My story: 7 years in 3 minutes
Origin of a software tester
This story really starts in 1996 here, but let's fast forward a few years.
I joined the uTest digital testing community in 2015. The people and the work fascinated me immediately and I spent the next two years as an obsessive software tester and a motivated Test Team Lead.
I was fortunate because as a young TTL, I worked with three experienced and passionate mentors right away. Adam, Zeb, and Jennifer each spent hours teaching me the ropes, sharing their knowledge, and reviewing my work. This hands-on mentorship approach is a characteristic ingrained in the company culture that really is quite sticky. Thanks, you guys.
That period of development was vital for my growth. Not only was I learning from and working with high quality people, I was also testing new digital applications, reviewing thousands of bugs from testers, and compiling test results many times each day. My learning curve was exponential.
*Note to new testers and TTLs, take advantage of this time and learn all you can.
From tester to educator
At the start of my third year, Applause (the parent company of uTest) hired me to build a training program for the community, the uTest Academy. This opportunity catapulted my career forward and helped to stabilize my life in a meaningful way.
I designed the uTest Academy to teach new members how to use the uTest platform and provide introductory knowledge about software testing. To increase community participation and learning, the Academy also included practice tests of real production applications every day.
For the next four years I focused my attention on growing the Academy team, the uTest Academy programs, and the uTest community as a whole. Creating, implementing, and managing these community programs required a huge team effort, and I loved being a part of it. I am grateful to every person who contributed and to the leadership at Applause who trusted our team to do the work.
Today, the uTest Academy is under new management and it continues to serve thousands of uTesters every day with constantly improving programs and free educational content.
*Note to new employees, identify a project you are passionate about and crush it.
Taking a break
After six years of testing software, creating training programs, and managing a team, I just got burnt out. It's really that simple. I'm naturally an introverted person and I needed time to step back and recharge, so that's what I did.
I resigned from my role and spent the next 101 days remodeling my house and reflecting on the previous six years. Using hand tools like hammers, saws, and drills again felt amazing. Those months of work gave me the processing time I needed to choose a path that I was excited about.
While I was repainting the walls, replacing the baseboard trim, hanging new light fixtures, replacing electrical outlets and switches, updating plumbing fixtures, sanding and painting cabinets, tearing out old carpet, and designing accent walls, a plan began to take shape in my mind.
After the house sold, I was going to bootstrap a tech startup.
*Note to anyone working, if you are burnt out, accept it and try to take a break.
Starting over
Fortunately, my efforts paid off and the house sold in three days. Thanks to some good timing and a lot of work, the sale generated enough capital to chase my dream of starting a company.
I was confident in my ability to create a quality product, manage a team, and grow a community, but could I run a company? My best friend, Rahit was passionate about and dedicated to mastering his innate ability to write sublime code, but could he build an entire product?
After many long discussions we decided we wanted to find out. What were our determining factors? Firstly, we had an idea that we both wanted to build and secondly, we felt that together we had the skills necessary to succeed.
In May of 2022 Rahit and I co-founded Dashy. A few months and four Dashy versions later my brother, Jacob joined the team as our Director of Communications.
From the start, we have been laser-focused on creating an insanely responsive, useful, and fun widget dashboard for web browsers.
On June 1, 2023 we made Dashy available to the world for free.
*Note to entrepreneurs, build a team of people that have different skills than you.
Looking ahead
As our team develops Dashy and grows our community of users, I will be pulling back the curtain and talking about what we're doing at Dashy, what our future plans are, and how we're accomplishing them.
Dashy is dedicated to high quality, crazy speed, and true usefulness. That's what we expect from ourselves and what you can expect from us too.
Always be testing,
Jer
Join the Dashy community at DashyApp.com and interact with the team on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
