Wonder: Jason Rusk, EVP of Restaurant Operations, on Putting Customers First and Building for Scale

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.