I cancelled my Runna plan. Can I try and make up for it?

Sorry for cancelling my Runna subscription. Would it fix things if I helped to ensure that others don't do the same?

Hi, I'm Jaynil — a novice runner currently training for two charity marathons this year (London and Sydney). I have seven years of experience handling customer interactions across healthcare, consumer tech, and most recently, e-commerce. As someone who has used the product, been through your support journey, and is now trying their best to stop marathon training from taking over their life, I'd love the opportunity to join Runna's mission to help people train better and love their running.

Hi, I'm Jaynil. TLDR: seven years in customer-facing roles, training for two marathons this year, and a Runna user who's been through your support journey firsthand. I'd love to join the CX team as your new Customer Experience Associate.


01 — Why Runna

What you call work, I call fun.

From turning my Strava data into a fun little marathon fundraising page to spending too much time watching 'Running Tips I Wish I Knew As A Beginner' videos, I'm already a few levels deep into the world you're scaling and excited to learn more:

The role is as varied as me

Runna is more than just an app, but an entire ecosystem that lives on your phone, explore page, and (particularly if you live in Battersea) your local park. I'd love to be a part of the team that supports it all and meets your community at every surface, whether it's in-app, through content, or in person.

I'd love to support the Runna community at every surface of the company - in app, through content, and on the track.

I'm living the customer journey right now

I'm still figuring out my running week by week, so I haven't forgotten what it feels like to be overwhelmed by the weight of a training plan, or frustrated by a bug that wiped the last 10km off of my Saturday Long Run.

I'm new to running so am in a good place to understand the questions and frustrations that runners experience on their journey.

I already build in this space for fun

I recently built jaynil.xyz — a (WIP) fundraising site that pulls live data from the Strava API. When a user writes in about a sync issue, I'll be comfortable asking the right questions, troubleshooting the issue, and finding a solution all whilst keeping them in the loop.

I've been repeatedly humbled by the Strava API when building my marathon fundraising page, so when users have technical issues, even if I can't fix them, I'll definitely be able to relate.


02 — WHY JAYNIL

Seven years of talking to people, in one form or another.

ODITI (formerly Prospect 100) Aug 2023 – Present
Product Lead · Seed-stage startup
  • Maintained a 94% CSAT score and <2% return rate across 800+ orders and £140k GMV as the lead customer support agent in a fast-paced, multi-lingual environment.
  • Reduced inbound support volume by 50% by building a custom order tracking platform (collectors.oditi.com) to give customers greater visibility on order status and access to digital certificates of authenticity for their purchased artwork.
  • Analysed historic customer interactions to find opportunities to improve our online store's add-to-cart and checkout completion rates.
Goldharts Pharmacy Jul 2018 – Jul 2023
Customer Assistant · Part-time
  • Worked on the shop floor serving customers, explaining OTC medications, vaccinations, and evolving NHS guidelines through COVID-19 in clear and reassuring language — the same skill it takes to explain RPE or a Strava sync issue to a confused user.
  • Designed and implemented a high-throughput COVID testing program, streamlining bookings and automating certification using GSuite and Apps Scripts, reducing in-store wait time by 30%.
Office for National Statistics Mar – Jun 2021
Census Engagement Officer · Contract
  • Spoke to roughly 100 residents a day door-to-door to assist and encourage Census completion, negotiating with unwilling respondents and adapting my approach to each household — achieved the highest completion rate in my team of 12.

03 — The Elephant in the Room

I don't have formal CX training. But I'm willing to learn.

I appreciate that the variety of my early-career work experience might raise an eyebrow. However, it's largely a product of my natural curiosity and drive to deliver value to customers and my team however they need.

And of all the work I've done, I have always found direct customer interactions the most rewarding. Long term, I'd love to build really great products; but I've learnt that the best ones are built by teams that genuinely understand the people they're building for.

There is no better place to learn that than in a Customer Experience team, and no better company to do it for than Runna. The rest is just a bonus I've picked up along the way:

Despite the variety of my early career, speaking with customers directly is what energizes me the most, and what I want to put my effort into improving. The rest is just a bonus I've picked up along the way:

Bonus #1

I've taught myself how to code

Probably nowhere near the level of your actual engineers, but comfortable enough to troubleshoot a sync issue, reproduce a bug, or speak to the devs in a language they understand.

Not quite an engineer, but literate enough to be useful to a customer or team member.

Bonus #2

I naturally think in feedback loops

Product background means I instinctively think about why a problem keeps happening, not just how to fix it in isolation.

I notice when problems recur and think about how to prevent them from happening again.

Bonus #3

I've worked at a startup

After 2.5 years at a seed-stage company, I'm used to owning problems end-to-end and not waiting to be told what to do. I also appreciate the value of going the extra mile for a customer.

Comfortable owning problems end-to-end and going the extra mile for a customer.

Bonus #4

My actual degree involved writing (a lot)!

Studying History at Oxford (in the pre-GPT era) made me an expert in writing essays on subjects I knew relatively little about. So help-centre articles, race recaps, or community content would be a welcome chance to finally put my degree to more familiar use!

Spent my time at uni writing essays on subjects I knew a few hours worth of reading about. Writing help-centre articles about running would be a welcome return to form.


I appreciate you taking the time. I'd love the chance to go the extra mile for Runna.

Available Tue–Sat · Based in London · Right to work in the UK · Always up for a "runch".