2025 - The Year in Review

What a year! Just like many others do, I use the end of the year to look back at what happened and acknowledge both achievements and struggles. I've written lots of those reviews over the years and this practice helps both present and future me see how things evolved over a longer timespan. So, without further ado, let's get to it.

 

Professional

• The biggest change of 2025 for me was that I've started at a new company in a new role. It's now nearly a year that I've been working at DocuWare as a security engineer in a central enabler team focusing on product and cloud security. This kind of role change was and is huge for me. Especially as I realized that I didn't only dare try something different. I could indeed contribute a lot of the experience, knowledge and skills I've built up over my career in this new, more focused area. At the same time, there's a lot more to learn and grow into, and I love that I continue to be very intrigued to do so. 
• For the first time, I've done third-party product assessments for security myself instead of asking our security team. Well, now we are the security team! It's been a really nice topic to get hands-on very early on the new role.
• I've done threat models and security reviews before for my own teams. This year, however, I've done them for and with a bunch of our engineering teams - which required building up a lot of context in very little time, again and again. I love that my teammate and I continuously experimented with even better ways to do threat modeling and make it a beneficial experience for everyone.
• In a cross-team collaboration, we've provided a convenient pipeline template to scan for vulnerabilities that teams could plug in easily and quickly to get going. It's been picked up widely and the feedback received was pretty good throughout the year.
• I've conceptualized our very first security champion program, we refined it in our team, and we managed to get buy-in from stakeholders very quickly. Another personal achievement here was that I've repeated the same presentation for all our team leads of all domains - 7 times in 2 days in 2 languages. Personal high score! The potential champions are currently learning about the pilot we want to run so they can make an informed decision whether they'd like to opt in from the start. Next year will be super interesting in this regard.
  
• We've grown a lot in the team, individually and as a team - even a lot quicker than I've observed this with other teams before. And it shows, we're having way different conversations now than we had beginning of the year. Everyone is sharing transparently, acting as sounding boards, truly collaborating - I just love seeing this. We've become more resilient, faster in our feedback, a lot more intentional and strategic in what we spend our time on and how we approach situations. I'm very grateful for my team including our manager so we can continue to improve together! 

 

Community

• I've paused speaking at conferences during the first half of the year to start at my new company without overloading myself or overburdening my new team. Therefore, I've only spoken at 3 conferences during the last months this year, including once more at a new conference in a country I haven't spoken before. Until now, I've had 110 speaking engagements overall, 51 of them conference sessions, given at 28 conferences, in 13 countries. Truth be told, I'm still amazed at such numbers, and I need to see them in front of me every end of the year to realize this actually happened.
• Sadly, I had to cancel my very first speaking engagement this year due to sickness that I just couldn't spread further at a conference. Hence, I didn't make it to my first Øredev - yet. On the other hand, I got super fortunate that this was indeed the very first case I had to cancel an engagement since I've started public speaking in 2017!
• I co-curated my first dedicated conference track - the security testing deep dive track at Agile Testing Days, together with  Kristof Van Kriekingen and Santhosh Tuppad. I loved that we could give the stage to lots of awesome folks and offer the audience a whole variety of insights this way!
• So far, I've given lots of workshops at conferences - yet this year I managed to give my first one at a security conference at BSides Munich!
  
• I acted as session chair for the first time at BSides Munich - trying to do sketchnotes at the same time. Phew, that combination was tough, yet I made it. Definitely a first timer for me.
  
• Including this one, I've written 11 blog posts this year - more than I expected. It didn't feel like I was writing much during the year, probably because I originally planned to write a lot more. Well, reality kicked in and I chose to prioritize other topics, so there was no energy and capacity left for writing much. Yet 11 posts aren't too bad after all.  
• We had the second edition of the Open Security Conference and it was both a big struggle to make it happen and a huge success! I just loved seeing folks enjoy themselves thoroughly in the space we co-created and share their own experiences out loud on social media. Very much looking forward to the third edition next year! Fingers crossed we learned enough as an organizer team to make the third one go smoother.
  
• I've started my very first CTF team together with Mireia Cano and Martin Schmidt, joining our first official CTF competition. We continued practicing throughout the year, even saw each other in real life at a conference for the first time. Just love that we have this small, safe group to learn together by solving security challenges!
• The security card game that Martin Schmidt, Philipp Zug and I are building is still alive, and while we're deliberately keeping the pace slow, the game grew both in concept and in content. We had a chance to showcase it at two conferences this year and gain further feedback and ideas - it's just a celebration in itself that we continue to work on this for so long now despite it being a pure leisure time, slow project. It's one of those rare sustainable ones!
• Last year, Shiva Krishnan and I had started a series of leadership workshops with our very first community cohort. We really struggled to get this going last year, and beginning of this year was no difference. We nearly reached the point to give up and pivot. Yet then our small cohort fully engaged and we actually made this happen! Super proud we did pull through in the end and had impact we hoped for. Even though it wasn't easy most of the time.

 

Personal

• In my volleyball team, we've managed to level up leagues in spring and started in the higher league in fall! Super proud and we're already learning a lot given our new challenges.
• Another volleyball highlight, and an extremely rare one: Together with our senior's team, I've had the honor to join the German senior championships! Yes, it's as wild as it sounds. Well, we got very lucky as there weren't many teams in our region for our age group, and yet: this was a true once-in-a-lifetime event. Playing against former premier league players, or even the dream team of former national team members is truly a unique experience you could only dream of. Acting as a referee for such games is just as well! This was a true rollercoaster of emotions and I wouldn't miss it.
• Over the last years, I sustained several small, but persistent and annoying injuries restricting my range of movement and affecting quality of life. I picked up custom training to help me get back to better shape, and it paid off massively. For example, I can finally kneel again which wasn't possible for nearly the whole year. Also when it comes to a bunch of other areas, I'm super happy that I managed to take care of my health a lot better this year. 
• I finally started to relax a bit again. It didn't work all the time, there were plenty of stressful and packed phases, and yet. The constant tension and anxiousness faded. Lots of people from all parts of life noticed that something changed compared to last year for the better, and it's been very clearly attributable to my change of workplace. I found my optimism again and rediscovered the joy in doing what I'm doing.
• Lastly, I managed to complete another personal challenge. This year's Calm and Steady endeavor was truly very personal. While I still have lots of stuff to work on, I did take things easier and celebrated when I noticed that I've been kinder to myself. I took more time for myself. Sometimes just to do... not much of anything. Or just things that I like doing for no other reason than that I like doing them. The best part here was being on this journey of reclaiming time and catering to our needs together with my best friend aka sister, holding ourselves accountable with each other. If you happen to read this: Thank you so much for all the wisdom shared in tough moments, all the reminders of taking things slower (yes, even slower than that), all the encouragement and reassurance that this is a basic need and not selfishness. I've already shared this with you, yet let me repeat it once more: without you I wouldn't have taken as many interpersonal risks this year and I'm both proud of you and very grateful to have you in my life!

 

Enjoying the Last Weeks of the Year

This year was a really good one for me, and I'm truly grateful. No one can choose what might happen during a year and I've been blessed. Special thanks and kudos go out to all the amazing people who shared my journey this year in little and big ways - you all made it so much better.

