Ten years ago, a young specialist named Elena Vershinina walked into a small attic office in Vladimir for an interview. It was one of Altenar’s first offices: just a few people, a lot of ambition, and a sense that something big was starting. She got the job as a lead tester in a team of three.
Today, Elena heads Altenar’s Quality Assurance Department, which now includes 35 people.
We spoke with Elena about cloudy and perfect workdays, the hardest part of leadership — letting people go — and how to keep bureaucracy out of a growing company.
Elena Vershinina, Head of QA at Altenar
— How did your career begin?
I graduated from university in 2004 and got my first job in the IT department of a local factory. I only worked there for eight months, but those months gave me invaluable experience.
I tried a bit of everything — analytics, development, testing — even though my official position was “computer operator.” Some of the software engineers there had very limited technical knowledge, so by helping them, I learned a lot myself. I studied databases on my own, practiced, and experimented.
One day I told a friend what I was working on, and he said: “What are you even doing there? You belong in IT.”
He advised me to apply to a company that was hiring testers at the time. I passed the interview for a junior QA role and just six months later, I was promoted to senior tester. In 2015, I joined Altenar as a Lead QA Specialist.
— So it’s been ten years now. Quite a journey! What’s kept you here for so long?
Continuous opportunity. Altenar never stands still, it’s always growing, evolving, changing. That means we constantly have to optimize our processes and rethink our approaches.
What worked for a team of three no longer works for a team of thirty. You have to adapt, rebuild, and keep developing both technical and soft skills, even when it comes to hiring and managing people. So yes, I’ve had to grow professionally too.
— How did it all start?
When I came for the interview, I met both the CEO and the Head of IT Development right away. We were in a small attic office back then. The company was just taking shape, about twelve people total. But that didn’t stop me. I believed it would grow — and I was right. By spring, we’d already moved into a new office and doubled in size.
At the time, the project had two testers, but no structure at all: no processes, no test documentation. Issues kept surfacing during releases, and product quality suffered. So my first big mission was to build the testing process from scratch and ensure stable quality. Since then, we’ve been growing together with the company. What matters most is that our values align, we don’t just complete tasks for the sake of it, we work for real results.
— How would you describe your management style?
Democratic. Authoritarian management doesn’t fit either me or the company culture. Our Head of Development also believes in a democratic approach — and I think it brings the best results, especially in a fast-growing environment.
Authoritarian management often leads to bureaucracy: when every decision depends on one person, you lose time and efficiency. A more flexible model gives active employees room to grow, encourages delegation, and lets us handle far more tasks within the same time frame.
— Some companies still track working hours. What do you think about that?
We don’t measure performance by the clock. We look at the outcome. I still remember how it was back at the factory — ten minutes before the shift ended, people would already line up by the gate, waiting to rush out the second the bell rang. That’s not the kind of mindset we want here. We look for people who think in terms of results, not minutes.
— What’s the atmosphere like within your team?
It’s built on equality and respect. Titles don’t define relationships here. At the same time, every person is different, and that’s where leadership starts — knowing how to adapt. Some people work best with clear, step-by-step tasks. Others thrive when they’re given freedom and trust. The key is balance: enough structure to keep things clear, and enough space for initiative.
— And what makes someone an ideal hire for your team?
Someone who’s open, honest, curious, and ready to grow. Analytical thinking helps, but communication skills and reliability matter even more because testing is the last line before a product reaches the client.
I also really value decisiveness. Without it, it’s hard to hold your ground with developers.
— Describe a day in your life.
Every day has its own rhythm and that’s what makes the job interesting. There are days when everything goes perfectly: meetings happen as planned, releases go smoothly, and tasks are completed on time.
And then there are the cloudy days when an incident pops up, something gets missed, and we have to react quickly and fix things on the go.
But the toughest days are the ones when I have to say goodbye to someone from the team. Every employee is part of our shared story, part of who we are as a department. Saying farewell is never just a formality, it always feels personal.
— Have you had to let people go often?
Fortunately, not often. But yes, it’s happened over the ten years I’ve been here. There was only one truly difficult case: we’d made a hiring mistake from the start.
Sometimes people left on their own — some decided to change their career path entirely, and once we had to part ways for medical reasons: a team member’s eyesight was deteriorating, and spending long hours at the computer became impossible. And sometimes our testers simply moved into development which, honestly, I see as a success story.
— What project are you most proud of?
My biggest achievement is building the teams we have today. We now have six of them and each one is successful in its own way. There’s a genuinely warm atmosphere in every team. Of course, much of that credit goes to our wonderful test leads. They play a huge role in keeping the teams efficient and motivated. I’m very proud of them too.
— Were there any mistakes along the way — and what did they teach you?
The biggest mistake is being afraid to make them. Because the only person who never makes mistakes is the one who never does anything — that’s my favourite saying.
And there’s another one: you learn from your mistakes.
A common trap for new managers is the fear of hiring someone better than themselves.
But in reality, to solve complex problems, you need a mix of people with different strengths, personalities, and skills. That diversity in both hard and soft skills is what makes a team stronger.
It’s actually great when someone can do what others can’t, that’s how we grow and expand our horizons.
