Honoring #IconsOfQuality: Aaron Evans, One Shore

To celebrate the relentless passion of testers, BrowserStack is honoring some of the icons in the testing space—those who push the industry forward by sharing their knowledge with the community at large through their thought leadership.

Not everyone starts their career with a clear path, and for some of the most influential voices in testing, the journey is one of discovery. For Aaron Evans, a Test Automation Strategist with over two decades of experience, it took a moment of clarity off the coast of Fiji to fully embrace his calling. From his yurt in Montana, he now helps companies build better software faster through his consulting firm, OneShore. Aaron's approach is defined by a love for open-source tools and agile development processes. He is a champion for learning by doing, making mistakes, and finding wisdom in simplicity, making him a truly authentic Icon of Quality.

We spoke with Aaron to get his unfiltered perspective on AI, his advice for new testers, and how he’s always interested in learning new things within the domain, or beyond.

What are the most exciting aspects of your role as a Test Automation Strategist at OneShore?

I'd say the most exciting aspect is the opportunity to work on many different projects with different technologies. I love to learn. And meeting lots of new people and seeing their different perspectives on (among other things) testing.

What’s a testing trend/innovation that’s got you excited these days?

I think the ability of LLMs—as a better search engine with working code examples—is really cool. Again, I love learning, and the ability to be more confident delving into a new codebase and exploring things outside of my domain expertise is fun. Also, seeing how other testers are leveraging LLMs to improve their skills, level up with better coding patterns, and tackle things that only senior engineers could do in the past is great.

When I see someone write better API tests or build continuous delivery workflows for test automation, who might have been intimidated by such tasks a couple of years ago, it makes me excited.

What's your hot take on AI in testing?

I used to be pretty skeptical of AI, and I still think there’s way too much hype. Personally, I don’t love coding with agents like Cursor, Copilot, or Claude—I prefer to stay hands-on. But part of that is simply the result of experience—and forming certain preferences and perspectives over the years. I might not remember a function name or argument order, so an autocomplete/ intellisense/ LSP is handy, and all I need most of the time. But when you can’t directly see or edit the code yourself, it feels very limiting. The challenge is that you can’t really go halfway—either accept everything as is, or nothing.

But I totally understand why others enjoy the vibe code (hands-off) approach with LLMs. Maybe there's a future where you turn on the LLM to churn out boilerplate and then turn it off to get real work done.

For me, currently the value is really in the power of searching with context and restructuring.  At least half of that might be just because advertising-driven SEO has cluttered the normal search vector. I remember being amazed by Google and then Stack Overflow in the past too.

But the real hot take now is that I don't think AI will damage junior coders. I think it's a huge multiplier for anyone worth their salt—that is, people who are able to research and think for themselves.  It’s not about replacing thoughtful work—it’s about amplifying it. The ones who thrive will be only those who can use it to accelerate their learning (and not who behave like energy-efficient, slower LLMs) That’s where the real potential lies.

What's one piece of advice you’d give to someone just starting their career in testing?

Find a mentor, but don't be a blind follower. Explore new ideas on your own. Make mistakes, create ugly code, and develop bad patterns. Refactor, iterate, and learn from that.

One major challenge in technology today is that there are so many established frameworks and processes, and not all of them are as effective as they could be. It can be hard to see the good intentions behind them or separate the real value from the excess.

When you come up with an idea on your own, and realize there’s a better way (maybe by seeing a better version), it's a golden opportunity to learn and course correct—with wisdom instead of blind obedience. And when you see your unique idea validated, confirmed, or reinvented (before or after you) it's golden. It gives you the confidence to not just hope for something better, but see the potential of being able to make the improvement.

The best thing you can do nowadays is try to understand the intent behind any broken or complex process or framework, then find ways to simplify and make it better. Even if your suggestions don’t get noticed right away, persistence pays off.

How do you keep up with all the new trends and tools in software testing?

I like to joke that I just sit back on my porch and yell at all the kids to get off my lawn.  And shake my stick at everyone and talk about how hard we had it back in my day, uphill both ways.

The truth is, I investigate trends and tools that interest me, and don't worry about the rest. With experience comes understanding that you don't have to be expert in everything, and trying to be can stretch you too thin or wear you out. Be exceptional at one thing or pretty good at two or three things and be willing to adapt when required. But you need not always have to bend to the latest fashion. 

For example, if you know Selenium well, you don't have to learn Playwright, or Cypress, or whatever comes next. Selenium is still widely used, and those skills remain valuable. If you're passionate about a new tool or trend, go ahead and jump in. That way you know two tools, and your perspective is enhanced by knowing the differences and similarities between the old and the new.

Learning about what's outside of testing is also exciting these days. I’ve had the chance to work with many different languages, platforms, tools, and frameworks, so picking up something new feels like a natural extension of that journey. But getting better at DevOps or platform engineering, exploring what drives sales teams, or how scrum masters sleep at night without nightmares of Jira, or even experiencing what it's like to twist your mind in a knot developing a React app, if nothing else, it gives you empathy for people who have different problems in life.

What are the things you wish you knew about testing when you started your career?

I wish I had understood earlier how defining a career in testing could be. When I started, hardly anyone had heard of software testing as a profession. Sometimes I feel like Mark Hamill—forever typecast as Luke Skywalker.

Over the years, though, I have been lucky and have embraced that identity. Testing took me on an unexpected journey—even leading me to step away for a while. But today, I get to share my experiences at testing conferences—and also have the chance to share my perspectives here. 

Outside of the tech world, what's a hobby or activity you're really passionate about?

I used to have big hobbies and passions—I wanted to be a rockstar, an author, or a painter. Later, I dreamed of building a big, successful company. These days, I find joy in simpler things: watering my garden, walking in the woods, and watching my kids grow up as they take their shot at the big dreams, too. Here’s hoping you find contentment in the small things in life, too.

(Responses may have been edited for clarity.)