The Gratitude Jar
2019 has been an eventful year for many and the start of a new year is a great opportunity to say throw a slip into a gratitude jar to thank to those around you who have supported you in some way.
Being the blog author đ I get to write the last gratitude slip. Firstly, my husband and family. Without their support I wouldnât be able to achieve what I have done which involves co-founding my second business, spoken across 3 continents, 7 countries and even more cities.
To my business partner Deepika Loganathan, who is a positive inspiration in my life.
To Amrith Shetty, Sahar Khoshraveshan, Trish Khoo and Adrian Chirion, some of our consultants who have worked for us this year do such a wonderful job of being ambassadors to Testing Times.
To Madeleine, my sister and bookkeeper who has been through the year from hell, and still keeps my books up to date!
To Owen Senior and Divya Konnur who consistently encourage me to write my quality coach book. (Soon folks!)
Anne Colder for facilitating my two day quality coach tutorial at short notice, and for her Verdwondering exercise!
Margaret Dineen for co-hosting quality coach roadshow with me (next show out in a couple of days!)
Thereâs a heap of others of course, Phil Jostsons, Catherine Karena, David Greenlees, Arushee Aggarwal and Jost Stollmann to name a few.
Finally, I canât go past saying a big thank you to the conferences that have invited me to speak this year. Australia is far away and it requires special dedication to invite me over. Thank you, European Testing Conference, UKSTAR, CAST2019, Agile Automation Days, and Agile Testing Days.
Below is a list of women from the women in testing slack channel who wanted to say thanks. What can I say? These wonderful women make community.
Rachael Kibler
Three people! Iâm grateful to Maaret PyhĂ€jĂ€rvi for taking a chance on me with the keynote for Agile Testing Days USA and giving lots of feedback in the lead up to it. Iâm grateful to Lisa Crispin for pairing with me on a workshop, and all that goes along with it. She is a great cheerleader and partner.And Iâm grateful to Amy Richards for being an amazing person this year. She helped me navigate new roles and uncertainty at work, always being kind.
Areti Panou
I am grateful to Anne-Marie Charrett and Lisa Crispin for encouraging me with their kind words and promoting my work. Their contagious enthusiasm for learning and helping is something I really look up to.
My special thanks go to Ard Kramer who gave me thorough and thoughtful feedback on my conference proposal, giving me the confidence to submit it.
Alex Schladebeck
Iâm grateful to and Gitte Klitgaard for only ever being a telephone call away. To Elizabeth Zagroba for visiting me twice and being a wine-whatsapper. To my awesome team of test consultants and developers. And most of all to this whole slack channel. You are my secret sauce, my cheerleaders and most of my brain xxxx . Forgot to mention Abby Bangser for helping me with observability and Janet Gregory for always writing and checking in.
Varun Srivastava
I am forever grateful to Maaret PyhÀjÀrvi. You are a feedback fairy. Thanks for all your feedback!!
I am thankful to all European Testing conference awesome organizers. You all rock ladies. I have learnt a lot from you folks in past months.
And yes Wit slack channel you all are my go to person for any queries!!
Marit van Dijk
I am grateful for Maaret PyhĂ€jĂ€rvi for shining her light on peopleâs awesomeness and making them show the best version of themselves, including me. I am grateful that I got to travel to different countries and share my experiences with others, amd get to continue to do so next year.
I am grateful for Angie Jones who is a constant source of inspiration and a super nice person.
I am grateful for Lisa Crispin who doesnât know how much of an awesome role model she is to the rest of us.
Iâm grateful to Jasmine Vyas or coming to Swansea with me to do a workshop on software quality.
I am grateful to have found this amazing supportive community and all of you in it. I love getting to know all of you better and how we support each other and cheer each other on.
Arlene Andrews
I am grateful to all of you: I canât call out the number of times I have smiled, cried, learned, taught, or simply âfelt homeâ here.
Trish Khoo
Iâm grateful to Catherine Karena who helped me out through some of my hardest times this year. Thank you.
