Getting visibility for career growth: What to do? (Part 2)

Phase 2 : Advanced Visibility Moves
Now here are the advanced level moves you can make. 

This is where you expand your influence beyond your immediate tasks as an Individual Contributor. Now your focus is beyond you. Now it is about your team, your product and your company.

Move 1: Suggest Process Improvements

Your Goal: Make the team’s work faster, safer, or more effective. And be seen as a driver of progress.

How to do it well:

1. Start small. Improve one pain point within your limited scope
2. Provide evidence—time saved, defects reduced, etc.
3. Pilot the change with 1–2 people before proposing it to the wider team
4. Present it as “Here’s what worked for us with these benefits. Shall we try scaling it?” rather than saying, ‘We should change everything.’

Here is an example:
You automate the release checklist and save 20 minutes per release. After 4 sprints, you present data to your leaders: “Automation saved us ~6 hours last quarter. Can we implement it across all squads?”

This shows that you care about improvements.

Move 2: Volunteer to Lead or Run Meetings

Your Goal: Increase your visibility as a facilitator. The one who moves work forward.

How to do it well:

1. Co-lead first (Example - run the testing section of sprint reviews)
2. Don’t just host. Prepare agendas and outcomes in advance
3. Keep discussions outcome-focused, not status-heavy
4. Summarize decisions and next steps. Share it
5. Follow-up action items (if required)

Here is an example:
You run a testing sign-off meeting. Instead of  explaining in detail about your testing process, you present a one-page risk summary. Then ask this.

“Are we ready to release with this known risk? Here are mitigation options.”

This provides solid input for the Product manager to make a decision quickly.

Move 3: Create Cross Functional Visibility

Goal: Make testing contributions visible to people outside your immediate team.

How to do it well:

1. Share short, value-focused updates in cross-team channels.
2. Volunteer to take up product management tasks
3. Demonstrate how developers can use Gen AI to prevent bugs
4. Share your test cases with the development team early in the cycle
5. Share your practices with other testing teams

Here is an example:
You share how your team reduced regression runs from 5 to 2 h in an all-hands meeting. Another team adopts your method and gets benefits.

Your presentation gives visibility to the entire company. Other team leaders appreciate you.

Move 4: Mentor Junior Testers

Your Goal: Magnify your impact by developing others and making them successful.

How to do it well:

1. Offer structured help
2. Support new testers by guiding them 
3. Pair-test on tricky features and explain your thought process
4. Explain how to pair with AI and reduce the testing cycle
5. Redirect them to the best-known resources for their challenges

Here is an example:
You voluntarily meet a new joinee. You explain to her your agile process, testing processes, availability of knowledge base, important resources etc. You will be the SPOC for any of her queries.

This move helps you to build your brand internally.

I have mentored hundreds of testers. Some of them are within my company. Some of them are from previous companies. They still come back to me for guidance.

I have the proud feeling of developing next level testers.

Move 5: Represent Testing in Strategic Conversations

Your goal: Ensure testing insights support product and business decisions.

How to do it well:

1. Learn to speak the business language (impact on users, revenue, risk).
2. During product refinement sessions, raise risks and trade-offs
3. Provide options, not just problems
4. Educate the stakeholders that quality is everyone’s responsibility
5. Highlight the fact that testing is not just gate-keeping

Example:
In the story refinement session, you ask for the implementation of accessibility. The product and engineering team might not have thought about it.

This helps you to be seen as an  ambassador of testing and your leadership qualities are showcased.

The outcomes of your moves in Phase 2 will be:

1. Your influence grows beyond “my Jira tickets”
2. Leaders start to see you as a thinker. Not just a doer
3. These activities create stories that show you are maturing and growing

Note:
I have also seen that many testers feel that they are not heard. If that is the case, I suggest going back to Phase 1. Get the basics right. Then move to Phase-2.

Gaining visibility is a loop. If something is not working, iterate. Learn, and then proceed.

This is gold,  ​@Jayateerth ,

Phase 2 really hits the point where testers move from “doing the work” to “shaping the work.” I especially loved the part about representing testing in strategic conversations that’s where true influence kicks in.

It’s not just about being seen, but about being heard in rooms where product direction is decided. The accessibility example you gave is spot on 👌.

Thanks for breaking this down so clearly definitely saving this to revisit! 🙌