Ready, Test, Go. brought to you by Applause is the award-winning podcast for engineering, QA, product and AI leaders who want to build trustworthy digital experiences. Host David Carty interviews thought leaders across software testing, AI adoption, UX/CX and product delivery to uncover the ideas and practices shaping modern digital quality. Each episode blends practical insights and big-picture thinking on topics like AI validation, data quality, effective testing, inclusive design, accessibility and frictionless customer journeys. With past guests including Gene Kim, Michael Bolton and Sandy Pentland, the show provides insights that help teams deliver more reliable, user-centered technology.
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What is Ready, Test, Go. — The Podcast on Software Quality and Digital Experiences?
Ready, Test, Go. — The Podcast on Software Quality and Digital Experiences is a technology podcast hosted by Applause, with 45 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.
About the host
Applause hosts Ready, Test, Go. — The Podcast on Software Quality and Digital Experiences, a technology show with 45 episodes published.
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Episode #43
Designing for Human Values (Batya Friedman & David Hendry)
Jul 30, 202650 min
Technology teams are often measured by what they can ship: performance, reliability, efficiency, adoption and scale. But the systems they build also shape privacy, dignity, access, autonomy, care and trust, among other important values. Their work asks a pair of deceptively simple questions: Who is affected by a technology? And what values are implicated by the choices teams make? Value sensitive design pioneers Batya Friedman and David Hendry join the podcast to discuss their framework for integrating these human values into products. Leaning on a few examples and even a demonstration, Friedman and Hendry explain why it's important to go beyond simple performance metrics and broadly support human flourishing in product design. About the guests : Batya Friedman and David G. Hendry are leading researchers in value sensitive design. Their work brings together theory, method and practice to help designers, engineers, researchers, policy makers and technology leaders account for human values throughout the design process. Through concepts such as stakeholder analysis, value scenarios, envisioning cards and multi-lifespan thinking, they have helped establish a practical framework for designing technologies that account for dignity, privacy, care, justice, access and other important human values. They are coauthors of Value Sensitive Design: Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination, which just released its second edition. You can find it here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/798075/value-sensitive-design-second-edition-by-batya-friedman-and-david-g-hendry/ You can also find their envisioning cards here: https://vsdesign.org/toolkits/envisioningcards/ Hosted by David Carty Produced by David Carty, Samsu Sallah and Joe Stella Graphic design by Karley Searles To contact the producers, please email us at podcasts@applause.com.
What Healthcare Teaches Us About Trustworthy AI (Nasim Afsar)
Jul 15, 202646 min
Many organizations make a critical mistake: they layer new AI tools on top of broken, legacy workflows. This creates inefficiencies at best — the opposite of what AI aims to solve — and "digitized chaos" at worst. This is uniquely true in digital healthcare. The challenge isn't so much the technology itself, but the lack of organizational alignment coupled with a failure to design systems around the human beings they are intended to serve. In this episode, Dr. Nasim Afsar, healthcare executive, physician leader and author of Intelligent Health, joins us to reframe the conversation. Drawing on her experience at Oracle and UCLA Health among others, Nasim explains why successful AI adoption requires us to stop building for the silo and start building for the individual. She discusses the vital role of trust in algorithms, the dangers of echo chambers in design and how leaders can finally move beyond point solutions toward genuine, humane digital transformation. About the guest: Dr. Nasim Afsar, MD, MBA, is a healthcare executive and physician leader. She is a leading voice in digital health strategy. Previously serving as Chief Health Officer at Oracle and in executive leadership at UCLA Health and UCI Health, she specializes in operations, quality and digital transformation. She is a dedicated physician-leader committed to improving the care delivery experience. You can find Nasim’s latest book, Intelligent Health: The Movement to Unify Data, Harness AI, and Empower People to Thrive, here: https://www.wiley.com/en-hk/shop/general-introductory-biomedical-engineering/intelligent-health-the-movement-to-unify-data-harness-ai-and-empower-people-to-thrive-p-9781394408276 Hosted by David Carty Produced by David Carty, Samsu Sallah and Joe Stella Graphic design by Karley Searles To contact the producers, please email us at podcasts@applause.com.
Why Data Excellence Is a Team Sport (Roberto Maranca)
Jun 30, 202647 min
Many technology leaders view data quality as purely an IT issue, which leads to fragmentation and siloed efforts. The challenge lies the lack of organizational alignment and clear, human-centric data intelligence. In this episode, Roberto Maranca, data excellence practitioner and author of Data Excellence: How Data Leadership Can Drive Stronger Organizational Performance joins us to reframe data governance as a team sport. Roberto explains why successful AI adoption requires "data athletes" and "data personal trainers" to work in concert. He discusses the importance of data consumer stories, the necessity of human judgment in AI and how leaders can rebuild trust by prioritizing clear data context. About the guest : Roberto Maranca is an enterprise data leader and author. He has held senior and executive data leadership roles at organizations including Schneider Electric, Lloyds Banking Group and GE, with work spanning data governance, data quality, data risk, AI readiness and business transformation. Recognized multiple times as one of DataIQ’s Top 100 Data Leaders, Roberto frames data leadership as a performance discipline, which helps organizations build trust, accountability and value. Hosted by David Carty Produced by David Carty, Samsu Sallah and Joe Stella Graphic design by Karley Searles To contact the producers, please email us at podcasts@applause.com.
Learning from Defects in Software and Life (Alison McGuigan)
Apr 22, 202635 min
Testing teaches us to look for hidden assumptions and treat failure as valuable information. But when the standard for professional quality is high, the friction of everyday life can feel like a series of critical defects. Without the right framework, these "bugs" lead to emotional burnout and strained relationships rather than insight. In this episode, Alison McGuigan, Director of Enterprise Quality Assurance, discusses how the testing mindset fundamentally changes how we approach complexity. From boundary testing personal relationships to refactoring daily habits and dead code, Alison explores how to apply technical rigor to personal growth — and vice versa. Learn why treating every defect as a source of insight can improve resilience and navigate the most complex human systems. About the guest : Alison McGuigan is a Director of Enterprise Quality Assurance and author of the blog Testing in Production. She has over a decade of experience driving test optimization and automation strategy. You can find Alison’s blog here: https://testinginprod.substack.com/ Hosted by David Carty Produced by David Carty, Samsu Sallah and Joe Stella Graphic design by Karley Searles To contact the producers, please email us at podcasts@applause.com.
Automation is at the core of modern software delivery, enabling enterprises to surface risk earlier and operate with greater speed. That means everything from developer-native security to AI-assisted code generation. However, increased activity and scale do not guarantee quality or confidence. As AI accelerates code production, the risk landscape expands, raising questions about accountability and assurance. In this episode, Nir Valtman, CEO and co-founder of Arnica, joins us to discuss how organizations can design an operating model where automation enhances speed and consistency — all while human judgment, cultural discipline and contextual validation remain central to establishing trust. About the guest : Nir Valtman is the CEO and co-founder of Arnica, where he focuses on advancing developer-first security practices that surface risk earlier in the software development lifecycle. With a strong background in engineering leadership and application security, Nir has worked at the intersection of DevOps, secure SDLC transformation, and automation at scale. His perspective centers on reducing friction for developers while strengthening code-level assurance through AI-assisted remediation and workflow-native security practices. He is a frequent voice in conversations about modern AppSec, AI-driven development, and the evolving relationship between automation and engineering accountability. Hosted by David Carty Produced by David Carty, Samsu Sallah and Joe Stella Graphic design by Karley Searles To contact the producers, please email us at podcasts@applause.com
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