Now that it's the end of the year, some chores are coming up that I usually do over the holiday season. There are new conference proposals to draft so I can submit them beginning of the year - I've already preselected conferences I'd like to try my luck with in 2026. Finally, there's my next personal challenge to commit to and pour into written form so I can share it, make it real, and make it happen.

But whatever task awaits, I'm doing my best to enjoy this time of reflection and thinking ahead. And that includes that at times I'm just doing nothing, resting, playing games, exercising, whatever. I'm ready for what's to come in 2026!

2024 - What a Wild Ride

At the end of each year, I sit down to look back and take account of the past year in writing. I've made it my own tradition to help myself acknowledge all the things that happened during the year, especially any achievements of sorts.

I started the year with lots of hope of great things to happen (they did), lots of challenges to tackle (that sentiment nailed it), lots of joy on the way (not as much as hoped for), and lots of energy replenished (phew... nope). The year was an unexpectedly wild ride and it really drained my energy reserves. The good news is that I'm ending the year on a very positive note with a lot of hope for the future. The struggles paid off and I'm grateful for my past self that I've pulled through.

Dear future self, here are my accomplishments of 2024.

• My sixth personal challenge of courageous new community contributions really took off, took quite a toll, and was still so much worth it. I've helped bring lots of things to life: a whole new conference, a practice app, a card deck game, a leadership workshop series - and I've given conference sessions on security for the first time. It's been massive and I've dedicated a whole separate post on closing the challenge, so I won't repeat most things in detail here.
  
• One thing I will indeed repeat, as it was a true #AchievementUnlocked moment for me: I've spoken at my first security conference this year, BSides Munich! Super grateful for this opportunity, and it came at a perfect time right when I kicked off my job search, for which this specific speaking engagement paid off even more. One interviewer shared they watched the recording and liked it (phew, yay!). My future manager was sitting in the talk (I can't make this up)! When it comes to the community, this talk helped me make further connections. For example, I had a call with a new acquaintance to exchange inspiration and ideas to evolve a security champion program further. I got invited to participate in university research around DevSecOps. And you can imagine my surprise when I've discovered my very own talk been referenced in Katilyst's security champion newsletter that I had subscribed to earlier this year! Mind-blowing. By the way, in case you'd like to hear about how my work as security champion evolved over the last years, check out the recording.
• I've had 12 speaking engagements this year, which makes it overall 103 since I've started out in 2017. Crossing the threshold of over 100 gigs is definitely something to celebrate! Looking at conference sessions alone, I've given 8 sessions at 6 conferences in 3 countries this year. In all time, that makes it 48 sessions at 27 conferences in 12 countries. I really have to count and see these numbers for myself, I'm still in awe that I really did all this. My past self wouldn't have believed me one bit.
  
• Including this one, I've written 10 blog posts this year. This number still surprises me as I remember that next to everything else going on this year, there was little to no time left at all for writing. A pity, as I do think in writing, and I do write this blog for myself in the first place, for sharing in the second. Maybe there's more space for it in 2025, I'll see it when I'll do that year's review.
  
• My main social media platforms this year had turned out to be still Mastodon on first place, followed by Bluesky (especially after the recent wave of folks joining). Instagram surprisingly landed on third place (being a lot better than I ever expected it to be). My LinkedIn presence grew as well. It's by far not my favorite platform to consume content, yet it has its very own purpose for career networking endeavors. Overall, I'm grateful for everyone out there posting meaningful content over the course of the year that made me think, made me read, made me listen, made me learn. I'll continue curating my own feeds hoping to pay it forward.
  
• I've invested in a few other community endeavors over the year as well. Like continuing my accountability and learning partnership with Toyer Mamoojee, security pair testing sessions with Peter Kofler, joining a few code reading club sessions (unfortunately a lot less than I had hoped for). I've also had several calls and even on-site meetings with other dear community friends over the year, with us sharing on various topics ranging from learning cybersecurity, to startup ideas, to community dynamics, to anything and everything that moves us.
  
• At work, this year was a wild ride as well. My team and I had a tough time deciding on all the incoming requests and their actual priorities, and catered as best we could to those with highest importance given the circumstances. Compliance of all kinds was a big topic, too. We had several incidents which allowed us to learn how our system could fail in new and surprising ways and implement respective mitigations. Lots of tricky data migrations to get right. Quite some team fluctuation as well, people leaving and coming. In the end we were a smaller core team still doing our best to keep up with occurring demands from all sides, and getting our valued legacy product back in shape. Given the circumstances, we've mostly smashed it. Well, until things changed completely.
  
• Me, my team and lots of other colleagues had been laid off due to the company's business pivoting. I'm very proud of my team, on the sound culture we've built and fostered for us, how we showed up for each other over time, and how we even in the moment when everything came to an end celebrated what we had and gave each other feedback along on our ways. Kudos to everyone! We really had a good ride together. It's never nice to go through layoffs, and yet it's actually been surprisingly good to get laid off as a whole team, just having it end together at this moment in time. It's been like a band-aid being ripped off. Based on our talks, we all preferred this option over a slower and potentially more painful end, like getting chipped away at and dissolved over time.
  
• My amazing network really stepped up in words and action, spreading the news of my unexpected job search, sharing opportunities, making connections. This kind of invaluable sponsorship, plus me putting a lot of effort into a high intensity search, plus my personal challenge endeavors (again building on my network) this year, allowed me to find a new job within 6 weeks, contract signed within 8 weeks. I have to write these numbers down for my future self, and even for my present self as I still can't believe this happened so fast, especially given the current market. Closing everything just before the end of the year. And not just finding just any job but one that I really, really want. And on top of that, a role change that I hoped for in the next years to come. Now it's already here, and I'm so ready for it. I've witnessed the magic of "one door closes and many other doors open" before, yet this year this phrase became a whole new meaning for me.
• This year's personal challenge was all about new community contributions. Here's a new work-related contribution that I didn't foresee beginning of the year. From next year onward, I'll continue my path as a security engineer. When looking back at the kinds of contributions I've done this year and how many had security at their center, it does make a lot of sense, though. I just thought it wouldn't come to it that fast. There will be many more new challenges awaiting me on this next part of my journey, and I bet a few well-known ones as well. I honestly can't wait.
• It feels like a milestone in my career to get this new role and hence opportunity to explore next year. A dear community friend helped me put up a mirror for myself: she said all this is not coming suddenly for me. I've been building this up over many, many years, the knowledge, the network, the path for myself. Lots of little building blocks all over the place providing the foundation for this next step that now has a big meaning. It's been about persistence, continuously moving forward, little by little. About pushing myself also in times I didn't feel like it, like just right after the layoffs that came at a time when I just wanted to breathe and rest. She heard me saying how tired I was all over the year. She's been celebrating this huge step for me, it's all coming together. I'm very grateful for having such dear friends offering reflections in times I really need to see them. And she's been right: the compounding effect of all the little things I've done in my career is indeed real, and very impactful now for me. I'm grateful for my past self pushing through.
  

