Hidden Trail and I
Jani Grönman, Quality Coach and Managing Partner at Hidden Trail
Five years of big changes - my recent career history
The beginning - five years ago
This story starts with an ordinary development discussion that ended up not so ordinary. I’ve never been the easiest person to manage, that’s for sure. I sometimes have strange ideas that I feel passionately about and what make sense only to myself. I’ve sometimes made my supervisors frustrated, for good reasons. I sometimes feel that I am a threat and a possibility at the same time.
About five years ago, during a development discussion at my previous employer, we were sketching out my career path over the next five years with my team lead. When asked about my goals, I confidently declared that within five years, I wanted to be leading either a business unit or a product of my own.
Not exactly a small ask for someone who was just a regular member of a team at a software consultancy! I did have experience in leading teams of up to 20-30 people as a project manager, but I was nowhere near even team leader responsibilities at the time.
At the time, I’d spent a couple of years working with my colleague Pekka Marjamäki on a concept related to coaching our clients and in-house teams in testing and software quality. We had this burning desire to see the concept grow, and we even had a decent idea of how to shape it into a product. What we lacked was the expertise in productization and the proper support to start marketing it. So, that famous "next step" was still waiting to be taken.
Initially, we had solid backing from management to develop the concept, and sales were at least lending an ear to what we had to say. We mapped out buyer roles, created value stream maps, participated in pitching offers—you name it. But as the original sponsors left the company, it started to feel like we were stuck in the sand. Sure, there were good people around us, encouraging us, but that final "Yes! Let's do this!" never came.
Back to that development discussion five years ago. We pondered how to push forward this kind of internal "entrepreneurship" and what steps would be necessary to achieve those lofty goals. My team lead admitted that he simply didn’t have the authority to support such big leaps. I totally understood—after all, fulfilling such dreams was largely going to depend on my own initiative and ability to network. This wasn’t about a small pay raise or permission to go to a conference.
Out of courtesy, my boss said he'd bring it up with upper management, though, of course, he couldn’t make any promises. Still, I was really satisfied that I managed to put my ambitions into words. Even though I didn’t have high expectations, it felt like my dreams were at least being acknowledged. My boss even seemed to believe, at least on some level, that I could pull it off—even though neither of us knew exactly how.
Opportunities arise - Hidden Trail gets created
About a year later, one fine spring day, my old colleague from Weave BCE, Teemu Korpela, then at a DevOps company called Polar Squad, gave me a call. He explained that the demand for QA expertise was higher than ever, and they had come to the conclusion that the world needed a new company to meet that need. When he asked, "Would you be interested in founding this venture with us?" I thought for two seconds and replied, "Hell yes, I’m in!" The decision didn’t need much pondering—I had one concept stuck in sand, and my career was in a bit of a limbo. What did I have to lose? The company, which at first went by the working title of QA-Kiska, eventually became Hidden Trail Oy, and in the summer of 2021, five founders with different backgrounds but a shared belief in rethinking digital quality came together to launch it. And what a wild ride it’s been since then.
Where am I now?
Now, roughly five years after that fateful development discussion and three and a half years after founding Hidden Trail, we’re a team of 30, the company is on a strong growth path, and I’m living out the kind of dream I envisioned back then. For the longest time, I thought that Weave BCE (Best Company Ever, it was even in the name!) was the best company I ever worked in, but now I can say that Hidden Trail has taken its place.
As a company, we’ve been able to support other businesses in tackling challenges of all kinds when it comes to delivering digital products, in ways that truly matter. My skills as a consultant have skyrocketed. Also my knowledge and experience in the back-office stuff has increased at least tenfold. I've done product development, learned a lot about sales and selling, helped design our recruitment model, onboarding process, Hidden Trail constitution, company strategy, and so much more.
I’ve pitched, I’ve won, and most importantly, we have validated many of the ideas we were working on back in the day. These ideas and insights are making a real impact and driving positive change in our clients' businesses.
Sometimes I still marvel at how it all happened.
I don’t believe in destiny, I’m not a super-networker, and I don’t even try too hard. People say "Dream Big," and that should somehow influence your actions. I don’t buy it. I think the things that happen in this world are mostly a result of random chances. So what can you actually influence? My way of seeing this is that I can slightly improve the odds of these random opportunities by doing a few things.
One is to surround myself with people who are smarter than me. This is a bit of a cliché, but there is truth in that by listening to others, you secretly improve yourself. At Hidden Trail, we have an amazing team of people, and I’m constantly learning from them. Be open to new ideas.
Another is to stay curious. I get excited about multitude of things and I’m always thinking how they could benefit my work or my expertise. I’ve always been the last one to leave a party, and I’m interested in pretty much everything, from quantum physics to brewing coffee. Being curious helps you see things from multiple perspectives.
The third thing is spotting opportunities, then being a little cheeky to get yourself in the discussion, but in a polite way. That can open doors. Don’t get stuck in the comfortable and the familiar, make yourself available and open to new possibilities.
Who’s Jani?
Jani works as a Managing Partner at Hidden Trail, his mission being turning quality from a cost into competitive advantage. This means coaching teams, managers, product people, developers and testers in recognizing where their product quality comes from and how to improve it. Jani has 20+ years experience in software industry, during which he has worked with many teams in managerial, development and quality related roles. Jani firmly believes that quality means business!
Main competence areas:
Strategic Advising: Guiding organisations to invest and create products and services that are driven by quality, business success and sustainability.
Quality Engineering Practices: Enforcing robust quality engineering methodologies to ensure high standards in software development.
Visibility Enhancement: Increasing transparency of development processes for management, fostering informed and balanced decision-making.
Vendor Management: Optimizing vendor relationships to align with quality objectives and project goals.
If you want to know more on these subjects or quality in general, please be in touch: jani@hiddentrail.com
