YouSaid · the spoken record

Ray Cao

lines on the record: 74
first: 2024-03-07
most recent: 2024-03-07
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I think feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn if you want to discuss more about some of the go-to-market challenges you're facing. I think we're facing a lot of, I would say, similar challenges every single day. And also in terms of on a product standing point, different companies have a different product philosophy. I don't think we are always right. I was always recommending to receive a lot of feedbacks or recommendations. And that would be really, really nice to have to form these kind of, you know, leveraging your audience be my community to teach me a lesson sometimes that would be even better.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I do have one creator I'm actually active following is on like he's a magician he basically used very I would say very like normal things just handy around him to make something that you know like very cool magic I always were like you know how did he make that so I'm actually following that and getting more inspiration on myself is like can I do that no I think that's more about my personal hobby to see something like that it's very very cool to see people can do these kind of tricks by using normal stuff around them”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, the first one is like I can see a lot of a taiser want to do instantly they want to do remarketing or they want to do like a very small niche targeting on a platform because you're limiting yourself like I said it is more about like you know getting to the rhythm to understand more about the platform so a broader targeting approach is actually recommended at the very early stage and most of the titles are already doing that today because previously I can see like for the first two years in the business especially when we acquire new advertisers, oftentimes they get on the platform to say, hey, I want to do this and that. Like I want to really refine my targeting, et cetera. And then we just recommend, hey, why don't we do this comparison? You have a campaign set up like this going on, but this is our recommendation and you can see the difference. And literally most of them, they'll see a very big difference over there on there.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She thinks it takes a lot of time. Literally, the production is amazing. We created that tool specifically for our creator and also for our advertiser and the user in general. So you're able to do a lot of, I would say, automated and customized away in an app. So you're able to generate those content on your fingertips. So it will be a really good help for a title to want to be more self-service, right? On the other hand, we also have third parties to certify TikTok service providers on the creative side to help you as well. So depends on the level of our advertiser you are.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We can see that it is a little bit of a nuances there because a lot of, oh, I don't have that resources. But as simple as possible, it can give you a tool, right? We'll have Capcat as a tool. I created my anniversary video for my wife by using that tool. Don't tell her one minute now everybody knows. But she thinks that”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think oftentimes we'll say like a month's minimum to run the ad because I think it's actually a learning curve for advertisers to really get into understanding the behavior in the platform.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Little bit more intense of learning so that you're able to get a rhythm in there. And along the way that as long as it's become more automated and also get more understanding towards the business, you're able to actually creating, I would say, more relevant content for the platforms by leveraging our creators or by leveraging some of your own resources from third party, for example. So I think, yeah, it takes a little bit of a learning curve, but I do think that the result will surprise you.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You can see there was actually a directional impact of your business. And also, we are giving you reporting and insights on how you're doing on a platform. So you can optimizing towards that. But obviously, the very important part is trying to get a feeling of the platform by creating your organic presence and then try to launch the ad's account to make sure that you're able to drive more traffic to your desired destination or to a desired actions that you want a user to take. and continue refining that. Along the way, there are a lot of things that you're going to learn. For example, how can you leverage an automation solutions on a platform? And how can you leveraging some of the, I would say, creative trends you detected on the platform and also some of the tools that we're creating to help you to generating those scripts? So these are all the things that you can learn from the platform. In terms of time investment, I think at the beginning of the month, definitely it's going to be, I hope it will be.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Just see how it feels, right? So maybe some of the videos you don't get any views and some of the views you get more views, right? And at the end of the day, you can test some of the advertising products drive those awareness and see if it's actually driving impact for you, right? And then you have to do more, maybe like, you know, testing with us or AB testing or geosplitting testing eventually. It depends on how big the investment is”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I will say at the very beginning, the investment will be coming from their leaning into creating a business account with us. So this is actually how you're engaging with your community. But even before that, I think just do some research on a platform and be the user as a TikTok to really experiencing it and see the differences. And then you were thinking about how can you actually connecting your behavior or your desired behavior coming from the user with your business. And then you're creating content around it. And that's the moment I think this first step is creating your business presence on the TikTok.