When Future Designers Step Into the Real World — HIT Students Visit LKK Desi

On August 25, 2026, 30 students and faculty from the School of Architecture and Design at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) — one of China's top engineering universities — visited LKK Design's headquarters in Shenzhen. The group, representing three very different majors, got a hands-on look at how products go from idea to store shelf.

A Walk Through 22 Years of Design

The visit kicked off in the LKK Design showroom, where students traced the company's 22-year journey. They saw how a small Shenzhen studio grew into a firm that has helped bring tens of thousands of products to life — across categories from consumer electronics to medical devices, smart home gadgets to EV charging equipment.

Students exploring the LKK Design showroom — 22 years, 600+ international awards, 800+ product categories

The numbers speak for themselves: 600+ international design awards, work spanning 800+ product categories, and a portfolio of 50,000+ design projects. For students used to working on hypothetical class projects, seeing this scale of real-world impact was an eye-opener.

How Do You Turn a Good Design Into a Great Business?

Mandy, VP of LKK Design Shenzhen, sharing real-world product development insights with the students

After the showroom tour, Mandy, VP of LKK Design's Shenzhen office, led a deep-dive session into the methodology that powers everything LKK does — a framework developed by the company's founder, Jia Wei, through two decades of product innovation work.

The core idea is called "Three Products as One" . It says that every successful product must align three forces:

Category defines the direction — find a real user pain point that's been overlooked in a crowded market. 

Product carries the value — not a pile of features, but a focused solution that users genuinely benefit from. 

Brand owns the mind — when users think of that category, they think of you first.

Mandy explained the logic: Three rings, one fails, the whole thing collapses.

Only product without category? You built something, but you don't know why it exists. Only category without brand? You solved a real problem, but nobody knows you did. Only brand without product? You have a name, but no substance behind it.

What Drives It All: Empathy + Long-Term Thinking

Underneath this framework sit two principles that Jia Wei considers non-negotiable. Empathy — the ability to truly feel what users feel, not just analyze their data. And compassion — thinking beyond the immediate problem to whether the product makes the world better in the long run.

These two principles shape how LKK thinks about five layers of product value:

• Originality — does it bring something genuinely new to the world?
• Craftsmanship — is it manufactured to a high standard at a viable cost?
• Commercial value — can it reach users through the right channels and brand story?
• Everyday utility — do people actually use it, often and for a long time? (This is the layer Jia Wei considers most important.)
• Long-term legacy — will it still matter years from now, or become waste almost immediately?

The Real Goal: Create a New Category

Mandy walked the students through a concrete example. The 55°C thermos cup — born from a personal experience where Jia Wei's toddler daughter was badly scalded by hot water — didn't just sell well. It created an entirely new category of "rapid-cooling cups" that reached a 5 billion yuan market. Same logic applies to other cases Mandy shared: self-heating hot pots that broke the assumption that hot pot must be a group activity, and fresh bird's nest products that shifted edible bird's nest from a luxury gift to a daily health routine.

The lesson: Don't compete by making a slightly better version of what already exists. Find a deep, persistent pain point. Create a new category around solving it. Then make your brand synonymous with that category.

What Students Asked — and What We Told Them

An open Q&A session — where students asked the questions that really matter

The 30 students came from three very different backgrounds: Digital Media Art, Product Design, and Architecture, Planning & Landscape — from undergrads to grad students. The Q&A session was where things got really interesting:

• "How do I build real-world design skills while I'm still in school?"
• "What do product designers need to learn that universities don't teach?"
• "Where do digital media and product design overlap — and where are the opportunities?"
• "What does LKK Design actually look for when hiring fresh graduates?"

The most honest answer we could give: We look for people who can connect their design decisions to business outcomes. Not just "I made this look beautiful" — but "I made this because it solves a specific user problem, it fits within a clear product category, and it positions our brand in a way that matters."

That kind of thinking is hard to teach in a lecture hall. But the students who start asking those questions early — they're the ones who will shape the next generation of design.

More Than a Campus Visit

At LKK Design, we believe the gap between design education and industry practice shouldn't be a chasm — it should be a bridge. Through open days, joint projects, and internship programs, we're committed to helping the next generation of designers understand not just how to design, but why certain design decisions create lasting value.

We had a great time with the HIT students and look forward to welcoming more universities in the future.

For inquiries or collaboration opportunities, please contact us at hello@lkkerscm.com