Meet the Expert: Yan Xiang, Senior Engineering Director

[Cara Daly (cara_daly)]

Meet Yan Xiang, Polycom’s resident streaming and recording expert, leading a large engineering team in Beijing. Yan has spent the last four years innovating with his teams to create some of Polycom’s best solutions and continues to look towards the possibilities of the workplace of the future.

Q: What was your career path at Polycom?

YAN: I started my career at Motorola as a firmware developer then spent 11 years in Lucent/ Alcatel-Lucent. At Alcatel-Lucent I served as a software development leader, program manager, quality manager, director, deputy general manager, and general manager of a site in China with about 300 employees.

About four years ago I joined Polycom where I started a department focused on RMX and RSS development. Within two years the department grew from 14 to 70 members. Through the years I have supported many of our RealPresence Platform Solutions, like the RMX500/1000, RMX2000/4000, RMX1800 development (with ownership of RMX500/1000 and RMX1800 development, and partnered with the Israel team on RMX2000/4000).  

Today my main focus is on the RealPresence Capture Server, which offers media recording, streaming and content management in an all-in-one solution. I also work with a small tiger team on RMX to support China’s sales teams.

Q: Tell us about the engineering team that you lead?

YAN: Our team in Beijing is relatively young, but we’ve been working to build our workforce to include expertise with the ability to support the majority of Polycom products. The core DNA of this team comes from an energetic passion to help Polycom succeed through innovation in both processes and products. We strive to be open minded with a strong cultural focus on improving user experience and on-time delivery of all products.

Q: What makes Polycom’s approach to recording and streaming innovative? 

YAN: We have a small tiger team with a war room approach to innovation, brainstorming and delivery. We set goals to ensure that we are able to meet our deadlines and beat industry competitors.  Our top priority is to create user experiences that require less guidance and are simpler for the average end user. We are testing more often throughout the development process and providing more demonstrations to core teams throughout the cycle to increase early feedback and timely improvements. With these processes in place, along with many more, we are creating better more innovative solutions for the market.

Q: What do you think the future of recording and streaming will look like for Polycom?

YAN: The recording & streaming business is forecasted to grow over 20 percent year over year for the next five years. This market has yet to be tapped by many organizations and the largest player in this space has less than five percent market share. This is one area Polycom can provide growth on our business. By speeding time-to-delivery and increasing our innovation in the space, Polycom has the opportunity to be a major player in the market, and I think we have the power to do this through collaboration and strong leadership.

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?

YAN: I enjoy playing badminton and occasionally I like to do some traditional Chinese cooking, usually just on weekends or during the holidays.