Eric Zhang was Amy's manager and mentor at Apple Softgoods. Phone: +1 (626) 377-0673 (Los Angeles area). WebEx: eric.zhang3.
The Work
Eric onboarded Amy into the Softgoods Product Design team. He assigned her the extraction force fixture project: updating measurement bucks for 2022 iPhone cases. He walked her through the tools and processes: NX, Teamcenter, PRL part submission, vendor engagement, Instron testing.
They worked on the rugged iPhone case across generations (D64, D74, D83 systems). Technical discussions about extraction force specs (under 12 Newtons), RCAM cutouts, shell configurations, FEA with Shashank, DFM with vendors (Hi-P, Jabil FATP in China), Pulse page updates, and the intern presentations known as NKOTB (New Kid On The Block).
The Apple Softgoods team under Eric: Matt (manager), Steph, Dean, Kate (senior), Deepak, Kristen, Josh, Hao, Nicole, Nishant, Dylan, Colin Wang, Fredric Mora, Stephen.
iPhone case programs: R764, R780, R880, R980. Work involved textile/film/foam adhesives, shell geometry, Ironman (magnet), embroidery, PCTM configurations, POC3 build matrices.
The Goodbye
In August 2022, when Amy left Apple, she wrote Eric a handwritten farewell letter. Eric texted: "Thanks for the hand written letter, Amy. Hope you have a good trip in Europe." Also: "Cat has rejected the farewell lunch."
When she returned in June 2023, he said: "Welcome back Amy!" They had lunch together. Her last day was September 22. His final message: "You too, thanks for the great work."
Significance
3,022 messages. September 2021 to September 2023. Eric matters because he was the person who taught Amy how to actually build things at scale. NX modeling, vendor engagement, extraction force testing, DFM: this is the technical foundation that Amy later brought to Taya and Vizcom. The handwritten farewell letter is the most tender gesture in her professional life.
No messages after September 2023. The relationship was purely professional, warm, and complete.