Here I am. It's the end of the year again. It's been once again helpful for me to look back and see all of the above. Now I'm already super curious what my review for 2025 will look like!

2023 - Another Year in the Books

All in all, this was quite a tough year. Stabilizing my work situation, picking up more conference speaking again after changing jobs and hence more traveling, restarting my personal challenges, facing lots of family issues, more sickness, the list goes on. A lot more challenges overall, both subtle and obvious, which made it a demanding and exhausting year. I observed myself mostly just pushing things to later, trying to hold on a bit longer, telling myself to just get that one thing over the finishing line, then it'll be calmer again. Well, the end of the year is here, and here I am, having finally realized it was overall still too much. There was one day end of November where I felt that moment of "finally, I recharged my energy, all is good now!" - and very shortly after I was in the hamster wheel again, feeling tired. Just last week, a colleague told me that we always need twice as much rest as we thought we would. Oh, the wisdom in these words.

I made it my own tradition to write a year in review blog post to reminisce about the last twelve months, and I don't want to spend too much on all the challenging parts. Instead, I want to look back and see all the good things that happened that I need to remember, especially at times when things are not shiny. Therefore, here are the highlights of 2023 for me to remind myself of in later years.

• My team at work is in a good place. There's always room for improvement, yet the culture we fostered and continue to evolve makes me proud. We managed to steer clear of lots of trouble we still faced beginning of the year. We introduced and implemented tech initiatives that had a heavily positive impact on how we move our legacy system forward - kudos to our manager for having our back! We're working in a much more sustainable pace nowadays with more autonomy. All that with seriously awesome people! I'm curious what we can achieve together next year.
  
• I found a new place in my team. Once again, I could reinvent myself and my role. It's a generalist, shapeshifting, druid-roleplaying, gap-filling role anyways, and I love it! What made a difference this year: This is the first team that managed to really own testing and quality together over a long period, always striving to get better, together. This freed me up to contribute in lots of new ways. It allowed me to hone and practice different skills and contribute hands-on on all kinds of topics. Hence, the last half year I've been taking tasks and working on changes like everyone else, and learning and growing on each and every one of them. I gained lots of insights from this perspective and some of the challenges that come with a developer's job! Now, I might still jump in on certain high-risk topics where I see the need, yet usually I know my team got this. And we're anyways not leaving anyone alone. Personally, I just love this. Still doing what's currently most valuable for the team (and company), while continuing to grow myself just as well.
  
• A difficult work relationship that started with broken communication turned into a trusting and supportive one. This was a hard one for me this year, yet I'm really glad we both didn't give up and worked our ways towards each other and with each other. I'm very grateful for that, and it's been a very insightful lesson in life in general.
• It's been an honor and pleasure to work with my fellow quality engineers this year, especially those in teams closer to mine. Lots of pairing and ensembling across teams, lots of learning together - I wouldn't miss it. Thanks a bunch to all of you.
• My fellow teammate and I kicked off an accessibility guild this year. People feared it might become another fluke, yet we have an awesome core group really engaged and going strong, keen on spreading awareness and actually increasing accessibility of our products as well as our workplace as such. More people raised their interest to join us next year, and I can't wait to see where can take this together!
• This year was my first time as an official security champion for my team. Creating and driving our mobile AppSec strategy was a great experience. Collaboration with our security folks got a lot closer. I experienced my very first security audit! Overall, I learned a whole bunch about what works and what doesn't to advocate for security topics and to make things happen. What tools are there to use, what are actual domain-specific risks and priorities, and what else is going on in the world out there. Huge shout-out to our awesome InfoSec folks for being so open and collaborative, it's been a real pleasure.
  
• After taking a two years' break, I finally dared to restart my personal challenges. Which means I've done 5 overall by now! This year, I aimed for connecting with folks of the security community. In the end, it took longer than I intended to, and it was scarier than expected, yet I made it! My network grew, my knowledge as well. These challenges once again helped my own growth for real.
• My very first security conference is in the books. Something I wanted to do for quite some time now, and this year it happened with BSides Munich! Just loved the experience.
• I created a new recommended resources page on all things security. I have 8 overall by now on various topics.
• I spoke at 7 conferences and gave 10 sessions (3 of them brand-new ones), along 4 other speaking engagements like webinars and podcasts. This makes it overall 91 speaking engagements since I've started speaking in September 2017! What a number. At conferences alone, I gave now overall 40 sessions at 24 conferences in 10 countries. This year, I also had my first appearances for LeadDev, which is also something I strived for. I still can't quite believe the amount of speaking things I've done so far; I never would have thought I would when starting out. But I received so much from the community, so I tried to give back and pay forward where I can. I've invested a lot in this, and I got a lot out of it as well.
• During on-site conferences, I created sketchnotes again. This year, I received a shout-out for the alt text I'm adding to them nowadays - which really was a highlight for me. I'm still learning how to do them even better, yet what I learned from Cakelin Fable was seen and acknowledged and I'm just happy I found a way that's feasible for me while making a whole difference for people.
  
• I wrote 15 blog posts in 2023, including this one. Part of it was thanks to my personal challenge that often makes me write more, and I'm thankful for that. It's been while since I learned about myself that I'm thinking in writing - I need to write things down and see them in front of me to help clear my thoughts and come up with new ideas, especially as I can always come back to them. So, these blog posts are mainly for myself to process and digest, remind my future self, and also gain new insights. If anyone else gets something out of it, it's a real nice bonus.
• Last year a group of amazing folks kicked off a code reading club. This year, we had a bunch of new people joining and a lot more sessions. While I didn't make all of them, it's just been awesome to practice our skills together. Highly recommended!
• Ever since my Testing Tour in 2018, I had monthly pair testing sessions with Peter Kofler on security, and they are still going strong. We finished our deep dive on the OWASP Top 10 and now started with the mobile application security guides to explore and discover more. Invaluable.
• I've deepened long-lasting friendships, I've found and evolved new ones, and also met family members again I haven't seen for a very long time. I might not mention these things enough, yet I am really grateful for the foundation I have in some very special folks.
• I finally picked up playing computer games more again. Still not as much as you would think, as that hamster wheel always tries to push me to run one more round (until I'm too tired to play). And I can run in that wheel for a long time - yet I would do it a lot better when resting more, play more games, do more other things I enjoy in life. I'll do my best to keep reminding myself of it.
• I continued to revive other passions I have that bring me joy, like drawing, and especially my passion for volleyball. I've learned so much from this beautiful team sport for life, for work, for me personally. And I still can't get enough of it.

To all those people who accompanied my journey in 2023, I'm truly grateful for everything. For all ups and downs, for support and challenge, for you being there with me, for us learning together. Thank you.

All is settled for 2024 now. I have a bunch of conference speaking engagements lined up (stay tuned). I have my new personal challenge ready. I'm even working on a few things with amazing people already, while trying to keep it slow enough to get the rest I need. And oh my, do I need some rest. As my colleague would say: twice as much as I think, so remember to double your time to rest.

2022 - Acknowledgement and Gratitude

Thanks to having a blog, I made it a habit to look back at the end of the year. It serves me well to acknowledge the things that happened and also be grateful for having such wonderful people in my life. Especially as 2022 was again a year of manifold global crises affecting people in so many ways.

