Danny Chu

I am a Senior Industrial Designer and Product Innovation Lead from Singapore.  

I accumulated valuable hands-on practical experience over a decade in the real-world design, manufacturing, and business scene. I am highly versatile and passionate on design, therefore I achieved 12 award-winning designs that are commercialized to the market successfully, and co-owning 6 design patents. My entrepreneurial spirit and synthesized industry experience will greatly contribute to the team solving new problems through the learnings from past experience. I have developed professional know-how from valuable past experience with experts, which allows me to contribute more holistic and insightful perspectives in the design process. 

Apart from having a highly aesthetical design sense, my extensive experience with the empathic design approach allows me to deep diving into consumer research to uncover unmet needs, and generate resonating designs to drive innovations. I act more and lead by example, I am capable to manage various design projects and teams efficiently, and highly collaborative in working with cross-functional teams and vendors. I am constantly aware of current and upcoming design and technology trends ensuring I can stay relevant and contribute fresh ideas to the team. Staying curious motivates me to keep learning and improving my design and management skills in order to bring a positive impact to the company.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• 15 years of industry experience
• 12 award-winning designs
• 6 design patents
• 25+ commercialized designs 
• Product innovation lead with an entrepreneurial spirit

DESIGN SPECIALIZATION

• New Product Innovation
• New Product Development
• Project Management
• Product Design Language
• CMF Strategy and Design

PROJECT DESIGN MANAGER

Future Next Design, Oct 2021 - Present | Singapore, Freelance (Interim work)

My role is to execute and manage the delivery of design projects to clients from local startups and multinational companies. I am fully involved in the design process and work with cross-functional experts to develop ideas to commercialize the products. I drive projects toward success by setting the right direction, making strategic decisions, and solving technical problems. Several delivered projects are in the product pipeline and will be launched by 2025/2026. 

• In collaboration with a startup, I designed and developed a series of sensors for the workplace. Due to the device's unforeseen heating issue, we took a risk and tested various solutions by trial and error within 7 days, and eventually, it was launched to the market without delay. The client managed to deploy their product to their new market in the United States.
• I designed and developed a unique lineup of space-saving furniture for a local manufacturer. As a result, the client managed to get the Design Innovation Grant successfully from SFIC (Singapore Furniture Industries Council) for R&D and production.
• I collaborated with a mechanical engineer to develop a physical transformable furniture mechanism system starting from zero. After spending more than 1000+ hours of trial-and-error with countless mockups and real-life testing. Eventually, the improved mechanism is more feasible, user-friendly, and scalable for multiple models.
• I provided external design support for one of the multinational design teams to create a new breakthrough for their new product design language. I evolved the design language by introducing unique elements with compelling stories, 2 of my concepts were chosen for the final stage of internal evaluation.
• I created a new online business model and new branding for a client who specializes in hygiene and sanitization products. Even though they are facing price competition, their sales increased by 300%, thanks to the stronger brand recognition, and my input on sales and marketing content that resonated with potential customers.

SENIOR INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER

Orcadesign Consultant Pte Ltd, March 2012 - March 2018 | Singapore, Permanent 

I gained most of my valuable experience here where I accomplished numerous design projects for clients. Apart from normal industrial design projects, I was given the opportunity by my ex-design director to lead and manage New Product Innovation projects. I led the in-house design researchers, designers, and engineering team to collaborate closely with the global innovation team. I have diverse design experience developing various consumer products with my hands-on approach from research to manufacturing. As a result, several successfully launched products in the market, such as Samsung, HP, and Tupperware. Thanks to my high-quality designs, they have been recognized by several design awards, such as IF Design, Red Dot Design, and many more.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT 

• Thanks to my consistent performance, I was assigned as project and design lead for projects engaged by multinational clients, such as Samsung, Panasonic, Toshiba, Tupperware, HP, Stabilo, Pigeon, and others. 
• I managed multi-disciplinary internal and external teams for a total of up to 37 projects, I constantly aligned and collaborated with third-party vendors and suppliers during development. As a result, all the projects can be completed on time, without sacrificing the quality of designs.
• As a project lead, I leverage each other's strengths to enhance productivity and maximize effectiveness towards the successful completion of a project.
• Ability to present innovative concepts in compelling stories to stakeholders and gather feedback to improve.
  I work efficiently by outlining the tasks, planning, prioritizing tasks, and capturing the key essences to lead the projects and achieving zero delays on projects.
• I assessed risks and challenges before and during the project start, and find pre-emptive measures (such as arranging manpower) to minimize hiccups. This is proven in most of my projects which are always completed on time.

