Cricut

Cut, stick, and create your way!  Everyone’s a crafter at heart!

In this episode of Culture Uncovered, Jena Dunay sits down with Miranda Oliver, VP of People and Culture at Cricut, to go behind the scenes of a company that’s turning DIY dreams into reality. They discuss how Cricut combines creativity, purpose, and people-first culture to build a workplace where employees can act like owners, speak up, and leave their mark.

Miranda shares how Cricut evolved from a small craft supply company in the 1960s to a global leader in electronic cutting machines, software, and materials. She opens up about quirky cultural mantras like putting the “stinky fish on the table,” the emphasis on collaboration across teams, and how the company fosters growth through internal mobility, mentorship, and unique employee perks.

What you’ll learn:

• How Cricut became a platform for DIY, home decor, personalized gifts, and small business empowerment
• Why hiring for curiosity, humility, and cultural fit is at the heart of their people strategy
• How ownership, candor, and creativity show up in day-to-day work
• Unique perks and benefits that make employees love working at Cricut
• Opportunities for professional growth, mentorship, and internal mobility

Cricut highlights:

• Founded: 1960s (as Provo Craft and Novelty); modern Cricut established in early 2010s
• Team Size: ~700 employees
• Headquarters: South Jordan, Utah
• Work Model: Global, collaborative, and creative
• Culture: Creative, candid, people-first, ownership-driven

Unique Perks:

• 401(k) match up to 6%
• Competitive medical, dental, and vision
• Fertility & family-building support (via Wyn)
• Mentorship program with senior leaders
• Internal mobility across functions
• Heavily discounted employee product sales
• Pet insurance
• Halloween as the company’s biggest annual celebration

To learn more about Cricut:

• Careers Page (They’re hiring!)
• LinkedIn Page
• Miranda's LinkedIn Profile

Transcript

Jena Dunay: Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of Culture Uncovered where we go behind the scenes of the coolest companies to work for. And today we are going behind the scenes of a company that I'm actually very familiar with. I've been a user of this product and this product has taken, I would say, the world by storm in a lot of ways, especially people that are in the crafting community, which is I am sometimes one of those people and the company is Cricut. And so we're so excited today to have Miranda Oliver, the VP of People and Culture, to talk not only about what your organization does, which I think a lot of people are familiar with, but what it's actually like to work at Cricut. So Miranda, thank you so much for joining.

Miranda Oliver: Absolutely, thanks for having me Jena, I'm excited to be here.

Jena Dunay: Well, why don't you tell us for our listeners who maybe don't know, which if you're either a male maybe or you're living under a rock if you don't know what Cricut is, but why don't you tell us what Cricut is?

Miranda Oliver: Absolutely, yes. So our unofficial slogan at times is Cricut’s not the cell phone company because that's usually where people's minds go.

Jena Dunay: That's actually hilarious. I didn't even think of Cricket. So that's how much you guys have the market share in my brain in terms of the brand name. So there you go.

Miranda Oliver: Okay, good. Yes, I love that. Good. So we are a brand of electronic cutting machines used for crafting and DIY projects, which includes making things for home decor, apparel, personalized gifts. We essentially consider ourselves to be a platform company because you're able to go on and use our software Design Space to be able to personalize and make anything. We have a bunch of content and pre-made projects on there. You can design your own. Then it connects to our cutting machine, which is our core product. We've got a bunch of other cool heat presses, other types of products too. And then we've got materials and vinyls that you can use to cut your project out and make your personalized item. So it's a lot of fun.

Jena Dunay: You know, I am a huge fan. We've used Cricut for family reunions and for fun activities that we've done as a family. We've been a recipient of the wonderfulness that your products are able to produce and so the family fun that's happened on the other side of it. So how big is Cricut as a company from an employee standpoint?

Miranda Oliver: So we're at about 700 employees and we are global. Yes.

Jena Dunay: That's crazy. And you're global too at the same time, which is awesome. And has a lot of that growth happened post COVID or were you kind of growing slowly pre COVID and then COVID was just off to the races?