Lisa Crispin
Gosh, I donât even know where to start! +1 on everyone mentioned so far. Deeply grateful to all you many friends here who support me and make WiT Slack my security blanket and source of energy and inspiration (and to Anne-Marie Charrett & Ale Moreira for starting this Slack? I think it was yâall?) Eternally grateful to Janet for so many things including getting our new book out (with contributions and help from some of you). All of you who have paired with me, both for conferences and helping me learn⊠Special gratitude to the people who have the courage to share their personal stories so the rest of us can learn to be nicer to ourselves and others. Gitte Klitgaard, Ashley Hunsberger, Alex Schladebeck, Selena Delesie many others, and not to leave out men â Stephan Kamperâs ATD keynote had a big impact on me also, as did Kevin Harrisâs, and men like Dan Billings who arenât afraid to show vulnerability. Thanks to Elizabeth Zagroba, I am taking a longer break right now than I would have otherwise â and I really need it! I would name just about everyone here if I stated naming names â thank you all!
Trisha Chetani
I wanted to take the opportunity and thank to tech voices for the support and i also wanted to say thanks Mirjana Kolarov for pairing up with me and giving her time and even WIT slack channel : it a great place to be in and learn from others and get the support and suggestion based on people availability . I appreciate the support from all the testers and the testing community.
Iâm grateful to Maaret PyhĂ€jĂ€rvi for taking a chance on me with the keynote for Agile Testing Days USA and giving lots of feedback in the lead up to it. Iâm grateful to Lisa Crispin for pairing with me on a workshop, and all that goes along with it. She is a great cheerleader and partner.And Iâm grateful to Amy Richards for being an amazing person this year. She helped me navigate new roles and uncertainty at work, always being kind.
Bhavani
Iâm grateful to Lisa Crispin who has helped me and took time to review my blog posts and publishing & promoting those. I âm grateful to Angie Jones for taking time to contribute back to the community
Emna Ayadi
Also, I appreciate the idea of this video within the agile french community done by people involved in the community. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jupaquet_communaut%C3%A9-agile-bonne-ann%C3%A9e-la-minute-activity-6615135187212746752-QK5D
Iâm thankful to everyone here, WIT slack is becoming my source of inspiration and motivation from technical things to personal things as we have channels for everything !
Special thanks to Areti Panour that make me discover this channel months ago
Also I would like to thank women that I met this year Varuna Srivastava at QS TAG conference in Frankfurt and Nishi Grover Garg my best conference friend at Targeting Quality conference in Cambridge.
Keep rocking all testers in this community wish you all the best and hope to meet you all next year
Hey! I am super grateful for the opportunities I had this year that led me to meet many wonderful people. Found a sweet friend in Emna Ayadi at TQ2019 Canada, chatted with Maaret PyhÀjÀrvi about many conference talk ideas and got insightful words of advice, found so much to learn here in WIT slack group! And now, I am looking forward to meeting the awesome likes of Jenny Bramble, Lisa Crispin, Heather Reid and Hilary Weaver-Robb next year at TestBash Detroit! It has been a good year and wish for an even greater 2020!!
Nishi Grover Garg
2019 was a year of change, acceptance and taking big leaps. When taking charge is no longer an option, you just gotta march ahead! I marched ahead in adversity to get out of a rut, got a new job that I am thankful for! Lisi Hocke brought me smiles and Lisa Crispin was super kind to share her feedback on my talk proposals. I took my blog forward, wrote a bunch, learnt many new skills including creating tutorial videos, and most importantly, spoke at my first international conference!
May 2020 bring us greater things, more smiles, contentment & whatever our hearts yearn for the most!!
Jenny Bramble
Iâm grateful for Ashley Hunsberger who opened up some neat opportunities for me in 2020. And for Arlene Andrews and her relentless positivity, even when sheâs down. For Jenna Charlton and her strength of character and amazing technical knowledge that sheâs so willing to share.Gitte Klitgaard and her beautiful spirit+hilarious outlook. Angela Riggs, for being a great conference buddy. Trish Khoo and her amazing ability to put things into words. Also the adventures of Brother and Eli.
And really, just everyone in here because youâre all so powerful and unique and interesting. A patchwork quilt of the testing community.
Jasmine Vyas
A bit late but I am thankful to Marit Van Dijk for helping me a lot with public speaking and giving me a chance to do the workshop with her at SwanseaCon this year ! I am also grateful to Maryam Umar for the lovely tiny interaction we had at European Women In Tech this year ! And lastly, grateful to all the lovely souls here on this workspace for all they do.
