Siyan Ren, who goes by Ren, solves problems through design. He is currently the Head of Design at Honey, working towards the mission of 'Give back $1000 per month to each household.'
Ever since coming to the US in 2016, Ren has collectively helped build companies worth $8 billion in valuations.
Before 2016, he spent most of his career in China, helping partners including Autodesk, Adidas, 3M, Bosch, and Sony.
Ren learned all things Design through self-taught, including learning how to make sneakers by watching YouTube in 2 weeks.
He believes the new Design Unicorn should be Design + Business, so he spent COVID nights and weekends learning Business Essentials from Upenn Wharton.
He lives in LA with his wife, cat, and sneaker-making mini factory.
He practices Mamba Mentality every day.
He loves everything experimental and undefined.
Things Ren learned over the years and applied in his day-to-day.
First principle
Don’t treat the symptoms of problems. Dig deep into the root cause and reason it up from there.
Work smart
Aiming at maximum return is not enough. Can we achieve the same results with less investment?
Growth mindset
Seek perpetual growth, even at the cost of being embarrassed or feeling uncomfortable.
Do the right thing
Always prioritize what’s right for customers over what’s profitable.
Big picture, small detail
Be able to see the big picture when setting out the strategy and sweat the detail when getting hands dirty.
Ruthless organization
Staying organized ruthlessly at all stages is the foundation to success at scale.
Notable press mentions and awards Ren received over the years.
Contributed to Honey’s $4 billion acquisition from building the first pixels to building a first-class design team.
Built design foundations that led to Dave.com’s latest SPAC IPO, at the valuation of $4 billion.
Led the product design and assets creation for the best drawing app on the planet. 10 million happy users every month.
Provided E2E product design to different divisions, from Auto Media to Thermal Tech to Robotics.
Provided E2E product design to world-renowned clients, such as Adidas, 3M, Johnson&Johnson, DuPont, and Sony.
Designed all the UI and visual assets for the then 'Figma' for AutoCAD: an online collaborating CAD tool.
Executed all the final digital ad campaigns for clients, such as Puma, Gillette, Johnson&Johnson, and GE.
Partners chose to work with Ren. Due to NDA, some of the works are not displayed.
3M
Adidas
Aqkleen
Autodesk
Bosch
Bugsnag
Choxue
Ctrip
Dave.com
Decathlon
Dupond
GE
Honey
Johnson&Johnson
McDonalds
Puma
Puzzle Theory
Qoros
Redbull
Rocket Wagon
Sony
Udemy
Ueno
Weebly
