LEADERSHIP SERIES Nathalie Flaxington | Director of Marketing, EMEA, FullStory

Women in Tech forum CEO, Angie Vaux, sat down with the Director of Marketing for EMEA at FullStory, Nathalie Flaxington to hear more about her role as a female senior leader and recent advancements in the tech sector.?

Nathalie, what led you to your current role as Director of Marketing, EMEA and what do you love about working for FullStory??

FullStory is a digital experience intelligence platform. That means we empower brands to deliver best-in-class digital experiences on their websites and apps by providing real-time, actionable digital experience insights. We work with a variety of teams, such as Product, Engineering, UX, Marketing and Support across B2B as well as B2C companies. We now work with over 3,000 clients globally and have teams in Atlanta, London, Hamburg, Sydney and Singapore. I have worked here for nearly two years and lead marketing for EMEA. I am passionate about how we interact with each other online and how we can create a positive digital experience for end-to-end users, as well as remove silos for internal teams.

I fell into marketing after working in publishing, following studying for a degree in English Literature at Warwick University. I get energy from storytelling and understanding the value of that. After I graduated I worked in Paris for a year, moving on to explore publishing marketing roles. I went on to have a varied career path, working at B2B companies, events companies and JP Morgan. I wanted to work in an industry where I could actively have input, which led to B2B marketing roles in the tech industry. You need to be a certain type of person to work in tech, you need to be OK, and even good, with change.

You’ve had a non-linear career path. How have you navigated this?

I believe when navigating a nonlinear career, it’s key to understand yourself. When looking at your skill set, what energizes you and what drains you? This is key to having a successful, enjoyable career. It is also important to be adaptable. The tech industry is ever evolving, and quickly! For example, only recently we have a brand new social media platform Threads. It’s very exciting and good to be in the know of new advances.?

How would you describe your leadership style?

My go-to leadership style is Servant Leadership. To me, this means empowering your team. You know you're hiring great people, so empower them with the tools and what they need to do their jobs. It is also creating a culture of trust, which is even more vital to have that human connection with recent advancements in technology. Vulnerability is also so key for me when leading a team. Being vulnerable is something often seen as a weakness, particularly for women. This can feel scary at first, but it is our responsibility as leaders to be vulnerable with our teams.?

What are some of the recent advances you have seen in AI and how are you leveraging this as part of your role as a director of marketing??

AI is a huge buzzword now more than ever because we are starting to see tangible examples of use cases, ChatGPT being the most obvious example. When it comes to content writing, how is that making us more efficient? What are the possibilities? What does that mean? This doesn’t just apply to tech, but also to journalism and so many creative different sectors.

In terms of how we're using it as a marketing team, we are currently testing how we can use it when developing marketing campaigns and content, to complete these projects quicker. ChatGPT can help you be more efficient, but you need to have the idea and creativity to input to assist you to get these tasks completed faster. I believe that human input is still vital, which is what we're doing.?

Excitingly, there's a lot we can do with AI now and I'm sure more to come. It can feel intimidating, not just for marketers, but generally speaking when it comes to the human, what does that mean for humans and their jobs?

It comes back to the idea of storytelling and creativity. I think it's going to be even more crucial that as humans, we untap our potential using our empathy, creativity and imagination. I believe AI will unlock a lot more opportunities as it can complete the more mundane tasks, freeing up more time for focus and creating more productivity in our roles.

Nathalie recommends reading Brené Brown's books to discover your own leadership style.

FullStory's digital experience intelligence (DXI) platform empowers businesses to deliver the best digital experiences across their websites and apps. Teams from product and engineering to marketing and customer support use FullStory to save time and money, innovate confidently, and ultimately grow revenue. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, with regional teams in London, Hamburg, Sydney, and Singapore, and supports more than 3,300 companies in 70 countries, including Addison Lee, Flight Centre, jetBlue, Kogan, Lowes, Mammut, and Wayfair.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/fullstory

https://www.fullstory.com

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