Product Manager Alex
Hello, Alex. Your story at Test IO started as a tester, is that correct?
Yeah, I was looking for distraction from my Bachelor thesis and I signed up in 2012 as a tester - back then there was no tester onboarding and no Academy. I learned from @fkerber the differences between Usability and Functional Bugs - the hard way. In 2014 during a American Football training I met a former CSM - his name is Kai. He talked about the company he worked for back then - TestCloud - for which I started testing 2 years before. Testcloud was looking for new employees, and I wanted to start my career rather than finish my Master's. Some weeks later I was hired as an “IT Project Manager” (comparable to todays CSMs). Since 2016 I've been working as Product Manager here at Test IO.
What do you like the most about your job?
I really like the responsibility and daily tasks associated with this job. It’s actually exactly what I was studying - bringing technical and not so technical people together and find the right way through all the requirements to the right solution.
We have the customer interface (called Cirro), the TL interface (Manager) and the tester interface (Halo). How is it balancing the needs for each of these apps?
The challenging part is that most changes in one of these apps has an effect on at least one of the others. And each of these have their different stakeholders with different needs.
What recommendation would you give testers who want to see their product change realised?
a) Submit it on Canny
b) Hold on to it!
c) Own it
What do you mean with ‘own it’?
Share & discuss it with others (e.g. on Discord), let them challenge your idea. Otherwise we internally have to go through all pros and cons of a possible change. This will help us (and you!) evaluate if your feedback can be realized.
What do you expect from us as testers & Community?
a) Be committed. See it as your ‘real’ job (even if you test part time) - that includes staying professional, seek for opportunities to learn & grow
b) Stay creative & curious - try different approaches for testing.
c) Keep in mind your bug reports have an impact on our company & your success and earnings. The more customers we can convince to stay & start with us, the more opportunities will come your way.