About LJ

A little about Lai-Jing

Last updated: Nov 21, 2025.

I am a product designer and product manager with 6+ years of experience, and a background in Architecture.

I had just left Polycam, where I led the design and growth initiatives for a 3D scanning app serving architects and engineers, 3D artists and enthusiasts, and everyday individuals.

Over the past six years, I have had the privilege of helping to ship core product features and improve user experiences at highly innovative education, creative, and legal tech startups. I believe in working scrappy but setting a high bar for ultimate delivery. More about my process and principles here.

Currently I am taking some time off to:
🛁 take care of myself and heal from 2025 burnout;
✍🏼 write about my thoughts;
‍🎨 reconnect with design roots;
🪄 explore vibecoding and AI;
🛝 work on my secret dream project about design and education.

My journey so far

1988

Born and raised in Hong Kong, I am a quarter Korean and three quarters Chinese. I can speak and write English, Cantonese, and Mandarin.₁

2000

Web design was my first love and it had believe that I had a passion for design. I started learning how to design and code websites at the age of 11 during the age of Web 1.0. As a kid, HTML/CSS/JS was (and still is) my lego.₂ It felt absolutely magical to me that I could type lines of text on notepad and it turns into something colorful on a screen. I think the reason why I love web design because it constantly requires one to toggle between artistic, creative and scientific ways of thinking. It’s like solving a puzzle and painting a picture at the same time.

2007

Thinking I had a love for design, I went into architecture, the physical kind. Architecture turned out to be a bit of a different animal, but I stuck with it for a whole decade.₃ I came to UC Berkeley in 2017 to pursue PhD in architecture, thinking I’d spend the rest of my life, researching, writing and teaching instead.

2018

On my 30th birthday, I reckoned that if I didn’t circle back to my first love — digital design — I’d regret it on my death bed. So I put myself on leave-of-absence and ventured into the unknown.₄

2019

To date I’ve worked at several startups helping them bring product ideas to life.₅ I don’t feel like my years in architecture was a waste at all, since the process of materializing an idea is not all that different even if it’s of a different medium.₆

2020

I started organizing a weekly meetup for architects looking to expand into tech called CritRoom.₇ It has been an awesome journey so far as I got to meet many amazing individuals who had gone through similar experiences, or are exploring similar pathways.

2022

I am enormously grateful that I was able to make this career change. My love for digital design has only grown since 11. I’m still learning how to code and use new tools on my free time and it’s a joy to me.

1

By the time my Korean-American mom tried to teach me Korean, it was too late. Despite my best of efforts, my Korean is still at absolute beginner’s level.

2

Upon excavating the fossils of them on the wayback machine, I’ve decided that they are too embarrassing to be shown here.

3

Since architecture was all that I've done since the start of my adult life, it took me too long to realize I wasn’t cut out for it.

4

This is a short version of what happened. If you get to know me, I’ll give you the long version.

5

My stance is that a designer’s responsibility is not just to design, but also to clear the barriers that prevent the designs from seeing the light of day.

6

I always have a lot of fun reflecting upon those parallels — it makes me feel less of an outsider. I'm also not the only one.

7

Though kind of geeky, through this effort, I’ve met new friends from all over the world who shares a similar background and interest. It was genuinely one of the most invigorating things I’ve done in a while.