This is part of a series on building QA & quality eng functions that work:
→ The QA Team I Wish Every Company Had
→ How to Build the Right QA Team for Your Company
→ (You are here) How to Translate QA Gaps into Hiring and Process Decisions
So, you've got your list of what's broken. Sorry to tell you this but: that's usually the easy part.
I don't mean to downplay the work it took to get a clear picture of your quality gaps. But for many teams, knowing what to do with that picture is where they stall. Hire someone? Change the process? Ask someone already on the team to stretch differently? Some other idea that folks haven't had yet but someone else might (and where do you find them)?
It's normal to have more gaps than you can act on at once, and not to know right off the bat which one to fill first. Breathe.
First, you need a way to prioritize your gaps.
Without a way to help you choose well, it's easier to default to whatever's loudest or most recently escalated by a stakeholder. So before jumping to solution try to understand which gaps are actually hurting customers + slowing down your team, and which are feasible to address in the next quarter or two. Rate each gap this way to start getting aligned on what matters most for your circumstance.
From there, commit to a goal to fill (or even just improve!) a single quality gap. You want this goal to be measurable enough that you'll know if it's moving, and tied to something that your stakeholders care about - you need to be able to point to it and say: "we made progress and here's why it matters".
Next, figure out what kind of support will actually help get you to your goal.
Headcount isn't always the answer. Evolving how the team works can matter as much as adding people, often times more.
A few common patterns:
| What You're Seeing | What Might Help |
|---|---|
Testing isn't getting done, or always happens last-minute |
Add QA support (hire, reassign, or contract). Rebalance responsibilities. Adjust planning to build in test time from the start. |
| Bugs are slipping through or reappearing, even in "tested" areas | Revisit test strategy. Grow product quality expertise across functions. Align on risk areas and add functional coverage. |
| Automation is flaky or nonexistent; regression is painful | Invest in test infrastructure. Bring in or upskill an SDET. Focus on reliability before scale. |
Whatever you choose, start somewhere contained - one team, or one process change - rather than trying to land everything at once. See what works and build from there.
The best quality transformations I've seen weren't driven by a well-thought-out 12-month roadmap. They happened one smart, well-supported step at a time with a team that cared enough to keep tweaking until things got better.