Iwona Włodarczyk

Is it time we rethink our approach to software quality? I think so. In the fast-evolving tech space, QAOps is reshaping how we approach software development. Instead of treating quality assurance as something to check off at the end, QAOps integrates it directly into the development pipeline, making it an essential part of every process stage. Why does this matter? QAOps is about bringing QA, DevOps, and development teams together. By leveraging automation and continuous integration, it makes sure that quality is maintained without slowing down delivery. Some core practices driving QAOps include: ➡️ Automated testing for faster, more reliable outcomes. ➡️ Shift-left testing, which moves testing earlier in the development process, leading to better test coverage, continuous feedback, and a quicker time to market. ➡️ Real-time feedback, allowing teams to identify and fix issues promptly. ➡️ Cross-team collaboration to break down silos between QA, development, and operations. With QAOps, the software development process benefits from: ✔️ Accelerated delivery timelines ✔️ Superior product quality ✔️ Better scalability ✔️ Fewer costly post-launch fixes QAOps isn’t just a trend—it’s the future of software development. As businesses demand quicker and higher-quality solutions, adopting a QAOps mindset will be the difference between staying ahead and falling behind. How are you addressing quality in your development pipeline? Could QAOps be your team’s next step forward? #QAOps #SoftwareDevelopment #DevOps #Automation #QualityAssurance #ShiftLeftTesting #ContinuousIntegration #TechInnovation #AgileDevelopment #SoftwareTesting #TechLeadership #ProductQuality #CI_CD #DevelopmentPipeline

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For five years now, I have been going through this conversation almost quarterly, with every new senior hire and often with management. I wholeheartedly believe that this post is the reality on the ground, a po role is a subset of the PM role, it’s unrealistic to have two translation layers one discussing strategy and one discussing execution, this will more often lead to many more problems far bigger than the problem of the workload on a single person.

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My colleague Grzegorz (Greg) Kalucki has recently published an article about experimentation. What does it take for companies to commit to a culture of testing and experimenting with their online content? In three points: 1. Set up the right team, with a Testing Manager at the heart of it. 2. Have that team cooperate with, inform, involve, and motivate the rest of the organization (at all levels). 3. Repeat and optimize to ensure ROI, KPIs, and business goal performance. I truly recommend reading it because it is full of insights on how to achieve this, including a template for test scenarios that I used for this post's image. Here 👉 https://lnkd.in/dsBa3zec Greg’s article is based on Madison Hajeb's talk at the Opticon conference in London. This week, we can attend the online version of Opticon. While the agenda of the online event is yet to be revealed, I plan to attend. You can also join by enrolling here: https://lnkd.in/d9J-pgBc See you there? #Experimentation #Optimizely #Opticon24

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🚀 Boost your game with effective user stories! Our Product Advisor and Co-founder Irina Denezhkina has shared another article for emerging product maestros about the secret sauce for clear communication, flexibility, and user-focused development – user stories, so dive deeper into mastering them in this piece of insights: https://lnkd.in/gkUSnfk4 🌟 Just for you to know: Irina Denezhkina is not only an author on our blog, she is also a powerful Product Strategist with enormous experience of working at leading companies catering to dozens of millions of users. With her help, you will definitely supercharge 🚀 your performance! Here is a small portion of what she can do for you: ✅ Market analysis and research ✅ Market entry strategy, value hypothesis validation ✅ Product management consulting, user scenario development ✅ Advisory in the most vague and uncertain spheres that will lead you to your goal Ready for success? Contact us at [email protected]

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The problem with unchecked and unintentional complexity is that it gradually narrows the 'solution space' — the range of future improvements, adjustments, or innovations that can be realistically pursued. Picture the solution space as a playground where designers and developers have room to explore new ideas and tackle emerging challenges. As complexity accumulates without careful management, walls begin to form in this playground, limiting the freedom to experiment and improve. Changes become riskier, and small tweaks can lead to a cascade of unintended consequences. The more convoluted the system, the fewer opportunities there are to introduce meaningful, impactful updates without further complicating the product or alienating users. Read more in my latest blog post linked below. #ProductManagement #Complexity #Innovation #TechLeadership #DigitalTransformation #Scalability #TechDebt #IntentionalComplexity

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Should the Product Owner role be performed by a Product Manager? According to Paweł Huryn yes. However, there is no one size fits all in software organizations. Oftentimes an engineering leader fills in the Product Owner role and I've seen that working great. Each organization is different and there is no one framework that will work for a tiny startup, huge enterprise, in-person teams, offshore teams, dev agencies etc. As organizations grow, the definition of each role becomes narrower and things that one person did in a small organization requires a whole team because it is too much scope for a single person. The key is to ensure that no matter what the scope of a given job is, the person performing it has all the context they need to own their part, collaborate well with others on the team, and be empowered to make good decisions within their scope. Whoever performs the Product Owner role should have the business and the technical context and whether this is a technical PM or business oriented engineer depends on the organization itself. Who performs the Product Owner role in your organization?

