What a ride 2025 has been! Just like every year, I have taken some time to pause and reflect to celebrate the wins, acknowledge the challenges, and learning from the struggles. It's one of my way of appreciating the journey and setting the stage for what's next in 2026.
Work Highlights from 2025
- This was my second year in a leadership role at CFC, and what a journey it’s been. I call it great not because everything was easy, but because I learned so much and can truly see my own growth. Growth isn’t always about promotions, it’s also the quiet progress you feel within yourself.
- Navigating organisational changes while supporting my team wasn’t easy. But these moments taught me that some leadership lessons can only be learned in real situations, no matter how many books you read or courses you take. I focused on clarifying priorities and protecting focus during uncertain times.
- One of my biggest shifts was around conflict. I used to over‑avoid it because I worried it could damage relationships and trust (and yes, in some situations it still can). But this year, I learned to “put the fish on the table” to surface issues early and work through them rather than letting them sit and grow. If you keep a fish under the table, it will start to stink and make the whole place unliveable. On the table, you can cook it, eat it, and move on. This idea, from Sridhar Ganesh’s article shared in a leadership workshop by Lisi and Siva, changed how I see difficult conversations. Inspired by the “put the fish on the table” concept, I practised surfacing issues early and framing them around outcomes. It’s not about saying yes to keep the peace; it’s about respecting differences and engaging with care without losing my authentic style.
- This year as part of internal QE community session I had a privilege to host Debbie O'Brien and she delivered a session on MCP and Playwright. I enjoy organising and hosting these sessions and planning to do many more next year.
Community Contributions and Conference Learnings
- Last year, I intentionally took a step back from being fully active in the community to focus on my work and settling into my new role. Reflecting back, I realized that stepping away helped me truly appreciate the value of community something I had always known, but experienced more deeply when I was away. This year, I made it a point to re-engage, and it has been incredibly motivating and inspiring to be back.
- I attended the LeadDev London conference for the first time and what an experience! I captured my reflections in these articles from Day 1 and Day 2.
- I also participated in MoTaCon (formerly TestBash), volunteering alongside Rahul, Natalia, Ben, and Cassandra. We facilitated Lean Coffee conversations on interesting topics, including the ever-relevant topic of AI and testing.
- At Agile Testing Days, this was my fifth time attending and speaking, and it was another special year. Last year, I set a goal to collaborate on a joint talk or workshop, and this year I achieved it. Naomi and I had been connecting through the Women in Testing community, sharing experiences and challenges that resonated with each of us. We decided to share these insights with the broader community, and after months of preparation across different time zones, we successfully delivered our talk on the topic of 'Quality Leadership Toolkit for the first 90 days'.
- One of the most memorable moments was having my daughter sitting in the front row during our talk, an unforgettable personal experience. It was an honor to have Lisa Crispin, Anne-Marie Charret, and Elizabeth Zagroba in the audience as well. Partnering with Naomi was incredibly amazing, and receiving a speaker gift from ATD a signed copy of "Quality Coach" book by Anne-Marie Charret, featuring my article made the moment even more special.
- This year, I also contributed to the STEC certificate by MoT, participated in a conversation with Rosie Sherry on Leading with Quality (a definite fan-girl moment for me!), and wrote an article on organizing bug bashes published on MoT. It's always great and feels so rewarding contributing on MoT.
- I co-hosted the first few MoT London meetups alongside Gary, creating great community vibes, welcoming amazing speakers, and facilitating discussions. It was a brilliant experience to help build community connections. Alongside co-hosting this meetup I delivered a talk on 'Quality Engineering and Observability' at this meetup.
- For the past two years, I’ve had a goal to launch my own podcast to share my learnings and experiences in quality engineering, software testing, and leadership beyond speaking and writing. This year, I finally co-launched Quality Unfiltered with Suman Bala, and we have already released six episodes. Launching the podcast taught me how much work happens behind the scenes — from planning, organizing, and editing to publishing. Collaborating with Suman has been amazing, and I’m grateful that we could make this happen together.
