Very few businesses in today’s market are functioning without a mobile application given the proliferation of mobile devices for both personal and business use. In fact, in a March 2017 report, Clutch divulged that at least 42% of small businesses have built mobile applications, and this number is expected to balloon to 67% before the year ends. Both enterprises and SMBs are pursuing mobile as a very viable channel for both their employees as well as their customers. Even small businesses are doing their best to adopt mobile apps with the goal to help improve their overall business performance.
Adding new features or functionality to a mobile application makes it interesting and can help increase user interaction and mobile traffic. But while innovative features and new capabilities are great additions to applications, these apps must go through a rigorous testing process before they can be released. Applications need to be tested on different mobile systems and mobile devices in order to assess compatibility and functionality based on the environment. This process of testing is known as quality assurance (QA), and though it can be mundane, it is a very important part in making for a seamless app release and experience. But some companies are looking to change the way QA is handled to make it an all-inclusive, easy, team-building experience.
SourceForge recently spoke with Kristel Kruustuk, the CEO of Testlio, to discuss the importance of quality assurance testing and how Testlio can help enterprises deliver a quality customer experience through varying testing methods.
Q: Can you give us a brief background about the company and the company’s mission and vision as well as some of your current clients?
A: Testlio was founded in 2012, after Marko (my co-founder and then partner / now husband) and I took $25,000 seed investment from winning a global AngelHack hackathon and our first paying customer in San Francisco.
Testlio helps companies launch better products faster. Our mission is to connect companies with the best software testers in the world to provide amazing customer experiences. We partner with QA managers, product owners, and developers to elevate the status of QA in the companies we work with.
We believe that an excellent customer experience is the key to success for any business.
Our customers include Microsoft, Lyft, Salesforce, CBS Interactive, NBA, Hotels.com, Flipboard, Strava. Since launching, Testlio has raised $8M in funding led by Altos Ventures and Vertex Ventures, hired over 60 employees, and established offices in Tallinn, Tartu and San Francisco.
Q: Estonia is praised for its tech success especially when it comes to security, how do you use these available tech resources in Testlio? What are Testlio’s contributions to Estonia’s tech reputation?
A: Estonians have grown up with e-services. We have learned how to trust our data in the hands of government for our own benefit. All those services need to be secure and data well protected. Thus engineers in Estonia tend to think on potential attack vectors already on the design phase. In Testlio we have put lots of effort on securing sensitive information of our clients and our testers.
I would say that being able to run a successful business from Estonia is definitely proof that the Estonian tech reputation is warranted. With our clients being in USA, we are in a good position to spread the word about Estonia as well.
Q: Testlio prides itself in establishing a diverse workforce. Where does the company currently stand in terms of diversity?
A: Diversity is part of Testlio’s DNA. We have been inclusive and welcoming from the get-go, it has never been a notion open to debate or something that had to be ‘strategically’ included in the company processes.
Kristel Kruustuk, the CEO of Testlio
We have no biases when hiring people: we strive to be the best at what we do, therefore we want to hire the best people whomever they might be – race, gender etc. is never a criteria.
Marko and I genuinely believe that diversity is the key ingredient for any successful business. Especially coming from Estonia that has a population of just 1,3M it’s a given that when you build a company, you have to factor in from the start the fact that your clients/users/ partners etc. will be global – that means that people building the products, selling or providing the services also need to be as diverse as possible otherwise we’d be selling ourselves short.
Today, 60% of Testlio’s leadership team are women, with 50%+ of all employees being women and minorities. Furthermore, our community is a globally diverse group of vetted testers covering 38 countries.
Q: The surge of mobile use is undeniable, especially with the increase in business applications as well as remote workers. How has mobile and the use of mobile devices and applications challenged Testlio?
A: Adapting to constantly changing environments, technologies, and devices does not come without its challenges. We have to be really strategic in our approach (what devices to prioritize, how to test globally, etc.) in order to be able to balance the increasingly complex mobile app landscape with the demand for fast deployments. With that said, this also creates more opportunities for us since in order for businesses to be competitive, providing great customer experience is vital.
