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From seed to harvest, Julia Callicrate cultivates good work and great products that help people and the Earth.
Take a peek behind the curtain at ReCollect, and chances are you’ll see Product Manager Julia Callicrate making sure the company’s products run like well-oiled machines.
Every tool or solution ReCollect creates is meant to solve a real-world problem, and Julia is there every step of the way. From product conception to delivery, she ensures ReCollect’s products are developed and operate as they should by working closely with the company’s development staff, who builds the tools, and its support team, who handles any issues with the tools, should they arise.
Not only does Julia work to create new products, but she strives to better existing products. She always looks for ways to expound on what ReCollect offers and add value to its tools whenever she can. Doing so requires quite a large amount of research, from investigating competitors’ products to interviewing customers and gathering survey data to ensure ReCollect’s products help the environment while fitting their customers’ needs.
Julia serves as the gatekeeper for new ideas at ReCollect, collecting ideas from team members and customers then tweaking, researching and developing those ideas before helping them come to life.
In addition to her many responsibilities, Julia also ensures everyone knows how to properly use ReCollect’s tools. She oversees training for her team, including training staff members in sales, marketing, customer success and support.
Julia is a self-proclaimed master task juggler, which no one can refute, and she dreams of a better world where issues like climate change and social justice inequity are addressed and tackled.
And, she’s been working toward that world all her life.
Julia was born in Moscow, Russia, and she immigrated to Canada with her family when she was 11. She didn’t speak any English during her first two years in the country. She lived in Sydney, Nova Scotia, for her childhood years before moving to Ottawa, where she later earned a degree in history at the University of Ottawa.
When she came to ReCollect, she had years of managing products and working with others under her belt: she had worked as a product specialist at Kaiser Permanente in the communications department and eventually moved to a product manager position, and had formerly worked as a product manager at a handful of local banks in Hawaii, including the Bank of Hawaii, before moving to Virginia.
Now, ReCollect and its customers are reaping the benefits of her talent and experience.
Outside of work, Julia can be found hanging out with her daughter, Arianna, who is almost 4, and her two cats: a Siamese named Luna, and a tortoiseshell named Cleopatra. She listens to music from every genre — well, except country.
Julia enjoys reading, coffee, eating (not cooking!), indoor gardening, and traveling whenever she can.
She enjoys volunteering for causes such as those that help animals, cleaning up public spaces, and spending time with the elderly, whether it’s delivering meals or providing companionship to those who do not have families nearby.
That passion to help others and make the world a better place carries over in her work with ReCollect, and thankfully for the company and its customers, it shows. While Julia may spend a lot of time behind the scenes, you don’t need to see her to know that she is there. Rest assured that she’s just behind a curtain, juggling many inner workings and smoothing out the kinks for ReCollect’s employees and customers.
5 Fast Facts about Julia
I believe people on Planet Earth should: Listen to science and respect climate change.
If you were hot sauce, how hot would you be (1-10): A chameleon hot sauce who goes from 2 to 8; diplomatic versus assertive. “No one wants to be the 1 or the 10,” she said.
What gets you through a hard day? Lots of coffee and knowing that this day will end at some point, and a new day, full of opportunities, will begin soon. Sometimes, you just have to tough it out knowing that this will not last.
What are your superpowers? Taking care of a kid during the coronavirus pandemic and being a master task juggler.
What could the world do without? Hate.