Celebrating women leadership: Inspirational advice from women leading the tech industry

By Guest Author 16 March 2022

Inspirational advice from women leading the tech industry

Every year, across the world, we celebrate women and their achievements on International Women’s Day. However, there are too many inspiring women for just one day, which is why NumberEight launched the “7 days of women for women” project this year. As part of this project, the company shines the spotlight on different industries and the exceptional women leading them every day and the inspirational advice they want to share with other women.

1. Emma Raz

Director of Comercial, at NumberEight.

Emma is the first on our list as the woman behind the “7 days of women for women” project origination.

When Emma was asked what advice she would have given herself at the start of her career, she said, “Don’t be afraid of failure. It’s our mistakes that teach the most about our jobs and ourselves, and they are unavoidable anyway. The more you do, the more likely you have made some mistake along the way. If you obsess too much about being perfect, you will never get anything done.

So give yourself the freedom to fail, the space to fall, and the courage to get right back up again. You will be fine.”

In addition, she also shared that building confidence and resilience came through failure. “When my dad tried to teach me how to ride a bike, he pushed me so I’d fall and see it’s not a big deal and it doesn’t hurt too bad. That plan failed as the bike accidentally ended up cutting my ankle, and I spent the rest of the afternoon bleeding. However, the logic is still sound.

It’s only when I have made mistakes or was challenged by my colleagues that I have learned that, for one, I can recover and fix almost everything. Secondly, I am much more capable than I thought I was. Being in a position I had to defend myself taught me to also believe in myself.”

2. Maria Dramalioti-Taylor

Founding Managing Partner, at Beacon

Maria is the founding managing partner of Beacon, a London-based fund that invests in enterprise tech across Europe. She is also angel investing, is on the board of a number of fast-growing companies, and is a member of the RAEng Enterprise Committee.

We asked maria to look back and come up with the advice she would give herself at the start of her career? Her response was, “It is in tough times; when all available options seem suboptimal and all your good luck seems to have run out, that you build the foundations of future success.

These are the moments to relish, to be ruthlessly focused and to forge forward.”

3. Annina Salvén,

CFO, at Next Games Corporation

Being a strong female leader in a top gaming corporation, we asked Annina how we should encourage and support women to enter leadership roles? In response, she shared that she thought women were more afraid of the repercussions of failing.

“We often have to work twice as hard, for half the pay, to get only half the way. If we really want to support women, support us to fail and still come out on top. Prove that mistakes are not career-ending. Encourage us to not be perfect, to not be infallible, to not have to be the absolute best out of everyone and still not good enough. Encourage risk-taking, praise it and learn from it. And as women, demand more of those around you - better work hours, higher pay, work-life balance, more team members, more support.”

4. Kim Loasby

Digital Ad Product & Strategy Director, at Southern Cross Austereo

Kim has a unique expertise in combining creativity and analytics. In Kim’s own words “as much as I love creativity I also love data and process”.

We asked Kim how she managed to build her confidence throughout her career, she reflected that honesty and humour are the two things that helped her the most once she found her own voice to speak. “Being honest can be scary, but no matter how uncomfortable it is, it’s the quickest way to a positive outcome, which is what we’re all aiming for.

Something went wrong… tell someone and ask for help.

Think a process could be better… say so.

Don’t quite understand something… put your hand up.

Aren’t sure you’ve come to the right solution in a meeting… call it out. More often than not you’re not the only one thinking it.

It gets easier each time you’re honest, irrespective of the fact that honesty isn’t always followed by agreement.

Nothing builds more resilience than someone disagreeing with you. The confidence comes from them still asking your opinion next time because they appreciate your honesty.

As for humour, it might be an odd one for work, but I find that well-placed humour helps you form better connections and creates ease in doing business.”

5. Cary Tilds

Chief Strategy Operations Officer at Frameplay

Cary has been a leading voice in women in tech and regularly has volunteered in her local community for programs like DECCA and STEM. She decided to do so because “not only do those programs support young women in their journey, but it allows her the opportunity to show up and support the idea that a strong woman can be a leader.”

Cary noted that she always really appreciated the idea that we are never truly finished learning something, whether it’s about the world, our job, or ourselves. Therefore she believes that in order to build resilience, one should be open to learning new ideas, solutions, and methods.

Finally, when we asked Cary to look back and give her younger self one piece of advice, she said, “I would tell my younger self to be a better listener, while also not being afraid to say what’s needed to be said. Often, people think those notions are at odds and they are not.”

6. Lauren Ogundeko

Chief Digital Officer, at Bicycle London

For anyone here who have yet to hear Lauren speak in public, you should! Not only is she very knowledgeable, but she has the personality and attitude to make the information both engaging and inspiring.

As a leading voice in the better representation public dialogue, we have asked Lauren what she would recommend to encourage and support women to enter leadership roles. In response, she said that “we need to be more transparent about the skills that leadership roles require (the secret ones and the not so secret ones) and we need to start to provide training, coaching and mentoring to women early in their careers, so they are prepared for those roles.

We need to create a friction-free way for women to get the advice and skills they need to progress in their career, don't overcomplicate the process and don't make them work harder just because they are women. We also need to stop the biases and the descriptors we use when it comes to women vs men, which damage women more than men.”

7. Marianna Vallejo

CEO of Internal Studio, at Playrix

Marianna, at the age of 24, founded Daily Magic, a studio that would go on to develop award-winning independent titles including Dark Dimensions: Somber Song, Sender Unknown: The Woods, and the virtual reality game Witching Tower.

