# Lai-Jing Chu > Product manager, designer, builder Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/laijing 🔗 www.laijingchu.com 👋🏼 Hi there! I'm Lai-Jing. I help AEC and spatial tech startups (seed to Series A) — from 3D scanning to design tools — validate product-market fit, design scalable internal processes, build product-led growth (PLG) strategies. I leverage equal parts digital software and architectural design expertise founders typically don't have in-house, and draw on lessons from four early and growth-stage startups where I worked as a hybrid product designer and PM, including scaling a B2B offering from 0 to 7-figure ARR in the growth function. How I help clients bring order and clarity to chaos, avoid costly mistakes and scale smoothly: 🎯 End-to-end strategic guidance: From research to PLG execution; 🫀 Customer-first approach: Validating assumptions with real users, not opinions; 🎡 Scalable dev processes: Designing internal processes that work beyond our engagement; 🦄 Quality at speed: Ship MVPs that don't require rebuilds; 🌕 Data-driven decisions: Metrics that guide product direction; 🧪 Ruthless prioritization: Focus limited resources on what drives growth. Reach out for a 60-minute free consultation: https://calendly.com/laijing-chu/quickchats ## Work Experience ### Product Manager, Growth @ Polycam Jan 2025 – Jan 2025 + Built a prioritization framework focusing the growth roadmap and experiments on the highest‑impact opportunities across paywalls, pricing, and B2B upgrade paths. + Addressed conversion bottlenecks leading to ~150% increase in paid subscribers along critical in-app touch points. + Shipped Floor Plan Preview for free users, driving ~6–8% of all paywall views and ~50% of total Business subscriptions the first month of release, validating a value‑first upgrade design approach. + Addressed critical gaps across customer journey by shipping new onboarding flow, cancellation survey, and retention flow and ensured actionable data was being collected. ### Senior Product Designer, Growth @ Polycam Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 | United States + Designed, tested, and shipped Spatial Report for AEC users from 0-1; contributed to GTM and achieved a double‑digit Business paywall conversion rate, the highest among gated features. + Redesigned the Pricing page; the newly introduced Business plan paywall converted at ~40% at that entry point. + Migrated 100% of the logged‑out marketing site to Webflow and implemented the new brand system end‑to‑end. ### Product Designer, Fullstack & Growth @ Polycam Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | United States + Established the core design system across iOS, Android, and Web, improving handoffs, engineering autonomy, and brand consistency. Shipped dark mode. + Led the end-to-end design for B2B enterprise features from scratch, including library asset management, workspace organization, team invites and sharing, and more. Contributed to 7-digit B2B revenue growth over 2 years and used by a 6-figure active user base. + Dedicated designer for the Growth Team, contributing to FTUX (first-time user experience) experiments, providing landing page designs for various marketing / SEO pages, and creating marketing assets for various campaigns. + Advised the CV team on the 2D floorplan algorithm and CAD/3D model import/export workflow as subject matter expert. + Championed and developed the organization's research practice. Led 4 large scale interview studies that informed roadmap, pricing strategy, and quality‑of‑life improvements. Distributed findings via feature-length videos to the team during company offsites along with written reports. + Sharpened design-to-development collaboration processes and documentation that significantly improved product quality and predictability for a supremely agile fullstack engineering team. ### UX/UI Career Track Mentor @ Springboard Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | Remote ### Product Designer, Content Engineering @ Rocket Lawyer Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area Product designer at Series E legal tech company with a mission to make legal resources and support accessible. + Collaborated with SEO team to overhaul 1K+ legal document landing pages for 100K daily visitors, resulting in improved Google search rankings and increased company revenue. + Contributed designs for growth experiments (A/B tests) and improved chances of success by applying insights from UX analytics (Fullstory) and usability testing to variant designs. + Initiated and supported reorganization of code base design system within content management system, resulting in improved efficiency for the engineering team and faster deployment of new designs. ### Product Designer and Product Lead @ Collov Home Design Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area Product designer and acting product manager in high-growth