Miranda Oliver: Yes. So we were growing a little bit up until COVID. We weren't sure what COVID was going to do for us. But it ended up totally taking off because everyone was stuck at home and looking for something to do. And why not use that time to craft? So we definitely took off, had a lot of people looking into Cricut and getting a machine and starting to craft.

Jena Dunay: Totally!

Miranda Oliver: It's tapered down a little bit as COVID ended and people started going outside again. But we're definitely in that high growth period still. So we're excited to continue and kind of get back to the during COVID times at this point.

Jena Dunay: When was your company founded actually? And why was it founded?

Miranda Oliver: Great question. We have a really unique history. So we actually opened in the 1960s and we were known as Provo Craft and Novelty. So we had a different name and we were very much more of a craft, scrapbooking type of company where you could go on main street down in Provo, Utah, where you could go and purchase your stickers and other crafting supplies. And then in more like the late 2000s really started to transition to more of this electronic cutting machine. So that's when our first one came up. Kind of more like maybe your Hobby Lobby or like Robert’s back in the days. Robert’s, if you're familiar, we actually owned those stores too. So they were kind of a Hobby Lobby type of crafting store and we backed away from that, started down the cutting machine product route, and then we've really continued to run within that niche.

We feel like we have two different founded dates essentially, the late 1960s and then more like the early 2010s as to when we really kicked off and established ourselves as Cricut as it's known today.

Jena Dunay: I had no idea. That is such a fun story. And I also do love hearing evolution of brands and organizations. As an entrepreneur who feels like evolution is just a part of the game and sometimes that feels bad to some degree, I love that you have this long history but also a short history at the same time. I think that's really, really cool to be a part of an organization that has two founding dates, if you will. And then where are you guys located? So you mentioned globally, obviously, but where are you primarily located?

Miranda Oliver: Our headquarters is based in South Jordan, Utah. So most of our employees are located here. A little bit over half would be here in Utah. And then we've got maybe another 30% spread throughout the US. And then the rest of our employees are located around the globe. We've got a couple of satellite offices in Shenzhen, China, and Johor Bahru in Malaysia.

Jena Dunay: Wow, okay, so very cool. You guys have definitely been growing. I mean, 700 employees, I did not realize you guys were that big. So how did you find this company, Miranda? And how long have you been here?

Miranda Oliver: I have been with Cricut since July of 2017, so a little over eight years, and I came across Cricut on LinkedIn. I was familiar with Cricut because like you, my mom and my aunt were big Cricut users. My mom, more on the scrapbooking side, she had some of the tools and stuff, but my aunt had a machine. And so that's how I knew about what Cricut was without actually being much of a full-fledged user. I liked the creativity aspect. So when I started interviewing for the HR generalist role, what I really loved about Cricut was learning about our culture and the values and the mantras of the company. There were a couple that stood out to me that were like, yes, this is what I'm looking for and want to be a part of.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, what were some of, so you had found them through LinkedIn. So you went through the LinkedIn process of applying online back in the day when it worked.

Miranda Oliver: I did. Back in the day, I know. Yes, seriously.

Jena Dunay: That's really fun. Okay, so what were some of those mantras or core values that really resonated with you that even carry through today as we record this? It's 2025 about to be 2026.

Miranda Oliver: So the first one that stood out to me was acting like an owner. For me, that was something that was really appealing. The way that it was described was that it would be nice for everyone within their role to approach it as if they're an owner or the CEO, rather than just like, “Oh, I'm HR, therefore I'm going to be super focused on just my tunnel vision of what I want to accomplish in HR!” More thinking about the decisions or the asks I have of teams, how is that going to impact the whole company? And I thought that that was, to your point, kind of an entrepreneurial type of approach. And the ownership of that was really interesting to me because it's like, I feel like I can really take my job and own it and do something and leave my mark essentially, which is what I was looking for. I wanted to go somewhere to make an impact.

That's something I feel like has continued super well while we've been at Cricut.

Jena Dunay: How does that play out, even if you would want to share with your own work of how you see ownership play a role? Because sometimes I feel like when I'm talking to candidates, they're like, I want to own something, but sometimes I don't feel like I can or I'm not allowed or maybe I have to ask for permission. How does that work inside Cricut?

