Just before the turn of the New Year, I was promoted from Tester to Senior Tester. Since then, I’ve been conquering the learning curve of being relatable while maintaining some semblance of authority. In the Gaming Industry, a historically hip and edgy field, it’s as hard as week-old biscuits.
My first mistake as a Senior Tester was to believe that I needed to be more professional. Like Clark Kent professional. Gone were the days of smiles and jokes. I had always put on slacks and a button-down shirt, and my hair was parted from the side by the natural curse of my hairline. When I get serious and I look like that, it’s hell waiting to happen.
As soon as I realized how unapproachable I was, I put my trenchcoat, slacks, and dress shirt away and wore T-shirts and jeans in. That doesn’t work either though. It doesn’t say, “I don’t care how I dress.” It doesn’t say anything.
I grew up on a farm. When you’re walking in fields, your best case getting muddy, your worst case getting manure-y, you wear junk clothes. “Farm-Casual” isn’t fly, so save faded jeans and a T-shirt for the weekend. Yes, I’m a guy, so I was stubborn, but image is part of any Entertainment industry. Reinvent yourself, and think about what you’re trying to say. I’d bet it’s something like, “I’m fun and I can get the job done,” not “I take myself very very seriously.”
I reserved the athletic shoes for the gym and bought some darker denims and casual sneakers. Don’t overdress. You’re managing testers, not Japanese Salarymen. To fit in with testers, and (I suspect) the rest of the gaming industry, Casual-Business is the daily dress, not Business-Casual, or worse, like I was, Business.
But clothing can only help you so far. Demeanor is important too. If your nose is catching clouds then even if that’s justified, another person won’t do their best for you. This should be obvious. Cockiness in a Tester is cute. Cockiness in a facility’s leadership is obnoxious.
“I can do your job better than you,” only results in the other party saying, “Oh yeah, then you can do your job and mine, smartass.” Trust me, no matter how awesome you are, you can’t do it alone.
A better solution is to be friendly, and genuinely appreciative of good work. Crack some jokes too, some of them off-color. Of course keep it professional, and keep it you. Don’t fake, but most work-personae are fake. Are we like that around our friends? You spend as much if not more time with coworkers than your buddies. Show them your good side. It won’t interfere with your work, or the work of your testers.
Here’s a thought. Testers come in four varieties, which must by needs, be handled differently. Remember, it’s not your desire for more productivity that matters, but what each group wants for themselves. Selfish? Not unless your desire for an efficient workplace is too. Here’s each type and what they want:
1) The QA Professional: These guys are your smallest group, and your easiest. They find some kind of poetry in a good bug write-up and test cases are their mystic koans. They love test. Not video games. Test. Just point them at the hardest stuff and reward them for their movement on the journey to Test Enlightenment.
2) The Gamer: These guys are probably your biggest group. Your facility tests video games, so expect the LAN party to show up where you work! Most Gamers are good at testing, but all of them care more about whether a game is “epic” than whether it’s “compliant”. Play to their strengths: have them test gameplay and write Design Change Requests to improve the game. Keep in mind that this is the product’s target audience! Your Gamers have added value to your client as a focus group!
3) The Slacker: Like the gamer, but with less drive. The love of video games is there, but they are indifferent consumers. Rather than form an opinion, they say, “Eh, it’s alright.” Worse-case, they aren’t even gamers, this was just an “easy gig”. Try to ignite their passion, but don’t get too hopeful. They’ll probably remain bottom-tier and do your “easy” test cases.
4) The Creative: Creatives find their way into Testing because it is touted as the bottom-rung for a career in game production. Promote them, but always talk in terms of how this will help their Creative career. Don’t try to make them into a Type 1 QA Guy, because it’s not going to happen. Creatives are often very good at Testing, but hoarding them like a dragon or pigeon-holing them into a testing role won’t motivate them. One day they will be free, so be the one to help them fly. Find them an “in” at a development house that matches their goals. The Dev-House will love you, and your company, for giving them qualified talent, and the Creative will always remember who “broke them into their career”.
My latest big flaw to overcome was with pushing my best people too hard, and in that, I’m definitely not guilty alone. If I think the world of someone, I assume they can handle whatever I dump onto their station. If you have this kind of confidence in a person, don’t even come close to criticizing them. It will only alienate them, and no tester will stay with you once you’re alienated.
Remember, a Gamer wants to game, a Slacker wants to slack, and a Creative… well… you get the idea. The Gamer and the Slacker don’t care a fig for your projections and targets, but a clever manager can work around this. The Creative just wants a good referral from within the industry, so if you push too hard, they’re going to find another place that will give them that referral.
Let’s say you have an issue with your all-star. Imagine they take too long to finish a task. Let’s say you’ve assigned them a project similar to that of their peers, only three times the scope, because you know they’ll rock it. Then they take more than three times as long to do this task as their peers, so you bring the tester in and say:
“We’ve noticed it takes you an hour to do this task, when it takes everyone else fifteen minutes. It shouldn’t take you that long.”
Wrong. This tester is drowning in your expectations. Depending on the task, tripling the scope could more than triple the amount of work on that tester’s plate. If you held a job at that tier in the past, you ought to remember!
Besides, saying something like this will just shut the portcullis, and they’re a castle you can’t storm. The scope of what you’ve assigned gives them the right, every right, to wait out this siege, or launch an offensive that your small force is ill-equipped to handle. You won’t storm their castle, because it’s far too well-fortified: They already wildly exceed the workload of their peers, and only receive the same pay that their peers receive.
Do not treat them like a precocious, but misbalanced child. You wouldn’t like it either. Rather, you could man up, be a leader, and help them with their problems. Maybe it’s an issue of a process that, when scaled up, becomes too cumbersome. Maybe it’s a matter of them having a terrible computer, or just a bad day.
The least likely case is that your superstar, that you’ve heaped tasks upon, is suddenly trying to slack off. As a manager, you’ve identified the slackers early and kept them from these honor spots.
So assume that the tester is doing the best they can, and ask if you can help. Maybe examine the task and see if you can find better. Never tell the tester to “Fix it.” Brainstorm with them. Give them ideas and alternatives. Treat this like a team effort, because it is. If a tester is genuinely having trouble, then learn the causes of their problem and find out a resolution. Yes, it will take time out of your day, but that’s why you’re Management. Absolutely do not delegate the task of fixing this problem to the person having the problem. That’s as bad as saying, “You suck, fix it.”
Never forget, the Management sets the tone for the workplace. It’s in the power of the Management, not the testers, to set the tone in the lab. Would you rather your lab sound like a mortuary or an outlet of the bustling industry that you’re a part of?
Please, unless the suits are in, let the testers do their job and have fun.
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