Today the spotlight’s on Justina Jackūnė, who, as our Operations Manager, spins plates every day to keep us all on track.
We spoke to her to find out more about her experience studying at the Open University, why she transitioned from Account Management to her current role and how she helps The Think Tank’s teams come together to produce award-winning campaigns for our clients.
Hi Juste! Tell us about your journey before arriving at TTT.
Oh, it’s been a long journey! Although I’ve learned a lot and met amazing people along the way, I wish I had arrived at The Think Tank sooner!
I graduated in Philology – the history of language – from Vilnius University back in the day. Finding your first job in Lithuania was as tough as it is in the UK, so when you got a good offer, you took it. Somehow, I ended up working as a Project Manager in a translation agency in Vilnius, and once I experienced what it’s like to work in a multilingual community, I couldn’t get enough.
I moved to the UK and spent another three years in some of London’s largest translation agencies before everything started to feel too repetitive. And if there’s one thing I don’t like at work, it’s boredom.
So, I shifted from my career in localisation to learn how the magic happens in marketing.
A few years down the line, I was eager to learn more about fully integrated campaign work – which naturally led me to The Think Tank.
How has your role evolved since you started here? What drove your move from Account Manager to Operations Manager?
I started as a Senior Account Manager, working closely with our Client Services Director, the one and only Dragana Knezevic. It was on our way to a client event in a taxi that we started talking about careers.
I mentioned that after seeing quite a few organisations and teams in action, and given my studies at the Open University, I felt I could contribute beyond my current role to help improve our operations. And here I am!
It’s not that I didn’t enjoy Account Management – after all, I’d been doing it for nearly a decade. I just felt I could bring more value to the organisation by applying my skills, knowledge and understanding client services and agency environments in a slightly different context.
Tell us a bit about your studies at the Open University.
I started my Open University course in 2020 – I was looking to learn something useful during lockdown, and The Open University was a way to feed my inner nerd.
It was great that I could carry on my studies once I’d started at The Think Tank the next year. Juggling the work/study/life balance was quite simple since, with various COVID-19 restrictions, there wasn’t much life outside the London flat we were living in at the time.
A few semesters in I accrued a Postgraduate Certificate in Technology Management and completed several other useful modules focused on technological innovation, creative management, strategy and marketing.
It’s wild to think that one of my first papers at Open University touched on GPT-2, the granddaddy of ChatGPT, including its potential commercialisation and integration with other tools. Scary!
My part-time studies helped me confidently take my first steps toward working in Operations.
What do you think are the key skills required to be an Operations Manager? How do you apply them at TTT?
I would say Operations is about having a bird’s-eye view of everything going on at the agency. It involves working side by side with colleagues, tailoring existing processes to their needs and establishing new ones. I also document a thing or two, compile reports, test and implement additional features in our main management platform, and manage the workloads of all of our departments – PR, AM, Digital, Content and Creative – to ensure the smooth completion of work on time.
Another part of my role is looking after our resourcing, maintaining freelance partnerships and, with the help of various experienced trainers like Lara Milward, running the Think Tank Academy.
I’d say the skills required to be an Operations Manager are quite similar to those of Project and Account Managers – communication is key, attention to detail is a must and a good understanding of finances and profit is essential.
You also need to be a problem solver, able to think several levels at once: how operations can support a single expert, how it will work across different teams, what one decision or another means for the business as a whole and whether it’s improving or bettering anything.
A major thing the Operations role has taught me is the bravery to sometimes take a step back in order to move forward.
Not every new or improved process will work every single time. There are moments in Operations when you realise that some things just aren’t going to work, and in the end, the thing you’re trying to fix might not even be broken.
How do you think your role impacts the way TTT works as an agency?
I like to think I help keep the wheel spinning! But really, when you’re backed by a highly invested and friendly team at The Think Tank, it sometimes feels more like adding a bit of process oil here and there rather than replacing an entire part.
A big piece of what Operations is about is driving change, especially when it comes to implementing new systems or processes that no one has ever used before, like timesheets.
I also have the important responsibility of selecting a weekly timesheet reminder meme to ensure all time logs are submitted before the deadline. I take this part of my job very seriously!
Another key aspect involves retrieving data from our main project management system, Synergist, and interpreting it in a way that supports decision-making across the organisation or solves specific problems.
I’ve learned a lot about data and its management from our strategy mastermind, Liam Bateman, who has run the business for over 30 years and is behind campaigns like IRIS Masters of Time and others.
How do you think the marketing industry is changing?
I think the marketing industry is currently adapting to groundbreaking innovations such as AI and learning how to make the best use of them while trying to keep their heads above water in an ever-changing landscape of data regulations and economic challenges.
Another big change is that personalised content is becoming more important than ever, as our Account Director Faye Dunnill recently wrote about.
What do you do to keep up with marketing news and trends?
I listen to a variety of podcasts during my commutes to and from the office. These include the CIM Marketing Podcast, the B2B Marketing Podcast, the Digital Marketing Podcast and a few others.
And of course, I also listen to The Think Tank’s own Born to B2B Podcast!
What do you think sets TTT apart from other B2B marketing and PR agencies?
We’ve been around for a while, and we’ve built extensive knowledge and expertise that has helped – and continues to help – multiple B2B businesses to survive and thrive. Since 1993, this company has witnessed quite a few changes across various industries, economies and technologies.
I think our clients choose us because we’re dynamic and well-established. They know we’ll be there to support their business growth for years to come.
They also recognise that we listen and approach their challenges in a more bespoke, data-driven and strategic way, rather than just throwing multiple solutions at the problem simultaneously.
As for employees, The Think Tank offers a great work-life balance and investment in personal development and growth that can be rare to find in an agency environment. I believe that’s why our employee retention rate is high, with some colleagues having been with the company for 8, 15, even 20 years.
We’re also a very warm bunch of people who enjoy a good chat, bake-offs, and are not competitive at all when it comes to things like office pool tournaments… Okay, maybe a little competitive.
And lastly, to finish on a light note: Who’s your dream dinner party guest?
It would have to be half dinner and half spiritual séance with William Shakespeare. I’d ask him if he really wrote all the works attributed to him or not, just to settle that authorship question once and for all.
