The first ever engineer in his family, Senior SDET Deepak Dani gets to take complete ownership at Meesho
By: Amrita Bose
Tags: Software Development, QA, Ownership, Culture, A B Testing

The first ever engineer in his family, Senior SDET Deepak Dani gets to take complete ownership at Meesho Amrita Bose Follow Oct 25, 2019 · 6 min read

Photo credit: Smitha C

Born and brought up in Dungla, a small town in Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan, 27-year-old Deepak Dani, is the first person in his family to have become an engineer. His family has been in business for generations, based in and around Udaipur, and Deepak was also the first member to step out of his sleepy little hamlet and make it so far — to Bangalore. A B Tech in Computer Science from Techno India NJR Institute of Technology in Udaipur, Deepak was always attracted to the young, energetic and fast paced environment of a startup as compared to a corporate. The fact that startups adopt new technology immediately and are always experimenting, made him want to learn and pursue his career in this space. After a three year stint at Ola as part of its allocation team, Deepak found his way to Meesho as Senior SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) where he went to build a solid QA (Quality Assurance) environment within 10 months.

Here’s Deepak telling us why he joined Meesho in the first place, why QA testing is so important to make our resellers successful (a core Meesho value), and why he is most excited to come to work every single day!

Over to Deepak!

I joined Meesho in January 2019 as a Senior SDET. At Meesho I make sure that whenever any feature is released on the app, it should be of top quality, because even a small error can directly impact our resellers who sell through our platform. After all making resellers successful is a core company value, and whatever actions we take directly impacts them.

As a QA tester in the Tech team I make sure that the product is:

Bug free User friendly Functions smoothly

Before Meesho, I spent three years at Ola as part of its allocation team. There also I was in the supply side of affairs just as I am in Meesho (more on that later). Working at Ola gave me a good exposure as to how startups function.

The Meesho connection

Joining Meesho was a bit of a serendipitous experience for me. I didn’t hear of Meesho through conventional job portals, but a cousin sister living in Indore would often mention an app, which had helped her become a successful reseller and create her own business from home. She refused to tell me the name of the app though. I also happened to meet Sanjeev Barnwal (Meesho CTO and Co Founder) to discuss a role and when he explained Meesho’s business model and its vision of creating entrepreneurs throughout the country with zero investment, I knew I was onto something. A quick call to my cousin, helped me make a decision, because she revealed that she was indeed reselling on the Meesho app.

The fact that my sister sitting in a small town knew about Meesho and was using it for business made me realise Meesho’s scope and reach.

I then joined the company as one of its first QAs. I have been a witness to Meesho’s growth at a frenetic pace, from January where we were just 150 of us to now when we have grown to about 750.

A team outing to Goa just after I joined helped me break the ice with my workmates and made me bond with them. From the beginning I was given a lot of independence to set up processes and systems. I set up (and now manage) new micro services in the QA environment, and my testing journey started with user profile API testing, followed by Catalog Share Text Automation in different language translations . This was the perfect opportunity for me to learn about the business and how e-commerce actually works. Portal, API and Supply — I have worked on all three verticals at Meesho.

Building at scale

Within four months of joining, I was made to be a part of a big scaling project, where we decided to segregate different systems as part of the project. We worked on everything from reviewing to pricing, and other logistic components that usually comprise an e-commerce business. As the business grew, the system would still need to be as stable as day one, to be able to handle such scale.

As part of the scaling project, I got an opportunity to do A/B testing of a few services such as Pricing and Offers. Apart from this, I also worked on Inventory, Store Front, Review and Rating of Micro Services. During the scaling project, developers from across teams worked together tirelessly, pulling all nighters and make sure that all the features were tested thoroughly before being released. This project was a fine example of cross team collaboration. Because scaling work can’t be done in isolation — teamwork is essential. The entire team bonded over one common goal. Usually shipping big features end to end take two weeks or more, but we delivered and released them within 4–5 days without compromising on the quality.

We made sure that the system we built was scalable and withstood all QA tests.

Let’s ship this

At Meesho we believe in fast delivery so that we can see and understand the immediate impact. We also rely on reseller feedback once they use new features or upgrades. Based on resellers’ feedback, Product implements features or improves on existing ones, the Developer team then designs it and then the QA team makes sure that the new feature meets all standards of quality and the reseller should have a seamless experience while using the app. Solving the resellers’ problems and making them successful is a core Meesho value. During Meesho’s SBR (Sabse Bada Rupaiya) sale days, the Tech team is always on standby to fix any glitches — and make the sale successful.

The Supply side is also the key because all products flow from that side. Currently my role is to test out everything under the Supply side of services. I own and handle the developers’ code testing for over 10 services. For instance, before we used to manually upload all catalogs under the categories on the app. Now the whole process has been automated. We did a lot of optimisations, so that within a lesser time, we can ship a product. We can now easily release a big number of catalogues on the app daily. At Meesho, not only have I acquired immense knowledge about micro services, but also fast learning. For instance, choosing Smart testing to ship a product and then fine tuning it, along the way. This means a faster delivery but with perfection. Because as a QA, we cannot compromise on quality. Ever!

Owning it

At Meesho, we follow an end to end ownership system. From start to finish it is on me to make sure that the work assigned to me gets done and gets done well, and I have the liberty to experiment as well. As a QA, I work closely with the Developer and Product teams, and love to collaborate with them. Meesho’s flat structure ensures that you can approach anyone and ask for help anytime!

Getting inspired everyday

I look forward to coming into work everyday at Meesho. Because this is where I have often seen ideas turning into reality. The quirky office interiors with inspiring quotes and stories of Meesho entrepreneurs on our walls inspire me as do the stories of positive impact that Meesho has managed to have on the resellers’ lives. Not only do we help them earn more, but also educate them on using new features in the most effective way so that they become even more successful. Most of my colleagues are ex entrepreneurs themselves so there is always something to learn from them too.

Apart from work, we celebrate every festival at Meesho, celebrate every win — big or small and even take on health and fitness challenges together, like the recently-held Groupathon. It’s a high pressure job, but Cricket Wednesdays in the Tech team are a godsend. Every Wednesday, without fail the team plays a match between 9 and 11pm at night, which is a great way to step away from the desk and get some physical activity.

Want to join Deepak and help Meesho create 20 million entrepreneurs by 2020? Then we are hiring for several tech roles at Meesho. Apply here.