Interview — Women in Tech

Here’s an article written following an interview with Agathe Boisard, Senior UA Associate at Voodoo
She discusses why she chose to work at Voodoo and her vision about women in tech

Before you came to Voodoo, what was your background?

I studied at business school, specializing in Social Networks and Digital Marketing. Before Voodoo, I had already worked for French mobile application start-ups: in fashion, fitness and also in dating, which is the activity that I think is closest to gaming in terms of the acquisition funnel.

Why Voodoo?

I had another offer from a dating company, but I wanted to do something completely new. I hadn’t worked in the gaming industry before and the idea really appealed to me!

I chose Voodoo because of its successful French start-up feel. There was a lot to do and learn, and it seemed to be a very agile and dynamic company to work for. At the time, Voodoo was already diversifying its applications. I was also looking for a young atmosphere with a good work environment, ideally located in the heart of Paris.

What makes you get up in the morning?

There are always new challenges. Every day is different and it’s very stimulating. I’m always learning new things and there are always new projects to work on. At Voodoo, we’re constantly reinventing ourselves! We are also motivated by the high-performing work culture here, we have a desire to keep progressing and becoming even more efficient as we grow.

What was your integration like?

The onboarding process at Voodoo is well-organized! You get to meet and train with people from different business units that you’ll be working with, so you get a great view of what people do and how they work across the company. Apart from that, you have an onboarding about your job with quizzes to make sure that you have understood the basics over several months. This time period is not devoted to performance, but to your onboarding and making sure you have all the keys you need to succeed. There is a very educational aspect to the integration process.

In the Marketing department today, we have two main managers in the team: one User Acquisition Manager and one Monetization Manager. The rest of the team are also very present to answer your questions. People have always been very friendly and welcoming. They will help you settle into your specific position as well as in the company as a whole.

Before the health crisis and remote working, we used to do team building and team lunches or dinners to allow newcomers to get to know their colleagues better. Since going remote, we’ve continued to do Zoom events, rather cross-team, to allow new colleagues to meet all their internal contacts.

What three words would you use to describe your role?

Excellence: this is present in all the projects we carry out; knowing how to prioritize, how to carry out a project, and how to signal when certain things are not going well. Giving and receiving feedback is super important for this!

Innovation: always bringing new ideas to the table, proposing new things, or improving processes to make the team more productive.

Agility: Switching from one project to another or from one game to another, even sometimes from one team to another. There’s no time to get bored!

What is a typical workday like at Voodoo?

I would say that there are two parts to your day; one is where you monitor running games, and another where you launch and manage new games.

Innovation and automation are also important side projects. In the monetization team, there is a big focus on bidding, moving from classic waterfalls to advanced bidding. For us this means looking for new ad formats and working on new partnerships. Finally, coordination and communication with studios, publishing managers, UA, marketing artists, and external partners are a big part of the job. We work in teams with a lot of internal and external interactions.

What’s the most exciting thing about your job?

Our test and learn culture, then seeing immediate results on what we test!

I also find working on automation projects very exciting. It’s really gratifying when you manage to save 4 hours on a daily task thanks to automating a process. This is both helpful for our teams and impactful for the company.

What are the biggest challenges you face in this role?

Always challenging yourself with new projects. We really don’t sleep on the job! We’re always being challenged, but that’s a very positive thing. It keeps me motivated.

What is the impact of your role at Voodoo?

The biggest impact of my role is monitoring revenues and making sure that they are optimized as much as possible. We also make sure that games are launched properly and that we have great market innovations: the latest players, formats, features, and so on.

We’re always adapting to the hyper-casual market which is evolving super fast, and are always the first to test new things. It’s a rather strategic position.

What do you consider to be the essential qualities that a candidate for this role must possess (technical and soft skills)? Do you have any advice for them?

In terms of know-how, definitely having an appetite for numbers! All the decisions we make are based on data, so we need to know how to read it, interpret it, and exploit it.

There is also a creative aspect to UA, so being creative is always an advantage. I would say having strong communication skills as you are in contact with a lot of different people. You have to be rigorous and organized because even the slightest mistake can be quite costly.

Why Voodoo; it’s super dynamic, you learn a lot, and it’s a great springboard for personal and professional development.

In terms of interview advice: I’d say “Think Big”, don’t stop at your scope of expertise and think further. You have to be highly motivated and very flexible in general.

What value speaks most about your time at Voodoo?

Excellence and Think Big.

“Excellence” is required to succeed at Voodoo because it’s a very high-performing company.

And “Think Big” because it’s a value that we see in the strategic decisions that are being made: always very ambitious and diverse!

If you could change positions with someone at Voodoo, which one would it be and why?

I think I’d be a game developer to understand the creative mechanics of a game.

How do you feel about being a woman in the tech industry?

I have noticed a slight difference to the other rather female companies I had previously worked for. But the Tech industry is still evolving, and it’s very accommodating. You can feel the change: there’s more and more diversity.

How do you feel about being a woman at Voodoo?

The Marketing team is one of the most diverse teams in the company. There’s a great atmosphere between everyone. At Voodoo, we have the advantage of participating in a lot of company-led events and team-building activities that strengthen the bonds between everyone, creating a great atmosphere of trust.

What would you say to female candidates that are thinking of applying for a job at Voodoo?

There are a lot of cool chicks! There’s some real girl power at Voodoo. It’s still overall a more masculine company, but women have their place, and there’s a kind of solidarity between women, even more so at Voodoo than I’ve experienced at other places!

Come and join us! https://www.voodoo.io/careers