From Rural Punjab to Fortune 100 Clients

First, kindly tell us about your educational background.

I started my education in Peshawar from the infamous Army Public School at Warsak Road. However after a couple of years in Peshawar, we had to move back to our ancestral village in Chakwal to take care of my grandmother, so I am a village boy.

My early  schooling is from Fauji Foundation - Chakwal campus. Then for my pre-engineering, I went to the Punjab College. Then for my bachelor's degree, I got into Dr. A. Q. Khan Institute of Computer Sciences and Information Technology (KICSIT), and got my degree in BS in Computer Science. 

How did you come to know about Turing Technologies?

I was always interested in mobile development from an early age. So I already knew what field I had to focus on. During my bachelor's, my interest in development and software evolved.  Then one day I came to know about Turing Technologies from a close friend and thought to give it a shot. 

In what capacity did you first join Turing Technologies?

I initially applied as a UX/UI intern here. Then from there, I went on to work with many diverse tools and techniques with different teams. From UX/UI I went into webflow, a no-code website development platform. Then I joined the QA team where I excelled and then eventually became the QA Team lead. Now, I am acting as Product Manager for one of the main projects of Turing Technologies. 

With such a diverse background, what skills do you currently possess?

In terms of skills, you can say software quality assurance, UI/UX design, along with Project management. 

In terms of tools, I am very much familiar with MongoDB, GraphQL Playground, Postman, Webflow, Hubspot, Gitlab, ClickUp, Notion, and Miro. For now, I am also learning backend coding.

As a QA Team lead, what process flow have you set for your team? 

I lead my team by first setting an example for them to follow. I like to experiment first then after validation I move it forward to my team. I follow a set of precautionary testing thoroughly and then divide the tasks among my team. The QA team is currently divided into two groups as of now. Both of these groups are working on the testing of two different products. 

How do you usually keep a balance between leading the QA team and performing your project management duties?

I usually keep a balance based on the skills that are required on that day. I usually divide my week to achieve different objectives. My days are also divided into different phases. Like: 

• Plan out phase - early in the mornings every day of the week
• Coordination phase - with the rest of the teams 
• My focus phase - it lasts between 12:00pm - 3:00pm 
• Follow up phase - usually from 3:00pm - 6:00pm

If something goes bad, then usually the managers are held responsible. How do you handle such situations?

I believe that communication avoids conflicts, that’s why I never had them that often. But even if they do happen then I usually try to talk to the rest of the stakeholders and team members. Only by conducting timely communication and being a great listener, one can solve half of the problems. I usually accept my mistakes and being their leader and I act as a protective wall for my team. 

Being in QA what are your thoughts about UX<>QA overlap and how important design testing is? 

No matter how good your product is if the user interface and user accessibility aren’t top-notch then no one is going to buy it and no one is going to use it. That is why, as a QA analyst I make sure that the interfaces and integrations are user-friendly. If not, then I try to communicate user-friendly designs to the design team for further review and audits. 

What is the best thing about working at Turing Technologies?

The things that I love about Turing tech are:

• The work culture here really encourages the growth of every team member in their respective domain. 
• The mentorship opportunities provided here are great. 
• Turing technologies provide an opportunity for every person to think out of the box and grow out of their comfort zone. 

What are your future milestones for teams and yourself?

I want my team to stand out at Turing Tech through their individuality and notable work. Great team bonding is a core aspect of being able to achieve these goals. So I try my best to develop a strong bond with my team members.  

For my personal goals, I am planning to:

• Learn Flutter for Mobile Development 
• Travel a lot around the world while trying out new cuisines.
• Work out, as you can obviously see :D

Do you want to mention some people who've helped you in your journey?

I want to give a shout to my mentors Sir Asad, Hafsa, and Sarmad Bhai.

1. Sir Asad taught me ins and outs of managing things, sending me QA and PM best practices from top tech companies. Being strict with me so I can learn hard stuff and giving me fitness tips.
2. Hafsa for being there when I needed her, being my emotional support and teaching me basics of web design.
3. Finally Sarmad bhai for teaching me databases and MongoDB interface, how to run APIs in postman and using GraphQL playground.

I am also very thankful to my colleagues (who're now my friends) Bilal, Yasha and Muqaddas. Especially Bilal for for attending my calls to fix bugs in production. Bilal has stood by us during thick and thin, I would always respect him for that. This is why I always feel confident when Bilal is assigned something.