The Making of a Quality Professional

I'm the kid who put "Eat Breakfast" on her to-do list so I'd start the day with something already checked off. I love checklists and bullet-points, and what you're about to read is a genuine enthusiasm for what I do at work. I am not fresh out of college, nor am I a seasoned professional with over twenty years in the industry.

Recently I moved from a role in Product Development to a role in Quality Assurance. This is not my first job in QA, but coming back to it after a year and a half of working on dry powder protein shake supplements, I'm noticing some key developments in my behavior.

PROBLEM SOLVING

I take the metro to work because I was having nightmares about being rear-ended on the 405. Eventually the Jellyfish Effect stopped working, and embracing the charm of traffic didn't help either.

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My first week of taking the train to work I was concerned by the frequency of breakdowns and delays. My commute takes four short train rides round trip. In 3 out of 5 days, at least 1 of my 4 rides was delayed due to mechanical difficulties. Statistically, that seemed like too many. This is what went through my mind:

Instead of getting perturbed by the delays, intimidated by the growing number of people waiting for the next train, or annoyed by the musk of people crammed beside me in the metro car, I was busy assessing the problem. 

Assessing the problem is the first step toward finding a solution.

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LISTENING

This might be a coincidence, but since moving to quality I believe I've become a better listener. When I was in Product Development, I was often trying to suggest answers – ingredient A works better than ingredient B; the formula tastes this way because it needs more of that, etc. Now, instead of making suggestions, I'm listening and doing a mental gap assessment – what do I know versus what do I need to know? I'm also assessing risk – what is the worst that could happen and should we try to avoid, transfer, mitigate, or accept this hazard? 

As a quality specialist, the key is not to suggest answers, but to ask the right questions.  

A DIFFERENT KIND OF FORMULATING

As a product developer I spent countless hours in the lab measuring out ingredients, enriching a formula, and tasting my creation. Now numbers are my ingredients. I recently created a spreadsheet to help me manage progress of a project I'm leading. Creating this spreadsheet was actually fun, like trying a new recipe in the kitchen. Using conditional formatting, I designed the spreadsheet so if I typed "performance" in a cell, that cell would turn blue, but if I typed "energy", the cell would turn green. 

Managing this data is on a whole different level than what I did in food science classes. It's the difference between writing a grocery list setting your fantasy line-up. 

Decisions are only as good as the data driving them.

BOTTOM LINE

As a colleague once explained to me, what makes a Quality Professional great is if they can look at chaos and see how the puzzle pieces will all fit together. I know I'm on my way...

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Food Science in the News: Carrageenan

I recently did some digging into the safety on carrageenan in food for August's Energy Drink of the Month. In addition to being difficult to spell correctly, the problem with carrageenan is that there's a prolific amount of misinformation readily available on the internet. I found this article by the International Food Information Council: Questions and Answers about Carrageenan in Food incredibly helpful. I highly recommend it for food scientist, non-scientists and all foodies everywhere.
Enjoy: Carrageenan in Food