Anna Kocsis - Demand Generation Lead

I am a very one-dimensional person: I just love marketing. Good marketing. I'm so lucky to do what I love but this also means that I present very few 'features of interest' outside of work.

I live in Cambridge, but I'm originally from Hungary. My travel advice for Hungary? Avoid it.

I have a slightly obsessive personality: sometimes it's linguistics, or Hozier, or neurology, or knitting, or philosophy, or gender studies—and always fluffy animals (specifically koalas) and marketing.

Roles

• Member of the Marketing Team

• Demand Generation

Personal values

• Exceptionalism: Aim for exceptional—but never think you've reached it. I love the saying: 'If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.' I never want to be in the wrong room.

• Lifelong learning: If money didn't matter, I'd spend my whole life doing degree after degree. I surround myself with people who inspire me, I regularly upskill, and I read a lot. I believe that people die twice: the first time when they stop learning.

• Don't take yourself too seriously: Professional and boring are not the same thing. You don't need to gloat about your knowledge and puff yourself up. The right people will see your real value. Admitting that you don't know everything is the new sexy.

• Be honest but kind: Don't say stuff about people behind their backs that you wouldn't feel comfortable saying to their faces. Your feedback doesn't always have to be blunt—if soft works just as well. I can make a grown man cry with my Eastern European bluntness—but I don't. Listen carefully and try to pick the right time and tone.

• Agility: I'm a very operationally minded, organised person, and I like simple solutions. I believe that 'good enough' is good enough to start with. Best practices have good reasons, and it's okay to start there. Iterate fast, often, and based on meaningful feedback—not just personal opinion. (From an ex-perfectionist.)

Achilles heels

• No quits: I am relentless and don't know when to quit. I'd rather break myself doing something I believe I can do than admit that it's time to stop. I consciously have to remind myself that stopping, quitting, and giving up are very different things.

• High expectations: I expect a lot from myself and when I do something, I give it my all. Although I don't hold others to the same standards, I've been told that I need to chill: not everyone loves their job as much as I do—and that is okay. As a result, I'm also quick to burn out and have to remind myself to prioritise consistency over intensity.

• Leaning out: I hate change and my first instinct is to lean out—but I always lean in at the end. In fast-moving tech, leaning out is simply unacceptable. So I give myself up to five minutes to moan about change or be scared, and then I make myself lean in.

• I need my sleep: Not joking, if I have a couple of nights of bad sleep, I become pretty unbearable. That's why I' so particular about my sleep schedule.

How to get the best out of me

• Lead by example: I can't stand 'do as I say, not as I do' mentality. Hold yourself accountable first, not others. Show don't say.

• Give me context and deadlines: I'm a very operationally minded, organised person who loves the luxury of a planned workload but understands that sh*t happens. I prioritise work based on speed and level of impact on funnel metrics. If you ask me to do something and I don't understand its impact and the 'why,' it'll go to the end of my to-do list. Give me as much context as possible and a reasonable deadline—urgency for urgency's sake is just haste and it destroys focus.

• Give me data: I love opinions. I often have them too! I love data even better. Opinions and gut feelings are genuinely very important—they are great fallbacks for when you don't have data, which is often. I prioritise decisions based on data -> experience -> opinion.

• Ask questions: I know stuff even if I don't gloat about it unnecessarily. I hate when people try to teach me to suck eggs. Ask me whether/how I know to do something instead of assuming that I don't. I promise I'll be honest. Also, it's rare that I do something without a good reason, but I don't want to bore you with all the nitty-gritty, so just ask away! Questions leave room for insightful discussions—don't you think?

• Don't apply unnecessary pressure: I am a responsible adult. I understand business pressure and urgency, I am honest and take responsibility for my mistakes. Business environments often apply plenty of pressure—even though we're not life-saving doctors—you don't need to apply more.