Lead Your Way Into the Future by Managing Up

“Congratulations! The company is going through a major reorganization, and you will lead a new test team.” I said, “Finally! Challenge accepted!”. Everything was fine until one fine spring day I received a message from my boss: “Can’t we just automate all the tests and make them green?”.

I thought years of experience in different roles would make me ready for the challenge, but things weren’t quite as evident as they seemed at first because I understood the priorities differently. I thought my priority was leading a team. But after that message, it became clear – my job is not just to “lead the team” but to “lead the people above me” first.

The above becomes more critical considering the trends of reducing company management positions, where we often see test managers being let go. That is why we must become our own test managers and master the invisible skills of managing up.

In this talk, I’ll share my experience and how I learned (the hard way) that managing up is a crucial skill for a tester but somehow invisible because no one teaches it to us. I want to tell you the story and elevate the visibility of those skills so that tomorrow, you can use them to have agency over your work.