Objective / Goal-Driven
Goals & Objectives can have a variety of benefits for both a department and individuals.
I think a good manager works with goals to drive people to a certain outcome and help them grow, while a great manager understands the relationships between company goals, project goals and individual goals and how to connect those dots.
Not only have I worked with SMART Goals to drive performance and personal growth in individuals but I've also created department & project OKRs that sought to align with company goals and objectives from the ground up. It's all connected.
SMART Goals
I like to use SMART goals for performance reviews, making sure that goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. I have experience with adapting to a company's performance review process and also running my own process alongside a larger company's process to ensure the growth of my teams.
KPIs / OKRs
OKRs can be a powerful tool to align company goals with department goals which can then further be connected with individual goals. I have experience with creating OKRs for a QA Department that align with greater company goals as well as creating project specific QA OKRs which feed into both the QA Department OKRs as well as individual goals.
To me, it's all connected.
Define Quality
Defining what Quality you want to achieve is essential and it helps to not only have QA define and safeguard that Quality, but for all departments to do so. I've been involved in coming up with Quality Metrics and helping other departments to do the same and holding developers accountable.
Accountability & Ownership
QA has long suffered a stigma around there not being a career path in QA and that it's purpose is little more than a stepping stone for ambitious individuals looking to break into the game development industry.
One of the ways I think we break that stigma is to acknowledge the various different roles within QA, their unique challenges and acknowledge the people within those roles - by giving them autonomy, trust, accountability and ownership - all of which are ways in how I've run QA Teams before.