Tom [Liang-Yu] Chi
thegoodtomchi@gmail.com
WORK EXPERIENCE
Entrepreneur, Social Impact Investor/Advisor
Various, San Francisco CA (09/12 Present)
- Learned about global development issues via work with 100+ social entrepreneur teams
- Worked with communities in 15+ countries : rapid prototyping for social good
- Founder of Prototype Thinking
- Chief Product Officer at FACTORY
- Formerly VP of Product at Gigwalk
- Investor/Advisor: Mosaic, Edom, Kingo, Ignitia, Semtive, Muse, RE3D, Rework et al
- Speaker: TED, Standford D School, Mind the Product, Hive Leadership, et al
- Mentor: Unreasonable, HAXLR8R
Head of Product Experience - Google X
Google, Mountain View CA (07/10 08/12)
- Staffed/oversaw product experience work for all Google X projects
- Focused on primary invention stage through manufacturing ramp-up
- Created rapid prototyping culture, contributing to 41 patents and 200+ for team
- Recruited User Experience, User Research, Industrial Design, and Prototyping teams
- Directly involved in creation of Google Glass, Self-Driving Cars, Genie, Insight, et al
Senior Director: Product and Experience
Yahoo, Sunnyvale CA (05/05 06/10)
- Lead Y! Search Product team, covering core search, mobile, monetization
- Defined and Operationalized global strategy for multibillion dollar P&L
- Launched Search to 3-col layout, w/ locally tailored capabilities in 30+ markets
- Drove creation of SearchPad: integrated note-taking w/ session-aware intelligence
- Re-defined SearchMonkey program for rapid semantic/structured data acquisition
- Consolidated Social Bookmarking Systems, re-launched Yahoo Bookmarks
- Founding team member of Yahoo Answers, defined product interaction, incentives
- Filed 40+ patents, Won Yahoo! Individual SuperStar Award, Featured in Press
- Taught 160 designers worldwide with LukeW, speaker at design events/Conferences
Program Manager
Microsoft, Redmond WA (07/02 05/05)
- Designed features / user experience for Microsoft Outlook
- Created prototyping framework for new feature prototyping
- Coordinated cross-division efforts to reduce crashes by over 90%
- Wrote detailed feature specifications
- Managed feature development and testing
- Helped define product vision and direction
Hardware Engineer: Analog systems and Firmware Development
Cornell Robocup Team (09/01 06/02)
- Designed and built analog subsystems for semi-autonomous soccer robots
- Developed firmware for motion control
- Formulated and ran various performance diagnostics
- Served in EE pit crew during Robotic World Cup. Team placed first.
Software Engineer, User Experience Engineer
Trilogy, Austin TX (06/99 - 05/01)
- User Interface Rapid Prototyping (Visio, PowerPoint, Photoshop, Illustrator)
- Visual Design/Interaction Design for large ecommerce sites for F500 companies
- Web Programming / Development (HTML, dHTML, Java, JSP, Javascript, Swing)
- User Testing (Think Aloud, Heuristic Evaluation, Card Sort. etc)
- Interviewed, and recruited to build HCI team from 8 members up to 40.
- Did deployment JSP and Java code.
- Independently developed and filed patent for wireless display technology.
Freelance Graphic Designer
Summer 92Present
- Design and Layout for on campus magazines: Scitech, Rainy Day, Quad, etc.
- Web design for several small businesses: easychess.com, jombainc.com
- Print and Logo design for ~20 clients
Hardware Engineer: SEED Internships
Hewlett-Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA (Summers 1997, 1998)
- Designed/built system to analyze distributed feedback control hardware
- Formulated strategies for high-speed distributed control.
- Developed hardware for Xilinx FPGAs, simulated system with VXworks.
- Constructed test harness to do timing analysis of remote instrument architectures.
- Evaluated data in view of the emerging I20 standard.
- Wrote DLLs in C++ that monitored hardware communication.
Research Assistant
Space Sciences, Cornell University & NASM (Summer 1994-Spring 1997)
- Performed compositional analysis on Nova Cyngus 1992. Published.
- Ran diagnostics on WIRE to test detector post-saturation response.
- Performed compositional analysis of coronal line region in NGC1068.
EDUCATION
- 2001-2002 Cornell University, M. Eng. E.E. Signal Processing / Systems Engineering
- 1995-1999 Cornell University, B.S. E.E. - GPA: 3.6 / Major GPA: 3.7
- 1991-1995 Montgomery Blair, Math, Science, CS, Magnet School
ADDITIONAL SKILLS
- Compose music, have worked on 9 albums, 4 compilations
- Play keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, trumpet.
- Perform live music and DJ: electronic & hip hop.
- Mixed Media Artist, won several art competitions
- Competitive Chess Player
- Creator of HCI focused site: www.ok-cancel.com