About Me

I’m Heejung Kim, a Technical Product Manager and Data Architect who believes insights are only meaningful when they help solve real-world problems.

I first became curious about people and their behaviors while working as a docent in a museum. Later, as a product planning intern, I learned how to analyze qualitative factors—human behaviors and needs. That experience eventually led me to a startup environment, where I became deeply drawn to marketing and data.

At first glance, marketing and data might seem entirely different. But I see a strong common ground: both begin with information drawn from people, and both aim to influence people in return. This humanistic perspective shapes how I approach analytics today—not just as numbers, but as a system of people, incentives, and behaviors.

However, applying this systems-thinking approach in the real world revealed a fundamental roadblock: you cannot analyze data that doesn’t exist. I frequently found that the ‘interconnected forces’ I needed to understand were lost in fragmented spreadsheets or unrecorded by inflexible legacy tools. I realized that meaningful analytics must start with a reliable source of truth.

This necessity naturally expanded my role from Data Analyst into Product Management and System Architecture. Instead of waiting for better data, I began designing custom enterprise ERPs and automated cloud pipelines to capture human workflows organically. I realized that the best tools are the ones people actually want to use—like transforming familiar spreadsheets into robust database frontends to guarantee zero learning curve and 100% user adoption.

Strictly speaking, my roots are not in traditional computer science. But in the AI era, I’ve discovered that having a broad, humanistic perspective is a superpower. It is incredibly difficult to teach business context and human behavior to someone with a purely engineering background. Likewise, it is equally difficult to teach technical constraints and efficient system design to someone with a purely business background. Rather than belonging to just one camp, I serve as the bridge connecting these diverse disciplines—business strategy, UX/UI design, data analytics, and systems engineering. I use AI to fill in the technical depth, while I focus on what AI cannot do: connecting C-level strategy with frictionless user experiences, and asking the exact right questions.

Beyond work, I find joy in traveling and immersing myself in new experiences. Each new perspective broadens the way I see the world, reminding me that curiosity has no boundaries. My fascination with human nature also remains strong; I often turn to films and novels, especially romance, for inspiration. And someday, I hope to write a romance novel—a different kind of journey into human connection.