Background

Vivi Lin’s focused education in information communication (BS at Yuan Ze University, Taiwan) and graphic design (MFA at the University of Illinois at Chicago) positioned her to make an impact in product design. Moreover, her time with a pioneering university data science department gave her a basic understanding of machine learning and an insider’s view on experimental approaches to the field. Acquainted with the ideas of tech visionaries, she understands how designers can become key collaborators in advancing worthy goals. She has held previous roles ensuring product-market fit for innovative products in Series A and B funding rounds. Currently, she is the product design manager for EvolutionIQ.

What is unique about your work with EvolutionIQ?

In short, we are doing things that haven’t been done before. For example, with e-commerce and shopping carts, there are already best practices. We aren’t creating forms to become a member somewhere. We are defining something that has not existed yet, which is guiding workflow through artificial intelligence recommendations. While AI is not always right, we are learning how we can be sure it guides or moves in the right direction. We also encourage user trust, and we are always trying different things. We aren’t researching competitors. It’s very original.

How are you empowered in your role at EvolutionIQ?

EvolutionIQ is a very unique place. In some of my past roles I haven’t always felt that the design team was that empowered–we are mostly expected to make things pretty–but here at EIQ people genuinely care about how design can improve the product performance. Our colleagues talk to us about performance and strategy, giving us a seat at the table. As we transition from startup to enterprise, the design team is invited to help define the experience. In other places, designers are often given a spec or asked to add a button or make something blue or green. Instead, EvolutionIQ says, ‘Hey, we are defining the whole product experience and we want your expertise.’ That makes work a lot of fun and makes us feel important and enthusiastic. 

Tell me about your typical day and how you measure success in the problems you’re working to solve.

A typical day for me includes a lot of cross-functional alignment. We have to partner very closely with the project manager to make sure we are designing toward the same goals and results, because EvolutionIQ is very data-driven. It is not just that we want to accomplish a project goal, we want to accomplish a project goal to improve data AI. 

Designing, drafting strategy in partnership with the project manager, and working with the machine learning team to make sure our projects are scoped and achievable is very important. Those are the major stakeholders we have.

We design around specific goals and monitor them after a product launch. Most problems that we have are metric-driven with claims outcomes. We will reduce process times, for example. We pinpoint and narrow the scope of each effort and improve outcomes.

Did anything about the onboarding process stand out to you?

EIQ was very forgiving and supportive because I was a new parent with a baby. I was even allowed to miss a few otherwise mandatory trips to New York. While I did not get to leverage maternity leave, because I already had the baby when I joined, we have excellent benefits for both fathers and mothers. There was even a free sleep-training budget for all the new parents. The options for taking leave are also very generous; I have a coworker who decided to take several pauses instead of one long one, and he was never replaced or faced pushback. All our founders have kids, so it’s a very family-oriented place.

How would you describe EvolutionIQ to people interested in joining?

I think EIQ is a wonderful place for people who want to take ownership of their work and see results. We move quickly and are constantly iterating. Our product cycle is very fast, the people are collaborative. 

The work itself is fascinating. Our president is a visionary engineer, and we are a true AI company–we don’t just leverage ChatGPT. Overall, I believe that we have a great product with an important mission and there are very talented coworkers.

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