What 15 Years of Tech Leadership Taught Me About Crisis Sense and Career Growth

I believe passion is the reason to keep working hard.

Four key insights

Insight 1: Proper positioning during student years makes the transition to work much more efficient. From 1998‑2005 I studied electronic engineering at Zhejiang University, earned a master’s in circuits & systems, and joined Huawei in 2005 as a base‑station hardware engineer. Working on both hardware design and micro‑code gave me a cross‑disciplinary edge that helped me tackle challenging tasks early in my career.

Insight 2: Clearly understand your goals and strive for them. I left Huawei because I didn’t want to be just a “screw” in a massive project. Whether in a large team or a small startup, the key is to grow by learning new knowledge, not merely by staying a perfect screw.

Insight 3: Entrepreneurship is about overcoming difficulties, not just achieving results. After six years at a mobile‑phone module company, I started my own Bluetooth‑BLE hardware business in 2012 with only a demo device. Despite many failed funding rounds, I eventually secured venture capital, learned the importance of choosing the right partners and product direction, and realized that focusing on a non‑core product limits growth.

Insight 4: Continuous learning is the only way to keep improving. After five years of repeated startup failures, I joined Alibaba’s AI Lab in 2017, leading the Bluetooth‑mesh solution for Tmall Genie. The role required me to quickly master a 600‑page English Bluetooth‑mesh specification, apply the 80/20 principle, and design the software architecture.

Throughout my career I discovered that a strong sense of crisis—anticipating problems before they arise—combined with structured thinking (top‑down, MECE, Xmind mind‑maps) dramatically improves decision‑making and efficiency.

Engineers must also develop presentation skills: translating complex IoT concepts into simple diagrams and stories helps gain recognition, align with product managers, and pave the way for technical leadership.

Finally, cultivating commercial sense is essential. My entrepreneurial background gave me a natural business intuition, and I encourage engineers to deliberately build crisis awareness, study business models, and learn from successful peers.