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KYIV 2019
Inna Osnach and Kateryna Shepelieva
What Ukrainians should know
about their soft skills
QA CONFERENCE #1 IN UKRAINE

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About us
QA CONFERENCE #1 IN UKRAINE KYIV 2019
Inna Osnach
Senior Software Testing Engineer
6 years in IT, 4 years in testing
Starting RM, Scrum master deputy
Starting speaker at conferences :)
Kateryna Shepelieva
Software Testing Team Leader
10 years in IT, 8.5 years in testing
Co-author of a board game for testers
TESTO, frequent conferences speaker
Both work at
QA Community contributors

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Why we are here
QA CONFERENCE #1 IN UKRAINE KYIV 2019

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Ukraine vs other countries
QA CONFERENCE #1 IN UKRAINE KYIV 2019

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Title
QA CONFERENCE #1 IN UKRAINE KYIV 2019

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Title
QA CONFERENCE #1 IN UKRAINE KYIV 2019

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Hofstede
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Hofstede
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Power Distance
QA CONFERENCE #1 IN UKRAINE KYIV 2019
What is this
• describes the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal, expresses the attitude of
the culture towards these inequalities
Main highlights
• India – appreciation for hierarchy, top-down structure in organizations, directive style in
communication, employees expect to be directed clearly on their functions
• Netherlands – independent, equal rights, superiors accessible, coaching leader,
management facilitates and empowers
• Ukraine - discrepancy btw the more/ the less powerful, importance of status symbols,
top-down communication
• The US - everybody is unique, each person can exert certain power over others

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Individualism
QA CONFERENCE #1 IN UKRAINE KYIV 2019
What is this
• the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members.​
It explains whether people´s self-image is defined in ​terms on “I” or “We”
Main highlights
• India – collectivistic and individualist traits, hiring/ promotion decisions - often made
based on relationships
• Netherlands – individualist society, the employer/employee relationship - contract
based on mutual advantage, hiring/ promotion decisions - based on merit only
• Ukraine - relationships are crucial in obtaining information/ getting introduced/
successful negotiations, more implicit communication style
• The US - accustomed to doing business with people they don’t know well, self-reliant
employees, hiring/ promotion decisions - based on merit only

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Masculinity
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What is this
• a high score (Masc) - the society will be driven by competition/ achievement/ success
• a low score (Fem) - the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life
Main highlights
• India – masculine society, advertising one’s success, focus is on success and
achievements, work is the center of one’s life
• Netherlands – feminine society - keep life/work balance, effective manager is supportive,
decision making is achieved through involvement
• Ukraine - understate their personal achievements, contributions, talk modestly about
themselves
• The US – masculine - talk freely about their “successes”, “live to work” to gain monetary
rewards, “strive to be the best they can be”, “the winner takes all”

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Uncertainty Avoidance
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What is this
• The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown
situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these
Main highlights
• India – medium low preference for avoiding uncertainty, follow the routine and established
roles, “bypass the system”, “adjust”
• Netherlands - slight preference for avoiding uncertainty, an emotional need for rules, time
is money, people have an inner urge to be busy and work hard
• Ukraine - feel threatened by ambiguous situations, detailed planning and briefing is very
common, very formal and distant in communication, formality - as a sign of respect
• The US - acceptance for new ideas, innovative products and a willingness to try
something new or different, do not require a lot of rules, less emotionally
expressive

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Long Term Orientation
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What is this
• Describes how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing
with the challenges of the present and future
Main highlights
• India - concept of “karma” dominates religious and philosophical thought, acceptance that
there are many truths, changing game-plan based on changing reality
• Netherlands - pragmatic nature, people believe that truth depends very much on the
situation, context and time
• Ukraine - is seen to not express a clear preference on this dimension
• The US – prone to analyze new information, “can-do” mentality, strive for quick results
within the work place, businesses measure their performance on a short-term basis

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Indulgence
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What is this
• the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way
they were raised.
• “Indulgence” - relatively weak control, “Restraint” - relatively strong control.
Main highlights
• India - culture of Restraint, tendency to cynicism and pessimism, do not put much
emphasis on leisure time and control the gratification of their desires
• Netherlands – culture of Indulgence, positive attitude, optimism, importance of leisure
time, people have willingness to realize their impulses and desires
• Ukraine - culture of Restraint, tendency to cynicism and pessimism, restrained by social
norms
• The US - culture of Indulgence, work hard and play hard, a war against drugs,
prudish society

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About Ukrainians
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Greetings: How are you doing?
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• Ukrainians say “Hi” only once per day unlike to people in US, India, Australia
• We treat “How are you doing?” question more seriously and will actually start
answering

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Greetings: How are you doing?
QA CONFERENCE #1 IN UKRAINE KYIV 2019
• Ukrainians say “Hi” only once per day unlike to people in US, India, Australia
• We treat “How are you doing?” question more seriously and will actually start
answering

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“Ukrainians speak very directly. They don’t use the normal polite “hedges” in their
speech that Americans are used to. I found it to be very efficient for
business/project management. They will only commit to things that are possible or
they can complete in comparison to people from some other countries. Our team
in Ukraine loved to tell us no.
They can say no when it’s no, they can voice their opinion.”