Miranda Oliver: Let me share my journey a little bit and how that's played out because there are definitely things that will come up that's like, yep, no, the answer's no, as there should be. But for me, and what I see as a really big opportunity for our employees and those that come to join Cricut, is that there doesn't have to be a limitation within your position. So we're small enough still, we still have so much growth and run maybe on a little bit of the leaner scale, which opens up this opportunity where you're not getting pigeonholed just into one tiny thing. As you see different issues or problems to solve pop up, or opportunities pop up, we're not going to just assign a headcount to it to figure it out. You can go in and lean into that.

For me, as an example, in 2019 we were starting to, that's when we really started to grow and hire globally. We'd had our China office, but we just started getting our Malaysia office in place and we only had maybe a few handful of folks working for us internationally in other countries. We were really starting to grow and pay attention to that side of the business. And so I had the opportunity to be able to figure out how we employ in all of these different countries. There's a lot to it and every country and even towns within each country have different requirements. That was something I never once had experience doing, but it was a need and I was able to step in and fill that need and kind of become the global employee expert in that way for HR at Cricut. There have just been so many examples of that where I'm able to take something, really own it and make it mine, and again feel like I'm leaving a mark.

And I see that repeated throughout Cricut, that if you're willing to put that owner hat on and really be a player, roll up your sleeves and figure something out, raise your hand, you're really opening yourself up to a lot of opportunities. So we also have a lot of internal mobility for that reason, where it's like, if we see really great talent, someone who can go in and figure something out and get something done, we're definitely willing to teach them some of the skills they might need or some technical expertise because they've got that hunger and that grit that is needed to be able to figure things out.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, I love that value, mantra, however you describe it. We had one at a former employer of mine that was “see it, own it, do it,” and so very similar, which I really like. It's like, if you see an opportunity, own the opportunity and do something about it, and then you're going to be successful here over a long period of time, right? Because there's that ownership of taking something and not just waiting for somebody to give you something, but to raise your hand. I love that. So that's one of the ways that you would describe the culture. What are some other ways that you would describe the culture at Cricut from a working perspective?

Miranda Oliver: Our culture is really important to us to the extent that when you're interviewing with us, we actually have a culture interview before you get signed off to extend an offer to you. Because we want to ensure that we're bringing people in that are going to be successful here because they've got that hunger, that EQ, that humility that we need in order to really work for Cricut. Otherwise, it's probably not a great fit for either one. So we see our culture as being something more than just words you hear on your first day or during the recruiting process. It's something that we believe is how we should be interacting with each other and getting things done.

So let me share a couple of our other mantras that are usually very interesting for others to hear. One of them is put the stinky fish on the table. Kind of a different one.

The idea behind it is like, look, if you've got a fish in the room and it's underneath the table and everyone's in there, everyone can smell it. Everyone wants someone to go and take it out to the garbage, address it and get it out of there so it doesn't stink anymore. The idea behind that is, let's do the same and be candid, because most people are probably and potentially thinking about an issue that no one is saying, but someone wants someone to stand up and say. And so it's been used for us in a really great way to open the door for that candor. So you'll hear commonly within meetings like, “Okay, well, I'm gonna put the stinky fish on the table.” And it allows everyone to kind of, okay, I'm putting my guard down, it's coming, and we welcome this, so let me hear you out.

And that ties in a little bit to another mantra of “great products are built by great teams.” At the end of the day, we want people putting that stinky fish out there because we want this diversity of thought. And just like a great product isn't built by one person, it takes a whole team. We want those different perspectives and learnings that other people bring from previous experience so that we're not repeating the same mistakes and we can be getting a great product out there. So those two kind of tie together.

Jena Dunay: Those are really good. I really love the stinky fish on the table and I feel like I need to adopt that in my household. I'm just visualizing putting a very stinky fish, slamming it down on the table and being like, we need to talk about this.

Miranda Oliver: Some of our leadership meetings in the past have actually bought plastic fishes so that it's like, okay, if at any point something's being said you disagree with, raise it or throw it at someone, whatever you wanna do. It's been kind of fun.

