October was a full month at NorthQA. We spent a day learning together, wrapped up a big batch of Watchtower updates, and closed the month in costume. Here are our October ganaps.
October 3 · NorthQA Headquarters
Upskilling: our AI Workshop
Working along through an example from a real web project.
We kicked off the month with a full-day AI workshop, the latest in our series of upskilling sessions. AI assistants are becoming part of how software gets built and tested, and we want everyone on the team to understand them properly: what they do well, where they fall short, and how to check their output with the same care we bring to every release we test.
Everyone brought their own laptop and worked along instead of just watching. We started with the fundamentals, then moved to an example from a real web project to see how an AI assistant fits into the QA work we do every day. Lunch and snacks were on us, and sharing a long table over lunch was one of the best parts of the day.
Lunch together during the workshop.
October 30 · Watchtower
A big batch of Watchtower updates
Our QA command center, Watchtower, got its largest set of changes yet: more than 70 improvements made since early October. The release is now in final testing before it reaches everyone. Some highlights:
- Manual QA in Test Center: manual test cases now live next to automated ones, with evidence, one-step bug filing, links to the specs that cover them, and a combined verdict in reports.
- Patrol in your CI: run your suite through Watchtower Beacon, watch it live in the console, and run several patrols at once.
- More places to connect: GitLab (including self-hosted), Bitbucket Cloud with Pipelines, and Slack release notifications.
- Shareable reports: send a run's report to people outside Watchtower with an expiring guest link and your workspace's branding.
- Test data per environment: keep test data for each environment and pass it to every run automatically.
- Help and onboarding: an in-app Help Center with search, and a new onboarding quiz that sets up your workspace.
October 30 · Online
Halloween Event 2026
The team in costume on the night.
We closed the month with our Halloween Event 2026, a spooky online celebration. Cameras were on, costumes were on, and the call quickly filled up with skull masks, witch hats, face paint, glowing eyes, and at least one costume made from a shipping label. The event doubled as our regular quarterly meeting, so we caught up on the quarter before the costumes took over.
The main event was the Halloween Attire Contest, and we also held Pahadlokay, a storytelling round where team members took turns sharing their scariest stories. The top three in each took home a small cash prize.
Pahadlokay: Share Your Scariest Story
- 1st: Jae
- 2nd: Neil
- 3rd: MJ
Halloween Attire Contest
- 1st: McCoy
- 2nd: Shirly
- 3rd: Neil & Luke
Congrats to all our winners, and thank you, team, for a spooktacular night!
That's a wrap on October. See you in November's ganaps!