Designing at Scale: Products, Teams, and Human Impact
I design systems that scale—products, teams, and organizations—with measurable impact. Estimated Reading Time: 5–10 minutes
Hi, I’m Nick.
Over 19 years, I've learned that great design isn't just about shipping features, it's about building systems that empower millions while growing the people who create them. From leading 300+ designers across three continents at ByteDance, to designing products that serve over 500M daily users, my work proves that design can be a true growth engine when done right.
At Tencent, I led the D2 Design Studio, building and scaling 10+ major B2C and B2B products, including Tencent Security, Tencent Healthcare, QQ Video, QQ Browser, and Tencent Input Method.
All of these products reached 100+ million Daily Active Users, serving users at truly massive scale.
Over the years, I’ve designed:
10+ consumer products with DAU exceeding 100 million
5+ enterprise SaaS products with ARR exceeding $100M
Built and led 10+ design teams, with 10+ years of design management experience
Design for Scale, Not Just for Screens
Great design starts with interfaces, but lasting impact comes from systems that scale across millions of users, multiple products, and global markets.
I focus on building design systems, platforms, and strategies that support long-term business growth. From products with 100M+ DAU at Tencent to a $100M ARR global SaaS at ByteDance, my work consistently proves that design can be a growth engine, not just a delivery function.
Design with Responsibility and Human Impact
The true value of design is revealed in moments that matter most.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I led design for Tencent Healthcare, helping hundreds of millions stay connected with doctors. That experience shaped my belief that design must balance scale, usability, and responsibility—especially in healthcare, enterprise software, and AI.
Whether building AI-native products or global platforms, I design with a clear question in mind:
Does this genuinely improve people’s lives?
Grow People Before Growing Teams
Scaling a team is easy. Scaling capability and quality is hard.
I believe leadership means building clear career frameworks, mentorship systems, and promotion paths based on impact, not tenure. This approach helped me grow organizations from junior-heavy teams with skill gaps into mid-to-senior–dominant, high-performing teams—while scaling from 100 to 300+ designers.
When people grow faster, teams scale healthier.
After Tencent, I joined ByteDance (TikTok) as VP of Design for Lark, reporting directly to the CEO.
My mission was clear: transform Lark from an internal collaboration tool into a global enterprise SaaS product.
Design Strategy
The purpose of formulating this Design Strategy is to achieve business success, designers grow, and the team's value is truly reflected in this environment.
I scaled Lark's design organization from 100 to 300+ across three regions, establishing a unified design system that reduced time-to-market by 40% while maintaining a 4.8 App Store rating across 127 countries. This enabled Lark to compete directly with Slack and Microsoft Teams in global markets.
In business success, We:
Built a consistent global brand and design system
Scaled across 127 countries and multiple industries
Achieved a 4.8 App Store user satisfaction score
Reached a Brand NPS of 92
Hit $100M ARR in 2022
2022 ByteDance Employee Survey — Lark Design
With strong improvements across key engagement and organizational health metrics.
Key Indexes
Employee Engagement Index (EEI): 60.7 (+32% compared to 2021)
Organization Climate Index (OCI): 72.1 (+26% compared to 2021)
27% higher than ByteDance average.
These results reflect a significant year-over-year improvement in both employee engagement and organizational climate.
Growing Designer at Scale
From 2021 to 2023, I scaled Lark Design's organization from 100 to 300+ people while fundamentally upgrading team maturity and performance.
Senior designers increased from 6% to 15%
Junior ratio decreased from 55% to 29%
Performance distribution shifted consistently toward mid-to-senior and high-performance bands
What started as a junior-heavy team with skill gaps evolved into a high-performing, mid-to-senior–dominant organization, demonstrating the effectiveness of our hiring strategy, talent development, and promotion system.
Scaling people isn't only about hiring, it's about building systems that help individuals grow.
Building with AI: Wanderboat and Beyond
In 2023, I joined Wanderboat AI as the Founding Designer.
I designed an AI-native travel assistant that grew to 4M monthly users in 8 months.
This experience taught me that successful AI products don't just add chatbots—they reimagine entire user journeys.
Today, I’m at Shanda Group, overseeing UX at the group level. I’ve recently led launches for several key products, including:
Evermind.ai , long term memory LLM open-source
Chen Institute, focused on human brain research
Exploring how AI can transform professional development:
AI-powered mentorship matching (Tanka)
Personalized persona content recommendations(Chen Institute)
Long-term professional skills analysis (Evermind)
What I Care About
Designing systems that scale, teams that grow, and products that genuinely improve people’s lives.