Jena Dunay: I love that. I actually do love some sort of visual component to some of these core values where the act of doing something helps make it become more real. I feel like a lot of core values in a lot of organizations and even honestly some people I've interviewed, they feel very fluffy and like, what does that actually mean? And I like the visualization that you provide with “put the stinky fish on the table.” So I love it. That's really good.

Tell me what are some unique benefits for your employees. Why do people love working there? What makes Cricut a unique place to work? What are the perks people care about? Give me all the skinny on the perks.

Miranda Oliver: I'm going to start soft and then I'll move to tangible. I think there are probably two soft, top reasons that employees tend to love working here. The first is honestly the mission and purpose of the company, which is to help people lead creative lives. Being able to work on a product that honestly has this emotional connection to the user, if you're going and you're making something for one of your family vacations, as you mentioned, it's personalized and it's something that people will want to make and keep forever. And you can look back on the pictures of you in those t-shirts as an example and be like, yeah, I remember making them and us all looking the same at Disneyland, right?

There’s also the aspect that a lot of our users are small business owners and they're selling on Etsy or building their own business. They're able to use the machines to empower themselves to make extra money or to support their families. So there's definitely a tie there of a true purpose and impact that we're making on others’ lives. And then there's that additional emotional component of being able to really create memories, whether you're creating with someone or making something for someone that's going to be that much more meaningful because you took the time to make it versus just going on Amazon and buying it or walking over to Target. We love those places, but it just doesn't feel the same. And you feel so much more of a sense of accomplishment making it, and the recipient gets that feeling of love.

That part I think people really connect to, even if they're not a crafter. We do have some people join and they're like, never touched a Cricut machine, I don't know if I will, but they love the purpose of what it is we're trying to achieve. So that's one soft aspect.

The other soft aspect I want to touch on is the people. I think because we are so intentional about who we bring into the fold here at Cricut and the type of people, we've got a mantra, “no brilliant jerks,” and another one that's “no politics,” meaning we don't want people going and gossiping essentially about others. If you have an issue with someone, go and talk to them directly. It doesn't do any good to gossip and bring someone else into that drama. From an environment perspective, we've just got a really good bunch of people who are smart and brilliant at what they do, but also really good at balancing that head and heart of caring about and being passionate about their work, but also not having to be a bull in a china shop in order to get things done and jerk people around. And so it just makes it fun.

It's a fun company. One of the things that we do is our big holiday of the year is actually Halloween. It's super fun. We celebrate it about the week before, but every team picks a theme and it's hidden so you don't share with other teams what your theme is going to be. You'll dress up in that theme and decorate your area. Then on the day of the celebration, we'll have families be invited to come and do a trick-or-treat and they'll hand out stickers that relate to the theme or candies. I’ll have to send you some pictures because it's honestly incredible. I think I've got a video on my LinkedIn from our most recent one that shows it. Every year I'm like, my gosh, I can't believe how creative that team was. There's no way we can top it next year, and the teams do it year after year. It's just incredible what the team comes up with. Again, kind of tapping into that creativity in the product, the purpose, the people, it all just mixes really well together. It's a big reason that when people do leave or when we do surveys, the number one thing people are noting as to why they continue to work here is the people they work with.

Jena Dunay: That's great. I love that. It sounds like the people and just the general feeling of connectivity to the organization and to the mission behind it are those soft areas, which I do think matter. A perk is, hey, who do you work with? I was just listening to a podcast where a gentleman was talking about, what do workers actually want at work? They want to be friends with the people that they work with, they want to feel like they're growing professionally, and they want to be able to pay for their bills. It's actually very basic and we sometimes overcomplicate it. So I love that you talk to the specific intangibles.

Now onto the tangibles though, because people do love those as well. Tell us a little bit about those perks within Cricut.

Miranda Oliver: I would say we have the usual medical, dental and vision, and very good premiums and out-of-pocket maximums on those that are super fair and competitive. Additionally, we do have a 401(k) and we do a match at 6%. So you put 12% in, there's a 6% match, so it's on the higher end in comparison to some of our competitors.

In addition to those standard things, we have pet insurance that we offer, which not a lot of people use, but they get really excited that it's available to them. We also have, this is something we're introducing in 2026, working with a vendor called Wyn. They work with our medical provider, but they offer a whole variety of different offerings to address infertility and related needs. We have a contribution to that where we don't actually just do up to a certain number of dollars, but it's actually two cycles that will be covered. So that's pretty cool.

