Our QA Lead Matias on empathetic leadership
Izabella Dima
MailerLite Team on workation 🚀
“Lead by example” is a phrase we hear everywhere, but we rarely stop to think about its true meaning.
For a global, remote team, it means pairing your strengths with humility. It means being open about your challenges, your learning curve, and your progress.
That transparency connects people and builds trust. At MailerLite, leadership has been a major focus this year. We’ve invested in strengthening how we communicate, give feedback, and ensure every person across time zones feels supported and heard.
This is why I wanted to spotlight Matias Diez, our QA Lead, and his story.
Matias joined MailerLite almost 5 years ago as our first and only QA engineer. Today, he leads a distributed team across 4 continents. His journey shows what’s possible when you’re trusted, supported, and given the space to build something meaningful.
💪 The invisible work of leadership
When we spoke, I wanted to understand what leadership looks like for him behind the scenes—the invisible work his team rarely sees but that makes the biggest difference.
His answer was honest, simple, and human:
While there's plenty of "administrative" work that keeps things running, that's rarely the work that makes the biggest difference. The truly invisible work is the deep, individual understanding of each person on the team. With a global, remote team, this is critical. We have people in different timezones, with different work cultures and customs, so a one-size-fits-all approach to leadership is guaranteed to fail.
Matias goes deeper into what this real, human-centric work entails:
The real work is learning everyone's unique interests, work preferences, goals, and expectations. It's also about noticing when a person isn't on their best day, is struggling with a task, or is dealing with something that takes their focus. This is the human-centric work that makes the biggest difference— supporting the team not just as colleagues, but in every sense.
This people-first mindset is especially important in a remote setting. That’s why it’s also a core value at MailerLite.
🤝 Remote work: Accountability through trust
How does the people-first mindset translate into the structure of remote work itself? We often discuss the challenges of remote work, but less often what it means to lead a fully remote team.
The main challenge in a remote setting is what you might lose: the passive "on-site" sense of accountability. However, I’ve found this transforms into one of the greatest advantages if you address it properly.
He explains how that can be done:
With a solid, well-aligned company strategy that's clear from the moment of hiring, and a strong culture of recurrent communication, you don't just solve for accountability—you create a level of trust that's hard to replicate in an office. When you have that foundation, everything becomes easier. You're leading a team of focused and committed people who genuinely want to be there.
Matias highlights a crucial, often missed, benefit: time.
“The biggest difference is that you've given your team back a lot of time in their lives. They don't have to struggle with the daily commute. They have the autonomy to start their day, take a break, or manage their work in a way that suits them. When everyone has the flexibility to take care of their loved ones and personal lives, they are happier, more organized, and empowered to create better results.”
Remote work isn’t just “working from your couch.” It’s a structure that demands the fundamentals be right: a clear strategy, strong communication, and shared understanding of how the team operates. When those pieces are in place, accountability becomes a choice, not an enforcement.
This clarity, trust, and autonomy allow people to show up more focused, creative, and committed. Wellbeing, motivation, productivity, and the quality of the work itself all rise.
💚 Growth and the MailerLite promise
Matias's focus on people naturally shapes his leadership style. When I asked him about the best feedback he received this year, he didn’t pick a single “aha!” moment, but emphasized continuous learning from his team.
Our culture is all about constant feedback, so a single piece of advice would be hard to pick. Learning how to give proper feedback was one of the keys to improve communication this year. How to think about the market and company goals in this fast changing environment with the AI disruption was another important one.
He credits his mentors for his growth, but says the best learning came from his teammates:
I’m proud to say that I have excellent mentors that have helped me grow both personally and professionally in most aspects of my career. That said, the best feedback I have received comes from my team. Learning to understand their needs, expectations, and struggles is what helps me be a better leader.
This is the environment we strive for: leaders learning from their people, and teams feeling safe to share honestly.
So what can someone expect if they’re thinking about joining MailerLite? Matias's description is perhaps the most compelling answer:
That's always a tricky question because I don't like to oversell, but MailerLite is genuinely the best place I've ever worked. You can expect an open, friendly, and supportive team. The environment actively encourages new ideas, personal growth, and critical thinking, all while maintaining a massive focus on personal health and work-life balance. New candidates join an amazing environment built on trust. We offer you freedom and support, and in return, you will have autonomy, responsibility, and accountability for your work.
Matias’s experience reflects what we value most: people, trust, and ownership. It’s the foundation of our culture, and why we’re proud of the team we’re building.
