The mission of the Product Development (Product Dev) team at SparkFun Electronics is to manage the lifecycle of in-house designs, resale products, and kits. This includes new product conceptualization and development, product lifetime support, and product end of life.
The mission of the Quality Assurance team in the Product Development (Product Dev) Department is to manage and maintain the supporting products and product offerings by SparkFun Electronics. This includes the creation and revision of documentation (graphical, video, and written content), code, product vetting, and product revisions as necessary.
The Quality Assurance Specialist closely works with the Support department to collect customer feedback on products, and filter the information as necessary to the Product Development department and Engineering department to inform and shape future products. This position is also an agent of change and updates any and all product offerings as needed to ensure customers receive a high-quality product.
Product & Process Documentation Product Documentation:
- Create unique & new content around SparkFun originals and popular resale products, like Hookup guides, videos, and project tutorials.
- Vet & import documentation from additional sources outside of the QA team, like from Engineers, Biz Dev team members, Product Managers, & Support representatives.
- Collaborate with contract authors, including creating new content for the website & importing documentation to Learn.SparkFun.com
Process Documentation:
- Ensure all QA processes are documented for internal use
- Help train and empower other employees to follow QA processes
Graphics
- Create graphics for products as supporting documentation materials, like 3D models, Fritzing Diagrams, & Graphical Datasheets.
- Document and organize existing graphics and ensure they are shared in a collaborative fashion (through Github, the SparkFun website, or through a collaborator's site).
Code
- Create example code for products to provide support to customers
- Maintain currently existing code
- Update code to work with new product releases, IDE updates, and port to new partner websites as necessary
- Ensure code is formatted correctly to work with IDE library managers, online partner sites, or other potential partner code paths.
- Fix any code issues on Github, product pages, or on internal builds. Cascade fixes to code appropriately through tutorials, product pages, and library managers.
Beta Tests
- Run beta testing events for products and documentation
- Collect and distribute feedback from beta tests to appropriate parties (i.e. Engineering, Product Managers, Biz Dev, etc)
Product Evaluation for Current Products & Vetting Products
Current Products:
- Evaluate products at 6, 12, and 18 months to determine if revisions to the product, the documentation, or the code as necessary.
- Gather feedback from Support teams and customers regarding potential issues or improvements and communicate these or fix issues as necessary
Vetting Products:
- Vet potential new products for the Product R&D team
- Recommend whether a product is viable as a potential SparkFun product or accessory
Product Revisions
- Revise products as necessary to fix issues, such as faulty or updated footprints for components, silkscreen errors, or design for manufacturing updates to match current product checklists
- Experience building DIY projects involving electronics and/or programming
- Experience with 3D modeling software
- Ability to prototype electronic and/or mechanical projects
- Ability to write well and/or experience with technical writing
- Experience with HTML and Markdown
- Experience programming in C/C++
- Experience with eCAD software (Eagle, KiCad)
- Version control software experience (Git, SVN, etc)
- Experience programming embedded Linux system/single board computers (Raspberry Pi, Intel Edison, etc)
- Experience working with Arduino
- Experience programming in Python
- Experience with SVGs (Adode Illustrator, Inkscape, etc)