PRODUCT INNOVATION LEAD

• I had in-charged a total of 12 New Product Innovation projects from start to finish, leading a multidisciplinary team to tackle challenging projects that may span up to 24 months.
• Conducted and participated in 10+ sessions of fruitful ethnographic consumer research in 8 countries. 18 cities: China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
• Implemented effective research methodology and toolkit to uncover unmet needs and pain points, such as in-home visits, cultural immersion, expert interviews, and focus group discussions.
• Led and set up conducive 8+ co-creation and ideation workshop sessions for clients in Suwon, London, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, and Singapore.
• Delivered significant impacts to clients by defining new consumer insights from research data and pinpointing the potential opportunities that are unique to the markets.
• Validated 30 ideas and 36 concepts in the focus group discussion and got feedback to improve the concepts further.
• Taking the role of Design Facilitator for 6+ sessions of the Design Thinking Workshop, I had the opportunity to guide and engage participants from SPRING Singapore, Design Singapore, MOH Singapore, and other organizations.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER

• I enjoy taking action instead of talking, I am fully hands-on in the New Product Development process from end-to-end to drive the projects toward success.
• I have designed 12 award-winning products from Zero to the market, such as Samsung AddWash washing machines and HP OfficeJet printers. 
• As I constantly challenge myself and the team to produce novelty ideas with Unique Selling Points (USP) and Points of Differentiation (POD). I initiated and designed an ideation + brainstorming toolkit for the in-house design team. As a result, this helped the team achieve productive and innovative results on many projects.
• Designed and implemented consistent look-and-feel of design language for a series of products that elevated the brand image to the next level, those designs are reflected in my portfolios - such as HP and Rentokil-Initial.
• Apart from creating a highly aesthetical design, I always approach a new project with empathic design in order to create practical and thoughtful user-centric solutions that resonated with users, such as the rice spoon of Tupperware Blossom Serveware, it can rest gracefully and securely on the cover’s handle.
• Co-developed concepts with in-house and external engineers and experts, we solved countless technical design issues together, and sometimes I have to make strategic decisions to move the projects forward.
  Developed and fabricated countless proof-of-concept, mockups, and prototypes for the user and size testing in a real-world environment. The functional prototypes with realistic cosmetic finishes will be presented to stakeholders in order to demonstrate the concept physically.
• During brainstorming and ideation, I always infuse my business sense and imagine the product concepts from different perspectives and ask the right question, such as from the salesman and end-user point of view, this will greatly help designers to improve the product concepts occasionally.
• I learned & developed new skills and knowledge from different projects and experts, such as knowledge of tooling and manufacturing processes, business innovation, and project management. With this experience, I trained and guided junior designers and researchers to pick up new skills.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER

Orcadesign Consultant Sdn Bhd, Feb 2007 - Feb 2012 | Johor Bahru, Permanent

After graduating, I joined Orcadesign as an Industrial Designer. Here, I have learned design and engineering skills set from senior designers and engineers. I also take in-charged of several projects for new product development. I participated in brainstorms that generated fresh ideas and contributed to design direction from project initiation. I can generate ideas with great sketches, CAD modeling and renderings, physical mock-ups, and design solutions. I constantly collaborate and support my co-workers (designers and engineers), and manufacturing partners to identify problems, solve design issues, and preserve design intent throughout a project.

DESIGN ENTREPRENEUR

DJ&CO LIFESTYLE (Startup), May 2018 - Sept 2021 | Johor Bahru, Singapore, Self-employed

With my knowledge and expertise in design thinking, I put that into action by created a startup focused on space-saving furniture. As an expert in small space, this startup aims to provide holistic solutions to users with space problems. My entrepreneurial spirit pushes me to be hands-on in business operations, sales and marketing, furniture manufacturing, interior design, and actively engage with customers. As a result, I have gained valuable experience that I can’t get from my previous job. Thanks to my team's exceptional service, my business also received 5-star Google reviews from previous satisfied customers.

• I set up and managed the business operation of the FIRST Transoformable Furniture showroom focusing on innovative space-saving solutions in JB and Singapore.
• Together with my team, we strike the most major business deals successfully with Japan's biggest developers- Daiwa House.
• Created awareness and demand through sales and marketing by highlighting key benefits, and drove sales to achieve targeted quantity, sales boosted up to 200% during festive seasons.
• Completed 8 projects of user-centered Interior design for condominiums with space-saving and transformable furniture, the customers are satisfied with the thoughtful space transformation.

Industrial/Product Design Internship

Sulik Design [MdesRCA| Malaysia, May - Aug 2006

Swinburne University of Technology | Australia (TWINNING PROGRAMME)

February 2006 - February 2007 

Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design

CGPA 3.90/4.00

LimKokWing University College of Creative Technology | Malaysia

February 2003- February 2006 

Diploma of Product Design

CGPA 3.88/4.00