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Ray Cao (Global Head of Monetization Product Strategy and Op07 March 2024

Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more

5Frameworks
11Insights

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Frameworks in this episode

Leadership4 steps

Context, No Control

Give people the full picture, then let ownership replace instructions.

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Communication5 steps

The Cross-Functional Customer Immersion Cadence

Align functions in one document, then put builders in front of customers.

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Strategy5 steps

The Culture-to-Behavior Localization Loop

Read local culture, observe behavior, then fine-tune product and distribution.

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Leadership5 steps

The Curiosity-Discipline-Prioritization Hiring Scorecard

Hire for curiosity, disciplined collaboration, and ruthless prioritization.

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Marketing6 steps

The TikTok Test-and-Learn Advertising Ramp

Learn the platform, test ten creatives weekly, then scale what works.

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Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Hot Take· 2

Hot Take

Joining a Rocket Ship Is a Lifestyle, Not Just a Job

Cao says a startup growing at rocket-ship speed asks for a different lifestyle, not merely a nine-to-five role. That intensity is not right for everyone or every life stage, and fit should not be confused with a person's general capability.

  • High-growth work can demand more than a conventional job rhythm
  • The choice depends on personal excitement and life stage
  • Someone can leave because the environment is a poor fit and succeed elsewhere
  • Delivery matters more than forcing long hours as a rule

“Join a startup and join a rocket ship is a lifestyle. It is not necessarily a job.”

Ray Cao
#career-fit#startups#work-culture
Hot Take

Advertising's Core Job Is Discovery, Not Perfect Calculation

Cao pushes back on the idea that digital data makes advertising fully calculable. Its core job is still to tell people a product exists, explain what it can do for them, and create demand, which makes TikTok a digital version of word of mouth.

  • More data does not make every advertising outcome predictable
  • Advertising introduces people to products they did not plan to seek
  • Discovery creates demand rather than merely harvesting existing intent
  • Open-minded testing helps a business find unexpected consumers

“Discovery is the core of advertising to me.”

Ray Cao
#advertising#discovery#demand-generation#word-of-mouth

Explainer· 4

Explainer

TikTok's Market Appetite Versus Google's Engineering Purity

Cao contrasts Google's engineering-lab philosophy with TikTok's stronger appetite for market feedback. TikTok treats users, creators, and advertisers as customers and combines technology-led development with many simultaneous experiments.

  • Google can pursue technology without always moving with the market
  • TikTok actively studies what users, creators, and advertisers want
  • TikTok experiments with many product ideas at the same time
  • Engineering-led optimization remains important alongside customer feedback

“we do have a very keen, I would say, appetite to really understand what the markets really want”

Ray Cao
#tiktok#google#product-culture#experimentation
Explainer

An OKR Is a Cross-Functional Contract, Not a Quarterly Shell

TikTok uses OKRs as a company alignment system, but Cao warns that formally writing them is not enough. Teams must define both inputs and outputs, recognize when one team's output becomes another's input, and align goals across functions.

  • OKRs should act as a north star for behavior and alignment
  • Siloed OKRs do not support a company pursuing high growth
  • Outputs may be clear while the required inputs remain disputed
  • Dependencies become visible when one team's output is named as another's input

“we don't take OKR as a shell, but we we take OKR as its core is cross-functional alignment”

Ray Cao
#okrs#alignment#cross-functional
Explainer

Google Has Intent, Meta Has People, TikTok Has Content

Cao explains why an ad playbook does not transfer cleanly across platforms. Google organizes around search intent, Meta around people and relationships, and TikTok around content, so creative refresh, campaign setup, and optimization need different assumptions.

  • Google advertising is led by the intent graph
  • Meta advertising is built around the people graph
  • TikTok distributes through the content graph
  • Different graphs require different creative and campaign practices

“I mean, TikTok is the content graph.”

Ray Cao
#advertising#content-graph#google#meta#tiktok
Explainer

Why TikTok Wants to Own the Full Funnel

TikTok does not want to remain only an awareness channel. Cao says the company used the user-led 'TikTok made me buy it' trend as evidence for shopping, TikTok Shop, and shop ads designed to connect discovery directly to action.

  • Word of mouth can lead directly to commercial action
  • The 'TikTok made me buy it' trend reached billions of views
  • User behavior inspired TikTok's shopping products
  • The platform aims to support both brand discovery and business results

“TikTok made me buy it. We have billion-level views on that.”

Ray Cao
#commerce#full-funnel#tiktok-shop#advertising

Takeaway· 5

Takeaway

Always Day One: Keeping a Successful Company Hungry

TikTok tries to preserve a startup mentality even after major growth. Open access to colleagues and founders keeps ideas moving, while the demand to make the second half of the marathon faster than the first captures the company's appetite for continued acceleration.

  • Success should not remove concern about continued growth
  • Employees can contact people across levels through internal communication
  • Open sharing creates energy even when it introduces some chaos
  • The cultural challenge is to accelerate after the company is already large

“We are a startup, we are a um young company, we always hunger for growth.”

Ray Cao
#culture#startups#growth#tiktok
Takeaway

Bind Team Structure to Market Needs, Not the Current Org Chart

Cao argues that a fast-growing company must iterate its teams as well as its products. TikTok accepts periodic reorganization when growth or go-to-market needs change, including embedding Cao's own team more directly with sellers.

  • Stability matters, but a growth company cannot treat today's structure as permanent
  • Team design should follow market need and the growth being pursued
  • Reorganization can bring go-to-market staff closer to sellers
  • A company must be willing to break a structure that no longer serves the market

“So we're not afraid to break our things.”

Ray Cao
#organization-design#growth#go-to-market#tiktok
Takeaway

Co-Partner on an Employee's Career North Star

Cao asks candidates what they want to achieve over the next three to five years and is explicit that one job may not be permanent. He sees a manager's role as helping employees reach both the company's goals and their own career goals, even when the right next step is elsewhere.

  • Ask candidates for their three-to-five-year career goal
  • Do not pretend a role must be forever
  • Treat company progress and employee development as joint goals
  • A good external move can still be a successful management outcome

“I don't think this is the job for you forever, right? Nobody's gonna work in this forever.”

Ray Cao
#career-development#management#retention
Takeaway

Treat the Annual Plan as a Baseline, Not a Prison

TikTok keeps a stable long-term direction but revises the path during the year as market evidence changes. Quarterly pivots shorten the feedback loop between advertising products and go-to-market work, though the company must avoid overwhelming customers with constant change.

  • Annual planning establishes a baseline rather than a fixed roadmap
  • Long-term platform intent can stay stable while implementation changes
  • Quarterly iteration lets teams respond quickly to the market
  • Faster product change raises the coordination burden on sales and advertisers

“our annual planning cycle is the baseline.”

Ray Cao
#planning#strategy#iteration#go-to-market
Takeaway

TikTok Creators Win by Being Unfiltered, Specific, and Native

Cao's creator advice is to stop chasing polish and show what you are genuinely good at. Creators and brands should test continuously, find a distinctive edge, and adapt their presence to TikTok's community instead of copying another channel's voice.

  • Perfection is not required on TikTok
  • Specific mastery gives a creator something worth showcasing
  • Continuous testing helps reveal a creator's competitive edge
  • Brands need to behave like creators and embrace the platform's culture
  • A TikTok presence may need to differ from every other channel

“you have to really like be unfiltered. I mean, you don't really need to be perfect on this platform.”

Ray Cao
#creators#authenticity#content#tiktok