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EuroSTAR Conference

Europe's Largest Software Testing Conference

Track Talk Th17

Shaping a Fast Growing Team like a Bonsai

Seema Prabhu

16:30-17:15 CEST Thursday 9th June

Heading the QA function of a fast growing company has been a uniquely challenging experience. As the organisation grew organically with increasing teams, and inorganically by acquiring companies, the need for growth and shaping teams could not be left for chance.

As the team scaled, the nature of challenges changed. Just like a bonsai tree, you wouldn’t want to leave the team to shape without a plan.

Scaling changed hiring requirements. As the team grew, at a certain point the effectiveness of the team dropped. This warranted a change in the structure of the team. Defining clear roles and responsibilities, and clarity in career paths was required.

One of the major components that a bonsai represents is that of balance. How could we achieve the right balance in a remote, multicultural team, and achieve the purpose ?

With growth, the decisions to build and shape a team took different directions with time. We had to find the right balance to achieve our purpose. Was the balance between people, process and tools imperfect like the bonsai’s imperfect, triangular shape?

The craft of bonsai highlights harmonious elements working together. Shaping teams is very similar to shaping a bonsai.

In this talk, I will be looking at how the team changed shape as we scaled, looking back at some of the decisions taken – some good, some lessons learnt – and share tools I wish I had during this phase of growth.

What you will learn

  1. As leaders, we can inspire new leaders and shape organisational culture
  2. As hiring managers, how we can influence in shaping teams
  3. As team members, how we can support the lead/manager and grow as an individual

Session Details

  • Intermediate
  • 45 Minutes
  • Includes 15mins Q&A
  • Test Strategies / Management
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Session Speaker

EuroSTAR 2022 speaker Seema Prabhu

Seema Prabhu

Head of QA – MotorK, United Kingdom

Seema is Head of QA at MotorK. She has been a tester for more than 17 year in various domains such as finance, social care, telecom, and ecommerce. Her main focus is on establishing sustainable processes, leadership, coaching, and mentoring team members. She has recently started to explore the world of speaking with the idea of sharing her experience, and learning more. Having explored the world of testing from the ground up, learning aspects of testing and exploring the use of tools to make it better, she loves to talk about the human side of testing. She is also a Certified Agile Coach, which enables her to coach and mentor teams to embed the best agile in projects.

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