Wen-Szu Lin is the Senior Director of APAC Community Operations at Uber. He is also the author of two books, "Deliver." and "The China Twist."

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👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

Community Operations was a team we created early on at Uber to take care of our customers when they run into issues with the Uber experience.

Our team manages the customer support for Uber in Asia (e.g., Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, HK, Korea, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) as well as some of the back office operations.

We are the largest team in Uber that no one has heard of (until now)!

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🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I was shocked at the complexity involved in setting up and managing a customer support team, especially one of Uber's scale.

Our team consists of experts in strategy, project management, people management, finance, accounting, data analytics, data science, software programming, and so much more.

We have ex-McKinsey consultants, ex-CEOs who owned large P&Ls, ex-leaders who have managed thousands, as well as all of the support teams (e.g., HR, legal, etc.) that allow us to operate smoothly today.

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🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

Coming from a family of educators, I have always enjoyed giving back by teaching.

In my experience, I have figured out "shortcuts" to learning critical skills that can accelerate a person's impact and career. These simple-to-learn principles have been life-changing for many of my team members, so I wanted to structure the lessons.

During COVID, I wrote and published a book called "Deliver. The untaught lessons to growth hack your career." Sharing these untaught lessons in a creative non-fiction style has been a highlight of my career.

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🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

‍Edtech, as education is an area that I am passionate about.

💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

If you are in the position, demonstrate that you can deliver as an individual contributor first before trying to manage people or teams.

You will be a much stronger leader if you know that you can do the roles of the people you manage.

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🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

Personal development!

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🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show?

Rudy. Simply an amazing movie showing the grit of someone who had such a strong vision of where he wanted to go. Inspirational for entrepreneurs.

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🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Mint chocolate chip!