Unqork @ Work: Pasquale Nocera

Spend the day with Pasquale Nocera—full-time father, classically-trained opera singer, and Director of Business Systems at Unqork. 

As the Director of Business Systems, Pasquale Nocera is blazing a new trail here at Unqork. The new Business Systems team is composed of systems experts who are responsible for leading Unqork’s digital transformation efforts and building out the company’s internal backend. It’s their job to examine and reinvent our end-to-end quote-to-cash (QTC) systems, which includes quoting, contracting, invoicing, collections, and renewals to help Unqork’s systems and business scale. Pasquale currently owns Unqork’s Professional Services systems, including building out Qorkboard, Unqork’s home grown professional services management tool. 

Take a closer look at how Pasquale Nocera—father, BBQ-lover, and classically trained opera singer—spends his day. 

6:00 AM: My day starts when one of my daughters, either 5-year-old Stella or 2-year-old Alessandra, wakes me up. I typically do a quick scan of my Slack messages and emails just to make sure there is nothing urgent happening, then it’s on to the Peloton for a morning workout. I’m a big music fan and I really like working out to house music or EDM, especially if I need to get in a good mood. After I get dressed, I have a quick breakfast and help get Stella ready for school. 

Pasquale loves music so much, he even has a guitar wall.

7:45 AM: This is when I officially start my workday. I start by reading emails and reviewing open backlog items for Qorboard, our internal operations management tool, and then I prepare for the daily stand-up with the team. 

9:00 AM: My wife typically takes Stella to school and Alessandra will read books in my office until she gets back home. During this time, I lead the Qorkboard daily standup where we discuss issues, blockers, and any progress updates on configuration. The purpose of these meetings are to ensure that the team is aligned on our goals and report on progress that’s been made. Qorkboard is providing our talent with the tools needed to manage their engagements proactively, while giving our leadership the visibility into progress and empowering teams to optimize their delivery. 

As president of the Unqork Caregivers ERSG, it’s important to find ways to build an inclusive community of caregivers across the company.

9:30 AM: As president of the Unqork Caregivers ERSG, it’s important to find ways to build an inclusive community of caregivers across the company. I have a one-on-one meeting with Jeanette Begany, my researcher for the Caregivers ERSG, to discuss in-flight efforts for our group and plan new initiatives. We recently partnered with the Spectrum group to host an event where a guest speaker spoke about issues like how to parent LGBTQ+ children, infertility, adoption, and more.

We’re also doing some fun things like planning a family game nights and storytimes where we have an Unqorker read on Zoom to a bunch of our children. Kevin Blackwell, who’s the President of  Chocolatey, recently came in and read a story for Black History Month.  We’re also working on a t-shirt sale for charity!

9:45 AM: I lead our Business Systems daily team standup. In this quick team meeting, each of us take turns giving a quick update on our key projects including any big wins or issues we need to discuss. As a new and lean team, these meetings are critical to ensuring alignment of the various efforts underway.

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM: I spend some time working on any project sizing requests that come in, ensuring that they get appropriately reviewed, sized and approved. Project sizing requests are new business requests that come in from new potential Unqork customers. I’ll review the nature of the opportunity and what it entails, then run a couple of models and generate an estimate based on what we know about the opportunity. After that, I work with a number of people from our Professional Services team to validate the estimate. 

Once Stella gets home from school, we talk about her day and what she learned. I try to take time to grab a quick lunch with my wife and daughters (one of the best things about working remotely!). Lunch usually consists of leftovers from the night before, since my wife tends to cook dinner most nights, which is amazing.

12:00 PM: I chair our weekly environment review meeting, which is a meeting to review all new requests to build new hosted instances for our clients. The committee is a cross-functional review committee in efforts to provide an objective review of requests and create operational excellence.  

1:00 PM: I host our weekly Caregivers ERSG meeting with the full leadership team and our ambassadors. We discuss workstream updates, review our events calendar, and have an open forum for new ideas on how we can drive engagement. We’ve also been very focused on partnering with other ERSGs across Unqork. 

3:00 PM: I take time to catch up one-on-one with the Caregivers Vice President, Corinne Schmitt, and work on some additional Caregivers planning. 

4:00 PM: Between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM I attend our weekly Unqork Access ERSG meeting, where I am an ambassador helping out with the recruiting pilliar. I create all of the JIRA tickets we need for the approved environment requests, review statuses for any open items on Qorkboard, and do some backlog planning for the next day. I also wrap up any open sizing requests that came in and follow up on approvals. 

6:00 PM: Time for dinner! My wife and I are both Italian so we usually have some sort of pasta dish most nights. Like many during the pandemic, I started experimenting with making different types of bread at home and have been really enjoying it.  I also like to barbecue a lot on the weekends and my smoker tends to be my go-to.  Now that the weather is getting nicer, we love to mix it up a bit and have a nice night out in Princeton every once in a while.  Yesterday I took my daughter on a date to get ramen noodles in Princeton. 

Pasquale’s latest loaf, a rustic boule.

7:00 PM: After we eat, I help with the kids’ bedtime routine—baths, reading, etc.  My wife and I catch up on TV together—right now we’re on season seven of How I Met Your Mother. So far, I love it! My wife says I’m Marshall, but I don’t know if I agree. 

After we watch a couple of episodes, I review my calendar for the next day and periodically check Slack and emails while getting ready for bed.

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To hear more perspectives from other Unqorkers, check out the other entries in our Unqork @ Work series and our Creator Spotlights.