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Product. Like I said, one of the very important things here is we drive our product by listening to our user and see the behavior from them. And we see the behavior and now we're trying to capture that and provide the best service to our user and also how part of a ties it to reshaping their product. So I do think that this year people will see us more as a full funnel solution platform rather than only building the brands because we want to actually impacting on full funnel for our advertiser. Again, driving their business result is more important to us.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think the beauty of word of mouth is actually, you know that watermouth leads to actions, right? So I think TikTok, we oftentimes people are thinking that, oh, TikTok is really good for building awareness, building a profanal or some of the discovery funnel. But I really want to say that we want to prove, and also we already proved LaFraun, the studies we have seen from third parties that we're driving actions at the same time. And this is literally the ambition we're trying to really talk to out over the Hyders, especially on the commerce front that, you know, shopping and TikTok shop and shop ads, it is actually the proven points that we see. And also, this is not necessarily coming off of our illusion, right? Because we see there was a biggest trend on TikTok is TikTok made me buy it. We have billion level views on that. It's continued growing. And this literally inspired us to do.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I watched a video on the TikTok. I think just basically kids just randomly learn a different language and make a lot of mistakes. It's really funny. And then I just downloaded that app because I didn't know. I've been using Dolingu for the past 40 days as a New Year resolution. I'm committing myself to learn Japanese.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Digital version of what It is the way that how the digital era becomes more human because it is actually helping advertisers or helping users to discover new things just like what they used to do. There was a new place in a certain area you just go explore. It is just like that. So I think that's the reason why I think at the very beginning, continue doing this kind of open-minded testing with us will be a very good approach to get some early learning. And eventually that you can refine your approach. But at the beginning, I would highly recommend that just be open up and also take some risks with us together and we're able to show you how much we can actually benefit in the business.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think exactly like that. 100%. I think a lot of times that I think advertising, especially when digital advertising becomes a thing, right? So we kind of think everything can be calculated because you have the data. But the beauty of advertising is never like that. The core value of advertising is to tell people don't know you exist and to tell them that what you're doing for them and then creating these demand, right? Discovery is the core of advertising to me because I would never expecting my wife telling me that was she going to buy when she walked into a shopping mall. If I know that, I will stop her. She oftentimes that, you know, get out something different, right? So this is not planned. I think that's literally one of the behavior I would love to emphasize more is you want to be open up your door to a more consumer because we are a”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Guidance to you, and you're able to see more success there. But a lot of things will be counterintuitive, I would say, because the intuitive you have learned is coming from the other platforms. But technically, we are not, right? So a lot of things that, oh, this doesn't make sense to me. But why don't you try it? And we make actually that really easy because we're showing a lot of, I'll say, out of credit to incentivizing our advertisers to try it. At the end of the day, that hopefully they can see the result is proven itself.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the TikTok video is more about the backend settings, right? So how often do you actually change in creatives? I think for us, it is actually pretty rigid. You want to actually test more creatives on these platforms and see which one is actually working. And then we also have really detailed guidance on how do you set up your campaign structure to make sure that you're able to be more successful on the platform, right? These are the basic hygienics we talked about. You can see those guidance are very different from what Meta has today or even Google has today because we're just basically different platforms. And oftentimes you can also hear that we require a bit more real-time react on the platform due to some of the trends we have seen. So that is the part I feel like if advertiser wants to engage more with our really the sales team and they're able to provide”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So you have to really get to the detail and to learn how you're operating this platform at the very beginning. Of course, like I said, we're trying to make things as simple as possible because we strongly believe that advertiser's job is to take care of their own business. And our job is to service them. So we definitely make things a bit easier and along the way. But still, it's a little bit learning for advertiser to change their mindset when they engage with us as a first time. And I can see that, again, for example, last Q4, I can see a lot of advertiser taking this approach to really like listen to us and understanding what is our best practices. They actually see a very successful Q4 on the platform. So I do think that if you want to do more, just do more test and learn with us and to really understand the impact from Note.