START Summit Extension: Tokopedia’s First Virtual Technology Conference
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After successfully holding its first technology conference, START Summit, which was attended by more than 2,000 tech enthusiasts and over 75,000 viewers through Tokopedia PLAY in February 2020, Tokopedia has brought yet another innovation to the table called START Summit Extension, Tokopedia’s first virtual technology conference.
On 23 April 2020, Tokopedia held its first START Summit Extension themed She Codes with Purpose to welcome Kartini Day. More than 6,000 tech enthusiasts on Tokopedia PLAY and YouTube Live had the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills alongside Tokopedia’s innovative and inspiring women leaders in the tech field.
Here are Tokopedia’s women leaders in tech who shared their latest innovations, insights and aspirations for women in the industry during the START Summit Extension: She Codes with Purpose.
Elvira Simanjaya, Test Engineering Manager
As one of the few in her field, Elvira shared her Test Engineering journey at Tokopedia, from implementing manual systems with Quality Assurance (QA) to creating automated systems for Test Engineering (TE). Since then, Tokopedia has become the first Indonesian technology company to introduce and implement TE.
Throughout the years, Elvira was involved in three important innovations in TE; Data Tracking Automation Tool called TETRA to check the data layer on Tokopedia Android and iOS apps as well as desktop, and light version of Tokopedia; Tokopedia’s internal Device Lab development; and APA Test Automation Framework that is able to execute thousands of test cases in seconds.
In this current pandemic, Elvira and her team are focusing on making it easier for users to practice their faith and carry out their fasting while staying at home.
“Instead of creating something festive, we shifted our focus to help sellers start their online business and fulfill the needs of our users; from praying to accompanying your iftar.”
During the Work from Home (WFH) period, Elvira’s team also implemented some adjustments, including holding regular morning sync-ups, end of day progress follow-up, and creating a virtual war room for several high-level projects.
“Our TE team is always on track and stays true to our goal. That’s why I’m very proud of my team, as they always give their best efforts in every part of our journey. At this moment in time, I think there are many people out there that need and depend on our platform; from users that need to fulfill their needs to sellers who need to continue their business. As part of the Engineering team, we have to make sure our platform remains stable and resilient,” Elvira said.
Renny Runiawati, Software Engineer Lead-iOS
Renny’s interest in the iOS platform has grown ever since she was in college, as she believes that the iOS platform offers several advantages in terms of user experience, privacy, and product release.
For Renny, the on-going pandemic has not gotten in the way of the Tokopedia iOS team’s drive to develop new features. She always makes sure that she instills principal values in each of her team members to maintain high levels of commitment and ownership, including by sharing knowledge related to leadership and the latest global innovations in tech.
“App release is crucial. Our strategy to maintain a weekly release is by splitting our team into several functions and focuses, while also referring to each module. To ensure the quality of the feature being developed, we have to go through several processes, such as testing, development, bug bash, and regression.”
One of the iOS team’s innovation is Tokopedia Play along with its superior features, Live Shopping, Live Chat and Live Stream. These features are considered to be needed by users to facilitate their use of the Tokopedia application.
“With the current pace of technology development, I think everything will be digitized in the future. Tokopedia as a technology company always supports growth and development in any situation in order to learn from each other and innovate to make people’s lives easier.”
Ranty Putri Rudiana, Data Analyst Lead
The Product Development team at Tokopedia implements a data-driven system in their processes. Therefore, a Data Analyst is implanted in each of Tokopedia’s business units to gain insights for product development, where Ranty undertakes this specific role in the Logistics team.
The role of the Data Analyst (DA) team is to process data into consumable insights for product development. A Data Analyst’s job includes data gathering, data processing with in-house tools, and data distribution.
“The decision-making process at Tokopedia is always based on data, and not merely from observation or intuition. Collaboration between Data Analysts, people in Business Development, and Product is the key to develop appropriate and efficient products for our users.”
During this pandemic, work adjustments have also had to be made in Ranty’s team, such as daily sync-ups and setting of work hours. Ranty also explained that the Data Analyst team is using a tracking software named Jira which monitors the timeline and quality of the products produced, to maintain the effectiveness of their work.
A special project that they are working on is analyzing user’s shopping patterns in the marketplace. “From this analysis, we can find out more about the products that people need and can encourage potential sellers to start their businesses online to sell that specific product, because of the (current) high demand,” she said.
As a Data Analyst, gaining broader insights is an exciting thing for Ranty and her team. She went on saying that since joining Tokopedia, there are two things she is very grateful for; the smooth internal collaboration within the Data Analyst team, and the ability to dig deeper into the data to gain valuable insights together with the UX Research team.
