Meet Ming Li | Product Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ming Li and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ming, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
In our company, there are ample opportunities to start our own business. I believe that identifying user problems is key to generating business ideas. To achieve this, I manage a user feedback channel to track their input and pinpoint the main issues they face. Additionally, I gather insights from our data portal by regularly monitoring various data dashboards for anomalies or areas of improvement. This approach helps us identify potential new business ventures aimed at addressing these challenges effectively.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I think the story I am most proud of should be how I embarked on the path of Product design. In fact, my major was Industrial design, but we had a course on HCI. In this course, we could choose any topic to create an app to solve some social issues. At that time, I found a stray cat, which is now the companion by my side named Mimi. However, I thought about how there are still so many stray cats in the world that no one is rescuing. Could we create an app to address this issue? So for my assignment, I created an app called “Cat Friend.” This achievement earned me a high score. But I didn’t want it to just be a virtual assignment; I wanted it to have real impact. So I reached out to local animal rescue organizations and they were very excited about my idea and design. Eventually, after development, within just a few months through this app we rescued hundreds of homeless cats. When I saw the power of product design impacting society as a whole, I decided to become a product designer to bring more warmth and love into this world.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my friend comes to visit me, I will definitely take him from San Jose and ride the Caltrain all the way to Chinatown in SF. This way, we can quietly enjoy the beautiful scenery of Silicon Valley along the way. When we reach Chinatown, I will take him to my favorite Chinese restaurant to eat my favorite Cantonese cuisine, so that he can feel the warmth of his hometown even in a distant America, experience local customs and culture, as well as how Chinese culture is in America.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Jinda Zhong

Website: https://mingli.webflow.io/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mingli7/