Storytelling Interview — Jonathan Su (CPTO)

Date: March 13, 2026
Format: 1 hour, video call
Round: Follow-up — storytelling/presentation of work

Format & Flow

~20 min chit chat + his questions, ~20 min deeper Q&A, ~20 min Andrea's questions + 30-60-90 walkthrough
Started with Andrea asking if the role would have direct reports — confirmed IC role, partnering closely with Jonathan
Jonathan was curious why she asked; Andrea said she enjoys both IC and management

His Questions & Andrea's Answers

The Deck (How Ting Works & Tingfecta)

Gave context on audience (CS/ops teams with manual workflows), why it was created
Framed it as a shared mental model for cross-functional teams
Impact evidence: teams started talking about their work in the context of how it impacted other teams
Virality anecdote: people she didn't know (new hires) would message saying they'd seen the deck — unsolicited reach across the org

Storytelling Process

Lots of research as a prerequisite
Uses research to determine fidelity level and focus for a particular audience

Executive Communication

Start with big picture and big numbers first
Supporting bullet points for at-a-glance status (going well, not, somewhere in between)
Also writes long-form memos for deeper assessments — used the integrations document as an example

Turning Vague Asks into Concrete Output

Jonathan pressed hard on this — multiple follow-ups. Clearly a real pain point for him.

Migration example: Vague ask about completing on a specific timeline → discovery and scoping → concrete deadlines with batches grouped meaningfully (by market, by networking equipment) so operational teams understood each wave
Self-scheduling example: On the product roadmap for a long time but org couldn't figure out how to start → Andrea scoped it down to something simple, found a small tiger team, ran a pilot to prove out automating pre-scheduling communications and improving customer appointment readiness
Communication process for vague executive asks: Sequential questioning to draw out specifics → use concrete examples to clarify ("So you mean like agentic workflows or agent swarms?") → if nothing concrete emerges, ask for a bounded range (floor and ceiling) → take it away and come back with option A or B

Handling Feedback

Feedback is something she can take or leave — depends on:
What's the perspective and thinking behind the feedback?
Is it about her work specifically, or a greater commentary on how things are going?
Closes the loop on feedback — shows the person she listened and applied it
Didn't fully articulate when she'd leave feedback (implied but not explicit)

Change Management

Her wheelhouse for the last several years — restructuring, new teams, new processes
Key: understand where people are at in perceiving the change
Level of resistance = indicator of how long change will take to settle
If change is anticipated, setting expectations correctly beforehand is the best tool
People are more resilient than they appear — anyone can get used to anything
Keep a pulse on morale throughout; even after layoffs, people recover with new things that bring excitement
Timing matters — knowing how to time cultural expectations

Cross-Functional Communication (Role Specifics)

Role involves all-hands, board meetings, collecting many sources of information
Getting people on the same page = literally giving them the same page — same dashboard, same terms, same definitions
Philosophy: teams tend to over-share from their own perspective because their fidelity matters more to them than to the rest of the org
The skill is having judgment on signal vs. noise — what's the threshold for success/failure for each team as it relates to company goals? Surface those signals upward into a unified view. Leave the nitty-gritty with the responsible team.

KPIs & Goal Setting

Psychology of goal setting varies by company type:
LalaMove: Very high KPIs + strong culture that understood the fast-moving market. Numbers were directional/aspirational, not literal goalposts. Showed drive and motivation.
Regulated/slower markets: Seasonality, cadence — need clarity around the company's worldview and how mission/vision drive the goals
Jonathan drilled deeper: how to find the right metrics?
Obvious metrics exist (e.g., total revenue), but the fine-tuning matters
Example: total revenue → revenue growth across three different customer persona cohorts with greater opportunity in certain markets, aligned to roadmap goals

Failure Story

First time as a manager — marketing manager in Hong Kong with 2-3 direct reports
Took team to an outdoor festival with a company booth
Typhoon season — torrential rain, flooding up to legs, materials getting wet, no foot traffic
Decided to pack up early with a couple hours left
Direct manager was angry — the booth had a specific cost, needed to maximize the investment, even for one more person walking by
Lesson: Don't let authority go to your head. Later served her well in product management where she had zero authority and had to influence everyone without it.

Andrea's Questions

First 90 Days (Jonathan's View)

Operational:
- Drinking from the fire hose, learning, playing with the product
- Day one projects already ongoing — support executing existing roadmap
- Track progress, surface risks, risk mitigation
- Cadence of town halls and R&D communications
- Collaboratively improve and tighten cross-functional communications
- Tighten the customer feedback loop
- Understand how internal workflows are changing (including AI impact)

Strategic:
- Work closely with Jonathan and PMs on competitor and market analysis
- Ideate on future roadmap
- Understand strategic directionality

Context: "There's just a lot of volume of work and too few people to do it." Role is to relieve pressure points on the org.

Communication Cadence

Town halls are back to monthly for R&D
Jonathan wants them to meaningfully convey updates and roadmap execution

What Does Good Communication Look Like?

Jonathan's answer in three words: "Efficient. Intentional. Tailored."
- Hedged afterward — depends on the type of communication and context
- But those three words are the cheat code for his communication style

30-60-90 Day Plan

Andrea offered this unprompted with ~5 min left
Walked through expectations and outcomes for each phase
Called out alignment with what Jonathan had described
Cemented it with specific expected outcomes at each milestone

Signals & Read

No explicit next steps or timeline given — "nice to talk to you" and done
Breadth interview covering storytelling, exec comms, change management, KPIs, failure — suggests confirming no gaps rather than early screening
Heavy press on "vague asks → concrete" — this is a real pain point and likely a core day-one expectation
"Too few people, too much work" — hire is urgent and pain-driven, useful leverage for negotiation
The three words (efficient, intentional, tailored) are a style guide for all future communication with Jonathan