virtual interior design and e-commerce company offering custom design proposals and shopping lists. Led end-end design/development of in-house interior designers’ browser-based digital tool, critical to scaling up operational efficiency as caseload increased. + Shipped 11 features in 9 months. + Raised in-house interior designers’ mood-boarding efficiency by 3X and product list compilation efficiency by 4X. + Defined problems and translated research insights into actionable summaries, service blueprints, journey maps, product backlog, and roadmap. Raised user satisfaction ratings by 30% in 2 months. + Supported engineering team and established Agile workflows for shipping. Oversaw hundreds of backlog tickets on Asana and ensured they reach finish line. ### Product Designer and Product Manager @ Empowerly Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area Solo product designer and product manager in pre-seed stage startup offering online 1-1 college counseling to high schoolers targeting elite colleges. Created both marketing website and paid customer web-based portal. Marketing Site + Collaborated with marketing team and external consultants to optimize website’s information architecture for SEO optimization. Slashed bounce rate from critical 75% to under 35%, and restored visitor-to-consult conversion to healthy 3%. Empowerly Score + Shipped strategic “chancing calculator” for college admissions that factors in candidates’ “intangible” qualities from scratch. Validated usefulness by testing against 10+ real cases and revealed 85% accuracy rate. Helped secure 12M in fundraising. ### Freelance Writer and Editor @ Freelance (Self employed) Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 As an Independent Contractor, researched, wrote, and shaped editorial content for a number of professional and academic readership groups. Supervised and organized content and developed copy to be submitted for publication. Within the two years, contributed to six Chinese and international books, magazines, and journals that were published by the MIT Press, Actar, Masthead, among others. ### Teaching Assistant @ The University of Hong Kong Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Hong Kong As a Teaching Assistant, mentored undergraduate- and masters-level students to assist in their ability to critically reflect on constructed environment through planning and delivering seminars, public lectures, and field trips. At the end of my tenure, received 95% positive reviews on year-end evaluation forms. ### Studio X Program Assistant @ Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation Jan 2015 – Jan 2016 | New York, Beijing, Hong Kong With Studio X, led event planning with institutional partners, maintained bilingual social media outlets, and participated in research and conceptual design of urban design project for public exhibition. Coordinated work with multiple stakeholders across China and the US to manage and deliver a successful exhibition and provided a public forum for Beijing Design Week within a four-month timeline while managing within a $20K budget. ### Trainee (Summer) @ Aedas Jan 2013 – Jan 2013 | Hong Kong During this Summer Internship, contributed to the concept, design, and visualization of multiple design options for three mixed-use commercial projects in mainland China in a fast-paced environment. ### Architectural designer @ Trace Architecture Office Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 | Beijing Played a critical role as the only bilingual project team member. Helped guide project communication from design to final construction drawings for plans to build the Bamboo Raft Factory at Mount Wuyi. Drafted architectural detail drawings using a design system and communicated with clients to best understand the building’s functional needs. Liaisoned with structural and MEP engineers translating project needs to all team members. Built project was featured on international media platforms such as The Architecture Review and Cooper Hewitt Museum. ### Architectural Intern @ Atelier FCJZ Jan 2011 – Jan 2011 | Beijing, China ## Education ### Master's Degree in Critical, Curatorial and Conceptual Practices in Architecture Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation Jan 2014 – Jan 2016 ### Doctor of Philosophy - PhD in Architecture UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 ### MArch in Architecture The University of Hong Kong Jan 2012 – Jan 2014 ### BA (Hons) Architecture in Architecture The University of Manchester Jan 2007 – Jan 2010 ### UX Design Career Track Springboard Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/laijingchu - Portfolio: https://www.laijingchu.com - Portfolio: https://laijingchu.medium.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/laijing JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/laijing/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-25