A Day in the Life of a TestLion: Javier Mejia, Testing Delivery Manager

Carina Kärt Mattikas , Employer Brand Manager based in Tallinn, Estonia.

April 7th, 2022

A Day in the Life of a TestLion is a blog series where we ask TestLions from different teams and positions to give a walk-through of their usual day at work powering networked testing to enable human possibilities.

This time, our headliner is Javier, Testing Delivery Manager in Mexico.

Starting the day with a roar

I always try to start the day between 6.30 and 7 a.m. I leave the room as quietly as possible so that I don’t wake up my 11-month-old daughter or my wife.

I try to get my cycling done early to make time for breakfast while things are still quiet. After getting into my cycling clothes, I hop on my bike trainer to navigate one of the routes available on my cycling app, Zwift. The cycling route is at least 28-32km, after which I take a quick shower and have breakfast (with french pressed coffee), meditate for a time, and hop online at around 8 a.m.

Before looking too much into Slack or email, I open my task management app, plan my day, and prepare for what’s coming.

I also try to create some gaps in my calendar so that I can check on my family. I love having short breaks to play with my daughter. Work-wise, I tend to focus on creative work earlier in the day when I can concentrate more completely, and then move to admin work in the afternoon and evening.

Hunting down the challenges

As a Testing Delivery Manager, my main challenge has been to allocate the right testing manager and teams to the right account(s), making sure that the client’s product is relevant to them while also balancing the hours they dedicate to a specific account. I also learning new industries and skills. For example, lately I’ve been working to become more knowledgeable about cryptocurrencies and NFTs since we have several new and existing clients that want us to test these technologies (thanks Sales and Service teams — it’s a good problem to have!)

Over the past few months we’ve been able to establish a process to test payments using cryptocurrencies for buying NFTs, and helped a client to create a test plan to cover very detailed specifications for a medical app. It’s interesting work, very oriented toward problem-solving.

In addition to the new projects and focus areas, being able to help my team design the best test plans possible so that our testers are empowered and have the tools to find critical bugs for our clients gives my work a bigger sense of purpose. It is really satisfying when a client comes back to us saying that we saved them from releasing software with critical errors, or helped them reevaluate and improve their development cycle.

I also really take a lot of pride in coaching Test Leads as they work to become more skilled QA professionals. It makes me really happy to see them grow and challenge themselves.

Connecting with the Pride

I couldn’t be prouder to belong to the TestLion Pride. I think that every one of my peers is a superstar at what they do, and they inspire me every day to be the best QA professional I can possibly be. Our culture is built to celebrate success, and everyone is always willing to help you. It’s a great community of outstanding professionals that are constantly being challenged to be their best selves. 

I learn something new every day and I’m simply glad that this opportunity was given to me. I really appreciate the various ways we get to stay connected with each other at Testlio: Donut sessions, Testlio Connections, team lunches (hopefully face to face at some point in the future), and especially 1:1 sessions with my Testing Managers. Our calls always take longer than the scheduled time, because working remotely and having NEVER met each other in person is hard, so we try to keep the conversation going so that we can get to know each other a little bit more over time.

My favorite social activities at Testlio are probably Donut sessions where you get paired up with a random TestLion. This is perhaps even a more diverse experience than working in an office. You can meet with people you don’t work with every day, and you never know who you’ll be partnered with. Also, we did a virtual escape room activity a few months ago, that was very cool! And hard!

Winding down & finding balance

I try to leave admin tasks such as timesheets, simple emails, etc. for the evening. Before finishing, I also take a last look at my task management system and shift tasks to “Tomorrow” while making sure I didn’t leave anything urgent incomplete. Eventually, I close my laptop and get back to my family. During my free time, I may cycle a bit more, watch football (soccer) and go out with my family or friends. Going out to get my favorite tacos on a Tuesday night just makes my week!

I am also a commercial aviation enthusiast, so I am always watching documentaries about planes on YouTube.