Role: Product + Delivery
Focus: Policy Management System, Inclusivity, 0 → 1
Methodology: Agile

The first time I saw the agency’s “policy management system,” it was an Excel file with thousands of rows, close to 170 formulas that repeated itself in every worksheet, and no validation—just pure trust. Someone handed it to me and said, “Everything is here.”

I remember thinking: This isn’t a software task. This is a rescue mission.

The system I was building wasn’t glamorous or cutting-edge but the insurance product was innovative and won an award.

My part was to build an insurance policy management system designed for an agency within a big organization. It was being built to manage policies of workers who typically couldn’t afford coverage. The premiums were low. The margins were thin. Yet it offers opportunities for upselling mainstream policies in the long run.
Challenges were everywhere : underwriting questions, benefit structures, risk models that didn’t behave like traditional ones, different premium payment models, managing claims for low premium policies.

But the mission felt important.

There is something humbling about building for people who don’t have a financial safety net. Every decision had a real-world consequence. Every miscalculation could mean someone not getting the protection they needed.

Inside the larger organization, the entrepreneurial spark felt both supported and constrained. There were moments when approvals took weeks, but there were also moments when someone in leadership said, “Let’s make this happen,” and suddenly doors opened.

The day we replaced that massive Excel file with a functioning web-based tool felt like watching chaos turn into oxygen.

It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. And people used it. And for a team operating inside a corporate giant, going from 0 → 1 felt like a small rebellion… one that succeeded.

Role: Product + Delivery
Focus: Web Development, ERP System, Online Shopping platform, 0 → 1
Methodology: Agile & Lean

If the corporate intrapreneurship experience felt like a structured sandbox, the family-run startup felt like being thrown into the ocean to learn whether you could swim.

Nothing could have prepared me for the emotional complexity of working in a business where everyone was related.

I once watched a key meeting get delayed because two family members were arguing about who should drive. Another time, a celebrated business partner suddenly backed out because of a personal disagreement unrelated to the product.

I learnt very quickly: In a family business, spreadsheets matter, but emotions rule.

Yet this environment also gave me the most unexpected crash course in human connection.

I learned patience while gathering requirements from clients who changed their minds mid-sentence. I learnt to admire graphic designers who could turn abstract feelings into visuals that moved people. And I learnt—sometimes painfully—that when it comes to tech, “Assume nothing” is a survival strategy.

The biggest lesson?

Running a business expands your worldview whether you want it to or not.

Every new client brought a new expectation. Every delivery taught me something about communication. Every delay showed me something about myself.

It wasn’t polished. It wasn’t predictable. But it was alive.

Role: Product Customization + Delivery
Focus: Online Tuition Platform, 0 → 1
Methodology: Waterfall Model

This one hurt.

We took an online tuition model that worked beautifully in South Korea — structured, data-driven, parent-friendly—and tried to bring it into a completely different market. The logic made sense. The execution didn’t.

In South Korea, parents loved progress dashboards. Teachers embraced online curriculum tools. Students were used to digital learning.

In the new market, I remember opening analytics and seeing only one parent logging in—and that parent only wanted last year’s exam papers.

That was the moment I understood: Product-market fit isn’t a checklist. It’s a cultural translation.

We kept trying — adjusting features, redesigning interfaces, cutting costs, experimenting with pricing. But every pivot revealed a deeper truth:
• The education system worked differently.
• Parents had different expectations.
• Students had different habits.
• Teachers had different motivations.

We had borrowed a solution but forgotten that problems are contextual. The financial pressure grew. At one point, personal savings were used to keep things running. That’s when reality settled in: Hope is not a business strategy.

And yet, even in the frustration, I saw beauty.

The platform we built eventually became the backbone of more advanced learning systems — just not in the market we initially imagined.

Failure wasn’t the end. It was a pivot point.