Q3 2024: Elevating Work Quality
The first two quarters of 2024 were incredibly busy. I was full of excitement as new projects rolled in, but that enthusiasm caused me to shift focus away from my older projects, placing them in “maintenance mode.” At the time, I felt comfortable doing this because we have talented subject matter experts (SMEs) who manage the entire process from start to finish. I assumed they could handle everything, including quality control.
It didn’t take long to realize that this was a mistake. When you work with internal employees, they tend to take full ownership of their work. But it’s different when working with external contractors. They don’t always feel the same level of responsibility, and some of them don’t think about the long-term effects of their work. When issues arise, they often dismiss them as simple “human errors.” But these seemingly small mistakes can have significant consequences. A single incorrect question could affect thousands of candidates in the hiring process, and vague or unclear problem statements can lead to a frustrating experience for candidates.
The biggest lesson I learned from this is that I need to be actively involved at every stage of the process. Whether it’s reviewing question ideas, testing the content, or making sure feedback is properly implemented, being hands-on has made a noticeable difference. Since I started doing this, I’ve seen a clear improvement in the quality of the content we produce.
Feedback from team members has confirmed this shift in quality:
- “@Soumya — I reviewed the content, language is crisp and clean. It felt neat. I really liked what you guys have come up with!”
- “The quality of the content is better than what was delivered in previous quarters.”
- “This set was well written and followed all our guidelines. Great work!”
- “These were very well written, Soumya.
This experience also pushed me to find ways to automate some of the more repetitive tasks. We developed a quality engine that can perform many of the checks I used to do manually. Not only has this made the process smoother, but it has also led to an even higher standard of quality in our work.
