Get ready to meet the awesome people behind Cinnamon services in our "Meet the Makers" blog series. Today, we're chatting with Marija Marušić, the badass leader of our QA team in the Zagreb office. She spills the beans on her background, shares tips for aspiring QA pros, and talks about her cool hobbies.

Don't miss out on discovering what makes Marija and Cinnamon QA services so awesome! Let's dive in.

What inspired you to pursue a career in QA, and how did you get started in this field?

It was only a matter of time for me because I've always had a "little bit" of OCD.

Since I'm naturally inquisitive (by trade, a journalist) and want to learn about all kinds of things, I've found QA to be fascinating, especially since many of my colleagues and acquaintances have found success in the field.

So, when a coworker of mine took a job with an American start-up, she asked me whether I was interested in making a career change from project coordination. When I was a junior and finally got to try it out, I was hooked. Who doesn't like finding flaws in other people's work?😀

What resources do you use to stay current on QA industry developments and best practices?

Definitely through attending different QA meetings and often talking with my coworkers. We discuss and debate anything that someone learns about.

What tools and technologies are you using in order to improve our QA processes?

The majority of tools are related to organization, such as splitting out TL and QA work. My go-to tools are Notion and Trello. These two gadgets are excellent for me since I prefer to keep things tidy and organized. 

For QA work, I can use VS Code or Xcode to build my own applications, Amplitude to monitor user logs and data, and Postman, Firebase, or Cypress to write automated tests.

What was the best project you ever worked on and why?

The one I'm working on right now. It's incredibly entertaining to test recovery devices' functioning, Bluetooth connections, firmware upgrades, and other related things. I need to pay attention to new things with each new gadget.

How do you collaborate with developers and product managers to generate high-quality, on-time products?

Daily updates on everyone's status are shared with the rest of the group. When one person crosses a barrier, all information is shared with the rest of the group. For this reason, if I notice something that doesn't make sense to me, doesn't look quite right, or has potential for improvement, I share my thoughts with the developers and the PM or PO in charge of the project.

What is one thing you would like the client to know about the work you do?

Testing takes time and the more freedom and time I get to test an application, product, etc., it will be more functional and bug-free. QA is an essential part of development and without the keen eye of a QA, the product might get a lot of negative feedback from the user. Most of the clients think that QA isn’t needed and that they can test it by themself. And I say to that - it’s wrong! QA needs to have a mind of thousand different people which lead to thousand different scenarios. Our goal is to “break” the application, find an alternative path to get to somewhere which nobody else thought of. QA work will decrease development time as well as estimate.

What are some of the key metrics you use to measure the success of our QA team?

I like leaving people to do their job without interfering and help them only when they ask for it. I’m monitoring each of my colleagues' work by participating in each group chat to see if they stumble on any problems or how they handle problems. I think people need freedom when working and I appreciate mine and their time.

What's your go-to productivity hack?

I wouldn't say I have a specific one. Maybe… You'll finish anything faster and sooner if you start working on it early in the morning. I enjoy interacting with people, thus I work all the time. I believe that having other people around boosts productivity. I dislike when issues go unaddressed. I work on things in the order that I prioritize them.

What's something you're really good at that people might not know about?

Goalkeeping, sleeping till noon (on weekends because I usually get to the workplace at 7 a.m.), cycling 100 kilometers, and caressing every dog and cat I meet on the streets are some of my hobbies.

What's the most interesting thing you've learned while working at Cinnamon?

Patience. With each new job, project, etc., I believe people gain greater patience. It's critical that you adjust to other people's working styles. Therefore, I would say that Cinnamon has taught me or given me greater tolerance for other people's job since I believe that others should also have patience with my working process.

The same advice I offered to myself: be persistent and don't be afraid to seek for assistance. I believe that perseverance is the secret to success.