SOFTWARE CONSULTING · SAN JOSE, CA

Senior technical leadership, without the full-time hire.

Honu Lab is the consulting studio led by Yi-Ning Huang: 10+ years as an engineer and engineering director in Silicon Valley, now a fractional CTO for startups and small businesses.

WORK WITH ME See client work

Past clients include a Bay Area county housing authority, YC-backed startups, and a top US business school.

SERVICES

Three ways to work together

Fractional CTO

Part-time technical leadership: architecture decisions, product roadmap, engineering hiring, and technical due diligence. Senior technical judgment for teams that don't need a full-time CTO yet.

Product development

Full-stack web and mobile development, from prototype to production: B2B SaaS, internal tools, and 0-to-1 products.

Automation & AI

Automation and AI with a clear payback: internal tools, LLM-powered features, and integrations designed around how your team actually works, not around the hype.

ABOUT

Hi, I'm Yi-Ning.

I spent 10+ years in Silicon Valley as a full-stack engineer and engineering director. Before "forward-deployed engineer" and "product engineer" became trendy titles, that was simply how I worked: on the front line with clients, shaping features, then building them end to end. At Honu Lab, I own the architecture and the client relationship, and bring in trusted partners when a project needs more hands.

Outside of client work, I host a Mandarin-language podcast on minimalist entrepreneurship, coach professionals building one-person consulting businesses, and speak at community events like the NATEA Women's Summit.

CLIENT WORK

Selected projects, in clients' words

Fractional CTO for a Bay Area county housing authority FRACTIONAL CTO

Project CTO for a custom task management application: architecture decisions, vendor evaluation, dev team management, and product roadmap.

Yi-Ning is awesome and will be an asset to any product team!

I worked with Yi-Ning on a long term project where we were developing a custom task management application for a government housing authority as part of an overall digital transformation. Yi-Ning was the CTO on the project, and was responsible for everything from the initial architectural decisions, research on integrations and vendor options, managing Dev team runway, and overall product development strategy for MTP and MVP milestone planning.

Outside of her technical expertise, Yi-Ning was also just fun and easy to work with. She has a very positive and amicable personality, but also has a strong perspective on things too.

I truly enjoyed our conversations on product thinking and hope to work with her again someday!

Adam Baldwin · Product Manager on the project

Automated course promotion system AUTOMATION & AI

For an online course instructor: promotional emails wired into their CRM, so the right message reaches the right students at the right time.

I'm extremely satisfied with Yi-Ning's work. The automation saved me so much time and effort, especially with email promotions. It helped me connect with students more effectively and boosted conversions without the constant time drain of manual work.

C. · Online course instructor

Marketing workflow for a digital nomad community AUTOMATION & AI

Centralized content creation, team communication, and publishing into one easy-to-manage platform, cutting out hours of manual coordination every month.

Yi-Ning's ability to break down complex tasks into simple steps was incredible. She listened carefully to my needs, organized the process, and automated it in a way that saved me countless hours each month. Now I have more time to focus on growing my business without the constant stress of managing details.

M. · Digital nomad community builder

Automated testimonial publishing AUTOMATION & AI

An automation that pulls client feedback from forms and posts it straight to the website, with no manual entry.

The automation tool Yi-Ning developed allowed me to completely forget about posting feedback manually. I could just focus on serving my clients, and everything else was taken care of automatically. This saved me a tremendous amount of time and effort, helping me scale my business.

K. · Career coach

On working together

I'm very pleased to have worked with Yi-Ning. She is incredibly professional, meticulous, and delivered the work on time, as promised. Yi-Ning made sure to understand my requirements thoroughly and consistently met all expectations. I highly recommend her for any project, and I look forward to working with her again in the future!

Consulting client

FROM THE LAB