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😮 How bad is the current PM job market? What we've observed at Product People in the last few months is that the current market is like the Schrödinger's cat - it's both dead and alive at the same time 💀 - there are open positions and some companies are hiring as actively as ever - there are people who struggle to get anything going for them even with the big names on their CVs - there are people taking positions 1-2 levels lower than what they've had in the previous company I'll be discussing these insights and more at the TopProds Q3 Product Management Talent Forecast together with Ross Webb, Nick Charalambous and Chris Mason. Join us you if it's relevant for you! Link in the comments!

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Closing slide from my presentation yesterday on design quality. This is the standard I hold for our industry: Every company large enough to have a CPO or CTO should also have a CDO. The Chief Design Officer (CDO) is most responsible for elevating the quality of the customer experience, with special attention to craft. No other individual should care more about craft and quality, with the exception of the CEO in some cases. If you're actively interviewing for your next role, when you're asked “what questions do you have for me" ask who Design reports into. Follow up by asking how this impacts design quality and craft, and how your role can also impact these. #design #quality #craft

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Have you heard the question, "Why do we need a Product Owner?" Yeah, me too... It's a question that keeps coming up, and for good reason. Many people still wonder about the real impact of having a Product Owner or Product Manager on the team. Our latest post dives into what happens when a development company tries to do without one. Spoiler: It usually involves a lot more headaches and a lot less clarity. If you've ever questioned the value of these roles, this one's for you. Read on and let me know your thoughts.

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Have you ever struggled to find what you need in your project design documentation? 🤔 We’ve been there too. But guess what? We cracked the code! 💡 Go on a journey of discovery with Angelika Paterak, our Product Designer, in her article. Explore how we redefined design documentation at SwingDev. Uncover our strategies for conquering scattered data, unraveling Figma mysteries, and perfecting design handoffs. 🔗  Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/dBcenfdV

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Having a chat with Simon Bristow the other day, we discussed the idea of Design Debt. It inspired me to write a full article :) What exactly is Design Debt? It’s the buildup of nasty assumptions and misfires that happens when you spend too much time in the lab and not enough time on the street. It’s what happens when your team falls in love with their own ideas, research artefacts and designs, instead of listening to what real users actually want and need in real life. What do you think? https://lnkd.in/gpKiNj9x #Design EverestEngineering

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Why do product managers struggle to collaborate with each other? I hopped on a project three weeks ago with 3 product managers and we were to work on a case study together - We were all strangers. The first day, we greeted and exchanged pleasantries and talked about what the project will be about. The second day, I made some suggestions about the project and I got no reply. This happened for two weeks, where I got no reply to just one reply. I got frustrated about it. Then, I had to dissolve the project. I felt unmotivated about the project because of the little to no input from the other product managers. This is not my first time working with product managers and I have noticed similar patterns from past experiences. I am doing research to see why product managers struggle to work with each other. Leave a comment below if you have faced a similar situation.

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Ah, the never-ending battle between engineers and designers! 😄 The struggle is real, but also kinda funny when you think about it! 🤣 As a product manager, it's your job to be the mediator, helping these two teams with very different mindsets find common ground. With the right approach and open communication, you can turn this epic conflict into a productive collaboration. After all, making great products takes a village! 🏰 #ProductManagement #PMMemes #featureOS

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"How do I write a good user story?" In today's video, we INVEST into writing a good user story. High-level, what does a good user story need beyond the usual pieces (request, context, acceptancr criteria, etc.)? If you have a question about product management, shoot me a DM. ✉️ I'm here to help! #productmanagement #productmanagers #careeradvice #askaquestion #askmeanything

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I see it all the time—teams spending way too much time tweaking designs that are already fine. Instead of talking to users. They’re caught up in making everything look perfect. Truth is if your product doesn’t actually solve user problems, polish is not going to fix that. Start solving real user problems. Not design problems. It’s better to get your product out there, learn, and improve as you go. Focus on usefulness first—then worry about making it pretty.

