Millan Kaul
ABOUT ME:
Millan Kaul is a Quality Engineering leader with extensive global experience spanning Asia, Australia, Canada and the U.S. He brings a worldwide perspective to building high-performing teams and building quality-first cultures across startups, scale-ups and fortune 500’s with a sharp focus on accessibility, scalability and engineering excellence.
Passionate about transforming how leaders approach quality, Millan shares practical insights on Quality Engineering, leadership and team dynamics. He believes in empowering teams through clarity, context, diversity and care—helping organizations scale their systems and deliver value with confidence.
Millan is deeply invested in community building and knowledge sharing. He is a frequent speaker at global conferences and community meetups and has actively co-hosted meetups: Sydney Testers (Australia), Innovate QA (Seattle,WA), YVRTesting (Vancouver, Canada). He co-organized Innovate QA Conference in Seattle (June 2025) with huge success.
Outside of work, Millan enjoys long walks with his better half and has a strong passion for building IoT projects. He has created 10 Fitbit (now Google) smartwatch apps available in the Fitbit App Store and has published his own Visual Studio Code extension.
Millan continues to inspire others through his ongoing projects and thought leadership. And his insights using his own hashtag #QualityWithMillan or his journey through his blog at qualitywithmillan.github.io.
WHY QUALITY? In 2 paragraphs give us an overview of your philosophy on Quality and how you approach testing in support of achieving quality outcomes… Please provide (non-confidential) real world examples:
"Quality, for me, is a craft—not a checkbox.
I’ve turned my passion for testing into a craft that blends systems thinking, data-driven insights, and empathy. Quality must be built in from the start, with testers as trusted partners shaping design, development, and delivery. My approach is outcome-focused—catching critical issues early and driving changes that protect both user trust and business value.
This passion led me to create my own brand of quality leadership—#QualityWithMillan—and a dedicated LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/quality-with-millan) that now has 360+ engaged followers and is still growing. I am not just theoretical; I am vocal and active in sharing my learnings, failures, and wins with the community through talks, posts, and mentoring. Whether it’s embedding quality practices in AI rollouts or shifting teams toward observability-driven testing, I bring both hands-on expertise and a commitment to elevating the craft of quality across the industry."
This board role will require 10 - 20 hours per month of often self driven activities and the ideal candidate is someone who is willing to own an initiative and drive it through to completion... Is this something you are willing to commit to, and in your most honest moment, what will keep you motivated when the work gets hard and progress feels slow?
"Absolutely. Rather than measuring commitment strictly in hours, I operate with a get-it-done mindset. Whether it takes an hour a day for 20 days or a single weekend of 20 focused hours, my priority is delivering results. If I see that I may not be able to meet a commitment, I’ll call it out early and seek support—just as we do in well-run projects—so momentum is never lost.
What will keep me motivated when the work gets hard is the impact. Knowing that I am not alone and AST’s board members are there to support me."
It's 2030. AST just won 'Global Nonprofit of the Year' for transforming testing careers worldwide. What three bold moves did we make between 2025-2030 that nobody saw coming?
Follow-up: Which of these moves would you personally champion, and how would you convince skeptics on the board?
"Here are my 3 (I wish I was asked 5) bold moves:
- AST Global Career Accelerator – A free, year-long mentorship and skill-building program pairing senior practitioners with early-career testers worldwide, resulting in thousands of career transitions and promotions.
- Responsive Community Model – AST shifted from a reactive community to a responsive one, using social media insights to identify what works, drop what doesn’t, and create high-impact, member-driven content around bleeding-edge technologies.
- Virtual-Physical Hybrid Conferences – Conferences where every in-person attendee is paired with a “virtual buddy” from another country, creating thousands of cross-border connections and shared projects.
The move I’d champion: The Responsive Community Model. We’re in the middle of a major industry shift that will continue for years, and I would use my social media expertise to engage members in real time, amplify their voices, and create relevant, timely content. With my solid technology skills, I can also take ownership of AST’s tech platforms—ensuring any board member or AST member has the tools and infrastructure to execute their ideas without delay. To win over skeptics, I’d start with small, measurable pilots, demonstrate clear engagement growth, and show how responsiveness drives both reach and relevance.
