To spotlight different perspectives and give an inside look at Wonder, we’re highlighting leaders from across the organization.
This month, we sat down with Jason Rusk, EVP of Restaurant Operations, to talk about what he's learned from more than two decades in restaurant operations, why Wonder represents the future of the industry, and the leadership principles he believes help teams thrive through constant growth and change.
A quick round to get to know Jason:
- Favorite Wonder order: One of my favorite things is our Detroit Brick Pizza with pepperoni. It's definitely a cheat day meal—I do a lot of biking and exercising—but it's one of those items that's absolutely worth it.
- Book you’ve read recently that you’d recommend: One of my favorite books is Good to Great by Jim Collins. I love the whole notion of taking something that's good and achieving excellence. It reminds me that excellence is about consistently doing a hundred small things really well.
- Coffee or tea: I'm always down for caffeine, especially trying to keep up with everything we've got going on. Coffee is my go-to. Usually it's a skinny vanilla latte—triple—with two Splendas.
- Favorite way to unwind after a busy week: I've learned that the best stress reliever is getting out and moving my body. Whether that's lifting at the gym or going for a long bike ride, it helps me clear my mind, get the endorphins going, and completely decompress. I’ve learned that I’m a much better leader after I’ve taken the time to recharge.
- Favorite productivity hack: One of my biggest productivity hacks is the way I use AI. The biggest value isn’t getting an answer. It’s getting better at asking questions to get the right answer. The key is providing a lot of context in your prompt: why it's important, how I'm thinking about it, and what outcome I'm trying to achieve. Then, before it answers, I ask, "What other questions should I be asking based on what you know?" That always leads to a better answer, helps refine my thinking, and moves things along much faster.
- What does a typical day look like? About half my time is spent thinking about building tomorrow—what processes we need to put in place and how we institutionalize repeatability as we continue this accelerated growth. The other half is improving today: How are our locations doing? What needs to improve? How do we optimize the customer experience?
You spent more than two decades at Red Robin. What did you learn about scaling a restaurant business without losing what made it special in the first place?
I had opportunities to work across many different parts of the business, and it gave me a much broader perspective on how everyone ultimately comes together to serve the guest. People are really good at telling you what they don't like, but they're not always great at telling you what the future should look like. That's where you have to use imagination—but always within the context of your brand promise. If you stay grounded in that promise and continue looking ahead for customers, you can consistently overdeliver. Innovation should solve customer problems without asking customers to invent the solution.
After such a long tenure, what was it about Wonder that convinced you it was time for a new challenge?
Consumer behavior has been changing for a long time. Whether it's restaurants, retail, or almost any industry, people increasingly want experiences that are omnichannel. They want things where they are, when they're ready for them. I saw the entire restaurant industry changing, and Wonder isn’t just building restaurants. We’re redesigning how people access great food.
The other thing that really drew me to Wonder was how they are creating opportunities at a pace that’s nearly impossible anywhere else. I knew Wonder was going to grow quickly, and what really motivated me was the opportunity to give hourly team members and managers the same kinds of opportunities that were given to me as I grew up in restaurants. That's something that's incredibly meaningful to me.
For those who don't work closely with Restaurant Operations, how do you describe the role your team plays in bringing Wonder to life?
Field Operations is where strategy either succeeds or fails. It's where all of the hard work that happens upstream ultimately comes to life and where our promise gets delivered to the customer. Our job is making sure that happens consistently every single day and ensuring that every team member understands what's most important.
For those of us in the office in corporate roles, it’s about asking: How do we make execution easier? How do we remove friction so our teams can consistently deliver great experiences? How can we make the target bigger, so they hit it more often?
You've worked your way up through nearly every level of restaurant operations. How has that shaped the way you lead teams today?
Even though I've worked across a lot of different functions, the roles that have stayed with me the most are the hourly positions I held early in my career. Those experiences taught me empathy before they taught me leadership. Those jobs are hard. People may be working two jobs, going to school, balancing family responsibilities—and then spending their day interacting with customers. That's why I believe our hourly team members are what make the whole wheel turn. Our responsibility as leaders is to make their jobs as easy as possible. If you design systems around what most people can realistically execute well, you'll win.
One thing that makes Wonder unique is that we're operating multiple restaurant concepts under one roof. What are some of the operational challenges—and opportunities—that come with that model?
The biggest opportunity and challenge is consistency. In a traditional restaurant, you're making the same menu items over and over again. Repetition builds muscle memory. Our teams might make a panini, then a steak, then a burrito, then a pizza, then a beverage—all within a few minutes. Memorization simply isn't realistic, so our operating model has to make execution incredibly simple. It's about designing recipes, systems, and workflows that produce delicious food while making it easy for team members to execute consistently across dozens of different concepts. When you solve for that level of complexity, you create capabilities that most restaurant companies never have to build. That’s exactly why Wonder is different.
You spend a lot of time visiting our IKCs. What do you learn during those visits that you can't get from a dashboard or report?
You learn how people interact with the systems, software, and tools we've built. That's something no dashboard can show you. The best ideas rarely come from conference rooms. They come from watching someone do the job.
You’ll also see the willingness of our people to adapt and embrace change–it’s something I've never seen before in a workforce. Most people say they love change, but they actually don’t because it changes what's expected of them. Our teams are different. Change is all they've known, and they've embraced it. I think that's one of Wonder's real superpowers.
You've helped lead organizations through periods of significant growth and change. What's your approach to bringing people along through transformation?
For me, it all comes down to how you show up as a leader. I really believe there are three things. First: lead with love. Push people to be their best while always having their best interests at heart. Second: always do the right thing, no matter how hard it is. Third: follow the Golden Rule—treat others the way they want to be treated. If you consistently lead through those three principles, people will trust you. Trust creates the confidence people need to embrace change instead of fearing it. When people trust you, they’ll follow you through whatever change or transformation the company is going through.
If you could have any other job at Wonder for a day, what would it be and why?
I'd love to be a General Manager in one of our restaurants for a day. I’d like to better understand everything new and experienced managers are navigating daily. The further leaders get from the operation, the easier it is to make decisions that create work instead of removing it. Staying close to the operation helps you make better decisions because you understand what it’s actually like to execute changes. What I enjoy most is spending time with our teams in the field. That's where the business really comes to life.