Humans of Crafty: Allison Cuca, VP of Product

When Allison joined the workforce after college, she thought she wanted to make Super Bowl ads. Little did she know, she was actually perfect for Product.

Born and raised in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, Allison moved to the Midwest to attend Northwestern University. After graduation, she joined a mobile marketing agency as an intern and was eventually hired full-time.

Initially enticed to advertising by the idea of building up iconic brands by making blockbuster commercials and catchphrases, she found herself instead making tiny banner advertisements and, eventually, mobile sites and apps! Mobile apps were new on the scene, and she dove in headfirst. Allison started learning what makes a truly functional and beautiful app by gathering research and hearing from app users themselves.

This led her to Product Management, a fairly unknown field at the time. She was intrigued by the opportunity to facilitate the creation of a tech product by combining business strategy and user experience. She took on roles at McDonald’s, Cars.com, and Foxtrot before eventually finding her way to Crafty.

So, what inspired Allison to take on the challenge of joining Crafty to build a product team from scratch? Read on to see what brought her to Crafty and what keeps her here nearly two years later.

What Attracted You to Crafty

I was first attracted to Crafty because of the challenge and then by the people. I loved that it was in the food and beverage space because I had experience working in the industry with Foxtrot & McDonald’s. However, it was a new area of food and beverage. I was excited about the challenge of building a product team and working for a B2B company for the first time.

When I had my initial interview with Jimmy Paul, our CTO, I was blown away; not only by Jimmy's world-renowned kindness but also by his transparency. It was the first time I experienced such openness from a CTO during an interview. He pulled up a slide deck to show me Crafty’s strategy and plans to grow their tech and tech team. The knowledge he shared with me was surprising. It allowed me to see what I would be getting myself into. Luckily, it sounded awesome.

Describe Your Role at Crafty

In a nutshell, I’m responsible for the Product Team of product managers and product designers. When I joined, there was only one other product team member, and now we’re nearly a team of ten. Our team is responsible for adding value to our Crafty Platform from a technology perspective to solve our clients’ most salient problems and help our internal team and partners serve our clients efficiently and smartly. We are the only workplace food and beverage providers with this kind of technology, but we don’t take that for granted. We must continuously learn from our users: Crafty clients, partners, and internal teammates to continue to remain in the top spot for technology in our industry.  

What Do You Love About Your Job

I love being on the Crafty Tech Team. Everyone on our team is a complex and strategic thinker. They approach challenging problems and work together to break them into smaller, more manageable parts. Not only is everyone brilliant, but they’re also a group of fun, kind people. We work really hard, but we also make time to have fun. For instance, we send out a monthly newsletter to our internal team about updates to the Crafty Platform, and we are trying to get readership up, so the last one we sent, we incorporated the names of sixty Crafty pets through puns and other means to get our team excited about reading some of the technical updates.

The Most Challenging Part of Your Job

Prioritization is the most challenging part of the job. We get buckets of excellent ideas from clients and internal users. It’s our job to figure out what will have the largest impact and concentrate on that. We could easily zero in on any of the ideas that get submitted, but we have to remain focused on what ladders up to our strategy and will impact growth the most.

How Has Your Past Experience Helped You

Working at McDonald’s was a masterclass in gaining internal alignment. It’s a huge global company, and you have to get a lot of people on board when you are pushing for a particular project to move forward. I learned how to use storytelling to get people to understand why we are marching in a certain direction. We want other teams and departments to understand and champion our cause. Having the experience of championing a feature for a huge company like McDonald’s set me up for success at Crafty. It’s a smaller group of people, but the task remains the same, and I very much honed that skill during that time in my life.

How is it Being a Parent at Crafty

It's been great. I had my second daughter less than a year after I joined Crafty, and whereas some places might not necessarily love that, I felt a ton of support and excitement from the team. People were genuinely happy that we were expanding our family, and the support from everyone, while pregnant, on maternity leave, and afterward, as a parents of two young children at Crafty, has never wavered.

It’s clear my family comes first, and I've never had to question that. There's always a curveball with young kids, and Crafty has offered a lot of flexibility. I also love having space to talk about being a mom at work. I don't have to hide it or downplay the experience of being a parent. It's celebrated and supported here, and I don't have to compartmentalize or quiet that side of my life to be taken seriously.

The Most Unique Thing About Crafty

Crafty is one big hype squad. People here are so positive and celebratory. I’ve worked in other environments where telling people you appreciate their work is downplayed or at least not a priority. That couldn’t be further from the truth here.

I’m also blown away by the support Crafty has given one of my personal causes. I’m an associate council member of an organization called WINGS. It’s a non-profit that provides housing, integrated services, education, and advocacy to adults and children who are victims of domestic violence. I’ve been working with them for ten years, and over the past two years that I’ve been with Crafty, they’ve supported this work by holding drives for clothing and supplies and donating money. It’s been amazing to make a larger impact on such an important cause with Crafty’s support.

Favorite Office Snack

I’m a simple person when it comes to snacks. All I need is coffee and candy—specifically, coffee and fun-sized Snickers bars. I rotate between the two all day.

A Perfect Day Off

On a day off, my family would be taking advantage of the gorgeous city of Chicago–exclusively outside of the winter months of course, because going outside in this city during the winter is not fun. If the weather is nice, my husband Nick and our two daughters, Romy and Fiona, would explore our neighborhood, Logan Square. We’d grab some pastries from a local bakery and enjoy them at a park. Then, in the evening, we’ll get a babysitter and see some form of live entertainment. We love comedy shows or concerts. There’s also a magic lounge in Andersonville, which is super fun.

Lightening Round

What is the last TV show you watched?
Hacks.

What is the last book you read?
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (I didn’t like the ending)

What is the last song you listened to?
I don’t know the song, but I’ve been listening to the new St. Vincent album. And lots of Cowboy Carter.

What is the emoji that best encompasses your vibe?
🐙

Who is a famous person you’d like to hang out with?
Bowen Yang.

Who was your first celebrity crush?
Mark McGrath from the band Sugar Ray.

Crafty would like to extend a huge thank you to Allison for generously sharing her time and insights with us and allowing us to write about her. Thank you so much for all you do for Crafty. We are endlessly grateful to have you on our team.

‍