The QA Lead Who Never Stops Pushing: Anna Piekarska on Growth, Grit and Getting Things Done

At 12, Anna Piekarska got her first computer with internet access and immediately started publishing photography tutorials. By junior high school, she was running her school's website. By the time she hit her first real crisis as a team leader — a bloated project, a looming deadline and a client who barely communicated — she already had a decade of self-driven learning behind her.

Piekarska, a QA Lead who has spent many years at X-Team, lives in Krakow and brings to her work the same restless curiosity that sent her down the internet's rabbit holes as a preteen. In this story, she traces how that early habit of teaching herself new skills became a professional philosophy, what a high-pressure project taught her about the limits of what she knew, and why remote work gives her the flexibility she needs to keep growing.

The Motto She Found Before She Had a Career

The origin story starts with a blog.

Piekarska was 12 when she launched her first public site, a photography and post-processing tutorial hub that earned her a couple of prizes and enough of a following that the admin of Onet.pl — Poland's biggest information web portal — promoted her work on the site's landing page. She didn't stop there. She expanded into tutorials on blogging and web development basics, teaching readers how to animate a page element or build a custom layout.

That pattern — learn something, then teach it — led her to a motto she still lives by: keep pushing yourself to master new skills, even if no one is expecting you to.

"The feeling that struck me in response to seeing my code work for the first time... it was addictive," she says. "I really like thinking about these moments, because they continue to motivate me today and have strongly impacted my career."

The curiosity didn't stop at the keyboard. Piekarska built two cryptocurrency mining rigs and earned her first pentester certification. She draws, tattoos on artificial skin and is an avid photographer. She mods cars — she installed lower, harder suspension springs on her own and spent considerable time finding the right rims. When she needs to decompress, she takes long bike rides through the forest or meditates. "The word boredom doesn't exist in my vocabulary," she says. "My head is always full of ideas."

Thrown Into Deep Waters

The philosophy gets tested when a project goes sideways.

Years ago, Piekarska found herself assigned to a team leader role on a job that looked simple on paper. The requirements ballooned. The timeline stayed fixed. Resources were short and the client's communication was poor. What had been described as a quick engagement turned into something that exceeded what she felt she was ready for.

"The scope of my duties exceeded my skills at the time," she says. "I began to understand how much I didn't know yet and this knowledge opened my eyes."

Rather than retreat, she leaned in. She read books and articles, asked questions relentlessly and kept searching for better solutions. The support of other team leaders and teammates made the difference — they gave her room to grow without pulling the rug out from under her.

The project shipped on time. The client came back for another engagement a few months later.

That experience crystallized something she'd sensed since her blogging days: the moment you recognize the edge of your knowledge isn't a reason to stop — it's the signal to start. "Patience, persistence and a strong belief in your success can do wonders," she says. "Everything is possible. You just have to be brave enough to take the first step and reach for it."

Why Remote Work Fits the Way She Thinks

Piekarska's approach to growth isn't just about what she learns — it's about how she manages the conditions that make learning possible.

When she's pushing through a demanding stretch that drains her mental energy, forcing herself to stay at the desk and grind through exhaustion produces diminishing returns. Remote work gives her an alternative: step away, recharge and come back when she can actually perform.

"Whenever I tackle some hard tasks that really use a lot of my mental energy or take a lot longer than expected, I can take a break and finish my work a little bit later, when my batteries are re-charged again," she says. "Thanks to that flexibility, I know that I'm maximizing my potential and not forcing myself to work when I am burned out."

That flexibility comes with obligations she takes seriously. Self-discipline and time management aren't optional extras in a remote setup — they're what keep professional focus from bleeding into personal time and vice versa. Her most productive hours are at her desk at home, where the setup is dialed in and distractions are minimal. But a loud coffee shop or a small cabin in the middle of nowhere can be exactly what she needs when a change of scenery is the only thing that will shake loose a stuck idea.

The broader goal behind all of it is straightforward. Piekarska wants her career to make a point: that following your curiosity, staying disciplined and refusing to coast is a viable long-term strategy. She's been proving it since she was 12. She has no plans to stop.

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