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Creative Hub, and also we have Creative Analytics help you. So these are the things that we're able to basically help the advertiser Tolini in more. The other angle to leaning in more is test and learn. A lot of times that people don't know how to really run ads on this platform. Google is very much like search front. They are really leading on the intent graph. And meta is really on the people graph they're making. I mean, TikTok is the content graph. It's very different. I would say machine compared to the other two. And it requires different way to optimizing and to leveraging the tools we have, right? So if you're applying the same logic from meta or Google into TikTok, not necessarily you will be able to see great success, I have to say.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I see a lot of really different type of tests. I already find their success on the platform. One thing that they actually can do that is really due to a couple of things that they're doing. Number one is, like I said, they're embracing this platform. They actually do a lot of things is TikTok first. I have a couple of advertisers they have actually creating their own internal creative team just dedicated for TikTok. So they actually produce a ton of creative every single day to actually test and learn to understand the platform and understand the community they're engaging with. So I was leaning in is the first part. It's harder, but it is not that hard as long as you try it, you will feel that every single day is getting easier. So, and also we make a lot of tools to make things easier for them as well. Like Creative, we have also a lot of resources on the platform.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There was another music creator. So he was pretty big on the other platforms, but the total approach from him is he's basically changing the lyrics, make it a very relatable as a personal life because, for example, he can totally change the lyrics from an old battery boy song or unsync song to make it like related with his daily communication with his wife, making a really relatable and fun. These are the things I think is very unique to us. If you are able to test and find something new like that, you're able to find a new batch of audience and even go viral on the platform.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was one creator I remember called Shuba. She's a singer. And she is able to calm my eyes because she was able to basically rap and also doing some of the songs cover in a very different way because she's a minority and she was able to basically using her minority identity as actually A. Everybody was thinking I'm supposed to be doing like Bollywood music, but actually you know what? I'm not. I'm doing a lot of very like, you know, just hip-hop and also the music that, you know, people may think like I'm not good at.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Different from your other platforms. So that's the other thing that it's going to be challenging because for them to shift in the mindset. But I do think that it's worth trial, right? So some of the, I would say our early adopters has already been proven that when you do embrace the culture here, you're able to acquire a ton of different kind of a user or the audience to your channel. And you can show a different side of yourself as well. So yeah, I've been trying to do that. I have not really like finding my competitive edge, I have to say, but I'll keep trying.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“New content to this platform and testing and finding your own competitive edge is going to be very important as a successful creator. And most of our creator has been doing that. And I can see some of our biggest TikTok stars. They are literally practicing this every single day. And I do think that creativity and that part of, I would say, getting the nuances is the key part to be more successful on the TikTok community. And the second thing is it's including also for brands as well, because I consider brands as our creator as well. They really need to embrace the culture and the community here, right? So really listen and understand what are the user behaviors on the platform to understand what do they like to see. And also the messages or the presence could be very different from your other media channels. Or as a creator, you could be very”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think if I know that, I definitely will already become a very successful creator, I have to say. Our system is very much smarter than I am. I cannot trick the system. But I have seen a couple good cases, right? So number one thing is that you have to really be unfiltered. I mean, you don't really need to be perfect on this platform. I mean, that's the beauty of it. You can be yourself and you can really share the things that you like. And if you really master at one thing that you're really, really good at and you want to showcase. This is the platform for you to shine because not necessarily that we are fully saturated. And also all algorithm distributing the content in a very different way, right? Some other platforms, there are, I would say, like people-based or friend-based. I think for us, it's purely based on actually you're creating something that everybody wants to see. So let's see if we can distribute it more. So I think continuously to bring”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Easy, I will say, because everything is planned. But with an environment like that, that basically made the go-to market and also the product feedback loop much more short-term and faster. So there was a lot of, I would say, pressure or actually put in nicely, there was a lot of innovative things that, you know, on the go-to-market side and also on the sales side, the company or the teams need to actually do to make sure that we're able to catering for that. But again, this is a teamwork rather than only one side of the work. So far, so good. I would say a lot of things that we've been able to achieve within the past couple years has been already proven that this approach has working for us, but not necessarily they are always like, you know, it's perfect already, always room to improve, to make sure that we have more structural approach as well. So that the market able to keep the pace in with us. We don't want to overwhelm our advertisers.