Hiring a first QA into a startup – Why you need a senior
Hiring a first QA into a startup – Why you need a senior
I’ve been the first QA hire and an early hire for start ups and engineering organisations. Here’s what I’ve seen and the things that I wish you knew when picking what to hire for.
Automation isn’t what to look for
You already have developers who can add automation tests and a pipeline. You already have automation skills at your organisation, if automation was the solution then you would have solved the quality problem.
Don’t talk into the trap of “hiring like me or like what I have”; you’ve already got a load of CompSci grads and devs… will hiring another one solve the testing problem?
You need EXPLORATORY skills
Your work is likely greenfield and there’s a lot of uncertainty coming from fledgling ways of working. The testing you need is an approach that will ask questions, hunt for information and can self start without being told what to look for.
Seniority in testing will lead to structure and process
You want a tester because you need testing championed. Good championing comes (usually) with senior testers because they know what/how to socialise testing ideas. A junior won’t have as much in their tool belt to create and champion the right approach and ways of working.
A senior tester will know the value of documenting and how to socialise ways of working in a structured way to other people. Without that strategic planning, tactical firefighting will lead to your new quality processes growing in an unstructured and unscalable way leading to gaps and a lack of control.
Boots on the ground – get a thinker and a doer
Don’t go the other way and hire someone who’s only a strategic leader; you need a tester to champion/lead by doing (not just talking). Find someone who has a track record of implementing processes and frameworks at other organisations.
Index on comms and culture
This is the beginning of your testing journey, so you want it to go well. You’ll want someone who can coach and mentor others in a positive way (you really don’t want to start with a test vs. dev attitude right?) Look for people who have a track record in talking to others, maybe a blogger or a conference speaker even.
There *will* be glue work
Glue work, all those little extra tasks that keep a team together. In order to get testing into a good place you’re probably going to need a lot of glue work doing (are people communicating, are the right ceremonies in place, hat about setting up these tools?) Look for someone who’s got experience in identifying when things needed to happen and filled in the blanks, maybe they did some Agile training or Scrum mastery or BA work – you’ll probably need it.
Start with a generalist
You’re going to need someone who can tailor a testing approach that’s right for you, which means that person needs to have a lot of tricks to pull out of their bag. If you hire a deep specialist, guess what you’re gonna get: an approach that looks like their specialism. Find someone who’s a strong generalist so they can make suggestions on what testing you need that’s tailored to you.
Hire for add, not fit
You’re going to need to change. I mean you’re hiring a new role entirely, that suggests you want to change right? That means it’s time to look for a disruptor, a change agent, someone who will build upon what you have rather than just slot into it. Don’t be tempted to look for someone who’s more of the same, actively look at what you’re missing and hire to plug those gaps!
(That doesn’t mean throw out your culture entirely, look for a positive way to enhance your culture.)