So, here's my personal review of the past year, by no means comprehensive or overly structured - just taking note of what came to my mind. I'm quite late with doing so this year, a fact that does fit my general feeling for this year very well. A bit rushed, running behind, somehow making it work in the end - and still feeling grateful for all the good parts.

Let's start with work.

• My dear peers at Ada, especially my teammates and my fellow quality engineers. I appreciate having you every day, and especially when times are hard. Thank you so much for validating me and my expertise, for offering new opportunities to grow, and for your ongoing emotional support, encouragement and kindness. This company and position might not be an easy one, yet you make it worthwhile. I'm grateful. Let's continue using this opportunity to build quality into our products and make them even more meaningful and valuable for people.

  Lots of people shared today on how much the team cares for each other, how many people take over and drive topics, how much we see each other and make space, how much we became aware of load and sharing it. One teammate said: "A productive and strong team can get more done."

  — Lisi Hocke (@lisihocke) September 13, 2022

  I'm all the more grateful for all these people who listened to what's going on in my head and all the circles I'm spinning in (no matter whether they are necessary or not). Huge thanks to @TestPappy @jrosaproenca @DanAshby04 for being there in ways I didn't even know I needed. ❤

  — Lisi Hocke (@lisihocke) December 15, 2022

• Having switched companies was quite an endeavor and rollercoaster experience in itself, with all the good and bad and rewards and struggles and ups and downs. I don't regret it one bit! So much learning in here. I posted about some experiences in Onboarding Struggles and Strategies and A Time of Transition - Eight Months on a New Team. There's more to reflect on and share when the time comes. Yet just the mere fact of a new industry and business domain, new company and team, new tech stack and tooling was full of insights and growth.
  
• My team is quite big and changed constellation so many times during one year I can hardly believe how much we achieved together. I mean, we had 19 team changes in 12 months - imagine what we could have done based on more stable relationships! Despite all odds, we managed to form a real team, foster our bond, support each other as we go, and learn a lot together. There's a lot to do and a lot of room for improvement - always doing a bit better helped us massively. The team came incredibly far in only one year, and I'm very hopeful for our continued journey together.

  Lisi is one of the leading examples how optimism can do good things. Look at what she’s doing for years. And that is only part of the community. Trust me, at work she’s at least as good as you think.
  
  Being a tester and being optimistic can work and it can work well.

  — Patrick Prill (@TestPappy) July 20, 2022

• I personally felt that in certain aspects of whole team ownership I came farer with this team than with all others before. For example, having people take care of testing not only when I'm off yet also for longer periods when I'm around and have a different topic to focus on. This also gave me space to contribute in different ways to the team. Not only figure out further improvements close to testing and quality, yet also supporting development more with investigating and debugging issues, fixing them, or making identified improvements myself. Having this space did not only help increase the team's resilience, it also got me closer to becoming a more full-shaped generalist so I can shape-shift easier, jump to help with whatever needs doing with less friction, as well as fill even more different gaps. Granted, it's also the first time I had gathered as many pieces of the puzzle and every piece is helping me contribute in better ways.
  
• I learned to love debugging even more! It's literally a skill I really like to hone, especially ever since a former colleague praised me (the "tester") for even knowing about debugging tools and not being scared to used them, and since Amitai Schleier amazed me back on my #CodeConfident challenge with his approaches that allowed him to figure out the issues way quicker than I was able to. Also last year, debugging brought my developer teammates and me (again, the "tester") together and allowed us to see how we can both contribute our skills there. It's a lovely intersection of investigation and exploration and choosing different approaches and perspectives and, and, and. Happy I could practice it this year in my new team as well. By the way, Julia Evans recently published an amazing zine on the topic, check out "The Pocket Guide to Debugging".
  
• As we changed team constellations so many times, there was lots of onboarding (and offboarding) going on in my team. I've been jumping a lot on these opportunities. On the one hand, as I've not been able to spread it as much in the team as I hoped for in the beginning of the year. On the other hand, as it's yet another chance to practice explaining things in simple terms and improving my own understanding. Repetition is great here! And as everyone also asks different questions, there's always something new to learn and take as input for further improvements.
• With my current team I held back much with formal knowledge sharing. I was quite conscious trying not to overwhelm them with everything else going on. So, I chose to focus on learning and sharing hands-on instead. Always iterating, always doing a bit better. Sometimes it was hard to live with "not good, barely enough"; practiced that as well in favor of more long-lasting change. Also across the company I know I could share my knowledge in more ways. Not that I didn't share any, yet there wasn't as much capacity going into that yet.
• Lots of pairing and ensembling with my fellow colleagues, as well as working on different technical hands-on topics is what gave me lots of energy this year. I'd really love to see more of that. At the same time, I'd love to see less of the energy drainers this year - less non-transparency, unclarity, miscommunication, constant turmoil and uncertainties where more stability would have helped.
• Lots of times this year I found myself overwhelmed, self-doubting, low on energy, always running behind, rushed and driven by external forces. I got personally challenged quite a few times throughout this year by different people. Sometimes I dealt with this better, sometimes not as well. Same with keeping my own boundaries. Especially when it comes to keeping my energy levels in check I struggled. I tried a few different things, some more successful than others. I took up personal coaching again to help me see different options and perspectives. I really would like to stay ahead of things again, realizing closer to the moment when things are going sideways and I should step back and recharge. I also practiced saying no to what drains me and more intentionally say yes to what gives me energy. Such a hard yet rewarding thing to do. All this again will help me cope better with unexpected things - those will always be there, it's life after all. Taking care of myself will also help me take care of those in my care better.

  Humungous shout-out to my dear friend and colleague @lisihocke for saying "no" to a new topic that was dumped on her table!
  It should have been easier for you to say "no", but I'm so damned proud of you that you did! My hat's off to you!
  
  We should all learn more how to say "no"!

  — Patrick Prill (@TestPappy) December 14, 2022

• I practiced giving feedback, on different levels. Personal conversations (like the classic "the term guys is not gender-neutral and here's how it impacts me when you make this word choice"), as well as public praise of people showing behavior I'd like to see more of. Team feedback, in retros, with my managers, and more. And organizational feedback to senior leadership, especially on unhelpful cultural patterns I've observed over the year. I started asking for feedback as well more - another topic to practice more frequently. Finally, I also practiced receiving feedback, acknowledging it, and then making intentional choices what to act on and how.
  
• I have learned a lot about leadership over the past years. Nearly every day this serves me really well. In specifics all the things that my dear former colleague Shiva Krishnan and I put together for our leadership workshop series last year. It helps me thinking and choosing strategies and approaches for specific situations. Whether I had picked the "right" one is hard to tell within the situation, sometimes we realize its impact only in hindsight. Yet just having a few thinking tools to help reflect and widen my own perspectives helps massively.
• I observed several former teammates from my previous company continue growing and going their own way. Be it getting promoted and taking on new responsibilities, or changing companies to pursue their goals, or daring to create content for the wider community, like my dear former colleague Mateus Ferreira Durães. This is just awesome, one of the best things to see!

