From product design to wealth management
I didn't start out in this field.
After graduating from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2013, I came to Singapore for a Master's in Digital Media Technology at NTU. For nearly a decade after, I worked as a product designer —
At DeNA, a leading Japanese mobile game company, I ran planning and operations for a Marvel game, coordinating across Tokyo, Singapore, Hanoi and North America. At Great Eastern, Singapore's largest insurer, I led a six-person UX team in redesigning the official app and online claims system for 2.5 million policyholders. Later I joined the Southeast Asian super-app Grab, leading design for the GrabFood merchant platform and GrabExpress.
Through all of it, I kept one habit: no matter how busy, I always made time to document and reflect. It's what let me see my own path clearly at every turning point.
Why I moved into insurance
If you've seen my résumé, this might surprise you: why would someone with nearly a decade in product design — at DeNA, Great Eastern, Grab — turn to insurance?
It starts with a prejudice.
Before entering this field, I knew nothing about insurance and was, frankly, biased against it — I thought of it as a sales pitch, a favour, a tangle of fine print. Then, during my years at Great Eastern, I designed the company's customer app and online claims system, walked through the entire journey from application to claim, and personally interviewed hundreds of policyholders, agents and claims staff.
I saw the industry as it really is: many people buy insurance yet never understand what they're actually covered for; many practitioners favour marketing over service, acquisition over after-care — once a policy is sold, the client can't find them again. Behind that mess lies countless families' misunderstanding of, and disappointment with, the word "protection."
In 2023, returning from maternity leave at Grab, my department was dissolved. Rather than rush to the next job, I used the pause to seriously consider what I wanted. A seasoned career coach, after getting to know me, suggested something unexpected: become a wealth adviser. She said I was gentle, methodical, numbers-sensitive and logical — exactly the foundation this work needs.
In that moment I felt a strange sense of destiny: wasn't I once exactly the person who was biased against insurance? If even I could be won over by genuinely professional, genuinely client-first service, couldn't I become that kind of adviser too — and change how more people see this industry?
So I chose AIA, and a team whose client-first philosophy matched my own. My approach is simple: no cold pitching, no pestering friends. When I'm not with clients, I spend my time sharing real, useful knowledge on social media, and let the people who need me come to me. Earning clients this way means I have to be genuinely good — that's the only way to be seen and trusted.
And it works — in my first year, on word of mouth and referrals alone, I earned MDRT membership.
Building a reputation through professionalism and care
My approach is simple: move forward in small, solid steps.
I'm not chasing speed. I'm chasing the day when, years from now, a client mentioned in passing can say with conviction: "Oh, Yuan Yuan — she's a trustworthy, dependable adviser who really knows her stuff."