Testers, QEs, QAs, SDETs, Automation Engineers have an incredible variety of areas they can explore for growth. Here is a mind map I put together a few years back that I have found helpful throughout career growth discussions as a way to give possibilities to the curious tester brain.
Some day this will be a conference talk all by itself.
mind map of tester skills
There is a sizable difference between feeling productive and feeling accomplished. When I started writing this post, I made notes, lots of notes only to watch the words sit in an open browser tab for longer than I care to admit. The truth was, while I was productive in prepping I hadn’t actually actually started writing and doing THE THING. This was productivity measured in busyness versus actually making progress toward a goal. Prepping for too long makes the joy of doing the actual thing disintegrate. At some point you need to move instead of planning the details of the move.
Productive - “i did a thing”Accomplished - “ i did a thing and it made me feel _________”I tried many organizational and productivity tools and processes. They would very much work and make me feel like I was doing something for a while. Overtime, eventually I would spend so much time optimizing, creating every backlog item possible (just to get it out of my brain) that it would become overwhelming. During all of this, I was still getting things done, but I was constantly forcing something to work whether it be a tool or an app. It was similar to moving uphill or walking in mud while telling myself that working hard and output quantity SHOULD make me feel good. Hell, it should make me feel SOMETHING.
But it just made me tired and feeling like I wasn’t focused on anything other than what was in front of me right now.
I started asking myself:
What did I actually want to work on?
What was preventing me from doing those things?
Why was I feeling so hollow when I clearly had done so much?
For me, I enjoyed work that was impactful. Specifically work that: had made something better, helped solve a problem, where I learned something and made some kind of connection(s). When I examined how I spent my time by reviewing my daily list of actions, it was very heavily in prepping (busyness) and less so on execution (accomplishing). This was still really valuable (and needed) but in order to move into something that was professionally and personally satisfying I wanted to do things that felt important to me (in my life, in my role, as a human).
The next list I made was reasons for being focused on these other things. I had been in so many reactive jobs (like as a System Administrator) my brain had wired success criteria to be about super reactive problem solving. This seemed to limit my ability to work in increments towards different (non-reactive goals). Additionally my anxiety was incredibly gifted at making lists. The constant collecting data and list making became a security blanket suffocating my ability to bravely work towards my own vision and goals.
Introspection is more valuable than tools and processes to determine what makes you feel accomplished. The actual feeling of accomplishment might be different for you, (mine is joy) but if you are feeling stuck in the “productive yet unfulfilled” swamp, figuring out how you got there is your key to getting out.
To get some perspective, I created the four rectangles in the image below. Each is labeled “Valuable”, “Accomplished”, “Busy” or “Burned out”. You could also do more conventional quadrants if that suits you better.
I then wrote in activities that made me feel that way. This is my first draft:
Examples include feeling “burned out” when I have too many meetings that do not have enough value to me. Note that many of these things are not work related. I realized I also felt accomplished when I lifted weights or went for a run.
I didn’t quit making lists all together. I now have a list of 1-3 things on a post-it note that I want and/or need to get accomplished every day. Just a few things instead of the huge unrealistic list for my day. One of those things should be something that I am legitimately excited about and is pushing something important forward. I can be mindful, driven and not just busy. Turns out, the list is shorter but I do actually have more output now.
I have to say that this analysis has radically changed how I approach my work, my level of pride and multiplied the impact I have been able to have. I have become more optimistic because I feel like I am working on things that are meaningful to me professionally and personally. Work and personal projects feel more authentic when they align with what drives an individual and what they value.
As a side effect, I am much more eager to move forward with something rather than putting all my energy into creating the mythical “perfect plan”. A leap of faith to start something incredible is easier when you are able to take smaller steps incrementally. In that case, you can learn instead of the busyness holding you back.
During a conversation recently, I found myself trying to explain this concept I commonly refer to as “Alpha Tester” and he mentioned that it might make a good blog post… so here I am.
The term alpha can mean so many things especially within the realm of software. I am using alpha to mean: “socially dominant especially in a group of animals” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alpha ).
In my experience as a software tester, I was frequently on a cross functional project team where I was the only tester. I had input from other testers, but I decided what to do with that information. I could decide to update MY test plan based on feedback or I could decide to list something as out of scope, etc. This all worked quite well and I applauded myself for being so open to feedback. How great, right?
Then came the times when another tester was added to help or another tester’s team overlapped with something I owned. I became defensive, easy to anger and my general attitude changed until the project was complete… then back to my way.
It took me much of my career to really see this behavior and understand what was being triggered and why. Here is what I learned as I look back at this:
Sharing workload, responsibilities, ideas is not a sign of your own weakness or inadequacy… quite the opposite. Actually listening to other people’s ideas can have amazing results.
If you approach someone’s ideas defensively, you won’t learn.
If you are too aggressive in order to shut out great ideas, you won’t learn.
Take a minute and try to determine what is it about this new dynamic that makes you uncomfortable, defensive, angry?Is it the person, situation or something else entirely?
Communicate your needs and expectations on the project up front. Make sure you identify and communicate what is important to YOU. What do you feel comfortable dividing up? Will one person be point? Will everything be shared? How will status be communicated?
You don’t need to know everything and pretending that you do know all the things makes you lose the opportunity to learn some really cool new things.
Be kind to yourself.
Be kind to the people trying to help you. They might not want to be sharing either :-)
This is a simplistic view, because humans and situations are complicated but it’s a place to start.