Max ZhengMax Zheng

MAX ZHENG / PORTFOLIO

Based in the NYC area.

LinkedIn ↗Email ↗PRODUCT / GROWTH / AI

PRODUCT · GROWTH · BUILDER · CREATOR

NYC AREA

I work on products.
And build my own.

Hi, I’m Max. I’ve worked across product and growth at TikTok and AI startups, improving creator and consumer experiences.

I combine user research, product requirements, cross-functional execution, and experimentation to guide product decisions and measure outcomes.

I build my own products too, starting with MacroLens ↗, an AI nutrition app inspired by a question from my own training: what’s actually on my plate?

I’m also a REDnote content creator ↓, sharing job-search and personal-growth lessons with international students.

Explore my projects ↓Get in touch ↗
EXPERIENCE ATTikTok·ApexContext·MirWork

02 / SELECTED PROJECTS

Things I’ve built and explored.

Try a product.
See how I think.

03 / CREATOR

I create for people
on a similar path.

REDnote

The international student job search is something I’m living, learning from, and sharing.

I create Chinese-language content about job-search strategies, interview preparation, and personal growth for international students navigating early career life in the U.S.

Sharing the experience gives me another perspective on creator products: I’m building content for an audience myself.

01

Job search

Strategies I’ve tried and lessons from the process.

02

Interview preparation

Practical preparation and reflections from my experience.

03

Personal growth

The mindset behind starting a career in a new country.

04 / EXPERIENCE

Product & growth experience.

MAY – AUG 2026San Jose, CA

TikTok

CREATOR PRODUCTS

Product Operations Intern

Worked across AI-powered creator recruitment, quality evaluation, and content improvement for TikTok’s Film/TV ecosystem.

40% lessmanual review time
More about the work +
  • Creator growth. Launched AI-powered recruitment that increased high-quality creators by 8% and core-business monthly active users by 6%.
  • AI evaluation. Defined requirements and authored a PRD to streamline training-data annotation. Partnered with engineering and operations to refine quality criteria and evaluation workflows, improving precision from 60% to 78% and recall from 60% to 95%.
  • Creator feedback. Led product design and rollout of an AI content diagnostic tool. Defined success metrics and translated quality standards into actionable feedback, increasing high-quality content submissions by 37%.
JAN – MAY 2026Remote

ApexContext

B2B AI VIDEO

Product Growth Intern

Translated market demand and user feedback into product priorities, launch plans, and onboarding experiments for a B2B AI video creation platform.

+68%user activation
More about the work +
  • Strategy & monetization. Drove product strategy and growth, validating monetization within three weeks and acquiring 1,500 paying users.
  • User discovery. Conducted 20+ user interviews and competitive analysis to identify unmet needs and product differentiation. Turned findings into a prioritized roadmap that guided improvements increasing user activation by 68%.
  • Experimentation. Designed and evaluated five onboarding A/B tests with 200+ users per variant. Refined registration and first-use guidance, increasing sign-up conversion by 25%.
JUL – DEC 2025Palo Alto, CA

MirWork

AI INTERVIEW PRACTICE

Product Manager Intern

Worked across user discovery, requirements, and cross-functional delivery to make AI mock interviews more personalized and useful.

+32%relative improvement in week-two retention
More about the work +
  • Product & growth. Launched personalization and growth initiatives that added 1,000 active users within five weeks.
  • Problem discovery. Combined funnel analysis with 30+ user interviews to investigate a 70% drop-off after the first mock interview. Identified generic feedback as a key pain point and defined requirements for personalized feedback and practice recommendations.
  • Personalization. Partnered with engineering and design to launch recommendations based on users’ résumés and interview responses. Tailored feedback and targeted practice increased week-two retention by 32%.
  • Conversion & retention. Improved paid conversion to 58%, a 33% relative increase, through personalized recommendations. Achieved 65% retention at 30 days and 36% at three months among paying users.
HOW I WORK

User research · A/B testing · Product metrics · AI evaluation

Python · SQL · R · Figma · AI-assisted prototyping

05 / EDUCATION

Education.

Columbia University

2025 – 2026

M.A. in Statistics Expected Dec 2026

New York, NY

A/B testing, machine learning, statistical inference, regression, time series, and data science.

Franklin & Marshall College

2021 – 2024

B.A. in Mathematics

Lancaster, PA

Minor in Economics

  • Pi Mu EpsilonMathematics Honor Society
  • Omicron Delta EpsilonEconomics Honor Society

06 / BEYOND WORK

Away from the screen.

BASKETBALL

Always up for a game.

One of my favorite ways to spend time outside work.

LET’S CONNECT

Let’s talk products,
ideas, or basketball.

Maxzheng58@gmail.com ↗