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Peach vs Coconut cultures
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Are you a peach or a coconut?
• Kurt Lewin, a culture specialist,
came up with a delicious
classification: he explained
cultural differences by
separating them into peach and
coconut categories.
https://creativecultureint.com/peach-or-coconut/

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Peach vs Coconut cultures
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• “Peach” cultures - people are
easy-going, smile at each other,
politely talk to everyone and are
helpful.
• It might take more effort to
befriend them – their privacy is
protected by a shell inside. For
e.g. America and Japan.

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Peach vs Coconut cultures
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• “Coconut" cultures - people don't
engage in conversations easily,
rarely smile at people they don't
know, keep to themselves and
aren't perceived as being
particularly friendly.
• However, when you get to know
them, they change completely:
initial coldness changes into loyal
friendship. For eg. Russians,
Germans, Ukrainians.

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Examples
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• “Ukrainians are not really good at making small talks  “
• “They don’t like to talk about personal things, tend to be a bit suspicious (don’t trust
people easily) and keep it work related.”
• “For Ukrainians it’s less accepted to talk about non-work activities with colleagues with
some exceptions of course.”
• “For Americans, it’s totally normal to ask about kids or what you did on the weekend.
Ukrainians take more time to “warm up” to strangers”
• "We had to learn the colleagues sometimes to speak up and say something was wrong in
what we mentioned, but through the years that has turned in a positive way"

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Attitude to work
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Responsibility and commitment
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• Want to meet deadlines, committed to deliver what
was promised, hard-working and well-motivated, may
work after work
• Work is delivered according to procedures, but also
when necessary in a practical way in order to meet the
objectives
• IT workers in UA feel more responsibility toward their
work, ready to have fewer holidays
• Often use only 2 weeks of leave and if a person works
for 3-4 years in a company, he or she can accumulate 1
or two months of vacations, which remained unused

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Passion and engagement
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• Very concerned about work: have pet projects,
have IT as hobby, attend conferences, various
events
• Ambitious, easy going, flexible, relaxed
• Usually interesting project is preferable than
high salary
• More tech oriented rather than business
oriented

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Education level
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• Quality standards of both Developers and QA’s are
high
• Colleagues are of a high educated level and eager
to learn, dedication to the team and to the project
• The level of English is very different per colleague –
some have high level of speaking, where others
have a lower level

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Involvement in meetings
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• During meetings smartphone is more attractive
than the discussions going on 😉
• Playing chess via phone
• When nobody responds to a question then it means
that everybody agrees or has no questions
(or not listening)

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Other interesting facts
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A lot of English in work affects everyday life: we use a
lot of English terms and business speak clichés (like
sync-up, ping, extra mile, etc.)
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Start working late - mostly because of US customers but also
because it's not very widespread in our country to start work early
(in other countries people may start at 6-7-8 am easily, cafes serve
breakfast from early hours, “Early Bird” prices for parking, etc.)
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Men shake hands when they meet (even if you have to
shake 10 hands in a row) excluding women (in Australia
and US no one shakes hands, except with clients or meeting
new people, but shaking hands includes women)
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There are a lot of switchers from other spheres.
Testing is the easiest entrance into IT and there are a
lot of QA engineers without computer education
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Smileys
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Smileys
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In the Ukrainian/Russian keyboard layout, one has to press Shift+6 to type a
colon. It is significantly more awkward than having it under a little finger in
the second row in the English keyboard layout.
If we smile, we would type ")", if it makes us laugh, we would use ")))". It looks
more elegant and simplistic than :):):) or heaven forbid :-):-):-) and it is
considerably faster to type in any keyboard layout.

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Conclusions
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Soft skills are the backbone of leadership
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5 soft skills valued the most:
• Creativity – finding fresh solutions to old problems
• Persuasion - "is simply asking people to move in your direction by
explaining or offering genuine reasons that are in their benefit to
accept."
• Collaboration - working effectively with coworkers across
geographies and time zones
• Adaptability – adapt the way of thinking and adjust to
circumstances
• Time management - ability to get your job done and have impact
Communication, curiosity, and critical thinking are as important as technical skills

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High EQ and CQ – great leadership
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High EQ – emotional intelligence:
• Individuals are likely to experience less stress and anxiety – helps to manage high-pressure
situations and make consistently good decisions
• Indicates strong interpersonal skills - essential to managing teams, collaborating with
colleagues, and building beneficial relationships
High CQ – cultural intelligence:
• Individuals with high CQ are creative, inventive, and better equipped to tolerate ambiguity
• Correlates with a larger investment in education and expertise over time

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Questions?
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Contacts:
Inna Osnach
1nna.osnach
inna_osnach1@hotmail.com
Kateryna Shepelieva
eshepelieva
eshepelieva@gmail.com