The Most “Valuable” Talk Ever? - David Williams

26th May 2022
  • Locked
David Williams's profile
David Williams

Quality Engineering Architect

The Most “Valuable” Talk Ever? - David Williams image
Talk Description
KPI's/OKR's, Speed, Quality, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Communication - the buzzword list goes on, but is there actually any point in many of these buzzwords? And what “buzzword” do I feel is the most important?

 VALUE!

 How often do you look at the "Value" of your work? Do you evaluate the Value of what you are doing, before, during, and (importantly!) after you do it? Do you understand your Value to your business, your department, your team, your career and even to your daily life?

 This talk will teach you about "Value", from my perspective as a hiring manager and an engineering professional.

 What do I look for in the candidates I interview, and how can you "sell" your Value to a potential employer to show what you bring to a business?

 You can start right now to track the Value you generate each day, building-up a wealth of real-world examples that you can use to talk confidently in your career growth conversations, in interview settings, and even at conferences with peers.

 By sharing my own experiences and anecdotes from a 19 year career in engineering, testing, quality and leadership, I will paint high-level pictures of some of the responsibilities I had, for you to map to your own experiences and spot the (often hidden!) opportunities to generate Value.

 Come and listen to the strategies that I have used as an employee that helped me understand the context and scope of my work and team, which then helped me to start understanding how I could generate Value in that role, and how I used that to drive my career growth?

 Stories like:
  • How thinking about Value helped me get promoted to a "team trainer" a year into my career.
  • How using Value helped me to move from a product team I didn't want to be on, to one that I did!
  • How I used Value to persuade my employer to fund a 4 day training course to further my career.
  • And many more similar Valuable (hah!) stories for you to think about how you too can tap into Value

By the end of this session, you'll be able to:

  • Understand different roles and responsibilities, and have ideas on generating Value in them
  • Use the concept of Value to better structure your role and responsibilities on the impact you can make
  • Track the Value of your daily work (I've helped 3 people to get promoted using these ideas)
  • Talk confidently about Value and impact using your own examples to absolutely catapult your career
Quality Engineering Architect
Award-Winning International Conference Speaker | Software Testing Veteran | Father | Mental Health First Aider | Humanist
Suggested Content
Engineer Your System - Hands-On Virtual Workshop with Elisabeth Hendrickson image
Get 20% off with code MOTAVERSE! Happening on the 13th of March, from 9AM to 1PM PDT. A 4-hour online live deep dive into three core systems thinking tools for software development process improvement.
Explore MoT
TestBash Brighton 2025 image
Wed, 1 Oct
On the 1st & 2nd of October, 2025 we'll be back to Brighton for another TestBash: the largest software testing conference in the UK
MoT Intermediate Certificate in Test Automation
Elevate to senior test automation roles with mastery in automated checks, insightful reporting, and framework maintenance
This Week in Testing
Debrief the week in Testing via a community radio show hosted by Simon Tomes and members of the community
Subscribe to our newsletter
We'll keep you up to date on all the testing trends.