  Just love seeing a dear former teammate picking up creating TypeScript videos again for the Brazilian tech community! 🤩🎉 Check out @mduraes1994's videos here and stay tuned for more: https://t.co/YPfAAXo7Zf https://t.co/jl5ev5r9BU

  — Lisi Hocke (@lisihocke) December 2, 2022

There's more than work, of course.

• I honestly have the best cheerleaders of the world, and I'm super grateful. Way more people than I can name here. Whenever I share something good or bad, achievements or failures, lots of these people regularly make my day. Just showing that they are there does! Honestly, I believe we need to be there and cheer for each other more, it can't only be me who desperately needs this kind of encouragement. So, something for me to do more next year!
  

  Of course you can do it. There’s absolutely no doubt about that.

  — Patrick Prill (@TestPappy) December 30, 2022

• After many years I saw my learning partner Toyer Mamoojee in real life again! I cherish all our calls, yet seeing someone you worked with for over six years in person again is just amazing. Thanks Toyer for being on this whole journey together with me! I doubt I would have managed as much over the last years on my own. Thanks a lot for being in my life.
• A new pact was born! After a break of a few years, Toyer and I finally agreed to a new deal as learning partners. I'm super excited (and scared again!) for this new personal challenge for 2023. My focus will be on all things application security - and luckily, it's going to be fitting really well with my work context. Really hope for more synergies and even more learning in this vast area of expertise.
  
• I finally managed to unlock an achievement this year I waited for quite some time: I gave my first full day conference session this year! Thanks a bunch to Toyer Mamoojee and Agile Testing Days for making this happen. After many plans in the last years for full-day sessions, none of them became reality in the end due to lots of reasons. Yet Toyer's and my tutorial "Let’s lead quality together!" was finally it.
  
• For nearly the whole of 2021 I had paired with Shiva Krishnan at my former company on a series of leadership workshops. We had built on a concept that Shiva ran a few times successfully already, decided to revise it completely - and something meaningful emerged. This year, being now at different companies, we brainstormed how we can bring these leadership concepts to the wider community beyond company boundaries. And we made the first step happen by giving a talk about our pairing journey and what helped us make it a fruitful one - the "Human Connection: The Key to a Beneficial Pairing Experience". Thank you Shiva for staying with me through all ups and downs!
• I've again had the honor and privilege to speak at a bunch of conferences this year, as well as appear on other formats. It's been 15 sessions overall for me! Really glad to be able to give back to community, learn a lot from my peers there and connect with people. I also got to know a new conference with SoCraTes (finally made it there)! Especially grateful for Nicola Lindgren to recommend me to Scott Hanselman on the Hanselminutes podcast, for Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin for recommending me to Henry Suryawirawan for the Tech Lead Journal podcast, and for them also to have me on their own Donkeys & Dragons series. I'm also really grateful I already have few events lined up for 2023 as well. More to be revealed, stay tuned.
• I wrote a few more blog posts this year again. Still usually bigger ones and hence not too many, yet with this being the 13th post I've published more of my writing again compared to recent years, and I'm glad about it.
• I reviewed and copy edited two books. One was the super cool collection of "How Can I Test This?" by Nicola Lindgren, Mike Harris, Suman Bala, Philip Wong, and Shawn Shaligram - thanks for having me! The other one was fiction - the fifth novel written by my best friend Marlene Guggenberger I'm so very proud of and who continues to put her trust in me. And I also want to thank my dear friend Thierry de Pauw for asking me for my thoughts and listening to them on several of his recent articles (they are amazing, check them out!).

  Just want to give a shout out to @lisihocke for reviewing the contents of How Can I Test This? so far and reminding me I can diversify my use of heuristics, along with great suggestions of whose heuristics to look at.
  
  I’ve really appreciated the feedback so far. 🙏🎉

  — Nicola Lindgren 🇳🇿💻 (@NicolaLindgren) March 15, 2022

  I will repeat myself, but I find it utterly necessary to mention this because, without their help, this series would not have been as well-rounded and complete.
  
  Thank you @lisihocke, @sebrose and @SteveSmith_Tech You have been amazing 😊

  — Thierry de Pauw on @tdpauw@mastodon.social (@tdpauw) September 28, 2022

• Samuel Nitsche was so kind to reach out to Vernon Richards and me to check our interest to start a code reading club together. Absolutely yes, we were interested indeed! We've been so lucky that a bunch of awesome people joined in as well. It's a wonderful small group to practice in, and the sessions we had were a safe place to share and learn with each other. Special shout-out to Felienne Hermans and Katja for their inspiration on code reading clubs!
• Remember the Testing Tour I've been on in 2018? Peter Kofler and I are pairing ever since on security testing, roughly once a month. Really grateful he's on this journey for so long with me! And there's always so much more to learn in this area.
• I'm part of a power learning group that Toyer and I had started years ago. Unfortunately, in the past years we all lacked energy to continue our regular calls and stay in close contact. This is one of the things I'd like to see if more people have the appetite to revive it again. Really missing these people.
• A few people reached out to me and thanked me for something in the past where I had helped them. Wow, what a feeling! It was a tiny thing in the past like providing a few thoughts on a question, for some it literally meant the world and had way more impact than I imagined. This is so encouraging to keep on doing this.
• The whole Twitter situation has been incredibly sad for me. I owe a lot to this platform and the communities I've found there. I am really glad that other platforms do exist and communities can move, and still, it's personally really sad. I know it's way worse for many others who depend a lot more on this platform and specific communities there that won't be found any place else. I am very grateful for my privilege to be able to quite easily move to Mastodon where I found lots of people old and new.
• For lots of things I want to improve on and allow myself to go in small steps, I try to find habits that work for me, mostly small daily habits. You know, really small steps, yet consistently. This year I did not take up a personal challenge at first as I was changing jobs. Checking in again with myself after the probation period passed, I realized things had been too hectic during this period and I needed a bit more time before I can really focus on a new challenge. Hence, I decided to add to my list of daily habits instead. I wanted to brush the dust of a few things I enjoy yet mostly didn't make time for anymore; recovering lost language and drawing skills, moving more, and the like. Oh my, did my habit list grow! On some days it's been honestly a lot, wouldn't recommend adding so many at once, and also not in several batches. Well, it still forces me to integrate them more smartly into my everyday routine. Yet overall, I'm happy with myself that even the youngest of these habits crossed the 180 days mark.
• I've restarted a few things this year that I did a lot in the past. As mentioned already, practicing another language again (besides English). Drawing again (it's been ages). Getting myself a new bicycle and actually taking it for a ride (even longer ago). And also: finally restarting one of my most beloved activities in my free time: indoor volleyball (yep, not that easy in pandemic times). I deliberately tried to set aside time for these things and I don't regret it one bit.

So, looking back and summing things up for myself, I'm content and I'm grateful. Things are as good as they can be right now. I'm personally in a luxury position, being as privileged as I am. No, not everything is going well, I have my own share of struggles. And still. There's opportunity to keep things as good as they can be, and in some points they can also get better. For me, for others around me, for everyone. Let's always remember kindness and move forward together.

