Innovation, Leadership & Women Shaping the Future of QA

By: Deepti Patil, Director, Nokia

Deepti Patil is a seasoned Software QA leader with over 20 years in the telecommunications industry, specialising in Network Management and Test Automation. An agile expert who has played a key role in organisational Agile Transformation, leading diverse QA teams across global geographies. Passionate about fostering inclusion, serving as a diversity and inclusion champion.

In an engaging interaction with women Entrepreneurs Review Magazine, Deepti reflects on her journey in quality assurance and technology leadership, sharing how curiosity, psychological safety, and people-centric thinking can transform QA from a compliance function into a powerful driver of innovation, excellence, and sustainable team performance.

To learn more about Deepti’s leadership philosophy and insights on QA-driven innovation, read the full article.

What early experiences made you realize that quality assurance isn’t just about compliance, but can actually drive innovation and excellence in product development?

I have always thought of QA professional as someone who represents the customer or end-user of the system. When you do that, you go beyond the formal system specifications and also scrutinize different aspects like – are we solving a genuine problem for the customer or is the user experience good? We also question, if something is just ‘barely enough’ or ‘good enough’ or excellent? When we can articulate these effectively within product development, we influence innovation and excellence in product development.

For me, this realization came early in my career due to my own curiosity. I would ask a lot of questions out of curiosity and the eagerness to learn. It’s this curiosity that leads us to better analytical thinking which is a valuable trait in QA. So be curious, question assumptions!

As a woman leader in the technology space, how do you balance the technical rigor required for innovation with the human side of leadership?

For innovation and technological advancements to happen, we need to challenge the status quo. Challenging the status quo can cause some discomfort, conflicts and maybe some degree of chaos within your team or even across different teams. It’s the leader’s responsibility to manage the conflicts, the tension and create an environment where people feel safe to challenge the status quo and at times even challenge each other. As a leader, I strive to create a psychologically safe environment where we all are comfortable with intellectual conflicts. I always make an effort to not let these conflicts become personal so that we can bring out the collective genius of the team to achieve our goals. 

Building on that, can you share a specific instance wherein this balance between technical rigor and crew collaboration led to a breakthrough or unexpected success?

Often, innovation does not happen in one magical moment like a lightbulb going off. It’s a result of many small steps taken and small goals achieved daily. It’s a result of co-creation. Everybody brings something unique to the table and leaders should create an ecosystem in which every team member can best utilize their strengths to contribute to the larger goal.

There was a phase in my career when we were suddenly dealing with larger projects with a smaller team and the team’s morale was at all-time low due to major organizational changes. It all started with all of us understanding the end goal, the purpose and aligning all our short and mid term plans with that. That was also a phase when I worked intentionally on improving team-bonding.

Instead of feeling daunted by the enormous goals that we had in front of us, we decided to break our goals of improving efficiency thru automation into simple, small actionable work assignments. It took us one year to turn the situation around and to lead the team to success, but we were seeing meaningful and tangible progress every quarter.

Looking back at the ground covered every 3 months, 6 months and a year, team felt motivated and energized to keep going. Success lies in being able to define these small work items in such a way that everybody is using their strengths and skills meaningfully and we are all rowing in the same direction. As engineers, we get motivated when we can move forward and can see results of our work. So it’s important to appreciate the small wins, then mark the major milestones and ultimately celebrate the victory.

Following that revel in, how did you guide your team to sustain that momentum and embed a subculture of innovation in daily QA practices?

The key is to not get complacent and to drive continual improvement. I also try to strike a balance between the technical depth required to converge different ideas, viewpoints and the leadership aspects like nurturing collaboration or long-term vision or navigating the complex environment that we all operate in.

To sustain innovation and continual improvement, I empower my team. Only thru empowerment and delegation you can help the team to take ownership and to drive results.

From your perspective, how does being a woman influence your approach to problem-solving, mentorship, or influence selections in a technical leadership role?

In my personal experience, women appreciate diversity in thoughts and perspectives very well. That’s one key aspect of problem-solving. Being open to diverse ideas and viewpoints instead of being fixated on one thing, improves the problem solving process. To be a good mentor to someone, you need to meet them where they are, and not where you are at. You cannot mentor someone without understanding what it’s like to walk in their shoes. I wouldn’t want to generalize it, but women tend to have empathy and are comfortable to show vulnerability. Both of these qualities can help them to be good mentors.

I consciously avoid falling into this trap. When I am selecting someone for a leadership role, or building a team, I look for more diversity of thought, skills and strengths.  When people with complementing skills and strengths come together, you build a strong and winning team.

LAST WORD: Advice for Women Professionals

In general, we are always providing trainings, mentorship and different resources for women to succeed at workplace. What we don’t talk much about is taking care of ourselves. Taking care of your mental and physical well-being is crucial to success as well as longevity in your professional journey. Unfortunately, I have seen many of my talented female colleagues and friends having to slow down or quit the workforce entirely to prioritize their health. So please make time for yourself. When you are in good health, mental and physical, you live a life of joy and fulfillment and also have the strength to pursue your aspirations.