#23 Rosana Sanchis: Delivering Quality Assurance from the perspective of customer experience - Interview with Beatrusters
Hello, I am Yuta Takasu, an intern at Beatrust. Whether you are a regular reader of “Beatrust on note” or a newcomer, thank you for finding this article. “Interview with Beatrusters” is a series of interviews with Beatrust’s employees, so-called “Beatrusters”. This time, we interviewed our QA Engineering Manager, Rosana Sanchis.
This “Beatrust on note” is an official platform of Beatrust that is mainly focused on having people understand our company and be interested in joining us. If you are interested in Beatrust, we have interview articles that highlight our employees’ unique personalities. For those who are not so interested in Beatrust but are interested in the workstyle of an employee at a startup company in Japan that aims for the global market, we have articles introducing our unique corporate culture and company system. Although most of our articles are written in Japanese, we are planning to have more information published in English, so please stay tuned.
After obtaining a Master's in Marketing and Business Administration, joined the Quality Assurance department of Nintendo of Europe in charge of the Spanish Market. Since then, she has worked to ensure the quality of products from top companies in the Entertainment, Hospitality, and E-commerce industries such as Accorhotels, Disneyland Paris, Sony, and Rakuten. Joined Beatrust in 2022.
Private Life
ーーー Please tell us what you do in your spare time.
My son is only 3 years old, so currently I spend most of my leisure time with him. Before he was born, my husband and I used to travel a lot in Europe and Japan. During the COVID-19 pandemic in the past few years, it was a bit difficult to go out, but now I can bring our son to parks like Kodomo-no-Kuni or Odaiba Beach. When we are at home, we play video games, rail tracks and watch TV.
ーーー I am curious about how you balance your work and private life at Beatrust. Is it different from the other countries that you have worked in?
Because of my son, sometimes my schedule is very irregular and I wake up very early in the morning or need to bring him to the doctor in the middle of the day. Beatrust is the perfect fit for me because I can adjust my working hours depending on his needs. As other coworkers also have this kind of freedom, it helps us do things in a more efficient way, like releasing new versions of the product early in the morning before our customers start accessing the site. Also, by working from home I am more productive because I can use my computer anytime I'm available and do not need to waste my time commuting. This full flexibility is rare, especially in large companies, where regulations are strict and everybody needs to be in the same place at the same time, even if it's not efficient or convenient for most people.
What brought you to Beatrust?
ーーー What brought you to Beatrust?
My recruiter introduced the company and the role that had yet not been posted online to me. As she knew I didn't want to work in a traditional Japanese company and was looking for a Gaishi-Kei (foreign companies in Japan), she thought Beatrust would be a good fit. That is because the corporate culture is quite flexible, allowing remote work and no core time. It's a working experience much similar to my projects in Germany or France.
ーーーYour past career has mainly been at large companies. How did you feel when you first saw an offer from a startup company?
When you work for a startup, you have to understand the risks. There's always less stability than large companies that have consolidated their position in the market after many years. In my case, as long as I'm invested in the concept, I'm ready to assume the risk. In Quality Assurance, there's also a lot of flexibility in which kind of products or industries we can work on, compared to other lines of work. So it's also easier for a QA professional to redirect our careers when needed.
ーーーWere there other companies that you were interested in?
In Japan, most companies are traditional, and there can be a lot of language barriers, even when the staff do their best to prioritize English as the common language. So you can have a dissonance between what is presented on paper and the reality at the office. In the case of Beatrust, most employees have a very good command of English, and a developer can integrate the team with zero Japanese and be able to perform his job without issues, which is pretty impressive.
ーーーYou have also mentioned that you wanted to invest in the concept of Beatrust. What was the most intriguing part of it?