Life is good. Not always, but it can be. I'll try to make every day good enough, and enjoy it.

2020 - Gratitude After All

Beginning of the year I joined in on a series of fun tweets trying to predict your year. Obviously based on scientific evidence, of course. Well, based on the forecast, I'd say I had been at a good place around that time.

Use the first 12 emojis in your history to foretell your 2020!

January 😂
February 😀
March 🙏
April 😊
May 😃
June 🙃
July 😍
August 😅
September 😉
October 🙌
November 🤗
December 😘
Off by one ❤ https://t.co/fCrO62l2i7

— Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) January 17, 2020

Then the real 2020 came and hit us all in very unexpected fashions. I am sure the year had a toll on all of us, and I'm also sure it impacted us very inequitably. If you made it through this year, then congrats to you! It's more than many can say, it's way more than enough, it's what counts in the end.

Writing this, I'm being aware that for many people this year was hell and full of suffering, the one way or the other. I'm being aware that for the ones that are closest to me the year was a really rough one. I'm being aware of my own privilege and sheer luck when it comes to my situation in all of this and I am very grateful for how things went this year overall in the end. Yes, I had to navigate several ups and downs, and I had to create new automation pathways in everyday life that took a lot more energy than ever expected to build up. Yet overall, things are as good as they can be. So just like every year, I wanted to look back and acknowledge the good things that happened, the things I learned, and anything else I find noteworthy to document here for my future self.

• My personal challenge this year focused on security and I started learning a lot more about it. I decided to stop the challenge when other things mattered more, yet I dared starting it. Also, what I learned so far, like threat modeling, was very valuable for work already.
• I learned a lot about systems of oppression, especially racism and sexism. There are so many wonderful people sharing their lived experiences and expertise whom I am ever grateful for. There are so many more stories to hear and learn from. So much more to do, taking action on the growing awareness and doing better. After sharing my first steps on this lifelong journey, I continued learning. I actively looked for more, read more, shared more resources, joined more workshops, and especially spoke up more. I'm only starting to see the patterns and see clearer what's happening, but it's a start.

  It was an incredible lesson in Whiteness. On display nationally for everyone to watch in real time. I’m still not sure people learned anything though. https://t.co/s0DA8fskZf

  — Marco Rogers (@polotek) December 19, 2020

• At work, I learned a lot more about various software development topics: observability, performance, GraphQL, user research and usability testing, using mocks for exploratory testing, contract testing, infrastructure topics, and more.
• I ran several experiments on all kinds of topics, on different levels, with various groups of people. Most failed, some succeeded, and I learned from all of them.
• Reserving daily thinking time and writing my thoughts down in a journal at work helped me a lot with reflecting, focusing and deciding on my next steps.
• Longer-term mentoring continued. Inside the company, one mentorship ended, another one started. Outside the company, I agreed to a mentoring relationship despite feeling and sharing I'm over my head - for our mutual learning.
• I sponsored people for opportunities like public speaking or getting internal training. There's a lot more room for improvement here for the years to come.
• I found an accountability partner at work to help each other grow better at saying no and make more conscious decisions what to commit to and what to delegate.
• This December, I had my five-year anniversary at my current company; the longest time I've ever been at the same company. It's been a real ride full of opportunities, challenges, support - never boring.
• I attended a really insightful leadership workshop series given by my amazing colleague Shiva Krishnan. It helped me reflect and get to know myself a lot better as well as provided me with lots of tools to become a better leader. My workshop group was amazing and made it a safe place for learning, so we decided to continue learning together as a learning group.
• Speaking of learning groups, my lovely power learning group had further amazing calls supporting each other in these pandemic times. Also, I helped kick-start a new local cross-company learning group and we already enjoyed insightful conversations.
• I didn't have as many pairing sessions in the community as the last years, I simply didn't have the energy for them. Still, the ones I had were great. In addition, Peter Kofler and I still pair on security testing each month.
• I spoke at two conferences, two corporate events, three meetups, a webinar, and four podcasts. More things and events were planned, yet everything else was either postponed or I declined due to lack of energy.
• I was part of a conference program team for the first time. In the end, instead of the planned on-site event, we hosted two online events. Still, a new experience for me.
• Another first timer: I reviewed paper proposals for a conference. Based on my learnings and what helps me in my context, I created a conference speaking guide.
• Thanks to Viv Richards, I contributed to a book for the very first time: "Around the World with 80 Software Testers". Loved reading all the wisdom from so many people all over the world.
• This year I wrote eleven blog posts including the present one; honestly, more than I would have expected given my energy levels and priorities.
• I joined a remote ensemble initiative, learning a lot about how to work well with new people, learning more about TDD, Python, software architecture and machine learning, and working on a practice project together. Not to forget the fun and energy this gave us all during pandemic times!
• I was a lot more mindful about my own level of energy this year, realizing my bar was a lot lower than what I perceived the previous years. I made it a lot more explicit where to involved myself and how much time to spend, trying not to overspend my energy anymore.
• I made self care a priority by keeping it as part of my personal challenge and continuing it even after marking the challenge as done. Each week I did things just for myself, for fun and relaxation - before other tasks at hand. I failed at it during three calendar weeks only and I know the reasons why. To add to that, intentionally granting myself more sleep during the week helped a lot as well.
• I de-cluttered my life to quite some extent. Reducing the number of work initiatives (and hence my parallel load) which provided me a lot more focus and flexibility. Not committing myself to every opportunity that comes my way, remembering to say no and rather sponsor others wherever possible. Finally completing long postponed things on my personal to do list (like replacing way too old furniture that fell apart for years already), or acknowledging they are simply not important enough to be on that list of maximum twenty items, and if they became important, they would surface anyway again. Freeing myself of the constant pressure of the learning resources I haven't checked out yet. On the one hand, I created habits like "whenever I drive my car I listen to the next podcast episode on my list" that automatically has me chip away on my lists so I could stop worrying about them. On the other hand, renaming my lists from "to hear" to "might hear", granting myself the freedom to discard them at any time. I simply don't have to consume everything.
• I finally overcame the denial phase and took the time to set up a proper home office. I even enjoy working from remote nowadays and definitely see the benefits, helping manage work with my new private life.
• I created a personal vision and mission for me as a guiding light, especially for decision making. It does guide me well so far, and I'm curious what I'm going to say in half a year from now.
• I'm ever grateful for the communities I'm part of. The power of community really cannot be overrated, in good times and especially in bad times. I had countless calls and messages to stay socially connected with each other, remotely, during a pandemic. To be human with each other. To give each other space and be heard. Inside and outside the company. You know who you are, and I'm grateful you are there.
• What makes me really happy is that I could help some people this year. So many helped me, and I'm trying to pay it forward. Every time someone shares with me that I made a difference for them, no matter how small, it makes my day.
• The most important thing I learned this year? Thoughts and words without actions hurt; and silence supports the status quo. Both of these apply to the context of a team just as much as to the world.

  The most important thing I've learned this year is that words without action hurt. Thoughts and words are not enough alone, I have to take action. Sharing afterwards can be helpful, yet action has to happen first.
  
