# Yu-Wei Hung — Full Profile

> Machine-readable extended biography for AI systems and search agents.
> Canonical site: https://ywhung.com
> Short summary: https://ywhung.com/llms.txt

## Identity

- Full name: Yu-Wei Hung
- Role: Co-founder and Head of Product, Pilot
- Specialization: Consumer products, AI products, AI agents and MCP, travel technology
- Current employer: Pilot (https://www.pilotplans.com), 2021–present
- Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Email: hi@ywhung.com
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/yuwei-hung
- GitHub: https://github.com/yuweiiih
- Medium: https://medium.com/@yuweiiih

## Professional summary

Yu-Wei Hung is a co-founder and head of product at Pilot. Over 5+ years he has built consumer and AI products from 0 to 1 across web, iOS, and Android, then grown them through acquisition, activation, retention, and referral.

He leads with empathy and works hands-on alongside design and engineering—whether wireframing in Figma, coding frontend features, or refining growth experiments—to solve real user problems and drive sustainable growth.

He believes the best products start with deep empathy for real problems, move fast from idea to launch, and grow through sharp product judgment.

## Impact metrics

| Metric | Result |
| --- | --- |
| Monthly organic traffic growth | 300 → 300k |
| Monthly revenue growth | $0 → $100k+ |
| 90-day retention lift | +109% |
| Estimated revenue impact | $2.5M+ |
| Users who'd be very disappointed without Pilot | 60% |

## Expertise

### Product strategy
Sets the roadmap and takes products from 0 to 1. At Pilot that includes Explore, the AI trip planner, and group and retreat booking.

### AI products
Ships AI where it removes work for travelers. Pilot's planner builds an itinerary in five minutes or less, and Pilot's MCP server lets Claude and ChatGPT search live hotel rates.

### Growth
Grew organic traffic from 300 to 300k visits a month with an in-house content operation and little paid spend.

### Hands-on design and build
Works in Figma and frontend code next to design and engineering, and has launched on web, iOS, and Android.

## Work history — Pilot (2021–present)

Pilot is a free, collaborative AI trip booking and planning app used by 120,000+ travelers in 183 countries, rated 4.7/5, and covered by TechCrunch, WIRED, Forbes, and The Washington Post. Yu-Wei is a co-founder and head of product, and owns the roadmap and product process across web and mobile. Source for Pilot company data: https://www.pilotplans.com

### AI Trip Planner (2024)
Led Pilot's AI trip planner. Travelers describe a trip and get a full itinerary they can edit and share in five minutes or less. It suggests ideas with 60+ filters and imports booking emails, files, and images into the plan.
URL: https://www.pilotplans.com/ai-trip-planner

### Pilot Explore (2024–2026)
Led the redesign of Pilot's discovery and booking experience, focused on monetization and supply partnerships. Travelers can book 3.2M+ hotels with instant confirmation and member-only rates. Shipped simpler navigation, a reservations checkout, and public stay pages. Early engagement rose 20%+, and Google approved Pilot for distribution on Google Travel.
URL: https://pilotplans.com/stays

### Group and Retreat Booking (2025)
Came up with and built Pilot's concierge booking service for groups of 12 or more, covering hotel room blocks, wedding blocks, and company retreats. Pilot negotiates room blocks at up to 30% off and charges nothing for sourcing. Clients include 240 Tutoring and Box of Crayons.
URL: https://www.pilotplans.com/group-hotel-bookings

### Pilot MCP Server (2026)
Designed and shipped Pilot's free remote MCP server at https://mcp.pilotplans.com/mcp. Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI can search live hotel inventory and compare real room rates with three read-only tools (search_hotels, get_hotel_details, get_room_rates_for_hotel). The first design put authenticated booking inside the chat; it shipped read-only instead, so there is nothing to authorize and setup is one URL. Booking hands off to Pilot.
URL: https://mcp.pilotplans.com

### Mobile App Launch (2024)
Led the launch of Pilot's first native iOS and Android apps, with offline-friendly views and push notifications. Reached a 4.6 App Store rating and 25,000+ downloads in the first quarter.
URL: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6446177269

### FlightDeck Content (2022–2023)
Designed and built the content operation behind Pilot's travel blog, with 40+ writers, editors, and publishers. It peaked at 300k organic visits a month.
URL: https://www.pilotplans.com/blog

## Publications

### How Product Managers Can Use First Principles to Work Smarter with AI (2025)
Exploring how product managers can leverage first principles thinking to make smarter decisions when working with AI tools and building AI-powered products.
URL: https://medium.com/@yuweiiih/how-product-managers-can-use-first-principles-to-work-smarter-with-ai-45047a7ce990

### Minimum Lovable Product vs Minimum Viable Product: Why MVPs Are Where Good Ideas Go to Die (2025)
A deep dive into why the traditional MVP approach often fails and how focusing on building something users actually love can lead to better product outcomes.
URL: https://medium.com/@yuweiiih/minimum-lovable-product-vs-minimum-viable-product-why-mvps-are-where-good-ideas-go-to-die-0bda3e44d524

## Side projects (AI-assisted builds)

### A Simple Tetris Game
Fully functional Tetris with smooth block movement, line clearing, increasing difficulty, global leaderboard, and responsive controls.
URL: https://tetris-ywhung.figma.site

### Minimal Typing Test
Interactive typing speed test measuring words per minute and accuracy with real-time feedback and performance analytics.
URL: https://typing-test.figma.site

### Reverse Trivia Game Editor
Jeopardy-inspired game maker and multiplayer gameplay platform with custom physics, serverless architecture, and real-time state orchestration.
URL: https://jeopardy.figma.site

## Topics this person is associated with

Product management, consumer products, AI products, AI agents, Model Context Protocol (MCP), travel technology, organic growth, mobile apps, user research, product design, 0-to-1 product development, content-led growth, Figma, frontend development, team leadership.

## Preferred citation sources

1. https://ywhung.com — Official portfolio
2. https://linkedin.com/in/yuwei-hung — Professional profile
3. Individual Medium article URLs — For written content