Mengzhu Ouyang, senior product designer of Finix Payments, Inc., believes strongly in not losing her sense of wonder. “My personal philosophy is to stay curious,” she says. “The biggest fear of mine is realizing that I’ve lost the drive to learn and ask more ‘whys ’”

This philosophy serves her well as an unofficial, unconventional problem solver and informs her design process, which involves diving deeply into the clients’ needs and devising a creative solution. “I first identify the root cause and any constraints, then explore solutions and get feedback to narrow down the options.” When it comes to balancing strategy and creativity, Ouyang sees it as a delicate but essential equilibrium. “It’s always a back-and-forth process to collaborate with the cross-functional team. We need to align with them on strategy while helping them visualize the creative product,” she says. Ultimately, a design is successful if it has three key elements: usability, craft, and delight. 

Ouyang was initially drawn to traditional literature as a way to help her express the unspoken emotions of people she observed, but realized her true passion lay in design. “I discovered that the design process, through research exploration and validation, fulfills both my curiosity and passion for helping people,” she says.