Mike Tang
Building Ko
@mike
tang.isProduct designer / engineer in Los Angeles
2020 – Now
Founder at Ko
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Building to support the educator economy. Doing it for those who care about self-determination and lifelong learning. Motivated by the promise of future generations. Figuring it all out along the way.
2017 – 2019
Senior Product Designer at Knewton
New York, NY, USA
I pivoted into edtech in search of more meaningful impact. At Knewton, I led product design and design systems for their adaptive learning platform. In 2019, the company was acquired by Wiley and I left shortly after due to a family matter overseas.
2016 – 2017
VP, User Experience Design Lead at Chase
New York, NY, USA
After taking a year off to travel, I moved to NYC and joined Chase Bank's new digital innovation team. I designed and built prototypes for exploratory customer experiences, such as integrations with Google Wallet, Apple Pay, and PayPal.
2014 – 2015
Product Designer & Front End Developer at Doblet
San Francisco, CA, USA
Doblet (YC S14) was a service for finding portable batteries on demand. I designed the web, iOS, and Android app experiences and built the front end web interfaces.
2013 – 2014
Front End Developer at Intuit
San Francisco, CA, USA
My first full time role as a developer after pivoting from urban planning. At Intuit, I designed and built marketing webpages and responsive templates for web and email.
2010 – 2013
Project Coordinator & Web Developer at The Energy Coalition
Los Angeles, CA, USA
My first full time role out of college. The Energy Coalition is a nonprofit that focuses on sustainable energy policy. I helped local governments coordinate their residential energy education programs. On the side, I also handled in-house digital design and web development.
2009 – 2010
City Planning & Urban Design Intern at City of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA, USA
I compiled reports on urban walkability and transit-oriented development.
2010 – 2010
City Planning & Sustainability Intern at City of Long Beach
Long Beach, CA, USA
I split my time between writing content for the city's sustainability strategy and learning about building permits and plan checks.
2010 – 2010
Sustainable Building Technology Intern at LivingHomes
Santa Monica, CA, USA
LivingHomes (now Plant Prefab) is a prefabricated residential architecture firm. I helped analyze the energy efficiency of their buildings with smart home technology.
2008 – 2009
Website Manager at UCLA Institute of the Environment
Los Angeles, CA, USA
My workstudy job as a college student. I managed the department's website content and learned HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP along the way. Working with the faculty here inspired me to pursue a career in sustainable urban design.
2005 – 2009
B.A., Economics, Urban Planning, Environmental Systems at UCLA
Los Angeles, CA, USA
2007 – 2007
Education Abroad, Chinese Language at National Taiwan University
Taipei, Taiwan