Nick Zhu
Hello there! Welcome to my personal site. My full name is Xinran Zhu (朱欣然), but I go by Nick most of the time : ). On this site, you can see a list of the projects I've done in the past as well as my experience & background.
Experience
Principal Product Manager
Lead product for GitHub Copilot across all third-party IDEs — a portfolio serving multi-million developers — along with a team of four product managers and designers, working daily with partner teams at GitHub & Microsoft, JetBrains, Apple and the Eclipse Foundation.
Previously founding PM for GitHub Copilot App Modernization, an agentic AI product launched in Satya Nadella's Ignite 2024 keynote, and product owner for extension on VS Code and IntelliJ, which grew to 3M+ monthly active users.
Co-founder & CTO
Co-founded an education technology startup and owned product and engineering as it grew to 100+ people and 400+ school customers across China. Raised Angel and Series A funding led by Matrix Partners China and Sinovation Ventures.
Software Engineer
Built advertiser-facing features for Microsoft's search advertising platform — campaign analytics, ad extension formats and location targeting — and listing management and owner dashboards for an online vacation rental marketplace.
Projects
BioEquip Mini Program
将生物器材网（bio-equip.com）搬上手机的微信小程序 —— 科研人员与实验室采购人员无需离开微信，即可搜索仪器、试剂与耗材，查找厂商并一键询价。
关键词搜索、两级产品分类、产品详情（规格、产地、参考价）、厂商目录、基于微信静默登录的询价流程，以及行业资讯与展会信息。
独立完成产品与开发：撰写 PRD、设计页面，并实现小程序前端与后端服务。
微信小程序 / Node.js / Express / TypeScript / SQL Server / Docker
微信扫码体验
HCHD 90 Day Med List
A simple Mobile app that allows you quickly look up medicine usages for medical school research
IUI / HTML / JSP / Google App Engine
Demo (Best viewed on a smartphone)Team Equiliberator
We built a system that aimed to help physically challenged children learn to walk during their physical therapy process.
C++ / OpenGL
XNA Graphics Application
Simple Album System Demo
C# / XNA / HLSL
Netters
A novel top-down shooter built for Rice University Advanced Computer Graphics Course
C# / XNA
Mixed-reality Interaction System
The project presents a brand new human-computer interaction out of the traditional models. The system, combining the virtual environment and real human physical reaction, provides a series of interesting interaction functions and much better user experience. Based on an embedded processor, along with Mini-projector System and Laser Control System, the system develops a particular Laser Reflection Multi-touch technology and “paperless office” interaction engine to meet the user’s high demands. The project integrates many modern technologies such as electronic sensors, computer vision/graphics, interactive software interface, as well as multi-thread programming.
C# / Managed DirectX, C++ / OpenCV
Intel ISEF Project: Generalizations of Koch Curve And Its Applications
56th Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 3rd Award in Mathematics
Koch curve is an important curve in fractal geometry. In this project, a number of generalized Koch forms are discovered. In order for them to be seen in a visual way, I I developed a software package related with these generalized forms with the help of OpenGL, C++ and MFC. This graphics program possesses a number of features that grants the project several remarkable applications on various subjects in real life.
Education
Rice University
GPA: 3.60
Rice University
GPA: 3.60 President's Honor Roll
Summary of Skills / Qualifications
- Product Leadership: Product strategy & vision; multi-year roadmap ownership; zero-to-launch incubation; leading teams of product managers and designers
- Customer & Market: Customer discovery and market research; positioning, launch and go-to-market; executive stakeholder management across U.S. and China organizations
- Execution: Success-metric definition; A/B experimentation; adoption, engagement and retention analysis; backlog prioritization and sprint planning; Agile / Scrum
- AI & Machine Learning: LLM-powered products; agentic AI systems; AI coding assistants (GitHub Copilot, Claude, Codex); applied machine learning
- Engineering: Java, Python, C#, JavaScript / TypeScript; Node.js, Express, Spring; RESTful API design; MySQL, SQL Server, MongoDB, SQLite
- Cloud & Tools: Azure services and developer APIs; Docker; Git; GitHub Projects & Boards; Visual Studio / VS Code
- Languages: Bilingual English / Mandarin
Awards
Best Education Platform Innovation Award
Awarded to Shanghai STEMCloud Center for the STEM education platform I led as co-founder and CTO — presented at the 4th China Future School Conference by the China National Institute of Education Sciences.
- Rice University President's Honor Roll, 2008
- Louis J. Walsh Scholarship in Engineering, 2008
- Third Award in the Category of Mathematics, 56th Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, 2005