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We do have annual planning cycle, but I have to say that our annual planning cycle is the baseline. We often do a lot of iterations in the middle of the year. And also on a quarterly basis that we're able to pivoting really nimbly to really catering to the things that we see in the market, some of the longer-term strategy won't change, just like the platform we want to always create, inspiring and also a frictionless and immersive experiences for users. This won't change. Anything into the core of like how do we realize in that you're always a consistent experiment over there. I cannot speak for the user product side, but at least for an advertising product side that this is always the rigorous approach we're taking. And for the go-to-market part, that's also creating a very different behavior for us, right? Because oftentimes if we have a solid and kind of a static product roadmap, you can go to market relativity.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The structure is basically the guidance is you're using the key result to evaluating, and then you put the steps in between, right? So that's how at least my team has been using this. I think the things that we can improve is the input and output. So the output is very clear, but what is actually the input sometimes is debatable. Sometimes, I have to say. And also, oftentimes your output is other people's input. Are you able to connect in the dots over there too? Then that's actually the part that requires a lot of, I would say, reinforcement on alignment. Definitely we're getting better. Don't get me wrong, we're totally not perfect for sure. But I do see there was a lot of momentum to leveraging the system better. If you know other companies doing this really, really good, please shoot in my way. I would have loved to learn from them.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To drive the behavior and also to align. Again, it's very important to align on the OKRs because I can see a lot of times the OKRs are putting in, but they are very siloed. And that is not really necessarily helpful for the company to want to trip in really high growth. So I think it's very important that we don't take OKR as a shell, but we take OKR as its core is cross-functional alignment, cross-functional goal settle. So these are the things that we're still continuing improving.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is definitely a company alignment that we are using OKR as our basically the system to make sure that everybody is working towards the same goal, right? Implementing wise, I think definitely we have a lot of room to improve, right? So how often do you actually see your team able to go the OKR at the end of a quarter and also putting the OKR really two weeks or one week before the beginning of a quarter? I have to say that shame on me, I sometimes delayed a little bit. But I think the goal is always there.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think at the end of the day, it's a personal choice, right? It's very much like a personal choice. If you are excited about this, if you want to grow together, yeah, this maybe is a good thing for you. And also depends on the life stage, right? So some of the people they want to actually get in more family time, I think that's also the right choice too. But it just depends on your personal, I'll say, enemy, your personal choice rather than if the company demands that. I cannot force my team to working lower. I don't want them to work in lower words. I think it's more about if you're able to deliver, right? If it requires a bit longer time to contribute, I think it's okay, but you also get rewarded very well too, right? So what's getting, what's get out? So I think it's, again, I do believe that this is the quality and also the value we're evaluating here.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What is really like your North Star? I think that's the part that I would love to co partner with you because I always believe one thing is it is not only about achieving the company goal, it's also achieving your really career goal or your employee's career goal together. So I want to create that culture here as well. So yeah, I think I'm doing so far, so good. Most of my team members, when they actually are moving on internally or externally, I'm able to say that, okay, that's a good choice. If I were you, I might probably do the same thing. It is actually a very good culture, I think I would love to champion across.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In the market. I can see a lot of people that they left and become very successful too. So it is not necessarily like, oh, we think you're not good and then you're going to be not good for every single other company. That's not the case. And one thing, and also this is my team culture, I try to create it, is I'm happy to say that when an employee reached out to me, say, hey, Ray, I'm actually leaving the company. As long as they're telling me that they're going to a better place or a place that they can continue to grow their career, I'm happy for them because oftentimes my last question during my interview is, what is actually your goal in the next three to five years? And also, like, you know, I'd be really honest with them, say, hey, I don't think this is the job for you forever, right? Nobody going to work in this forever. If you can, great.