Wrapping Up My 2019

I'm going to do my best to keep this concise - 2019 was a very exciting year for me, and I'd like to share my gratitude, as well as a few learnings along the way!

Highlights

• I quit my employee job and became self-employed! ??
• I scored and successfully finished my first freelance contract at SPRING Axel Springer Digital News Media GmbH & Co. KG, working with awesome people like Marek Baum, Jessica Mahler, Pascal Hamann, Dirk Müller, Tim Susa, Marta Górska, Andreas Prang, Mario Loth, Tim Mehlis, Robert Bosse, Annika Krüger, Eric Dinges, Stephan S?nksen, Julian Moder, Conny Kretschmar, Lukas Bombach, Manfred Alker, Michael Alers, Rajesh Babu, Michael Feit, Sophie Preu?er, Daniel Fa?bender, J?rdis Schuller, André Niendorf, Adrian Rivers, Michael Weber, Aykut Sensoy, Falk Rückmann, Martin Fischer and others - thanks so much for having me! Also - thanks to Steven Münzberg (of Michael Page) for the great job of placing me there! ??

• I held my first public talk in a while on freelancing in Product Management at Dalia Research in cooperation with Product School and Malt - thanks to Clément Hermier, Shiraz Mahfoudhi and Saúl Trujillo Suárez for inviting & joining me, Lisa Jacob and the Dalia team for hosting us and of course all the attendees for being an awesome crowd! ??

• Daniel Barke invited me on his freelancer podcast Free Talent to talk about freelancing in PM, in IT and in general - thanks again for everything, Daniel!!! If you already listened in and/or have given me feedback on it - thank you very much for doing so! If you haven't & are interested - more info here (German only):

• I submitted 2 articles to ProductCoalition.com that Jay Stansell decided to publish - thanks a lot, Jay! ?? Now, there's definitely room for more material, but that's part of my 2020 plans! ICYMI, you can find them here:

Also, I visited a ton of meetups, conferences and events & met a bunch of amazing people that I'm very grateful to have connected with, and very much looking forward to working with in the future - including but not limited to:

• Alain Monnet (Agile Rockstars) for showing me Hamburg's most low-profile co-working space ??
• Philipp Petrescu, Selina Priestman, Levin Wense and Georg Ortner (MVP Factory) for the ongoing connection!
• Anja Schl?sser and Axel Kuhlmann (Code Of Africa) for introducing me to their exciting mission!
• Shimanyi Valentino, Ali Dennis Chivatsi, Mwangi Micha, Eric Musyoka and Norman Munge (Sisitech Ltd.) for meeting me in Nairobi, Kenya - and listening to my band's music ??
• Joanna Jankowska, André Marquet and the Productized team for inviting me out to Lisbon, Portugal to their amazing conference! ??
• Anja Hofmeister (Semasio) and Arne Kittler (XING) for inviting me to tag along to dinner with ProductTank Hamburg special guest Megan Murphy (N26) ??
• Tim Herbig and Levent Dietrich for joining the freelance journey and preparing 2020 stuff ??
• Katharina Haritonov and Rasim Arora (Expertlead) for the amazing placement work so far!
• The great communities that have taken me in - most notably Carl Simbruner and the Malt people as well as Manuel Meurer and Hakan Kaya of Uplink!
• All the recruitment professionals that I've met with and talked to - unfortunately too many to name (you know who you are! ??)
• Also, everyone who met me for coffee or beer (or FaceTime), shared their ideas and aspirations with me and heard me out! Also unfortunately too many to name, but it's been an absolute pleasure to connect with you this year, and I'm very grateful for that! ???♂?

2019 has definitely been a year of building lots of new social connections and circles for me, but it's also been a year of learning (a lot), for which I'm equally grateful. Here are my key points that I'd like to leave you with:

Take a bold leap - but don't forget (at least some) upfront diligence.

At the end of 2018, I started plotting a more substantial change to my career aspirations. Following an extended period of professional "soul searching", I had (somewhat of) a plan - and after some foundational research, decided to go all-in.

Would I recommend that to just about anyone? Not really, tbh.

It's been an immensely valuable learning experience, but aside from requiring the privilege to have a few months worth of living expenses saved up, starting out was tough in retrospect (and I'm sure that my case was only a fraction of what other founders go through).

Initial contracts and leads falling through. Getting negative responses. Getting no responses at all sometimes. Trying harder the next day, every day.

Eventually, I decided to take all of it as a learning experience, and a chance to improve. Looking back, that's where the make-or-break was.

Look after your own goals and ambitions - because no one else will.

On the plus side of things, I did learn a ton of things:

• How the freelancing business in IT works (which is hard to really grasp unless you're in it).
• How to properly found & register a business in Germany, and what to consider (more than you'd think).
• How to talk to people on the phone (sounds trivial, but building that routine of calling people & having good conversations via phone is something I'm definitely coming out of 2019 way better).
• How to self-organize and focus better (I feel like I was always solid at this, but definitely gained more routine this year).
• How to present, position and pitch yourself as a freelancer (still a good way to go, so if you feel like you'd have suggestions on how to improve, please do reach out! ??).
• How to ask for help (definitely lots of headroom here, but it was a start!)
• Lots of PM-relevant insights from working with SPRING, both technically and organizationally
• and a lot more!

Along those lines, I feel that freelancing has helped me tap into a good amount of my own potential and grow professionally - but that doesn't mean that would work for everyone. "Being your own boss" and "making all your own decisions" sound like appealing things to anyone, but in order to make freelancing work, you'll need to prioritize that autonomy above a lot of other attractive and comfortable things, such as a steady paycheck, no admin overhead, paid vacation/sick leave and no constant need to get clients.

My point(s):

• Go and find whatever helps you grow and/or makes you happy professionally (I'll steer clear of the general "personal vs. professional ambitions and happiness" discussions for now.), and pursue that.
• If you feel like you're not set up well to do so, you might require to make a change that could be difficult or uncomfortable - don't let that deter you.
• Do some research up front, make sure you're comfortable (enough) with what you're planning - but don't overdo it; set deadlines if needed.

Either way - I really can't wait for what 2020 is going to bring, and what I'll be able to realize next year! Of course, I've got lots of things planned already - and I'd be excited to hear about yours! ??

Thanks for reading & a happy new year to all of you,

-B