Jenna B Charlton
I am grateful to this entire community. Without you all I would still wonder if I was the only one who felt the way I do and if I really belong in this industry. Lisa Crispin I am grateful for how warm and kind you are and how you are willing to be vulnerable. I think I probably speak for a lot of us here in saying that you are a role model for me and I have looked up to you for years, and seeing you be so honest and open has helped me feel less alone. Gitte Klitgaard you have such a fun spirit and help everyone feel included! Jenny Bramble, I am so grateful for your friendship and every time we get the chance to see each other we pick up right where we left off the last time. I feel like Iâve known you forever. Youâre authenticity inspired me to be fully authentic when I speak. Angela Riggs, getting to know you has been a blast! You are so much fun and I canât wait to get to know you better. Parveen, you are a treasure. I feel bad that we havenât gotten much chance to spend time together, but just the little we have I can tell you have a beautiful heart that is a blessing to those around you. Hilary Weaver-Robb I think you are just the bees knees and youâre support has meant the world to me! Iâm keeping you and your family in my thoughts and the way you continue to give to the community even with everything going on is inspiring.
Parveen
I am thankful and grateful to this entire community and Women In Tesing slack. I dint knew anyone or had no clue about this whole wonderful world and wonderful people in this community. Thank you Tech Voices(Speakeasy) for helping me to be part of this community. A huge thank you to Abby Bangser for making my dream come true by connecting me to Angie Jones as my mentor. I am so grateful to you for all the support and help throughout to help me find my voice Angie Jones. Thank you for believing in me and helping me to believe in myself. You were always there for me during my tough time.
Thank you for continuous inspiration, you are my role model. Actually you showed me the door to this community and to this part of the world.
Im grateful and thankful to Maaret PyhÀjÀrvi who has helped me and believed me and constantly supported me by providing feedback, mentoring and pairing. I am so lucky, grateful and thankful to Lisa Crispin who is so amazing and kind person who was always there to help and support whenever I needed. I am so grateful and thankful to Lisi Hocke for all her inspiration and for amazing pairing conversations. Thank you Trisha Chetani for being so kind and helpful. I never came across someone like you who is so dedicated in helping someone. Jenna Charlton, thank you for being so kind and amazing. Im thankful and grateful to Smita Mishra for being so kind and helpful. Im super thankful and grateful to Cassandra Leung who has inspired me to do something brave which I have never thought I would be able to do it. Im sure I have missed some more amazing people whom Im grateful and thankful to. This year has been very very special to me and it could not have been so special without you all wonderful communities help, support, inspiration and motivation. Thank you all.
Elisabeth (Lisi) Hocke
I am grateful for Anne-Marie Charrett triggering this wonderful initiative! Also: thank you for all your amazing work in the quality world, I value your inspiration more and more every day.Thinking back on the last year, I am truly grateful for the support and encouragement of so many people. Way too many to list them all! I received a lot of support and I can only hope to pay it forward. Here are those people I am especially grateful for when thinking back on the last year.Toyer Mamoojee, my learning partner through thick and thin. We came so far together, itâs really incredible. Thank you for always being there and having a sympathetic ear for me! Your advice and support is invaluable to me. I am even more grateful to have a whole power learning group around us! Many thanks to all those wonderful people.I am very grateful for all those people who reached out to me when I was at my lowest point this year. Many thanks to Toyer Mamoojee, JoĂŁo Proença, Thomas Rinke, KristÄ«ne Corbus, Alex Schladebeck, Simon Berner, Lennart FridĂ©n, and more.Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory for so much inspiration throughout the years! You are real role models, thank you so much for all youâre giving to the community â your knowledge and your kindness, your experience and your support. We can only hope to become more like you.Patrick Prill for bringing all my talks to a whole new level. Thank you so much for your continuing, constructive and kind feedback â this in addition to your support and encouragement is invaluable to me. I can only hope to pay it forward! Angie Jones, Thomas Rinke, Maaret PyhĂ€jĂ€rvi, Mark Winteringham, JosĂ© DĂaz, Woody Zuill for granting me great opportunities this year and endorsing me publicly. So much appreciated and not taken for granted!All those people who paired with me this year â thank you so so much for sharing your knowledge and experience, helping me grow. I can only hope I could give something back, or pay it forward to other people I pair with.I am super grateful for all those people who spread word around pairing up remotely â like when going on a testing tour. Many thanks especially to Gem Hill and Parveen Khan here!Leandro Leites Barrios for being a great colleague to work with, for being a strong voice advocating for quality and testing even when not identifying as tester yourself, and for promoting my achievements both inside and outside the company. Thank you so much.Anne Colder and Vincent Wijnen for giving me both hope and strength again. On the one hand by giving great advice on how to step up as an ally (many thanks to Thomas Rinke here as well, leading by example!), and on the other hand by showing me how to enjoy my passion again. Thank you so much for our wonderful conversation all around computer games, you cannot even imagine how much energy and joy this gave me back and how much this helped to take better care of myself!