By the way I use my own ASCII board formatter to format (bold) text that i developed and deployed on my blog-web qualitywithmillan.github.io/format (no more ads)"
What's one thing AST is doing right now that we should stop doing immediately, even if it's popular? And what's one bold experiment we should try, even if it might fail spectacularly?
"I believe change should be intentional, not abrupt. I wouldn’t stop anything immediately—instead, I’d experiment with one change at a time, gather feedback from AST members, and make data-informed decisions. If the new approach works, we move forward and retire the old; if not, we keep what’s working.
One bold shift I’d champion—whether I join the board or not—is to make the AST community more actively engaged, where members are not just the audience but the ones on stage. Industry dynamics have changed, and we need to simplify and gamify participation. Ideas include featuring members on video or podcast interviews, inviting them to share blogs, incentivizing contributions, launching a vibrant YouTube channel, and expanding certification options. This would not only amplify member voices but also create a sense of ownership and belonging that sustains growth."
What is your history with AST? Describe why you are interested in serving on the AST Board and what personal / professional strengths make you an ideal board member for the organization?
Follow Up: Are there any particular initiatives or areas you are especially interested in driving / leading?
"I was recently introduced to AST and its leadership team, and I immediately became an active member. In today’s fast-changing landscape, I believe leadership is less about years of doing the same thing and more about adapting quickly, bringing fresh perspectives, and leaving a legacy. Serving on the AST Board for a respected nonprofit like this is my way of contributing meaningfully to a community I deeply value.
Having lived across four continents—spending key part of my career and life in Australia and later in Canada while building strong connections in the US and Europe—I bring both a local presence and a truly global network. Professionally, I have lead large testing communities: Sydney Testers (300+ members - https://www.meetup.com/sydney-testers), Innovate QA Seattle (1,340+ members - https://www.meetup.com/innovate-qa-seattle-meetup-group), and yvrTesting Vancouver (1,300+ members - https://www.meetup.com/yvrtesting). Within months of arriving in the US, I co-led a Seattle QA conference that doubled in size from 100 to 200 attendees, earning exceptional feedback from speakers and participants. My leadership style is decisive and action-oriented—I can set direction, gain alignment, and deliver results quickly. This energy and reach would complement AST’s already strong and experienced board."
When you step down from this board, what do you want your Wikipedia entry to say about your contribution to AST and the testing profession? What impact are you personally committed to creating?
"I want my Wikipedia entry to say I helped transform AST into a responsive, globally connected community that empowered testers to lead, share, and shape the future of our craft. I brought fresh perspectives, leveraged technology, and used social media to keep AST ahead in a rapidly changing industry. I’m committed to building sustainable programs, stronger global connections, and a culture where ideas turn into action fast.
And above all—Millan brought a smile 🙂 to everyone’s face, even in hard times or when someone needed emotional support."
You're on a board committee with members from Japan, Brazil, Nigeria, Germany, and the US. The group is stuck on a decision because cultural communication styles are clashing and creating misunderstandings. What is your strategy for facilitating breakthrough and building genuine consensus?
Follow-up: Provide an example of how you've successfully worked across significant cultural or professional differences.
"When cultural communication styles clash, I create space for active listening and mutual respect by encouraging open sharing of perspectives while recognizing diverse cultural norms—whether direct or indirect, formal or informal.
I leverage clear documentation and collaborative visuals like Miro to map out the situation, making communication transparent and visible to all. To guide decision-making, I use practical methods like Consult, Agree, Decide, Execute (CADE) or RAPID (Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide) to clarify roles and responsibilities, ensuring everyone understands their part.
This clear and open approach helps the group move past misunderstandings and build genuine consensus based on respect and teamwork.
I’ve led and participated in many diverse, multicultural community events, and I’ve learned that respect and active listening are key to success. Professionally, one example stands out: I joined a group experiencing frequent leadership changes with unclear handovers—especially around finances. To improve transparency and continuity, I created a simple, easy-to-use excel expense tracker. That small change gave us clear visibility into our spending, forecasted future needs, and highlighted limits. As a result, everyday decisions around purchases for people and technology became smoother and handovers were much easier, enabling the team to stay aligned despite the leadership changes. [ I still have the template if AST wants to use that 🙂 ]"