  Anything you'd like to share @JessyFanja?

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) December 13, 2020

That list grew longer than expected for 2020. Here's a side note on all this: I intentionally set myself up to remember the good stuff. I jot down my upcoming plans and keep track, yet that's just a small part of it. I have moments on Twitter with all achievements shared and appreciations received. I keep positive feedback that I get. I take a lot of notes, like that journal at work. All this helps me think in the moment, and also helps my future self to acknowledge what happened in the past. It's giving myself the comfort and confidence I need to look into the future.

Speaking of next year? Well, I regained enough energy to make plans again. I already have committed to a few of them for 2021. I'm aware they might not become reality, and that's fine. I also granted myself a lot more leeway to reduce pressure and give myself flexibility to decide in the moment, following my energies. We never know what comes, besides that things always change. I try to keep seeing opportunities for growth.

To set the tune for next year, I'm currently listening to The Happiness Lab. Really recommended science podcast series! Let's take on shaping 2021 together.

Looking Back at 2019 - A Year Full of Challenges and Surprises

It became a habit for me to close the year with a final blog post, looking back at what happened over the last twelve months. It's one of the things I've learned to do that helps me internalize and acknowledge my own achievements. Once more the year is coming to an end - time to reflect!

• Test Automation University was released! Many thanks to Angie Jones for bringing this amazing project to life and for asking me to do my first video course ever: "The Whole Team Approach to Continuous Testing". I've also watched several of the other courses myself and found them to be extremely valuable!

  I did a thing! My very first video course got released today @TestAutomationU: "The Whole Team Approach to Continuous Testing" https://t.co/iX3diKrC0k Now I'm both both super excited and nervous 😅 Thank you @techgirl1908 for this amazing opportunity! #AchievementUnlocked 💪

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) March 29, 2019

• I have given 7 sessions at 7 conferences in 5 countries this year, 2 of them being keynotes, 2 others being talks that either opened or closed the conference. (Overall, that makes now 22 sessions at 16 conferences in 8 different countries since September 2017!) Besides that, I attended 3 more conferences this year. So much knowledge to take with me, and so many inspiring people to learn from! Being away from work for conferences, especially from my product team, was not always easy. The good thing here: we talked things over and found an agreement for us.
• I've been accepted to give 7 sessions at 4 conferences in 3 countries for 2020 already. In addition, I've been asked by 3 companies to give talks and workshops for them in-house, with 2 of them arranged already.
• I became part of the program team for Mob Programming Conference 2020. This is my first time on a program team for a public conference, and I'm sure I'll be learning a lot.
• I've sketchnoted countless more talks. I can't believe I've only started this experiment last year, it already feels natural when listening to a conference talk! I didn't put in effort to level up my game here, yet it's amazing to hear positive feedback just because these notes exist and other people can benefit from them, too.
• My first ever podcast episode got released! Huge thanks to Peter Kofler for inviting me as guest to Coderetreat Facilitation. I've had a few opportunities before that, yet nothing came out of them, so I was really glad this one worked out!

  Here it is!! I felt a bit cursed when it came to podcasts and me, as all my opportunities did not happen due to some reasons in the end - yet here it is, my very first podcast appearance! 🔊 #AchievementUnlocked Stay tuned for the next episode. 😉 Thank you @codecopkofler! 😁 https://t.co/J551WfgKb9

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) December 8, 2019

• I've done my first Power Hour, my first introductory video as well as my first Testing Ask Me Anything session (and its follow-up) for Ministry of Testing - all on on the topic of collaboration, pairing and mobbing. Thank you Mark Winteringham for having me for the Dojo!

  And speaking of collaborating with a diverse group, @lisihocke's @ministryoftest Power Hour posts on pairing and mobbing are a gold mine of practical ideas to get started and succeed with these valuable practices! https://t.co/5lYpYWjNQ7

  — lisacrispin (@lisacrispin) August 27, 2019

• The "power learning group" initiated by my learning partner Toyer Mamoojee and me got really engaged this year! We all benefited a lot from our mutual support. Super looking forward to next year together with these wonderful people!

  The last #PowerLearningGroup session of 2019 with @lisihocke @Iki_Kviki @alientester @mirjanakolarov @lilitshark @tottiLFC , focusing on highlights from #AgileTD. Special memories from a great event! ... and shot out to @a_bangser keynote, one of the most mentioned sessions! pic.twitter.com/6G87l1kNUB

  — João Proença (@jrosaproenca) December 17, 2019

• Toyer Mamoojee and I had the honor to share our learning partnership on Agile Testing Days' keynote stage. Even better: people got inspired to start their own learning partner journeys! In addition, partnerships that had formed last year had evolved this year, like the ones of Mor Korem and Thomas Rinke, as well as Viki Manevska and Eddy Bruin.

  What a feeling. Extremely honored to have stood on the #AgileTD keynote stage together with my #LearningPartner @tottiLFC to close the conference with "I can’t do this… alone! A Tale of Two Learning Partners". Hope we have inspired further people to try learning partnerships! 🌟

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) November 8, 2019

  @lisihocke and @tottiLFC inspiring a few more #LearningPartners once again! #AgileTD 🙌🙌 https://t.co/hyTOyEANN8

  — João Proença (@jrosaproenca) March 1, 2019

• People got inspired by what I shared on my testing tour to start their own tours! Just to highlight two of them: Gem Hill formulated her tour around security and code, and Parveen Khan around becoming more confident as a tester and getting out of her comfort zone. I bet people did similar things before I've shared about my endeavor. The difference for me is that now I hear from people that they're up to something like that on their own - which is amazing! Please continue spreading the word, we all will benefit from learning with and from each other across company boundaries.

  Just had a great talk with @lisihocke about my #testingtour! Super excited about starting it in the next couple of months 😁

  — Gem Hill (@Gem_Hill) July 5, 2019

  Here's the blog I have written about my first session with @maaretp on my #TestingTour
  Yes I finally have my own blog 🤩https://t.co/DDdRUmpSyz https://t.co/7mE9gF1Plw

  — Parveen (@Parveen_Khan10) December 9, 2019

• I've become code-confident, publishing my first ever GitHub repositories, and worked on code a lot more at work as well. A real biggie for me! Oh, and I already made another pact with my learning partner Toyer Mamoojee to challenge me even further in 2020! :)

  Can I take a moment to shout out @lisihocke?
  
  She attended one of my workshops last year. This year she has set a personal mission to become #CodeConfident.
  
  She's in my new workshop today and the growth is beyond impressive! pic.twitter.com/JIvRkhFKI3

  — Angie Jones (@techgirl1908) April 4, 2019

  Wrote my first ever frontend unit tests at work today and by doing so discovered an unhandled scenario 🎉😁 #CodeConfident

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) July 5, 2019

• I continued pairing sessions on the topic of security testing with Peter Kofler. To many more in the future! Especially as my next year's theme is all centered around security. :)
• It's now officially 1.5 years that I'm on the "principal" seniority level at my company, with all the challenges that come with it. The position is quite a challenge in itself, and balancing my capacity between company initiatives and my own product team is tricky as well. Concerning that, I've found a method for me that mostly works and allows me to focus every day and week on what's right now the most valuable thing I can contribute with.
• I ran a first experiment on our company's mission to improve the testing and quality culture of our product teams, learning a lot about the context of four other teams, helping them to help themselves.

