Ting / by Sara Yang

We met Ting in May 2017 at a coffee shop near her office — she was working as a Team Lead at a call center; providing customer support for PayPal; and working the night shift. She was one of the first customers I interviewed in Manila, and I remember being struck by her openness and authenticity.

Later that year, I was asked to interview a couple customers to feature in a Tala video, published for the MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge (which you can view here). Ting was one of the first people who came to mind.

Ting & her son, in the kitchen.

Ting & her son, in the kitchen.

Ultimately, we didn’t use her footage in the Meet Tala video. Months later, I rediscovered the interview and decided to stitch it together. My primary goal was to celebrate her, and her story. But as a secondary goal, I also snuck in some product feedback for the viewers (a.k.a. my colleagues).

We screened this at All Hands August 2018. (Side note: This actually wasn’t planned, and I was editing until the last hour. You may notice some inconsistent fonts and funny LUTs, but so it goes.)

Soon afterward, we named one of the conference rooms in our office after her. Tap into the video below for her powerful story.

Uploaded by Sara Yang on 2020-01-06.