Wen Zeng
“As a leader, sometimes the most important thing you can do is put ego aside and listen. People in the weeds have valuable insight and perspective on what happens at work in the day-to-day. Being able to effectively address employee concerns builds trust, and trust is critical to the success of your individuals and company.”
What do you do professionally?
I try my best to understand problems in all of their complexity and nuance, and propose methods to solve those problems. Right now, that’s in the form of being a Senior Product Designer at User Interviews.
Tell me about your path to get where you are today. How did you get into that type of work?
From a young age, I was obsessed with figuring out how things worked and how things broke. In high school, I had a side hustle where I took apart old cameras and fixed and sold them. I went on to study Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where I was surrounded by people who believed technology could solve any and all problems. I felt that it was really important to understand the human context in which technology exists, as well as how technology can impact humankind. I ended up minoring in anthropology so that I could think deeply about those problems. Ultimately, I felt my biggest impact would be at the intersection of people and technology. After graduating, I worked as a Design Strategist at a design consultancy, which meant I did a ton of user research and used my understanding of customers to develop new product ideas. I eventually missed building products, and landed a dual Product Manager / Product Designer role at User Interviews. After a couple of years of developing both PM and PD skills, I transitioned to a full time design position to hone my design craft.
What is your professional superpower?
My biggest strength is my ability to understand the complexity of people and systems, and make sense of that complexity to others. My favorite problems to tackle are the ones that are most intimidating at first. I can be systematic and academic in my approach to understanding, but I quickly contextualize new information and easily draw on past insights to form new mental models. These models are always evolving.
How has that superpower contributed to your professional success?
It’s allowed me to dabble in a variety of fields over a relatively short period of time. In addition to working in tech, I spent a year working in a photography lab because I wanted to understand the intricacies of film development chemical processes. During that year, I also worked as a college admissions counselor at a local school because I wanted to apply my skills in understanding people to help students think through their college decisions. I have a lot of curiosities and I’m not afraid to follow them – that divergence has both helped and hurt my career, depending on how you evaluate success.
If I were to ask your colleagues what it’s like to work with you, what would they say?
I approach all of my relationships with empathy first. I cannot care about work outcomes if the people around me are suffering, and I think my peers feel my genuine care. I think they would say that I am open and honest in communication, thoughtful and curious in my approach to design, and flexible in how I think.
What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
When I landed my film developer job at the photography lab, they told me they expected me to develop 60 rolls of film a day. After working there for a month and observing the length of time it took me to prepare a roll of film, put it into the machine, take it out of the machine, hang it in the dryer, and sleeve it, I figured out the most efficient way to parallelize and order each step while keeping development chemicals in optimal balance. By my second month on the job, I was developing over 300 rolls of film while listening to 2-3 audiobooks a day. The turnaround time for film development went from over 10 days to less than one day. At one point, the lab owner visited me and chastised me for having headphones on and being on my phone. I had to tell her that there were no more rolls of film to be developed. While this example is specific and unrelated to my current career, it is illustrative of my general inclination to constantly re-evaluate how I can work more efficiently while also increasing my quality standards, regardless of the expectations set on me or whether I will be rewarded for it.
Describe the business impact you’ve driven for your organization and users.
Earlier this year at User Interviews, I was tasked with redesigning our sign-up flow. Our platform helps user researchers recruit and manage sessions with participants, so the ability for researchers to connect their calendar is important because it allows us to manage scheduling, one of the more tedious parts of the research process. We also benefit from knowing more about our users and how they plan to use the platform. However, a lengthy sign-up process can be easily abandoned. I had to balance these conflicting needs to design a new flow. After implementing and testing the new flow, the likelihood of successful sign-up increased by 8% and our connected calendar rate went up by 126%. These two metrics were previously seen to be at odds with each other, so the improvement in both metrics meant more signups and a significant percentage of those signups would have the opportunity to see value in our product from day one.
What person or organization do you most admire professionally and why?
I admire the Environmental Voter Project for leveraging data to change people’s behavior in a beneficial way. They identify and encourage non-voting environmentalists to vote, and have been successful in their efforts. There are other environmental organizations that seek to change people’s minds about climate change, offer public education, lobby legislators, etc. but their focus on people who already have understanding and intention, and pushing them to follow through is interesting.
What tips do you have for organizations to best set their people (employees) up for success?
Lead with empathy and foster strong, trusting relationships with employees. People are much more likely to put in their best effort if they feel valued and seen. As a leader, sometimes the most important thing you can do is put ego aside and listen. People in the weeds have valuable insight and perspective on what happens at work in the day-to-day. Being able to effectively address employee concerns builds trust, and trust is critical to the success of your individuals and company.
Is there anything we didn’t ask that you wish we would have? Or anything else you’d like to add?
While I’m currently in a software product design role, I am interested in all aspects of design and problem-solving. I design and sew backpacks and bags in my free time, and have dabbled in furniture design and woodworking as well.
Contact Wen
LinkedIn Email: wen104 (at) gmail (dot) com
Email contact (at) hellotrove (dot) io or contact us for an introduction.
