Tag: growth mindset tech

MoT Meetup – Summer 2026

Hello hello !

It is 2a.m. and this is the only time I had to update the blog with the latest events !

I know the blog has been quiet since I opened my startup, and I wish I could be posting a lot more. I have been learning from left, right, center, inside and outside. This is the hardest thing I have done in my life, probably harder than moving to another country where I didn’t know anybody.

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to share a panel of Q&A with Simon Stewart at Novibet offices and also to speak at the Ministry of Testing Athens Meetup (MoT Athens 🇬🇷 ) sharing the stage with Simon, Wim, Noemi and also Diego Molina (Uhul another South American here in Europe 🙌 ).

The panel was really good, we arrived pretty much on brazilian time as we were really bad with directions 😂

Thanks gosh people were still motivated to ask questions when we arrived, and thanks Simon for taking the lead and presenting yourself first !

I know that we had around 200-300 guests like the last time I came to talk at MoT Athens and again people there makes completely the difference! Unique energy that I rarely see in other events where things are too corporative or full of egos (Not sorry for being honest 😂 )

My talk was a little different from the traditional testing presentation.

Instead of focusing on testing software, I explored a question that has been on my mind for quite some time:

What if we tested ourselves the same way we test software?

As testers, we question assumptions, look for edge cases, automate repetitive tasks, measure outcomes, and continuously improve. Yet many of us rarely apply the same rigorous mindset to our own lives, habits, careers, and personal growth.

During the session, I shared what I call the QA Mindset for Self-Growth, built around five principles:

  • Question everything.
  • Think in edge cases.
  • Automate the repeatable.
  • Measure what matters.
  • Iterate relentlessly.

What started as a framework inspired by software testing has become something I use daily as a founder. Building a company forces you to constantly challenge assumptions, identify risks before they become problems, create systems that scale, and continuously adapt based on feedback.

In many ways, entrepreneurship and quality assurance are surprisingly similar.

Both require you to become comfortable with uncertainty.

Both require you to look what you can control, yourself and take accountability not blaming others.

And both teach you that perfection is not the goal, the journey (continuous improvement) is.

The rest of the meetup was equally inspiring. We heard talks about AI-assisted testing, modern QA practices, security challenges, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and the evolving role of testers in a world increasingly influenced by AI. It was a reminder that our industry continues to move fast, and staying curious is becoming one of the most valuable skills we can develop.

I also loved seeing the community engagement throughout the event. From the interactive quizzes to the networking sessions and conversations between talks, it was clear that MoT Athens has built something special ♥️

In the end the feedback was so positive – but you know me – I like the constructive feedback !

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Thanks for Diego for pointing me out the things I can improve for the next and try to reduce my anxiety and my dry mouth and the eternity that looked like when I was finally able to drink water. Of course this wouldn’t be me if I didn’t do something to embarrass myself and I spilled water when I was finally drinking 😂

A huge thank you to the organizers, volunteers, speakers, and everyone who attended. Organizing events like these takes an enormous amount of effort, most of which happens behind the scenes.

Also thanks for Satoshi Nakamoto that was presented there (find him on the quiz picture) – unfortunately he was not the winner, so I couldn’t finally meet him lolz

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And personally, thank you for welcoming me and giving me the opportunity to share ideas that sit at the intersection of technology, testing and personal development.

Moments like this remind me that growth rarely happens in isolation !

Hopefully, it won’t take me until 2a.m. again to write the next blog post.

Until then, keep going !

How to Develop a Growth Mindset in Tech

I should have posted this ages ago when I went to the Growth Mindset workshop, but I was on holidays so I had to postpone it a bit. Growth mindset is how you approach failures and challenges in your life. I am going to focus on how to have this mindset in your workplace.

 

 

Have you ever found yourself in your comfort zone ?

 

If you are in your comfort zone you will be for some time until something happens.

Most of people love to be in the comfort zone, it is a safe place right ? But it is not in this zone that you have the chance to improve and be the best version of yourself. I started in the QA area as a manual tester as most of the QAs start and if I didn’t challenge myself I would still be there, doing the same job, unhappy but safe.

When you don’t push yourself to get out of this zone, you will need to wait until you are forced to get out. In these moments you will find yourself defeated because something happened out of your control. Sometimes if you have been in this place for many years you won’t even know where to start. I saw people working +10 years in the same company and when there was a cut they couldn’t find a job after more than 2 years and why is that ? I get that you are comfortable where you are, you have a good salary, quality of life, but and if you are outdated with the current market ? Do you think is really a good idea be completely dependent of a job ? Not sure if it is a good idea, for this reason I prefer not to wait for these moments and create myself new challenges.

 

How do you react a feedback ?

 

Embrace the challenges and be persistent, maybe will take more time than what you expected, but when you reach your objective you will feel fulfilled. There are some feedbacks that depending from who is coming you can ignore, because they are not there to add anything, these are called destructive feedbacks.

These feedbacks could be given by managers who don’t really know your work, they are not working with you daily or they don’t communicate with the team. This makes really hard for a person to give a realistic feedback, so in this case you can completely ignore because clearly this person has no clue of what you do.

They will give you a superficial feedback like you need to communicate more or have lunch with the team more often. Remember that social gathering is optional and you should do only if you feel comfortable enough. Don’t push yourself to go to places with people that you don’t trust or don’t add anything just for networking. It is better spending your time creating a quality network in another place instead.

This problem usually happens when the manager doesn’t know how to build bridges across the team, otherwise socializing in the workplace wouldn’t be a problem in the first place. During these 10 years of experience, I’ve had only 2 good managers which who I still have contact and they became my friends outside work.

The constructive feedbacks should be embraced, they come from these kind of managers. They really care about your development and your growth. They do regular catch ups (doesn’t need to be formal or even announced) with the team and they know how to build a trustworthy relationship.

Keep your mind open for these feedbacks, don’t take it personal and don’t be upset about it. I know we have a constant fight with our ego, but these feedbacks are the steps for your own development. Be thankful for having managers like this that can see yourself under the superficial impression and can give you a good feedback. My suggestion is to keep these kind of people always around, surround yourself with good professionals and be inspired by them.

 

Vision and values: Does the company has the same values as you ? Do you agree with the vision of the company ? Does the company has a vision ? Do you feel included in the company’s vision ?

Money: Do you know your value in the market ? If you don’t, are you doing some interviews to figure out ? Do you have goals where you need to sacrifice your work/life balance for an amount of time ? Is your company valuing you enough increasing your salary ?

Experience: Look for companies that look for generalist developers this means that the company will always follow the new technologies and you won’t be outdated.

Managers & Exec team: Do you trust in your manager ? Do they have your back and fight for the team ? Does he care about your happiness in the work ? Does he take your opinions into account or just ignore them ?

Peers & team: Are you respected in your team ? Do you trust in your team ? Do you have a good sense of collaboration across everybody ?

Work/Life & respect: Do you have a flexible work that understand your needs ? What is the police to work from home ? Do you need to feel the stress of commuting ?

Growth and empowerment: Can you learn from the people that you work with ? Are you growing ? Are you stuck doing the same thing over and over ?

 

How emotionally intelligent are you ?

 

 

Constant Learning

 

To summarize basically what was being written here, push yourself and accept the challenges. You won’t be successful on all of them, but be resilient and continue improving. Take advantage of learning with the previous mistakes. Sometimes you will need to change your strategy or even your goal, but what matters is the quality of the journey !

 

Thanks Joanna Chwastowska for sharing this workshop !