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would try to really think about this in a different way. I can tell how people can be more successful here, right? So I definitely can see, like, we just talked about people being very curious and people very being nimble. They can be more successful here. At the same time, I think we have to admit of one thing. Join a startup and join a rocket ship is a lifestyle. It is not necessarily a job you're working on from 9 to 5, right? It is a different lifestyle and it's not beautiful for everyone. So if you are not able to adjust to your mentality towards some of the work that we are here to do, and it's maybe not right fit for you, I'm not saying that that candidate is incapable. I think they could be capable in the other scenario for sure, but it is the right fit. I think that is a, I would say, like, you know, very much towards the situation or the companies that”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In the market, you won't be able to take the right movement or take the right approach to go to market or even give the feedback to the engineering team. So it's very important that the leader at any level needs to be situational. You cannot always down to the weed and you cannot really distance yourself from the reality. So you need to find the balance to really get engaged and also throw yourself out there to getting I would say getting deeper into the problems, to identify the problems. And then you're able to perform even better. Because I don't believe one thing is you're the pure, I was the people manager. You cannot do that because when you do that, you're very, very at the very, I would say position to really thinking about your career because you're losing your competitive edge from the other, I would say, you know, equivalent talent.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not to deliver the go-to market strategy. Your goal is to lend your go-to market strategy with sales together. So if your job only is delivering, no, you're failed oftentimes because you're not really getting the market context. You're not even talking to your clients. So that was literally another mistake I think taught me how to really embrace the culture here is contextual control, right? The third piece, I think it's also a mistake. Really like a bigger aha moment for me as well is for the past couple years. Now I've been managing such big global organization. Oftentimes even not myself, my managers, they don't have time to go detail and to go talk to the clients, which is very scary because if you don't know, again, you don't hear what is happening in the market, you won't know the details.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The managers were putting to me they are facing the same pressure. And then it's cascading down. So it's definitely the mistakes we made at an early stage. The second thing I can think about is really on the context no control. It is not necessarily I'm born into, to be honest, because I was trained really like, you know, hey, this is your box, finish your work here and then you're good. But the reason why I the value of that really like the attitude more today is literally I failed at the very early stage of my time here because I was trying to create that kind of a very black and white discipline for my team. You can do this, you cannot do that. But technically speaking, that's literally slowing things down because a lot of times you can see that, hey, we're delivering our go-to-market strategy and we're good. But literally, what you don't know is your goal is...”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The first mistake I made, just at the right point because we're trying to grow too fast. And sometimes as a hiring manager, I have to compromise the standard we're trying to hire. So that's the mistakes I think I made first. And I think nobody should beat that mistake is you need always run for the quality rather than the quantity. So it's a easy mistake you can fall into the trap because the businesses demand you to go faster. If you don't have the manpower, you won't be able to, but obviously believe me, when I say this, this is a pain, right? When you have the wrong people on the team, it's not necessarily going to make it move faster. It's going to actually slow you down. So that's one of the biggest mistakes I made for my first year when I created the team. And not necessarily myself only, right? So my reporting manager, sorry.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, there were only two people. And by that time, the US and plus I was a Europe of business together, were having like less than 80 people. But the business needs to grow and we need to hire really fast. The first mistake I made was, by the way, the goal is to hiring 100 people in a six month to support the go-to market. That's the speed that we're into, right? So that is early 2020 to middle of 2020. So within six months, I need to hire, I would say, 100 people to support in the global go-to-market structure and build everything.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For the team to really run faster with this kind of a rigged approach. So, yeah, these are the two things I think very unique to us. I think it could also be continuously helping us in the next phase of the growth.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Don't get me wrong, but I do think that as a faster growing company, we need to consistently to iterate not only the product, but also our teams. So how can we do reiteration on the PM side, on the go-to-market side? It is actually something that I have seen this company doing really, really well. Not necessarily we're bonding to one team structure. We're actually bonding to the market need. And we're bounding to the growth we're looking for. So we're not afraid to break our things. And actually, I literally break out my team last year to make sure that my team having more go-to-market mindset to actually embedded them with seller directly. So these are the things that, you know, very, I would say, inconventional to a size of this company, right? But I do think that's necessary. And also that's a good mentality.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Only for North America. Like I said, we heavily invest in Southeast Asia, so you can see that a lot of our engineering and also PM resources are deployed over there in Singapore to enable them to get closer to our clients over there as well. So really deploy your resources globally and also focusing on the key markets you want to penetrate. That's the commitment I think we are doing pretty, pretty good in this case. And the second one is to really, again, I think the PMs and the product team of settings are oftentimes, I would say like because we are growing so fast, oftentimes we have to do a lot of minor team adjustment to catering for that, right? So it is very usual or common for teams to do a little bit work on an annual basis or even like on a two years or three year cycle. The stability is important.