DS and I were sitting in Starbucks, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta and were busy brushing our hands over our laptop keyboards typing one or the other useless things (which anybody does, sitting in an airport waiting for the flight). Let me correct that, I was on a laptop and he was in his Macbook and iPad. It does matter because DS doesn’t like it to be called a laptop.
I surprised him by writing until the previous sentence and announcing that he’d be interviewed by me. I am going to ask him tough questions, really tough questions and interested to see how he handles it. I would capture exactly the same way he said it and publish it in here before our flight takes off.
So, welcome to the interview, DS,
PS: Is your team the best mobile test team in the world? How do you know that? Are you willing to take upon a challenge from any part of the world?
DS: I don’t think they are the best yet. They are the youngest. My goal is to get them to make them the best AND the craziest mobile test team by the end of this year. That said, I am willing to take up the challenge from any part of the world.
PS: Tell me some of your team’s accomplishments so far?
DS: After we worked on Flyte e-books and Flipkart had a successful launch, Rahul Chari, Director – Digital said, “I want to bring Flyte Mp3 to the same quality of Flyte e-books and need Moolya’s help”
(DS paused and is thinking in here as he is questioning what accomplishment means)
It is a young team and what they have done without having to supervise is commendable. So, that is an accomplishment in itself.
PS: What is your accomplishment over the last 6 months?
DS: Building a team with courage. They were working as an individual in silos and it took a while to get them to think like a team and be like one. Now, everything they do they are doing it as a team. (PS comment: I remember the Gladiator fight when I heard that from DS where Maximus asks, “Anyone been in the army? Whatever comes out of these gates, if we stand together, we survive”)
PS: What have you failed to achieve that you wanted to?
DS: There is a stealth mode project that I was supposed to have made progress on but I haven’t. This is a failure. We need to do better on the automation front. That is a failure. We should have been there completely by now.
PS: Were you aware of the risk of mentioning your failures publicly?
DS: Hmmm! Yeah!
PS: (asking questions, in not always easy, I was wondering what next to pose to DS) Can you take up the challenge of mind mapping in testing from anywhere in the world and have the confidence to turn out to be the best?
DS: YES (Read that in Font Size 100)
PS: What is integration of x /x+1 ?
DS: The same as integration of 2.
(I think that’s incorrect but I don’t know the integration of 2 either. Sorry to have asked this question to you DS)
PS: I will write the names of some of your team members and you have to tell one word that describes them the best. This is rapid fire. If you take more than 1 second to answer, I move to the next.
DS:
Abi: Curious
Arthy: Witty
DS: Ha ha ha ha ha
Sai: Talented
Nano: Smart
Anil: Sincere
Pranitha: Hard working
Megha: Smart & Strict
Vidisha: Silent, learner.
_end of interview_
Time to fly!
Fletcher Lynd Seagull signing off for the moment. Taking Dhanasekar Seagull along with me on the flight. We will land, and rest for a while before we fly again. As other birds see us fly, they may gather courage and understand that as birds they are meant to fly not be tied in cages because some birds aren’t meant to be caged their feathers are just too bright. (Thanks to Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Shawshank Redemption)
10:48 PM, Jakarta
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