Within Wyn we also have childcare options that can become available, whether it's daycare-type options or more like after school. There are options for our employees to go and take a look at that. There's caregiving support, so if you're taking care of parents and you're in that stage of life. For those going through menopause, or the male version of menopause, there are different offerings to help navigate those because that's something that's not talked about a lot. We give and have more information about those hormone imbalances. It's like a concierge service where you can go tap into these different types of things, say here's what I'm looking for and what I'm trying to solve, and they'll help guide you to the different offerings available or different providers and things. So that's pretty great.

Another really fun perk is we do employee sales. When we have excess product, we will do a sale. It tends to be about quarterly and we sell internally to our employees at a heavily, heavily discounted price. People can collect all of the vinyl and the HTV and the paper. We'll do products, machines and such, and employees can get them at a really great deal. Most people will keep it or they'll give it to teachers or friends, family, stock up for Christmas. We always have a line out the door when we have it, of people lining up to try and get in there first. It's pretty cool. If I ever left Cricut, that would be one of the things I would miss because it's really fun. I've got a whole room full of just Cricut stuff.

Jena Dunay: I love it. I love when employees are users. It says a lot about an organization when the employees actually really like the products that they're working on. So I love that you guys do that. And I'm gonna have to check out that Wyn because I don't think I know them. I hear a lot of cool different perks in organizations, and I'm gonna have to check them out and learn a little bit more because that's a first I've heard of them. I love that.

Now we've talked a lot about some cool things about your organization. Tell us a little bit about, as I mentioned earlier, I was listening to this podcast episode about growth people want to feel like they're growing. So tell me, how do people grow at Cricut? What are professional development opportunities? How do you guys look at career paths? Tell me a little bit about how you look at people growing within. I know you mentioned internal mobility, so just lead us in on that one.

Miranda Oliver: Again, internal mobility is definitely a really big one. I had a training earlier this week actually with our employees where I was discussing what employees can be doing to make sure that they are getting a plan in place for themselves in order to be employee-ready when a promotion becomes available. There's the company need aspect, obviously, but why wait until that becomes real? Let's start working at it now. So we do have trainings on a monthly basis for employees on different topics such as this. This one was very directly promotion-focused as we have our cycle coming up in a few months. We want people to get a good start and start having those conversations with managers. So that's an example of one.

Additionally, we utilize Lattice as our performance management tool. Within Lattice, they've got a Grow module and we've got built out in there our career paths and frameworks. What's cool about that is it doesn't just show you your current job and maybe the next job within that job path for you, but you could go and look at other jobs within the company and be like, actually I want to move more into project management, so I'm going to go look at that job path and understand those requirements so that I can add that to my development plan and be working and chatting about it with my manager.

We recently just launched our first mentorship program. That's something we'll be doing on a quarterly basis and it lasts six months for anyone in that program. They're connected with a senior leader and given a chance to be able to get some guidance from someone they don't normally connect with. We match them. I feel like I'm playing matchmaker because they fill in information about them and what they're trying to achieve. I look at the mentors and their skill sets and what they feel like they can coach on, and then match them together to try and get them the most success in that relationship. So it's fun.

Jena Dunay: I love that. Those are a lot of clear touch points to help people grow and feel like they're moving within the organization upwards, sideways, all the ways. So that's wonderful. I know we've talked a lot about all the wonderful things about Cricut, and I always say no company is perfect, just like no family is perfect. So tell me what is not perfect about Cricut or what are some opportunities that you guys know that you have in the coming years, whether it's related to the people team or just the culture in general.

Miranda Oliver: I think there's a couple that immediately come to mind. Like I said, after COVID, we've been trying to get back to that growth that we had during COVID. That has brought about some intensity. We've got competitors in other countries that are starting to compete with the product that we've got or getting it out faster than we are. So we've got to maybe change the way that we're thinking and going about doing things rather than doing it how we've always done it, to make sure that we can keep up with that competition. That's kind of the mindset of, you're either going to be able to make that change and go with that, or you might be left behind. It's a bit of a “we need you to step up and again, roll your sleeves up.” We have the “be a player, not a victim” mantra, which is equated to getting off the escalator, right? If an escalator stops, it's stairs. Let's walk up the stairs, don't just stand there and yell for help. So when we're going through these types of changes, we want to make sure that people can come along with us, otherwise it might not work anymore.

