How Motherhood Made Me a Better QA Manager скачать в хорошем качестве

How Motherhood Made Me a Better QA Manager

QA skills don't come from bootcamps—they come from playgrounds. Žaklina Polak Matanović shows how parenting builds prioritization, precision & patience that most testers never learn in training. "If something is obvious to you, it does not mean that it's obvious to someone else." - Žaklina Polak Matanović In this episode, I talk with Žaklina Polak Matanović, an experienced QA manager who discovered that raising three daughters taught her more about software testing than most training courses ever could. She shares concrete stories about how skills like clear ownership assignment, prioritization under pressure, and proactive thinking emerged naturally from parenting chaos – from navigating playgrounds with toddler twins to managing ambiguous requests at home. What makes this conversation powerful is Žaklina's honest reflection on returning to tech after maternity leave, initially doubting her career trajectory while others seemed to advance, only to realize the soft skills in software testing she'd been building at home became her greatest professional assets for achieving work life balance in tech. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:36 Parenting Skills Meet Testing 00:04:34 Ownership and Clear Communication 00:08:04 Prioritization Under Pressure 00:13:48 Skills Transfer Both Ways 00:18:34 Patience and Inclusive Leadership 🚀 Do you like the podcast? Then please rate and share it. And feel free to send feedback to podcast@testing-unleashed.fm 🎯 Highlights: Parenting skills transfer directly to testing: prioritization, clear ownership assignment, and proactive thinking prevent chaos. Ambiguous tickets without clear ownership stay unresolved forever; be specific about who does what. Under pressure, save the thing in greatest danger first—prioritize ruthlessly and communicate your limits. Being detailed and asking many questions isn't annoying; it's a professional strength in testing environments. Patience and inclusivity aren't soft skills—they're essential for letting quiet team members contribute equally. 🔗 Links Blog Post for Episode: https://www.richard-seidl.com/en/blog... 🎙️ More from Richard Seidl Website: https://www.richard-seidl.com Linkedin:   / richardseidl   Podcast Software Testing: https://www.testing-unleashed.fm #softwaretesting #QA #qaskillsforparents