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Our product teams are setting, I will say very importantly, is global. So we want to actually, like I said, the number one step is if we really want to do global business, you have to go global. So we set up a teams really across the board in a global locations to really acquire global talent who knows the market and who knows the competition too. So we're able to really get in the jump start in the local market. So for example, we have the majority of the engineer and also PMs currently located in the west coast of North America. So Los Angeles and also San Jose, these are the key hubs we have for our tech folks and also for North America-wise, we do have our majority of the go-to market leads sitting in New York to get closer with our seller and also with our clients at the same time, right? Also, it is not”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the value, if I put it in a very racked way, is like, how can I run my second half of my marathon faster than the first half? So that's how I think about it. And how do we really continue pushing for it?”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To Amazon, but the implementation of that could be different. And also the content is no control pieces. I believe other companies may have the similar idea, but for us, I think we just really need to implement it in a way that's going to be fitting to us. I happen to listen to your podcast with the Airbnb co-founder the other day. He also mentioned that how he break out the IOs. I think it is very similar approach among industry right now, trying to really make sure the team is able to talk to each other because I think a quote from him. Won't be able to do your job better, right? So, this is literally how we're thinking about it too, in a lot of ways.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we have the benefits to staying on the shoulder of all the giants, right? So we learn definitely always they want the culture that Amazon was always championing. I think we learn from them, right? So this is something that we, I would say like, you know, always trying to listen and trying to learn from the industry. The dog fashion is also learned from Amazon, right? So we kind of studied, oh, this is maybe one of the best practices we can employ here. I'll deploy it here. So we tried it. Not even mention we have the OKR system. So it is actually a very good learning from early stage from Google. So all these, I think, definitely we do have some of the, I would say, benefits being the newcomer to the market and then learn a lot of the best participants coming from our industry peers and really deployed here hopefully successfully. And some of the things that we just tweaked, right? So for example, our culture always day one is definitely very similar.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Junior PMs, senior PMs, and engineering leaders, we invited them together to this immersion trip recorded to really get FaceTime with our clients, to really feel the heat. They are actually really facing a challenge by using our own product, right? So that kind of, I would say the aha moment is bringing a lot of, I would say, insights to them and also get them to feel the heat of the pains. The sellers may feel. So that worked really well too, right? I think oftentimes it's a battle, right? It is not necessarily the general. You have to stay in the back. You sometimes have to go to the front, but we just make that make sure that the general go to the front quite often in our company to”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Here to keep that structure running. And the other thing is really feed those, I'll say, market firsthand market information to LPMs and RDs. That means we took them out with us. We're just inviting them together to join the force together to meet the clients. And a lot of the company, if you want to meet APMs, if you want to meet the engineer leaders, it's literally like... Once a year, maybe, and also if you're investing a ton with some of the platforms. For us, I think it's always on.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ask things that we need to celebrate. So that meeting structure keeps everybody together and consensus. Again, not necessarily only for the top leaders, right? It's normal for the engineering leader and product leader and self-leader at the company level, they talk to each other. But we made that happen for their core team members. And the very beginning of my time here, that was literally getting to the IC level. So it is pretty eye-opening for me to join that meeting first time because I was get so used to their level of different meetings at Google. But here is like, okay, everybody read one documentation. And then you just understand what are people talking about and thinking about. It is intentional, but I do think that that structure is a very big secret sauce, I would say. Not necessarily we invented it, right? We also learned from the other companies, right? So it is actually one of the things that we, as it deployed pretty well.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think a couple of things. Number one is a structure, right? Everything has to go out of structure. So we do have a meeting structure that we call it used to be by month and now it's actually a quarterly level. We get everybody together. Engineering leader, product leader, and also not necessarily only the leader level. Some of their det members were joining the team, were joining the force together to have a big meeting. That meeting is 180 people-ish. It's crazy to have a meeting at that size, especially that there are different kind of functionality there. But one thing we keep it really well is actually we are using a reading format of meeting. So it's a doc reading. We just read in commands and understand the context again. It is the doc bring everybody together. And then we discuss the things that we want to make a decision with or the things that we feel is a blocker.”
2024-03-07 · Lenny's Podcast · Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source