Nicholas Hong

Product Manager · Singapore

I take new products from zero to market.

Product and go-to-market across AI hardware, developer education, mobility and travel. I work close to the build: strategy, specs, and the prototypes in between.

Now: Getting AI-powered smart glasses ready for launch at Sidekick Labs.

01 / Selected work

01 · AI hardware · 0 → 1

Defining an AI smart glasses product from zero

The product work behind a pair of AI glasses and their companion app, from strategy to secured pilot programmes. The central call was to make the phone a complete product in its own right, with the glasses extending it.

Read case study →02 · Operating model

An AI-native operating model for product

How I keep a pre-launch AI hardware product coherent as its only product manager, across six teams and their partners, 400+ requirements and pilot programmes, while the definition changes weekly. The answer was a system of record built for agents as much as for people, with human judgement designed in on purpose.

Read case study →03 · Prototype · built hands-on

A multi-agent travel assistant, built to find out

A working prototype of the whole product loop, built alongside my PM role and kept separate from the production platform. It carried live investor and partner demos, put product ideas in front of real users early, and gave engineering evidence to make their calls with.

Read case study →04 · Developer education · 0 → 1 → scale

StackUp

A learn-and-earn platform teaching developers frontier tech, mostly blockchain, taken from a three-person MVP to 100,000+ users, a revenue line and a 20-person v2 rebuild, across three roles in two and a half years.

Read case study →

02 / Experience

  1. Sidekick LabsAI-powered AR smart glasses · pre-launch
    Product Manager, Product & Go-to-MarketFeb 2025 — now
    • Own product strategy and vision for an AI-powered smart glasses platform: positioning, target persona, and a dual-surface experience that spans the glasses and a phone.
    • Shape the product end to end across hardware, AI and native apps, turning strategy into requirements, capability specs, demos and iterative builds with cross-functional teams.
    • Support the founder on go-to-market and business development: commercial positioning, partner pitches and securing pilot programmes.
    • Designed and run the team’s AI-native product operating model, and build working prototypes myself.
  2. Travel CuratorsTravel
    Product Manager, Product & Go-to-Market LeadMar — Oct 2024
    • Rebuilt the internal travel proposal management tool in three months, making it faster and easier to use.
    • Led ideation and market validation for a new travel marketplace concept, and secured confirmed interest from market partners.
  3. Tribe (StackTribe)Developer education · StackUp
    Product Manager, Product & Go-to-Market LeadMar 2023 — Jan 2024
    • Led the product and design arms of a 20-person development team through the StackUp 2.0 rebuild and launch.
    • Coordinated go-to-market planning and execution for the new flagship platform across sales and fulfilment.
    • Ran end-to-end product development: vision, research and development, design, launch and maintenance.
    Head of StackUp (Learn-and-Earn)Sep 2022 — Mar 2023
    • Enabled the sales team by creating new product offerings and pitching them to clients.
    • Led a 10+ person multi-functional team covering partnerships, growth, marketing, client fulfilment and operations.
    • Built the team capability and delivery systems to take on more client revenue without breaking operations.
    Product Manager / Team CoordinatorSep 2021 — Mar 2023
    • Led a three-person squad to build and launch the MVP of a gamified developer education platform in three months.
    • Widened the sales portfolio by identifying new offerings for client prospects, and closed five- to six-figure client engagements within six months.
    • Built a 10+ person platform team to handle all post-sales operations.
    • Worked with the growth function to reach 100,000+ users in a year.
  4. ComfortDelGro ZigLifestyle & mobility app
    Product ManagerJan — Aug 2021
    • Designed and ran go-to-market and partnership plans for a digital lifestyle marketplace, working with the leadership team.
    • Supported the Growth VP on strategic initiatives with ecosystem partners in retail and e-commerce.
    • Discovered and prioritised new features for the app, and secured stakeholder buy-in.
  5. Earlier
    Consulting Intern, IRIS Concise2019

    SQL analysis of customer behaviour and marketing reports for senior leadership at global brands including Samsung, Philips, LEGO and Guinness.

    Merchant Success Lead & BD, Eatsy Technologies2018

    End-to-end sales for a food and beverage app startup, and post-sales for 40+ merchant accounts.

  6. Education
    BSc Economics, Quantitative Economics, Singapore Management University2021

    Summa Cum Laude · GPA 3.97 / 4.00

03 / How I work

Build to find out

I prototype working software myself, so decisions get made against something real rather than a slide.

Write decisions down

Requirements and decisions live as version-controlled documents, reviewed like code and readable by people and tools alike.

Leverage, then judgement

One product manager across hardware, AI and apps only works if the reading, reconciling and checking scale without me. I built for that, so my time goes on the calls only a person should make.

The long version: how the operating model works →