During my career, I have worked for very large companies with complicated organizations and many departments. Employees doing the same job for different entities didn't know each other and spent many times trying to solve the same problems, because the know-how couldn't be shared easily. Because of the siloed organizational structure, we couldn't capitalize on the existing knowledge or progress together in the same direction. At those times, I thought about how useful it would be to have something like the concept of Beatrust; a place where each employee can easily connect and collaborate with each other, regardless of their affiliation or reporting line. The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated this disconnection, and I think there is a clear demand for a product like Beatrust in the market. If we create a good quality product, it will be welcomed around the world.
QA Engineer at Beatrust
ーーー What do you do in Beatrust right now?
I'm a Quality Assurance Engineering Manager. As Beatrust keeps growing, we are going to start hiring more QA engineers to properly cover all scopes (functionality, security, performance, etc). Many people think QA engineers just test the product to see if there is an issue and don't provide any additional value, but that is a misconception.
If QA engineers only provide that kind of check, they lack some training or knowledge, and that was one of my main tasks in my previous roles to make sure QA engineers understood the importance of their work and the impact we had on the final product. We are not automated robots that say: "green is good, red is bad" like the sensor in a conveyor belt in a factory, we need to understand our customers as well as the product itself. With the help of big data, the company needs to decide who is our customer, who we are creating this product for, and tailor the features to that customer, and that customer only. Of course, you must try to please as many customers as you can, but if you try to please everyone, you won't satisfy anyone. This aspect of understanding the customer is many times lacking because companies don't provide adequate information to the QA team to understand how the experience should be felt. So the only thing QA can do in that situation is check if the product is broken or not, which is just a small part of the scope. For a product like Beatrust, which is contracted by companies for their employees, it is even more important that we can not only provide a good product but a tool that is irreplaceable. Something that gives our customers a return on their investment in the form of new projects, innovation, know-how capitalization, work-life balance, etc. So, as you can see, Quality Assurance is a complicated task that brings huge additional value, when well understood and supported by the organization. If the QA team can't collaborate properly with all the other stakeholders in the company, testing can be technically acceptable but lacking in many important aspects.
ーーー I believe that there is a love for the product behind your concept of QA. What kind of experience led you to think this way?
I learned this kind of mentality from one of my previous employers, that always aimed for creating the ideal experiences for the customers, rather than just products. They very carefully crafted special moments and memories for families, and I think it's the kind of mindset that can be applied to the development of Beatrust as well. Our objective is to allow people to connect, share their knowledge, and solve problems through collaboration. Thus, it's not like asking an AI to just give you the correct answer. There is something very special about communicating with other people that can't be replicated, therefore technology should be used to facilitate that connection. We are creating something that can be part of the everyday life of thousands of people: something that is indispensable. So it has to be created with a lot of attention, and yes, affection also. As a Quality Assurance professional, I can technically ensure the quality of anything. However, understanding, and especially believing in the message your product conveys is what allows you to do excellent Quality Assurance.
ーーー Since you joined Beatrust, our management style in the development process has drastically changed from a QA perspective. Could you tell me what the issue was, and how you approached it?
The thing is, when you work for a startup, you have a lot fewer resources compared to those of the big companies. Still, you need to release a product that has the same quality, which requires you to get a little bit more creative with the strategy. One of the big changes we have done is controlling the release. When I first started working at Beatrust, the release was done spontaneously, which made it difficult to deploy features strategically. Therefore, we changed the process to having a daily release, and just one release per day. We have a daily stand-up meeting to choose what to release on the day and what needs waiting. If there is not enough development for a release, we could reschedule it. In a startup, everything needs to be created from scratch, so there was no proper release workflow. However, from a QA perspective, it is risky to deploy spontaneously. This is because I have to check, create test cases, and contact the developers if I have some doubts about something. Therefore, one of the big changes I made was that I set up a daily schedule and a template for the release. Now we have a better template for PR. It sometimes is not easy for QAs to figure this out since we have different technical levels compared to other developers. On some occasions, we may not have a full understanding of Node.js, Javascript, and so on. Thus, there are many codes that I cannot grasp the whole impact by simply looking at the code. That was a very big point that I brought up to the developers. If the developers could specifically tell me what the impact of the code is, I could tailor my QA to that intention. By understanding the critical points, I could automate those, for instance, regression, to make sure that the new feature does not degrade the product. This change in the development process mitigated the possibility of degradation. QA requires a formatted process to bring it to effect, and it was the developers’ team effort that enabled such changes.
