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Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations)

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Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Operations)

Lenny Rachitsky

Mar 7

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Ray (Jiayi) Cao is the global head of product strategy and operations for monetization product at TikTok. Prior to TikTok, Ray spent six years at Google helping scale Google Shopping globally. In our conversation, we discuss:

TikTok’s internal culture and core values
How TikTok’s product team operates
How working at TikTok is different from working at Google
How TikTok rolls out to new markets
TikTok’s core principle of “context, not control”
How their sales and product teams work together
Lessons (and mistakes) from building TikTok’s early go-to-market team
The importance of hiring for quality rather than quantity
Insights on being successful on TikTok as a creator, a business, and an advertiser

Some takeaways:

Despite TikTok’s size, the company prioritizes speed and innovation to outpace competitors. Ray describes TikTok’s thinking as “How can I run the second half of my marathon faster than the first?”
TikTok fosters a leadership culture of “context, not control” that encourages ownership and decentralized decision-making. High-performing individuals and teams, armed with diverse organizational insights, can make well-informed decisions quickly.
TikTok wins global markets by hiring locally and refining algorithms to fit regional and local cultures. Understanding local users’ behaviors and tastes and catering to their needs is crucial to the company’s success.
It’s important to maintain high hiring standards even when facing intense pressure to scale quickly. Hiring the wrong individuals not only fails to expedite processes but actually slows down overall progress.
Startups looking to advertise on TikTok should begin by establishing an organic presence, testing content, and then gradually transitioning to targeted ads. TikTok recommends reacting to trends and refining advertising strategies based on performance, while being authentic and culturally relevant to maximize reach.
To be successful on TikTok, be authentic. You don’t need to present a polished image. Instead, be genuine and share things that you are passionate about. The platform values content that feels real and relatable.

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Overcast, and YouTube.

Find the transcript for this episode and all past episodes at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/episodes/. Today’s transcript will be live by 8 a.m. PT.

Where to find Ray Cao:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jiayiraycao/

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Ray’s background

(04:55) Cultural differences between Google and TikTok

(08:24) Fine-tuning the algorithm for different markets

(12:15) Examples of fine-tuning the algorithm

(15:11) Core principles and values of TikTok