  Excited how @LisiHocke is now designing an experiment to teach designing experiments in scale. Teams need the tools to actively take their improvement into their own hands, and teaching them just that. Repeating over large numbers of teams gives perspective. #EuroTestConf #CfC

  — Maaret Pyhäjärvi (@maaretp) August 8, 2019

  What a week: Did 2 2-day workshops with 2 of our Berlin teams to help them improve their #testing & #quality culture. Now each team has identified workflow problems & product risks, documented their test strategy as well as designed an experiment to probe 1 of their challenges 💪

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) May 24, 2019

• I introduced the mob approach to a lot more people at my company. I ran three cross-team, cross-role, cross-location mobs as a proof of concept that remote mobs do work and we all can learn from each other, no matter our role or seniority level. I conveyed knowledge in hands-on mobs for other teams as well as our internal testing community.

  Running an experiment/probe at my company @flix_tech: cross-team mobs. Today we had our first session on #security #testing. Learning together across teams, roles and locations was super fun, we really enjoyed it! 🎉 #MobProgramming #MobTesting #Mobbing #proudflixtech

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) January 18, 2019

• I took on a formal mentorship for a colleague who asked me for it. Many people assumed I would have lots of experience with mentoring already - yet in reality I have not had many opportunities for more structured or formalized mentorships. I love having this chance to learn how to help another one grow on a certain topic, while I keep on learning myself!
• I took my first personal coaching sessions at work, and they helped me tremendously. Sometimes the solution already resides in us, and a gentle nudge can help ourselves reveal it or re-state the obvious. I also got referred to join a series of leadership workshops next year. Really looking forward to learning how to improve my collaboration, communication and leadership skills!
• I gained 1,349 followers on Twitter just this year, more than a third of the overall current number. I realize this number tended to increase faster the more followers I have, and still I really celebrated when crossing the mark of 3,000 followers. After all, Twitter is my main and most important social media platform.
• I've started to re-share posts that mentioned me on LinkedIn. I'm not really active on that platform, yet it's my place to connect with former and current colleagues who now started to see more things that I do outside the company. The response is interesting to see, so I'll continue experimenting with it.
• Counting this one, I've published 25 blog posts in 2019. Considering I wanted to cut down regarding blogging and experimented with more lightweight approaches to share on this medium, it's great to see I've still managed to post twice per month in average. The number of page views for my blog even climbed up to 207,275! Granted, I am probably heavily contributing to these numbers every time I look things up, yet still. ;-) And you know what's best? This very blog post is exactly my 100th post overall!
• I realized that my energy level is not always at 80% and above (as I liked to think so). I had to learn that it can drop any time and I need to keep a constant eye on it. On the upside, becoming more conscious about it helped me to do a lot more self-care this year (like finally enjoying my passion again, playing computer games just for fun and the sake of it!). I've committed myself to increase self-care in 2020, ingraining it into my new challenge.
• I got voted Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person (MIATPP) by the lovely Agile Testing Days community. I couldn't believe I ranked third place in 2018, so you can imagine my disbelief this year! And yet it's a fact, the community really gave this award to me this year. I'm tremendously grateful for this wonderful feedback on my work of sharing back what I learn on my journey. Extremely encouraging!

  What a wonderful post! (... and I'm still in shock people did vote for me... 😳❤😊) #AgileTD https://t.co/gDlsV0WLtf

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) February 5, 2019

  I voted for @lisihocke.
  I can say with full confidence that - maybe besides former #MIATPP winners - she had the biggest influence on me. Her Testing Tour, her challenges, and she as a wonderful person are amazing.
  Wonderful to see her keynoting at @AgileTD 2019.

  — Thomas Rinke (@thomrinke) August 21, 2019

  I won the award "Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person" 2019 - what an amazing feedback to receive from the #AgileTD community! 🙏 I put in effort, and you made me fly. THANK YOU. 💚Now let's all help the next ones soar to new heights! 🕊 #MIATPP #AchievementUnlocked

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) November 6, 2019

All this was made possible by the continuous amazing support and encouragement by my community and company peers. Thank you all so much, I can only hope to pay it forward. Lists are never complete, yet some shout-outs simply have to be done here.

• My wonderful power learning group: Toyer Mamoojee, João Proença, Viki Manevska, Mirjana Kolarov, Dragan Spiridonov, Simon Berner, Lilit Sharkhatunyan, Pooja Shah, Dianë Xhymshiti
• People who believed in me and gave me great opportunities this year: Angie Jones, Thomas Rinke, Maaret Pyhäjärvi, Mark Winteringham, José Díaz and his crew, Woody Zuill

  Can’t agree more emphatically. @lisihocke is a true gem that simply *needs* to be experienced. ❤️ https://t.co/7TPsUWDlRI

  — Lennart Fridén (@DevLCSC) August 8, 2019

  Why having sponsors is invaluable: yesterday @maaretp tweeted about me, advocating for me. 24h later I have 18 new followers and 2 "let's talk about you speaking at our event" conversations. THANK YOU Maaret. 🙏 And for the rest of us: let's be a sponsor, too - like Maaret. 🌟

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) August 9, 2019

  Lisi, you're really amazing. I truly admire how constantly challenge yourself. Watching you grow is such a joy! Thank you for sharing your journey with us

  — Angie Jones (@techgirl1908) March 18, 2019

• All those wonderful people who joined me on my code-confident challenge: Peter Kofler, João Proença, Parveen Khan, Amitai Schleier, Toyer Mamoojee, Mirjana Andovska, Amber Race, Shivani Gaba, Gem Hill, Michael Kutz, Simon Berner
• The Mob Programming Conference 2020 program team: Woody Zuill, Lennart Fridén, Nancy Van Schooenderwoert, Torrey Powell
• Great colleagues who helped me further and made a difference in various ways this year: Katherine Solskaya, Thiago Amanajás, Oleksii Levkivskyi, Leandro Leites Barrios, Paulo Azevedo, Thomas Ploch, Alex Vasilenko, Daniel Gräfen, Christophe-Marie Duquesne, Tobias Fiolka, Daniel Steinhauer, Chris Vestrini, Jonathan Lechner, Säm Abdelkhalek

  Great things happened today: One colleague noticed I was a bit down & offered to talk. One colleague told me I'm doing a great job as a leader in the company - not despite but because of my doubts. And a dear community friend just let me know what she thinks I'm worth. THANK YOU.

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) September 27, 2019

  A wonderful colleague #MadeMyDay twice today. Earlier today he told me he'd like to attend #AgileTD to see @tottiLFC's and my keynote! 🎉 And now he posted a lovely message about what he learned from me: https://t.co/awNgoPgLY1 Thank you! So much appreciated. 💚 #ProudFlixTech

  — Elisabeth Hocke (@lisihocke) September 3, 2019

To everyone: have a healthy and happy new year 2020 - may it be full of wonders and growth!