Joe Hu

Tool Product Manager

Worked to improve the efficiency of the Restaurant Point of Sale & Management System service teams. Gained deep understanding of product management principles, customer-centric approach, and digitalization.

Reflections from this Role:

• Positioning and Prioritization: 🤹‍♂️ General vs. Specialized
• Data-Driven: ⚖️ Data Myths
• User Research: 🧑‍🧑‍🧒 The Mom Test: A Guide to Effective Customer Conversations

Details of this Role:

Joined Meituan, a leading e-commerce platform for services in China. Worked in the SaaS business unit providing IT solutions for restaurants (POS, hardware). My department managed hardware supply, lifecycle, and software platforms for stability and service experience. My group focused on the software platform (IoT cloud, custom Android OS, service tools).

Meituan Restaurant SaaS Hardwares

My Work at Meituan:

Product manager for the Android cash register custom OS and service tools. Responsible for user experience of the OS and efficiency of internal service teams (+1,000 workers) handling hardware issues.

Main Achievements:

• Provided stable OS for over 1 million Android cash registers.
• Built remote device health status system with IoT cloud, improving service team efficiency.
• Designed full-featured detection tool, enabling remote issue resolution and saving costs (3 patents applied).

Major Gains:

• Practiced comprehensive product methodology, gained business-focused perspective.
• Continuously practiced "customer-centric" approach via user research & data.
• Deepened knowledge of digitalization through building hardware/software service systems.

Major Projects at Meituan:

IT Service Tool System for Restaurant SaaS

Background: Addressed high service complexity (700k clients, 1300+ issue types) impacting user experience and costs. Developed specialized IT service tool system starting 2019.

Strategy: Categorized issues (unresolvable, optimizable, hard-to-locate). Prioritized printer & network issues. Focused on internal team first, then end-user self-service.

Actions: Developed "Device Assistant" tool with diagnostics, industry-first Printer IP Config tool for remote resolution, Network Issue Categorization. Established data-centric framework: ticket analysis, cloud backend integration, POS stability monitoring.

Results and Impact: Enhanced service efficiency, saved ~1.5M RMB (~$200k) annually via printer tool, improved device stability, earned 3 patents.

Product Manager

First job, dream company during university. Greatly influenced professional career. Became interested in product management because of this company.

Details of this Role:

Origin Story:

Discovered Smartisan OS in 2013, captivated by founder Luo Yonghao, OS features, and company values. Read "The Design of Everyday Things." Attended Smartisan T1 launch in 2014, solidifying career path. Used PPT skills to create popular introductions to Smartisan OS on Weibo, gaining attention from the CEO. Met CEO in 2015, offered internship.

Smartisan T1

My Work at Smartisan:

Started as interaction design intern in June 2015, received full-time offer. Joined officially June 2016. Responsible for product planning/design of system settings, file management, System UI modules in Smartisan OS. Independently managed HandShaker (cross-platform Android manager). Promoted from product specialist to manager.

Main Achievements:

• Contributed to 5 smartphones and OS versions (R&D, presentation, website prep).
• Delivered 3 major iterations of HandShaker, received positive feedback, achieved 4.67 avg rating on Mac App Store (at the time).

Major Gains:

• Boosted self-confidence, learned dreams are achievable with effort. Built product values.
• Realized product alone isn't enough through company's later failure. Gained respect for hardware.
• Met talented colleagues, gained well-rounded understanding of star entrepreneurs.

My memories of this company: 📱 The 10th Anniversary of the Smartisan T1 Release