About

Hello, I'm Xinni — a meme-selling, vibe-coding product designer

Xinni on a bench beside a river under red autumn maples
  • Made in Singapore
  • Based in Tokyo
  • V3 boulderer
  • Onsen researcher
  • Anime con regular
  • Cat mom to Moo

Onsen trips and seasonal scenery.

Designer and builder at Google.

Resume

I research, design, and build! Sometimes, I draw too :)

I graduated with a degree in Computer Science in Singapore.

Over a ten-year career starting in Silicon Valley, I have designed for YouTube, Android, Search, and Payments. These days, I'm running a vibe coding community and teaching people about AI.

I care about

  1. Ownership

    I take responsibility for advocating for the user, and delivering outcomes as a team.

  2. Systems thinking

    I tackle really hard problems with rigor and scrappiness. I'll consider scale, reuse, and effects on the wider ecosystem.

  3. Getting things done

    I'm comfortable wearing PM, UXR, Eng, and even artist hats to get things out the door. Every live experiment is data.

  4. Support

    I believe in lifting up others, as many have done for me. I care about us enjoying our work together.

  5. Authenticity

    I value honesty, kindness, and being true to myself. I want you to feel accepted doing the same.

  6. Fun

    I'll make sure our team has the best swag!!!

Other ways I would describe myself!

  • scrappy
  • experimental
  • 0→1
  • loves memes
  • mission driven
  • user centered
  • community builder
  • AI-pilled
  • ships fast

Kind words

Systems thinking

Caring for design's effect on ecosystem and scale.

Xinni's proposal to increase transparency and control for these signals will make it easier for teams across YouTube to use these signals in a privacy safe way … She took the initiative to tackle this complex issue not just for Gaming, but for all YT recs.

Product manager YouTube Privacy Working Group

You helped make our design tools and systems better, and this in turn helps all our designers and users.

VP of UX YouTube

Ownership and Ambiguity

Owning the problem space, however unclear.

She is seen as the go-to person for kick-starting new initiatives, building on her strength as a '360° UXer'.

UX manager Google

Xinni is one of the best strategic thinkers I've worked with. Her default status is to think for the user … As a PM, I think she's a dream UX partner to work with.

Product manager Google Pay

You handled the ambiguity on the product. Created a forum to address fear, doubt and concerns. Without you we would not have vision or differentiator.

Engineering program manager Google Pay

Xinni needs very little guidance to take a project and run with it.

Peer designer YouTube

Impressed how quickly you ramped up on Stadia and already making a difference!

Director of Product Management Google

Craft

Volume without dropping the quality bar.

… I've been SO impressed to see her prototyping skills in action at Google. For context, I teach prototyping across Google to design teams, and I can honestly say I have nothing to teach Xinni. Her source file organization, pixel-perfect end results, and technical precision in her motion design & prototypes is seriously top-notch.

Designer YouTube

I think those were the best presentations I've seen about real AI usage at Google.

Developer Programs Engineer Google

She has a rare ability to rapidly generate prolific volumes of user centered work without sacrificing design quality.

Design manager YouTube

Xinni is the most talented UX designer I had the pleasure to work with at Google in the last ~6 years.

SWE manager Google

Teaching

People leave more able than they arrived.

Thanks to Xinni, I can save hundreds of hours and am better equipped to help 5500 UXers!

Senior UX Program Manager Google

I'm returning from a 6 month+ mat leave … in 45 min, you've helped me ramp up so quickly. Truly, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

UX designer Google

Your talent for transforming complex technical information into clear and engaging presentations is truly remarkable. I've used your examples countless times in Google DeepMind.

Technical Program Manager Google DeepMind

Founded the Vibe Coders Community.

Co-founded Vibe Coders Tokyo, where designers and engineers share what they're building with AI (100+ attendees per session). We're now scaling to Singapore!

My mission is to teach everyone to build — especially tech minorities and non-technical folks.

