About

Diverse experience & worldview

I was born and raised in South Korea, the country now best known for the K-pop and BBQ! The small peninsula between China and Japan.

The benefit of growing up in a small and lesser known (specially in 80s-90s) developing country is looking at the world from a minority point of view. I was blessed with an adventurous missionary parents, who taught me with a worldview of poor and oppressed, made as many trips as possible to help people in need.

When I finally became a college student, age that I can travel independently, I spent much of my summer with Unicef in environmental activities across the globe. After graduating from the arts school in Korea, I can’t help not putting my education into practice for real human (rather than companies).

I moved to Africa to live with Maasai tribe for two years. Which profoundly shaped how I think about design and use design as a tool to help people and bring good to human race.

As someone who was lucky enough to get high quality education, currently living in one of the wealthiest city in the world, I continue to wrestle how I can use my blessing for greater good in my day to day life.

systems thinker

I use design as a tool think systemically, challenge the current status quo, imagine and propose the better future. Constant look at the ecosystem while looking at its unique problem point itself helps to think about intended and unintended consequences of the design.

For me, design is a ways of thinking and abilities to connect the dots to provide solutions and ideas that makes us better. Manifestation of my design is in services, products, organizations and people.

Leadership

I believe in servant leadership. As a leader, I think about the future state of the team and products I design and how to best support people in achieving the design goal I have in mind.

The best example on this is Sherpas in Everest. They have ascended Everest more than anyone else, while they carry and guide outside visitors. Yet, they are not in the spotlight.

It requires humbleness and genuine interest about people I lead and constant curiosity on what I can do to support them better. Everyone’s need is different; some needs demonstration rather than being told while others prefer clear communication on expectation and autonomies to explore how to achieve the outcome.

At the end, I practice leadership as a ways to achieving the common goal through trusted healthy relationship.