Meet a Community Test Lead: Nataliia In Meet a Community Test Lead, we feature passionate QA experts from our network who help our testers’ community thrive while delivering amazing customer experiences to our clients. Tell us a bit about yourself, who are you, where are you from? I am a driven, ambitious woman, mother to 2 wonderful kids. I live in Ternopil, Ukraine and work full-time as a Community Test lead and Tester at Testlio. Nataliia with the two “apples of her eye” How did you end up testing for Testlio? I discovered Testlio more than 4 years ago while I was looking for remote job opportunities during my maternity leave. I never actually studied computer sciences in college (I completed my Master’s degree in Business Administration and Foreign Economic Activity), but I’ve always been interested in technology. Somehow during my job searches, I stumbled upon a testing course – I found it interesting so I took it. Soon after, I started to freelance on various testing platforms until I came across Testlio and signed up. I still remember my first test cycle at Testlio – I was really excited that I could speak with and get support from other community members as well. It helped me grow in turn as a tester. A year after joining, I decided to work exclusively for Testlio – I feel really satisfied with the work I do, the emotions I get from it, and the free time it leaves me. What are your favorite things about working at Testlio? I love the flexibility and ability to plan my day the way I need to. Furthermore, I like that it’s not just a regular job – we create value by helping improve products people actually use and depend on. And finally, I appreciate the fact that Testlio’s pay rates are very competitive compared to my market rate and offer an opportunity for growth. Who or what in software testing inspires you? That’s rather difficult to answer since everything and everyone can be a source of inspiration. I think as a person, Kristel (Testlio’s Founder and Chief Testing Officer) is a great source of inspiration to me through her dedication to the company and software testing in general. I also get inspired by the products I test – it’s like searching the missing parts of a big puzzle and then getting the satisfaction of piecing together the full picture. I enjoy that very much! How was your transition from tester to Community Test Lead? After working with Testlio for about 1,5 years, I was eager to take on even more responsibilities and see how the ‘other side’ worked. I realized that being a Community Test Lead (CTL for short) would be a great opportunity for me to grow as a tester as well as career-wise. I understood that this role involves more than just testing capabilities – it also requires administration and management skills, which is something I’m familiar and comfortable with. So even though Testlio was not looking for additional CTLs at the time, I put myself forward nonetheless and fortunately was offered a try-out in a project. It went well, so I got the position. It was a bit difficult to find my rhythm at first, but after a few months, I started to lead more projects. What challenges did you face when you took on the role of Community Test Lead? Personally, my main challenge was coping with the big responsibility that I took – you have to really know the project, understand what the client expects from your work, communicate with testers, help solve issues if they come up, etc. I remember how worried I was each time for the test cycles to go smoothly but then when I got a bit more used to the role, I understood that I was not alone – the whole Community team was behind me as well and help was always available if needed. Now I couldn’t be happier with my role as I can enjoy a different type of work during the week and am able to better understand testers’ needs within a project. Please describe your role as a Community Test Lead. In a nutshell, I’m a go-between testers, project managers and test leads. My exact role as a CTL depends on a project, and might include: scheduling and preparing the cycle, inviting testers to a test cycle, assigning task lists to testers and sharing notes with them, supporting testers while a cycle is going, finding testers for issues reproduction, reviewing issues and editing them if needed, reviewing tasks and results, verifying if a tester followed the assigned task list correctly, providing feedback to testers, writing the end report for the managers or client, communicating with the project managers and test leads about the project, sharing feedback from testers, suggestions for improvements, etc. Here’s Nataliia’s advice on what it takes to become a good Community Test Lead at Testlio: You can read more about Nataliia here 🙂 Interested in becoming a tester at Testlio? Here’s all you need to know.