The first place online that's actually mine

For years I've been posting slices of myself on other people's platforms. Xiaohongshu takes the visual. LinkedIn takes the resume version. WeChat is a graveyard I can't search. Each one holds a slice; none of them holds the whole.

This is the first place online that's actually mine.

Here I can put the PM notes and the travel diaries and the middle-of-the-night thoughts and the side project write-ups in one place — without first slicing myself into the shape whichever algorithm expects.

The five sections

• Notes — POV, reflections, small essays. The kind of thing that would've been a WeChat post except I want it to still exist in five years.
• Case Studies — walk-throughs of things I've shipped or dissected. Mostly product, sometimes design.
• Travel — half itinerary, half feelings. From wherever I last landed.
• US ⇄ CN Life — the weekly whiplash of living between two countries.
• Side Projects — small products I keep making on weekends. This blog is one of them.

Who I am, briefly

I'm Iris Luan. I split time between Shanghai and New York. Previously PM at ByteDance, working on TikTok's workflow tools, creator economy tools. Currently building a couple of things I'll write about here as they mature. I write in both English and Chinese, roughly whichever the topic wants.

Two things I'd love

If you find something here you like:

• Subscribe via RSS — one link, no algorithm, shows up when I actually publish.
• Poke around the side projects — if you're the kind of person who builds things, we should talk.

That's it. No newsletter opt-in gate, no "welcome pack" email sequence. Just links and writing.