When we asked her what would she would have told her younger self as advice; her answer was both motivational and practical. “Start investing as early as possible, even with 100$. Passive income is everything.” In case, it is by assigning a monetary value to a goal that also managed to build more confidence throughout her career. “You need to set your professional goals and attach a dollar value to them; when you're pursuing your own interests you don't need to prove anything to anybody.”

8. Kasia Bargielska

CMO & Co-founder, at AdTonos

Kasia has 20 years of experience helping media and digital advertising firms. Being such as strong female leader, we asked her also to provide one piece of advice to any woman starting out in her career.

Her advice is something that we should all aspire to live by regardless of whether we are just starting out or have been working for years. “Be courageous and pursue your dreams, start new projects, start a business. Share your knowledge and experience with other women. They will appreciate it and change the business world for the better.”

9. Elizaveta Kostyukhina

Product Manager, at Square Enix

Eli started her career in gaming in 2012 at leading social casino specialists Plumbee (now GSN Games), from there, she continued her career at Product Madness, Supersolid and now Square Enix. With such rich experience in gaming, we asked Eli to share her advice on what young women entering their first job in gaming should keep in mind.

She said, that the first 2 things that came to her mind were:

“For one, never be afraid to ask questions, now is the time to do it! Not only will you learn faster, but most managers love it when you ask questions and are more likely to give you more interesting tasks and projects in the future because they know if you're stuck you won't be afraid to ask for help.

Secondly, miscommunications happen and it's never personal, the sooner these things are talked about and resolved the better.”

10. Joanne Lacey

COO, at AdInMo

Joanne has over 20 years of experience in marketing, commercial and operational roles in the mobile industry. In fact she was once described by her colleagues as “the perfect combination of business acumen, operational know-how and unstoppable tenacity that drives a business to success.”

We asked Joanne to share her experience in building confidence and resiliency throughout her career, to which she replied, “it can be empowering to embrace the fact there may be an unconscious bias when working in a male-dominated sector. Rather than thinking, ‘how will I be perceived?’, if you focus on doing your job the best way you can, your confidence will grow, your ability will shine through and become your dominant attribute.”

Furthermore, she also advised that there’s a lot of support out there now to help support and encourage women to enter leadership roles, whether be it access to mentoring or dedicated networking groups.

She stated that “the best support we can all give is always to be honest: sharing success and failures, leading by example. The fact that tech start-ups like AdInMo and Number Eight promote women in tech is a very good place to start.”

11.Claire Rozain

UA Team lead, at Rovio

Claire Rozain is a Growth strategy master as well as a rising gaming YouTuber. We asked Claire to share the advice she should have given herself when she first got started. In response, she said that she would have told her younger self, "think about who you want to be as a person and what type of business and culture do you want to be dedicated to."

She further shared that if she would have took a better look at work environment rather than jumping head first into new adventures, she would saved her time, energy and stress. “I think my younger self was not aware how important It is to work with people who reflect your values and share kindness in a great work environment where companies invest in their employees.”

On top of that she added that she feels like she’s still working to build her confidence. “I do a lot of public speaking because I am passionate about games and talking publicly also in-turn help me be more confident.”

12. Liat Barer

VP Product, at Odeeo

Liat is a mobile advertising expert with more than 12 years of experience in the field. As a woman holding a leadership position in product development, an area dominated by men, we asked Liat how she managed to build up her confidence. She confided, “I was lucky enough to work for companies that allowed me to make mistakes and learn from them.

When you are in an environment that respects mistakes and treats them as a part of the path to success, you are able to experiment and learn first-hand that it's OK to be wrong sometimes in order to be right in other (and more important) times. In addition, I had the tremendous fortune to work for and alongside amazing mentors (both women and men) who believed in me and knew to respect me while pushing me to reach different heights.”

She recommended that women should not “be afraid to take risks and follow any career path you desire. You'll be able to bring to the table your previously learnt capabilities while catching up what you are currently lacking along the way. If you are passionate about something - you'll nail it.”

13. Kim Aspeling

Head of Creative, at A Million Ads

Kim is an expert storyteller, with a wealth of experience in creating high profile brands such as Adidas and L’oreal.

When asked to look back and give a piece of advice to her younger self, Kim said, “be bolder, know your worth and hold your ground - especially in difficult conversations. It's very easy to get imposter syndrome and for self doubt to creep in - thinking, can I really do this, not just in a role but even before applying for a role.

I saw a statistic the other day that men apply for roles where they can only do 60% of the job and women only apply if they can do 100% of the job, which was mind-boggling to me. Thus I would push my younger self to take the risks, ask the difficult questions because what is really the worst that can happen? Something I am trying to let lead my career going forward is: Don't be afraid to fail; failure isn't just necessary, it's something to be proud of for ever taking the chance at all.”

14. Jamora Crawford

Marketing Artist, at Voodoo

Jamora started her career in photography and video art; when given a chance to go into gaming, she jumped on the opportunity, as she loved video games ever since she first played Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).

When asked, Jamora shared that she learned to be resilient first and foremost from her mother. “I learned to be resilient from my mother, who immigrated to the US from the Philippines. She was a nurse (now retired), and I saw her struggle and work in another country, overcoming so many obstacles. Because of her, I knew I had to be persistent because no one else but I would have the power to achieve my goals. That’s why I went to art school despite everyone telling me not to, and that’s why I had the audacity to apply to the mobile gaming industry even though I had no prior experience.

I learned confidence by knowing my worth. I tried different career paths and failed many times before doing what I do now, which I absolutely love. I’m always learning new skills, always reaching out for more… not because someone is asking me to, but because it gives me joy and purpose. This passion drives my confidence because I know what I am capable of.”

By NumberEight for Gamesforum