What I Did Not Know Before the Course of Product and Quality Management 🫠

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😅 What I Thought QA Management Was…

Picture this: Me, early June 2025, walking into VGU’s Product and Quality Management class, thinking:
“Okay, chắc lại là mấy cái test case, bug report, ai thèm ngồi viết đâu…”

Honestly, the first thing that came to mind was that painful process of writing test cases, over and over. If you ever worked in software before, you know what I mean: “Copy test case, change two words, pretend it’s new.” Not my jam. Diagramming? Sure, give me a flowchart and a whiteboard and I’ll have fun.
Test cases? 😭 Nope.

Spoiler: I was 100% wrong about what this class would be.

📚 Expectation vs. Reality: The VGU QA Class Experience

Expected:

Teacher explains everything, step-by-step
“Easy marks” if you just show up
I chill, absorb, move on

Reality:

Four (maybe three?) offline sessions over three weeks
The teacher did some talks, but not too much.
All the work is on you. And by “you,” I mean… ChatGPT, Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, YouTube…friends

My team members are confused and everyone frantically Googling or ChatGPTing all the time.

Callout Box #1:
“ISO? Is that like ISO speed on my camera? Turns out… NO.”

This class was “learn-by-doing” in its purest form. I honestly think the professor could have been a ghost, and the outcome wouldn’t change. Respect! (I mean this with zero shade, just pure realization that self-study is king now.)

📖 ISO Standards: The Boring Middleman?

Let’s be real, the phrase “let’s read ISO standards” is probably up there with “let’s watch paint dry” for most people. But here’s the wild thing:
After three weeks of reading, discussing, and honestly, suffering through ISO PDFs, I get it now.

ISO isn’t just paperwork. It’s the “trust badge” for companies.
It’s like… if your business is swiping right on Tinder for a new vendor, no ISO, no match.

Tinder-style swipe left (❌) on “Vendor: No ISO” vs. swipe right (✅) on “Vendor: ISO 9001 Certified!”

And I swear, every single group project came back to “well, as long as you have the ISO badge, other companies might actually trust you.” Mind = blown.

👀 Peer Projects: Confessions from the 1-1 Meetings

Here’s the fun (and awkward) part—listening to other groups’ projects and having no clue what half of them were talking about. But, in true Vietnamese style, mình cứ tự tin gật đầu.

Let’s recap, honest-style:

🩸 Blood Analyzer: “Is this Theranos Season 2?”

The group demoed this super-medical device that analyzes blood.
My first reaction: “Wait, are we doing the Elizabeth Holmes thing here? Should I invest or call a lawyer?”
(Jokes aside, their research was solid, no shady unicorns detected.)

🏍️ Honda Clutch Belt: “It’s just a rubber band, right?”

Bro, it’s a belt for a Honda car. Mechanical, technical, so not my thing.
I had literally zero comments, just nodded like a supportive NPC in an RPG.
Maybe I should have asked: “Is it just a fancy rubber band?”

💸 P2P Lending App: “Sổ Hụi but Make It Legal?”

Honestly, it’s just Sổ Hụi (the OG Vietnamese microloan model) but with an app and, supposedly, lawyers.
My biggest takeaway: Legal is the only thing stopping this from being mainstream.
“Build the app, and pray the regulators don’t come knocking.”
But it’s ok it is for the purpose of the class then.

📄 Insurance Claim (with OCR): “Why Not ChatGPT?”

“So, your app takes a photo of a claim form and reads it with OCR?”
I almost blurted: “Bro, just hook up ChatGPT API, done!” But kept it to myself (…kind of).
My experience with insurance claims = zero, so I just pretended I was thinking deeply.

Source: panewslab

🍚 Home Cooker App: “The Rise of Lazy Cooking”

Next level of “I don’t want to cook.”
They claim it saves time, but is it just a smarter rice cooker? Or a conspiracy by lazy home chefs? 😂

“There was a moment I told the other group in 1-1 that I wrote the whole thing in ChatGPT. Everyone went speechless. I know everyone does it, but maybe I shouldn’t have said it out loud. Are we all just faking it till we make it—with AI?”