Q: In regards to mobile, what prompts users to delete apps? What can companies do to prevent this? What are some characteristics of good, quality mobile apps?
A: Users delete apps for a variety of reasons but I would say it always boils down to either, the app not delivering what it promised, or overall poor user experience (technical issues, UX, etc.). According to Walker, 67% of customers mention bad experiences as a reason for churn. A good mobile app is among others: useful, user-friendly, well performing and regularly updated. To help guarantee this, we also analyze the end users feedback and use it along with our testing process.
Q: As professionals who have handled QA testing for years, what are some of the usual problems and/or challenges that you’ve encountered?
A: Creating a seamless customer experience requires talent and time dedicated to QA, but sometimes development teams might not consider it essential in the product development process. Testing becomes then an afterthought, and testers might receive product builds past original deadlines while still being expected to deliver fast results. Add to that the multitude of devices, operating systems, variation in network coverage, etc. and opportunities for performance issues increase manyfold.
Q: What was the inspiration behind starting a company solely focused on addressing QA testing? Why did you choose to specialize in this field?
A: After graduating high school, I wasn’t really sure of what I wanted to do. But luckily for me, I was surrounded by ambitious and tech-savvy people who recommended to pursue a career in tech. As a result, I went to study computer science at the Estonian Information Technology College with the thought of eventually becoming a developer. During my second year, while I was looking for opportunities to apply my new skills, my classmates pointed me towards software testing as an entry-level job option.
I’ve always been innately curious and driven to understand the why behind everything, so I took to testing like a duck to water. Testing was fascinating to me and I really wanted to become better at it. So naturally, I tried to accumulate as much practical experience as I could, including freelancing on the major crowdsourcing platforms out there at the time. However, I quickly became frustrated by the way testing was organized and how QA testers were treated.
I wanted to create change and implement the solutions that would fix the issues I encountered. I put my ideas on paper and with the help of my co-founder Marko created a prototype, entered AngelHack hackathon and here we are today.
Q: QA testing is a routine task, but why are some companies or app makers adamant about making it a priority? What are the consequences of putting off this vital task?
A: Good QA testing isn’t limited to routine tasks. It involves learning and exploration about the product to understand users’ needs. In an age where consumer satisfaction is of paramount importance to the success of any digital business, software quality and customer experience has become a major differentiator. Companies just can’t afford to not test – the risks and impact on consumer satisfaction would be too great.
Q: What are Testlio’s products and solutions?
A: Testlio leverages its global community of highly vetted testers and an end-to-end QA management platform to provide a fast, scalable solution for enterprises. Our solutions include mobile testing, functional testing (exploratory and regression testing), localization testing and automated testing.
Q: You have offices in Estonia and the US, can you explain the dynamics of how work is done for your clients? How do Testlio testers and clients meet and work together? How can clients save money when they work with Testlio testers? Can you explain Testlio’s all-in-one QA platform?
A: Currently, most of our Engineering and QA project manager teams are located in Tallinn, whereas in San Francisco we have all of our Sales team and a small size QA team. This setup allows us to work around the clock and deliver results fast.
Our platform seamlessly integrates into our customers’ tools and development environments (JIRA, GitHub, etc.), facilitating an iterative process with full visibility into testing progress. We either work with our clients existing plans or create and maintain them for them. Based on their release schedule, we develop full QA plan for test execution and test cycle management.
Moreover, clients are able to leverage our worldwide expert community of vetted testers (we have a less than 3% acceptance rate), ensuring their app meets with their users’ expectations regardless of location or device used.
Q: What are some solutions, products, or plans that Testlio would like to offer in the future?
A: We are constantly growing our community and improving our platform to scale and automate things where it makes sense.
Our community is the key to success for us and building and growing the community and providing exciting opportunities for testers worldwide is one of our highest priorities.
About Testlio
Testlio was founded in 2012 with a mission to offer mobile application testing for companies to help them save money by avoiding the need to buy test devices or to hire their own testing teams. The company provides clients with an all-in-one platform that helps empower teams and provides everything a company could need for QA…all in one place. Testlio currently serves clients from 40 different countries the world over, with big name clients like Flipboard, Strava, Lyft, and others.