Xinni and a co-host at a lectern opening a Vibe Coders Tokyo session, the slide behind them reading Meetup Purpose: bring people who are using vibe-coding tools together
Two women in face masks at a front-row table with laptops open, one giving a thumbs-up, in a packed session where every attendee behind them is also on a laptop
A member presenting from the lectern, the screen behind her showing an e-commerce product page she built
Two members presenting FretFlow, a guitar-learning app built in Google AI Studio, projected behind them with a Wonderwall lesson open
A member with a microphone gesturing at a slide titled Strategy 3: Do Furusato-nozei while waiting, showing an agent scrolling a Japanese gift-tax shopping site to compare salmon offers
Four of us around an izakaya table after a session, one turning her laptop around to show a design board

Maker and artist

Since student days, I've been drawing and making swag and merch for my communities. I guess you can tell why I love living in Japan! :D

Googzilla: a round white character with a wide smile and a row of rainbow spikes down its back
Googzilla, Google Japan mascot
About eighteen people outside a bouldering gym at dusk, each holding up a mint-green tee printed with a small dark animal at the foot of a wall of green climbing holds and the words CLIMBERS-JP
Product mock titled Google Japan Badge Holder: two badge sleeves shown front and back, printed with pixel-art Tokyo Tower, Mount Fuji, sakura, lucky cats, magnifying glasses, green Gs and a small green dinosaur, the back one holding a sample ID card
Flat illustration of the Chrome logo given little white arms and legs, dancing beside a music note on a pale blue background
Sticker on a rainbow gradient with sparkles, reading graphic design is my passion beside a cut-out photo of a raccoon sitting in a metal trash can
Xinni in a cream kimono with purple hair drawing on an iPad with an Apple Pencil at a low lacquer table
Xinni holding up a small square canvas she painted of a round pink character standing in shallow water under a starry sky, next to her phone showing the digital original
Drawing of a wide-eyed pink-haired character peeking out of a yellow hood with pointed black-tipped ears, signed at momichu
Fan art of my OC by @momichu
Xinni sitting cross-legged in front of a hand-painted booth mural of a train station named Capihabara, with a capybara-fronted train, a rabbit in a station-master cap, a panda and a white dog holding a sign
Xinni leaning in from the right of a wall covered in line-drawn capybaras piled around a heart-shaped gap of blue, touching the nose of the largest one
Pastel hand-drawn plan for the Mushimoo artist-alley booth, with displays for apparel, pouches, stickers, pins, charms and badges around a black cat banner
Selfie of Xinni and two friends in yukata at artist alley booth C5, holding pale blue ice lollies, a wall of anime prints behind them
A hand holding an Anime Expo 2018 Artist Alley badge in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center, palm trees and an Anime Expo banner behind it
A hand holding a yellow TwitchCon exhibitor badge reading slash heymushimoo, pinned with an enamel pin of a white-haired character under an umbrella among purple hydrangeas

I drew these stickers! While I can't give it to you IRL now, try decorating the laptop :)

Drag any sticker onto the laptop lid to stick it on, and drag a stuck sticker off the laptop to remove it. If you'd rather not drag, press Enter or Space on a sticker to place it on the lid for you.

For fun

V2 in my gym
A glass-sided PC build lit in RGB on a desk: a large ring-lit intake fan, an NZXT pump, lit RAM, an EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 and a Corsair RM750x power supply
I like to build PCs and mech keyboards
A custom 60% mechanical keyboard in a walnut case with teal and white botanical keycaps, beside a llama-shaped planter and a retro game glowing on a TV
A custom mechanical keyboard with rainbow gradient keycaps and RGB underglow, in front of a MacBook with a Shinkai wallpaper and a cat-illustrated keyboard cover
A pale wood-panelled living room: a wall-mounted TV, a tea nook under a Totoro cut-out and a sign reading お茶カフェ, cactus-shaped cat scratching posts, wall-mounted cat shelves, plush toys on a cream sofa, and a long-haired grey cat lying on the floor
I designed my Nintendo Ghibli home
A high-rise balcony with a green wall bearing wooden Kirby and Animal Crossing cut-outs, festoon lights, a long-haired cat resting on the deck, and a Singapore park-and-city view beyond the glass
An office desk built out as a market stall: a pastel scalloped awning on a pipe frame, fairy lights, a monitor, a pastel mechanical keyboard with novelty keycaps, and plush toys crowded around it
I won YouTube's best desk award, and best meme in a slide deck award
Illustration of a chibi character with purple hair, a white blouse and a starry blue skirt, walking while pulling a suitcase painted in the Google four colours with a white G on it
I enjoy travelling Japan
Selfie of five friends on a forest trail in autumn, Xinni on the right in a cherry-print dress with a pink backpack
Five of us in sportswear posing in front of a black HYROX wall lettered GO WILD, Xinni holding up the marker poster she drew of the group
Xinni in a bobble hat and ski jacket sitting beside a friend in a puffer jacket, each holding a small black-and-white puppy
Selfie of three of us outside the Los Angeles Convention Center holding up Anime Expo 2022 Artist Alley badges, a One Piece Film Red billboard on the building behind

You made it all the way to the end! Thanks for reading.