- Continued mentoring on Mentoring Club and this year I also had the opportunity to mentor someone for six months through the Femme Palette platform. I really enjoyed learning about my mentee’s challenges in leading without a formal title and how she was willing to support developers and QEs with quality related challenges. This experience made me reflect on my own coaching style as well.
- Finally, I was part of the program committee for Agile Testing Days, reviewing speaker submissions, and also contributed to the program committee for TestMu conference by LambdaTest. These experiences gave me the opportunity to support speakers and contribute to the broader quality community in meaningful ways.
Personal Reflections
- This year, I struggled to keep up with my health and fitness. I love strength training and had been doing it consistently for the last two years, but 2025 tested that rhythm in ways I didn’t expect. Balancing time became much harder, especially with hybrid work and being in the office three days a week. Finding a routine that actually fits my current routine is something I’m still struggling with, and I’m carrying that question with me into 2026.
- What made this hard emotionally was knowing that the issue was not about motivation. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to train but it was that I couldn’t always make it work. In the beginning, I was hard on myself as I have a habit of setting high expectations for myself. I kept comparing this year to the last two, asking why I couldn’t do “what used to work.” I paused and reflected, instead of forcing the same expectations, I tried to reset by telling myself that even two or three sessions a week was enough.
- Did that work? For a while, yes. For the first month, it helped. And then, slowly, I drifted again. That cycle taught me something uncomfortable but important: adjustment isn’t a one-time decision; it’s something you have to keep renegotiating as life changes. I’m still learning how to do that with more kindness and less self-judgment.
- One thing I did consistently well this year was asking for help. I’ve been on and off coaching since last year, and it continues to be incredibly valuable. In the first half of this year, I was fortunate to access coaching opportunities through work, and I had the privilege of being coached by Katrina Clokie. I had been following her journey for some time, and when she shared she's offering coaching, I grabbed that opportunity and approached her. It defintely turned out to be the right decision at exactly the right time.
- For the first time, I took a full four-week break with complete disconnection. I travelled to India and didn't log into emails, didn't check Teams, and didn't just quickly see what’s happening. Initially, I wasn't sure I should do this. I was worried about staying connected, about things piling up, about whether it was responsible. My coach and my manager were very clear you have to do this. And I did it. What surprised me most was how I felt when I came back. I was not overwhelmed or anxious or behind. I came back with energy, clarity, and a freshness with many new ideas and, more importantly, a different perspective than the one I had before I left.
- This is a learning I’m taking forward. I no longer want to hold myself back with thoughts like I can't take that long a break or I need to stay connected. This year taught me that true disconnection is not only possible but it's very important to do this. I would recommend anyone to do this.
- I stayed consistent with learning by reading. I regularly read blogs and newsletters, with go-to voices like Alan Page, Pat Kua, Simon Sinek, and Wes Kao apart from software testing related blogs or newsletters. I listened to podcasts such as Lenny’s Podcast, Jefferson Fisher, Rethinking with Adam Grant, and the Engineering Quality Podcast by Ale, Royalee, and Veronika. Every time I read or listened to these podcasts there was so much more that I was able to relate to and learn. Many things resonated while reading or listening. (This gave me an idea of adding all the links to the resources section)
- Finally, I wrapped up the Leadership cohort with Lisi Hocke and Shiva Krishnan. That experience gave me language for things I had been feeling but couldn’t quite articulate.I’m hoping to write more about each topic from that cohort maybe as summaries, and as reflections of how they’re shaping my thinking and leadership.
It was a good year for me. I'm very grateful for the support and guidance I recieve from people at work and community. Don't want to mention names as I fear I might miss out.
Looking ahead, there are a few things I want to carry into next year not as goals, but as areas of focus. I want to continue releasing episodes of Quality Unfiltered in 2026, spend more time enhancing my GitHub profile through small side projects, continue reading newsletters/blogs consistently, continue practicing to write and publish 1 blogpost a month, speak at 2 conferences in 2026 and keep collaborating with community friends. I'm especially excited to start the year with a keynote alongside Suman at PeersCon, I'm so looking forward to this one. This would be my first time attending PeersCon too.
I’m ending the year with gratitude, clarity, and energy with carrying forward what worked, learning from what didn’t, and stepping into 2026 with intention and focus.
