Fireside Chat with Mark Hrynczak

Hello Testers,

A fireside chat is an opportunity for open and honest dialogue. Also, the unique format that allows for gaining insight into the experiences of industry experts, and finding inspiration, by posing candid questions.

We’ve brought "Fireside chat with Mark Hrynczak" for all of you!

Date: 22nd January 2025

Time: 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM IST

A special thank you and huge shoutout to BrowserStack, our exclusive sponsor for all community events and premier sponsor for conferences.

Anyone can ask questions during the live session. And we also have a Discord & Facebook community where we’ll be collecting questions.

Session Title: The Quality vs. Speed Dilemma: Strategies for High-Performance Teams

In today’s fast-paced software development landscape, teams are constantly confronted with the dilemma of balancing quality and speed. Mark Hrynczak, with his extensive experience leading teams at Canva and Atlassian, will share insights on how high-performing teams can effectively navigate this challenge. With a proven track record in driving agile transformations and optimizing processes, we will explore actionable strategies to strike the right balance without compromising on either side.

Key Discussion Points:

1. Understanding the Trade-Off: We will break down the inherent tension between quality and speed. While speed is critical in meeting deadlines and delivering features quickly, quality ensures customer satisfaction and reduces long-term costs. Mark's experience at Atlassian, where he led teams through architectural transitions and SLO (Service Level Objectives) implementations, highlights how teams can identify when to prioritize speed over quality and vice versa.

2. Strategies to Achieve Balance: We will discuss practical strategies for building a high-performance culture that embraces both speed and quality. Drawing on his experience at Canva, where he transformed a small QA team into a global, high-impact unit, he will explain the importance of creating clear expectations, empowering teams, and leveraging automation to optimize both aspects.

3. Metrics to Measure Success: We will emphasize the importance of data-driven decisions. With his background in defining success metrics for quality and speed at Atlassian, he will illustrate how metrics like automated test coverage, bug resolution time, and release cadence can help teams navigate trade-offs and ensure consistent high performance.

Key Takeaways

1. Empower Teams for Ownership: High-performance teams thrive when they are given ownership of quality, ensuring the right balance is maintained across sprints.

2. Automation is Key: Leverage automation to accelerate speed without compromising on quality.

3. Define Success Metrics: Use clear, measurable metrics to guide decision-making and ensure the right trade-offs are being made.

This session will provide valuable insights into how teams can be more adaptable, efficient, and aligned with both short-term and long-term goals.

About Speaker:

Mark Hrynczak, Head of Quality at Canva

Mark Hrynczak is a seasoned leader in quality assurance and software engineering, currently serving as the Head of Quality at Canva. He has a strong background in strategic planning, team building, and cloud operations. At Canva, he has led significant transformations, including expanding a QA team from 8 to over 50 engineers, fostering a culture of quality ownership, and driving process improvements. Previously, he held leadership roles at Atlassian, focusing on Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and cloud quality management. Mark has expertise in building high-performing teams, automating processes, and reducing technical debt. He holds a BA in Mathematics and Computation from Oxford.

Regards,

The Test Tribe Team