Future plans
ーーー What are your future plans?
First of all, we have the business side, the customer side, and the development side that have their own opinion about the product roadmap. We need to find a proper balance between all the ideas brought into the product, although it is very delicate. That is why I had many conversations about implementing “Dual Track”.
Dual Track, in an agile methodology, is a way to combine the sprints among the development team, design team, data team, and basically all teams responsible for creating the product features. It's a framework based on having 2 linked tracks, "Discovery" and "Delivery", so we can more accurately define the roadmap. Without Dual Track, the definition and delivery of the product wouldn’t be properly synchronized; the estimation of how much time important tasks can take may be off, and impact other phases of development. There's also the risk that some team members that need to be involved in both Discovery and Delivery tasks, will not be available for the Discovery task when needed because he or she is busy with the Delivery tasks, and vice-versa. Basically, the objective is to simplify and improve the visibility of the whole process, so at each phase of development, we can know if any modification of the roadmap is required because priorities have changed, or a blocker needs to be solved, for example.
Big data is very important also for this process because we need to understand how the features are actually used by our customers in real-time, which can differ from our original estimation. For example, if a feature is only used by 1,5% of users, we can evaluate if the feature should be kept or phased out, because at some point it isn't worth keeping that functionality, from the point of view of architecture maintenance and QA cost. We need to aim for a clean product that is simple to maintain and test.
ーーー Let’s move on to a broader view. What do you want to achieve as a company?
I was hired to be a QA that touched on everything, as I have experience in many large companies, and understand that everybody in the company needs to contribute to the quality of the product. One of the most important points is that, for people to be efficient and not become frustrated, guidelines and a clear direction need to be provided, so each person can concentrate on their task without having to worry about how the task should be done, or what should be the end goal. So, as I shared with the founders, to allow everybody to contribute and have their own voice, a supporting framework is needed. By having this, even if you make a mistake, it is easy for you to understand what went wrong and how to solve it because there is a set of rules that you can refer to. This Support system, together with allowing people to freely voice their opinions, is a good recipe for growth and success.
What is the most unique aspect of Beatrust?
ーーー In sum, what do you think is the most unique aspect of Beatrust?
Beatrust, as a company, is a place where everyone’s voice is heard, which is rare for any organization. The founders, Hara-san and Kume-san are encouraging all employees to collaborate, which is part of the product’s concept. They listen to the employees and act upon it, as opposed to some companies that just do that as a tatemae (public face, stance). This is the experience we want to sell to the customers, an organization where everyone can collaborate, and express their opinion. I truly believe that this is a unique aspect of Beatrust, and although it comes with a high risk, such as competition against gigantic companies, I want Beatrust to succeed.
What kind of people do you want to work with in the future?
ーーー What kind of people do you want to work with at Beatrust?
I want to work with people who can take risks and are not afraid of speaking out. The company offers this opportunity to voice their opinions, so people should make use of this opportunity. Even if the person is too shy or too afraid, everyone will do their best to have them speak. In addition to this, I want to work with people who have the inner drive and create motivation individually. The fundamental aspect of these two features is that you believe in the concept, and want to contribute. When you are eager to achieve something, you can be more open to risks and have the motivation to do so.
Talking with Rosana was an eye-opening experience, as I was not very familiar with the concept of QA. During the interview, I strongly felt the enthusiasm that she had toward her work as a QA engineering manager. This attitude and her experience is something that is extremely valuable in a company like Beatrust.
Beatrust, founded in 2020, has employees from diverse backgrounds that collaborate and enhance each other every day. Please stay tuned for more interviews coming up.
For those who are interested in Beatrust, please contact us through marketing@beatrust.com
(Due to a large number of requests for interviews, it may take some time to respond.)