn’t over but has been filled with online conferences. If this is the way of the future, we’ll definitely need better ways to comb through the programs to find the specific things we want to learn. Information overload is real.

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Jamie Larson
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