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Daily Stand-Up Meetings: Just for techies? I’ve been leading software development teams for over 20 years, and daily stand-up meetings have been a core part of my routine for at least 15 of those years. You know the drill: - What did you do yesterday? - What are you doing today? - What’s blocking you? For me, stand-ups are so ingrained in the way my teams operate that I can’t imagine working without them. They help us stay aligned, identify roadblocks early and build team spirit. But here’s the thing: in companies I’ve worked with, I’ve noticed that teams outside of software development—rarely adopt stand-ups. Why is that? Have they tried and found they don’t work? Do they see them as unnecessary? Or do they simply not know how impactful these quick check-ins can be? I’m curious — Non-techies what’s your experience? If you do stand-ups: How have they helped your team? If you don’t: Have you tried them and decided against them? Why?

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#productwalk <start> <storytime> I’m not the greatest storyteller. For real, if I’m crafting a narrative it takes time, significant thought energy, core data, and deep understanding of what I’m talking about. But that’s ok. Why? Because as a product leader - as a leader in general - it’s not about the ability to just tell a story that is critical, it’s about the passion you have for what you’re talking about. <passion> When I am most excited about something with my job, it’s because I see the #value that it will add for the #users. That sets a fire under me not just to move mountains to deliver it quickly, but also to transfer that passion to the team. Putting the #userfirst is at the core of delivering great products, driving a mindset that shifts from just getting a thing done to delivering a GREAT outcome. <profession> Long have there been debates about profession vs job. Indulge me for a second about these two words. Profession is rooted in a formalization of a skill set, something that required training, qualification, experience to be a part of. Something that was more than just a task. A job, however, is focused on a task, a thing that you must do, more narrow. This is the reason why when we do #productvalidation we run through a #jobstobedone (#JTBD) analysis so we can understand the full scope of what the user needs. When you approach your role as a #productleader as a professional vs a job, your mindset shifts from a myopic view to one that is scanning the horizon to ensure that the thing you are delivering, the problem you are solving, addresses the problems the user has with orchestrated unity and harmonization. <action> So what does this all boil down to and why bring any of this up? If you are in #productmanagement you’re a product professional. If you’re in #engineering, you’re a product professional. If you are in #marketing, you’re a product professional. If you are in #qualityassurance, you are a product professional. If you are in #sales, you are a product professional. If you’re the #CEO or #founder of a company, you are a product professional. Picking up a theme yet? As a product professional, you are part of a team that drives quality focused on delivering products that a user can employ to get their jobs done. You are part of a #team - and as a Product Manager you help drive that team to that goal, fueled with passion for what you’re solving, with the user at the heart of everything you say and do. <lets.walk>

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What do product people, like me, do for a living? It varies, so I can only shed light on how my work usually starts in a company. We have to remember that usually I for some reason end up in small-mid-sized companies that have growth dreams, but it has been really hard for years or tens of years. They're stable, but mostly in "mature" part of their business - found their limits in way or another. It goes two "tracks". Building the business and building the culture so that it removes the obstacles for growth. The process from "product perspective": 1. Establish steady and sustainable business if it's not yet that. I mean, most of the companies have built tens of things to get the money in, there are trials and errors. Usually at this point the focus is not "focused" enough. The first step always is to find the successes and to focus on that. In practice it means understanding the internal data, but more understanding the customers and their painpoints. 2. Get the business to run properly on stable business. Not yet massive growth, but get balance between processes and "debt" that has been built. I mean you need room to build things, this is what is the next step. 3. Find the growth drivers. When you have done steps 1 and 2 properly, you should have quite stable culture on "customer centricity", which will get the feedback flowing on the growth items. Start building the tools, processes and so on for that. The process from people perspective: 1. Get trust. Always the first thing to do. Build it as soon as you get it. You can achieve 0 if you don't have trust. 2. Create culture that allows faster cycles of feedback from the customer and that result in faster value processes. I mean, this is done purely by people. Usually it's done by creating psychological safety to be able to achieve good levels on purpose, mastery and skill. It's all about autonomy and building people that are allowed, trusted and empowered to do their best - and removing silos. Usually a lot of them! 3. Step out of the way. I mean the whole idea is that you need to get more brains to build the business. This is the hardest part for me usually, to get out of the way when things have been aligned and things start to work. That means my time is more usable in the growing the business. So. That's what we do in product, especially on software side. You will need help. No-one can do it by themselves, it requires good understanding of finanaces and business if you're a tech based person and other way around. The holy trinity should work. So. Nothing new this week, just a rant about how I feel things are and have been in product. Feel free to challenge. And if you're new to software or products, I hope this vague thing provided some insights. And in the end a non-AI image Image by StockSnap from Pixabay, that shows what people think about "product". It's not like that, but it prolly will catch your attention.

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