Abby Bangser
It is crazy how much trying to write out specific gratitudes stresses me out! But lemme tryâŠThe thing career topic that stands out this year the most for me is gaining experience and confidence with observability via a new job and new conference experiences.This all kicks off because 2 years ago Charity Majors gave this random Londoner the time of day and has since then been a teacher, coach, and cheerleader. I canât even begin to express gratitude there. From there I am grateful for Melissa (the Tester), Vernon Richards, Lisa Crispin, Martin Hynie, Ben Kelly and Rob Meaney for helping solidify my ideas in endless chats and seemingly ALWAYS sharing and engaging with my posts on Twitter.To Benny and Jon for going on the wild ride of creating a workshop and delivering it after we had selected conferences to attend. And speaking of that workshop, Areti Panour and Lisi Hocke, thank you for being the worlds best first attendees (and Anne-Marie Charrett as a future collaborator) by giving us ways to improve and confidence to take it forward.The year is so much more than just observability, but to encompass all of that is just too hard, so I will leave my post here knowing that all of this is rooted in my gratitude for the wider community to be open to new ideas and supportive of every individual to take them forward.
Janet Gregory
Thanks Anne-Marie Charrett for making me think about who and what I am grateful for this year. Mostly this year, there are many little things. Nothing huge or major. Those little things almost pass you by without noticing. Sometimes they are a comment by Gitte Klitgaard here or on twitter that makes me think about being kind more often. Sometimes itâs a chat with one of my mentees that makes me consider how I can express ideas better. Sometimes itâs listening to a talk by someone â for example Elizabeth Zagroba about how we can improve our own skills to make me stop and think. Sometimes itâs by watching someone like Lisa Crispin struggle with trying something but continue to work at it and not giving up. Sometimes itâs listening to people like Alex Schladebeck with such a zest for life which gives me encouragement to live my own life with that same zest. As I get older (and feel that age), I am grateful for the many women around me like Fiona Charles or Isabel Evans that continue to share their ideas and inspire me to do the same. So many little things. So many great people.
Lena Wiberg
I am grateful for Trish Khoo for doing illustrations for my cards, for Lisa Crispin for pairing with me, for myself for daring to do the owasp-workshop without Tomas, for Smita Mishra for always making me feel important when we meet, for Ashley Hunsberger for our great chats, making me feel appreciated and for Gitte Klitgaard for pairing with me on leadership and simply being a wonderful friend đ
2019 was a great year.
Oh and Iâm proud of myself for seeing I needed to slow down.
Kristine Corbus
This was great year for me. Big changes in my family: the youngest started to go to school, biggest became an adolescent, I was a LOT away. Accordingly my biggest gratitude goes to my husband. I am so grateful to have him! We built this family, we follow each our personal dreams (without help from a side) and still manage to be a loving couple.Professionally the biggest move this year was my decision to quit my volunteer activities. Over years I supported so many, that I forgot to take care of myself. I am deeply grateful to people who supported me on my way to make this decision.
Angela Riggs
Gratitude for this community, where itâs okay to be vulnerable and proud, where we can vent and support and celebrate ourselves and each other.
Mel the Tester
So I wrote a blog post instead because I had too many words and didnât want to spam up this chat. Many thanks to everyone! Melâs Gratitude Jar
Many thanks to you all for taking the time out to contribute to the gratitude jar.
How about you? Do you have a slip you want to add to the gratitude jar? Feel free to use comments to add.
Happy 2020!
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