Another challenge is that Cricut's pretty complex. I know it sounds weird because you're like, isn't it just a machine product, crafting, that seems so simple. But we've got the hardware and the software. We've got the content and we have a contributing artists program within our content too, then managing those and licenses with Disney and other types of companies. Then we've got also our materials and consumables business. All of those different things tie together so closely because it's one ecosystem. So there's a lot of cross-functional work needed, but that also means that sometimes things can get jumbled. So when we're recruiting someone, we're really trying to find someone that can do well with ambiguity and try to find some clarity through that. If you need something super structured, you're probably not going to be very successful here and will get frustrated or flail pretty quickly. That's something that is inherently a little bit of who we are.

We’re trying to make improvements with processes and we've got a lot of those knowledge experts that have been at Cricut a long time. So pulling that knowledge out of them to make it repeatable with others as well is another thing that we're trying to work on. And then finally, it's AI, probably like most companies, trying to understand how we're utilizing that to get work done and help us to be empowered a bit more within our work, while at the same time not just using all of the AI things and giving our head of IT and security a panic attack with all the security concerns. Those are the types of things that we're navigating through a little bit now that are super exciting. I'm really excited about what that could look like for Cricut in even just a year because it's changing so quickly, but because it's changing so quickly, there's a bit of, okay, what's that strategic plan for us and how do we make sure we're staying on top of it while not falling behind?

Jena Dunay: Yeah, which you never probably imagined that you'd have to be an AI expert there, Miranda, did you?

Miranda Oliver: Isn't that strange? As I look more into AI, it's like, yeah, HR is a big partner. And I'm like, it's true. There's a lot of communication that goes into this next stage of what the world is. It's exciting and can be overwhelming too.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, both can be true. I love it. Tell us what growth looks like for you guys over the next couple of years as it relates to hiring. So if somebody's been listening to this, they've either never heard of Cricut before, again, under a rock or maybe like my husband probably had never heard of Cricut before. But if they have heard of Cricut and they're like, my gosh, this is a really cool company to work for, tell us what does the hiring roadmap look like potentially over the next 12 to 18 months? Are you guys hiring?

Miranda Oliver: We sure are. Go check out our website on cricut.com. At the bottom of the page we've got our careers link and you can see all of our jobs that are posted there. There's so much that we want to get accomplished. At this point we're being intentional about the roles that we're approving and posting because we don't want to be in a situation in a couple of years where we're having to lay people off if we can avoid that. So we're intentional about it, but yes, the intent is to have continued growth to continue to match where we're getting to as a revenue company and trying to make some growth there.

Jena Dunay: I love it. So yes, you're hiring. Yes, check out the careers page. What are some other places that people can find out more about just your culture and your organization and those jobs?

Miranda Oliver: On our careers page, we have some information there about our culture in addition to the jobs that are posted. But I highly recommend checking out our LinkedIn page as well. We've got some fun videos on there and information not just posted about the product, but about what it is like working here and some of the activities that we do. So that could give some great insight. Additionally, I would say check out our social media as well, just to get a sense of the product and what it is we're working on. The environment and the feeling that we put out in our marketing is how much it feels within here and how we are able to have fun. It's a business casual type of environment, and that will give some good insight to what it's like to be here.

Jena Dunay: Awesome. Well, thank you, Miranda, for joining us and for sharing a bit more about Cricut. I really loved learning what you guys do. I mean, the stinky fish is just in my brain and I love that phrase. I'm going to have to use it more and more. I know that folks will be interested in learning more about your organization, looking to see if there are opportunities that fit their skill set and that they could bring value to the Cricut team. So thank you, Miranda, for joining us.

Miranda Oliver: Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. This was a lot of fun.

Jena Dunay: Awesome, and we will see you next week on another episode of Culture Uncovered.