My Expertise
Content Strategy
Content strategy has a variety of connotations under different contexts and I’ve touched upon many aspects of it: from analyzing market needs to identify revenue-driven topics for a content heavy business, to creating an internal communication strategy for a huge, transitioning engineering team; from information architecture for a technology startup website, to UX writing for a million-user consumer app/web; from style guides to social media editorial calendars; from building a CMS with engineers to managing multiple vendors. I’m a strong advocate of user-centered design and measuring the effectiveness of content.
Teaching & Coaching
I’ve taught 1:1 and in large classrooms to students ranging from elementary school kids to successful entrepreneurs. Regardless of the subject I’m teaching, I always strive to arouse students’ curiosity, cultivate critical thinking and inspire all-around growth. I’m a firm believer of growth mindset. I’ve also coached high school and college students on educational and career planning; I view it as an opportunity to reflect on my own path and make meaningful connections. My role is to help individuals discover their true selves and understand the world around them. I’ve found it helpful to bring that coaching aspect to working with others - I tend to see my teammates’ strengths and collaborate accordingly.
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In 2021 I started my Co-Active coach training journey to hone my coaching skills and help spread the benefit of the coaching approach.
User Research
My interest in user research stems from my curiosity of understanding human behavior, untangling motivators, and my habit of asking why(s). I appreciate the value of large-scale, complex research programs, while my past experience leans toward a more lean, participatory approach (with design research in particular). At graduate school I was trained in program monitoring and evaluation, and at work I led usability tests from end to end and used it especially as an opportunity to align stakeholders around user-centered design.
Community Building
Community has a huge influence on wellbeing of both an individual and a business. Building a strong community is the art and science of setting up the right incentives and rallying people around a common cause. I recruited and organized volunteer community (online) consisted of power users to do crowdsourced translation; meanwhile working with engineers to improve tooling for community management. I also assisted in internal communications/events to provide a sense of community for employees; in particular for women in technology.
Internationalization & Localization
I’ve experienced the promises and pains of a company trying to go international, both internal and external. I enjoy working on an international team and serving global audiences, which can be traced back to my passion for languages and cultures. I’ve successfully managed localization projects, written user interfaces for award-winning multi-language app, and conducted market research & analysis for cross-border ventures (Sino-US in particular).
My Strengths
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a penetrating and empathetic observer
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instinctive ability to understand what motivates people and anticipate the needs
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outstanding verbal and written skills
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great at brainstorming by making unusual connections
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intensely curious and always take a learning attitude
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establish rapport quickly by being genuine and nonjudgmental; build effective and loyal teams by respecting different points of view
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gifted in bringing out the best in people
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always find ways to make things more exciting and more vital
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sort through the clutter to see patterns and adapt quickly