Xinya You

Bio

Xinya joined UCA in 2022 and has since led ten academic units, including Sustainability and Ethics in Fashion Business (Level 4); Creative Business Start-Up, Games Contemporary Issues, and Games Industry and Futures (Level 5); and Human-Centred Innovation and Design and Sustainable Business Design and Development in Fashion and Luxury Industries (Level 7). She also serves as the school lead for PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education).

As an interdisciplinary researcher, Xinya brings extensive expertise in applying design methodologies to innovation in products, services, business models, and venture creation. Her work explores design as both a mindset and methodology for addressing complex sustainability challenges. She is particularly interested in how design methodologies can drive positive economic, social, and environmental impact through venture building and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Her recent publication introduces the concept “management as a design practice,” offering a novel perspective for viewing management and organisation design through the lens of design practice and design thinking.

Xinya has served as a peer reviewer for journals such as the Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Arts, and Design Studies.

In addition to her academic work, Xinya has practical expertise in applying customer-centred design processes to transform emerging technologies – such as chatbots, AR, and AI – into viable products, services and ventures. She has over four years of experience working in interdisciplinary teams across data science, game development, management, and visual design, collaborating with stakeholders in diverse sectors.

She has developed several practical tools for sustainable business development, including the Business Modelling Blueprint Canvas, which helps companies integrate product–market strategy, organisation design, and business model innovation within a single model, and the Design Prompt Cards, tailored to incorporating SDGs and circular economy principles into sustainable fashion business design.

Xinya has contributed to multiple large-scale, government-funded research projects. As R&D Fellow in Sustainable Creative Business at InGAME: Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise – a £11.5 million R&D centre in Dundee supported by the AHRC Creative Industries Cluster Programme – she led 8 collaborative projects with companies, non-profits, and student teams. Her role involved making product-market strategy, creating new business models, and designing operating models, while also conducting independent research into the challenges facing indie games developers. She played a key role in strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Scottish games sector by leading a research project in collaboration with the Scottish Games Network.

At UCA, she also led the design of the R&D voucher scheme for the Games and Innovation Nexus (GAIN) project and is a co-investigator on the Digital Funding and Financing of Digitised Creative Industries in Surrey project. She served as the Responsible Research and Innovation Working Group Leader for the UK-China Creative Industries Research and Innovation Hub Fellowship project led by the Brunel University London and sits on the Creative Industries Committee of the Association of British Chinese Professors (ABCP).

Earlier in her career, Xinya worked as a brand analyst at Siegel+Gale, a global design and brand strategy consultancy (2013–2014).

She holds a PhD in Design from Lancaster University (UK), an MA in Design and Branding Strategy from Brunel University (UK), and a BA in Industrial Design from Tsinghua University (China).