🖨️ Our Group: 3D Printing for the Masses (Or Just for Us?)

Okay, so while other groups are talking about medical devices, insurance, or cars, my group went full MakerWorld and pitched the “DIY 3D printer for tinkerers.”
Let’s be real: the phrase “3D printer for DIY nerds” made about as much sense to most people as “quantum mechanics for toddlers.”

Q: “What does it do?”
A: “Prints stuff you design on your laptop… so you don’t have to order it from Taobao.”
Q: “But why would I need this?”
A: “Because… you might want to print your own Iron Man arc reactor? No? Just me?”
Ah, actually, some of my teammates have no clue on the technical parts of the 3D printer, it was hard for me to explain to them as well, 3D printing is something you have to touch to actually understand.

“I realized halfway through that no one else actually understood what a 3D printer was for. It was a beautiful, humbling moment.”

It started with the Overview of the project.

Stakeholder map, it’s a part of the requirement document.

Fun Fact: The only “tough” feedback we got from other groups was basically, “Have you consider this and that for your document structure, yeah it was the goal of the class, not bragging about technical details though.”
This is when I truly understood: tech literacy is NOT universal—even in a master’s program!
I lowkey loved being the weirdos of the class, though. If you can explain your project to your grandma, you can explain it to a stakeholder, right? Not really with something like 3D printing I think.

Everyone was lost when I show this, my bad.

🤦‍♂️ A Few More “Oops” Moments (and Honest Observations)

ChatGPT Confessions: That moment I blurted out in a 1-1, “Yeah, I used ChatGPT to write the requirements,” and the whole group just froze.
(Awkward silence. Then… some nods. Because, let’s be honest, we all did.)
Imposter Syndrome x100: Sometimes I felt bad for not understanding other projects (Honda, Insurance, Medical). Sometimes I wondered if they felt the same about ours. It’s a real cycle.

🧠 Aha Moments & Takeaways: The Not-So-Boring Side of QA

Let’s not kid ourselves—QA sounds boring until you actually see the impact:

ISO isn’t paperwork—it’s a handshake. It tells other businesses: “Hey, we actually care about standards, not just our bottom line.”
Everyone is faking it, a little. If you feel lost, trust me, you’re in good company. Half the magic is just figuring out what you don’t know.
Most learning comes from your peers, not the teacher.
I learned more from hearing how classmates tackled random, unrelated industries than from the slides.
ChatGPT is now just part of the toolkit. It’s not cheating—it’s the new calculator. We’re not lazy, we’re “resource-optimized.” 😉

“Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t get it. That’s the only way you ever will.”

📝 Quick recap:

Diagram #2: A “knowledge gap” ladder—each rung is a group project, everyone starts at the bottom but helps each other up.

Diagram #3: Venn diagram: “What I Knew (small circle)” + “What I Pretended to Know (giant circle)” = “What I Actually Learned (overlap).

The moments when you realize you don’t get it, but still have to present

🌱 Final Reflections: Why I’d Do It All Again (and You Should Too)

If you’re reading this because you’re about to take QA/Product Management, or just thinking about group projects in grad school:
It’s okay to feel lost. It’s okay to rely on Google, AI, friends, and even awkward silence.
Don’t underestimate “boring” topics—sometimes they turn out to be the most powerful tools you’ll ever use.
Tech isn’t about knowing everything—it’s about learning how to ask, Google, and explain (even to someone who’s never seen a 3D printer).

If I could go back, I’d stress less about looking smart, and focus more on connecting with classmates, swapping notes, and sharing every dumb question.

Callout Box #5:
“Real learning starts when you stop pretending you know it all.”

TL;DR Recap:

I thought QA = boring test cases. Nope, it’s way bigger (and more useful).
ISO isn’t paperwork, it’s business trust currency.
Peer learning > teacher lectures.
Admitting you don’t know is a superpower.
AI is the new study buddy (just, maybe don’t say it out loud every time).

What did you wish you’d known before your last “boring” class? Drop a comment, share your own fails, or tell me what you’re struggling with now—let’s learn (and laugh) together.

Stay curious, stay honest, and see you at the next weird project meeting!

Btw, this is our group document at the end of the class