The Arch Soong User Manual

AssignArch (Arch Soong) is a project management coach and educator who brings structure to messy projects, careers and thinking. Currently a Senior Project Manager and Lecturer at National Chengchi University, Arch researches project management education at the Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.

Hello, I'm AssignArch — Arch Soong, or 宋晧溓 in Chinese. I'm Malaysian Chinese, and I've lived and worked in Taiwan for 15 years. Project management coach, professional trainer, academic researcher — and a creator, too.

This user manual is a shortcut to getting to know me: what I've done, how I work, what I believe about work, and how to find me.

About me

The name started as a self-deprecating joke — problems always seem to find me, and I always find a way to solve them. One day, when I wanted to build a personal brand, a line popped into my head: Assign it to Arch!

That's how AssignArch (萬事屋阿泰) was born.

Over time, the name just stuck.

Where you might know me from

Maybe we've worked together before, or you've heard of me somewhere.

You took my Design Thinking or Solopreneur course at National Chengchi University (NCCU) — where I use real cases and gamified teaching to guide students to their own solutions
You've read a draft of Organized Through Chaos, the book I'm writing — an upcoming project management book that skips the methodology and focuses on developing the people who do project management
You subscribe to AssignArch Weekly, which I write every two weeks — short, light stories that carry insights about thinking, work and life
You heard me speak on productivity, tools, project management and the thinking behind them at a corporate training session or a talk
You've talked with me in a one-on-one coaching session — sorting out a career direction, breaking down a stuck project, turning messy thoughts into structure
Or we've worked together before, you were a client, or a friend told you about me

These are representative, but they're only one side of me.

How I went from a quarry to a PhD in education

My story starts at 23. I was a rock blasting supervisor at a quarry in Malaysia, bridging local family businesses and large international companies. Before I'd even had time to get my bearings, I was already standing in the quarry.

Then I got the chance to open a café. It was a dream — until working day and night crushed me. Running a café meant handling purchasing, cooking, sales and cleaning all at once. Drop one, and the business falls apart. Carry them all, and you fall apart. In the end, I had to stop to cut my losses.

After the café, I moved to Taiwan to continue my studies — a master's in Digital Content at NCCU, where I turned toward digital learning and board game design. Teaching kept pulling at me. So I joined ALPHA Camp, a pioneer in software development education, because I wanted to teach. Instead, I ended up designing online courses.

After that, I went back and forth between academia and startups. First I returned to NCCU as project manager and researcher on a drone AI project, then became COO of Virsody, a virtual exhibition platform, where I started leading a small team and mentoring junior project managers. Virsody didn't make it, and burnout forced me out. I took two months off to rethink my career and my life. Then I went back to NCCU.

Somewhere in all that back-and-forth, I started coaching and speaking, and eventually teaching at NCCU. That got me seriously considering becoming a professional trainer and content creator — someone who could turn years of messy, hands-on experience into something other people can learn from.

That road led me to a PhD in education. Since my career has always been rooted in project management, my research naturally landed on project management education.

Looking back, the dots seem to connect. And I believe the road keeps going — through teaching. I solve problems, then teach other people how to solve them.

How I work

I've been a quarry supervisor, a café owner, an online course designer, a project manager on a drone AI team, a startup COO and a university lecturer. The titles changed a lot; the way I work hasn't changed much.

Here are some of my work habits:

1. Understand first, then act

I prefer to sort out and understand a situation before deciding what to do. That held true at the quarry, in research, and as a company executive — get clear on where things stand, set a direction, and only then start executing. I rarely throw myself into something blindly.

2. I prefer asynchronous communication

I lean toward asynchronous communication, depending on how urgent things are. If something is genuinely critical, I'll still pick up the phone — but I avoid it when I can, because real-time communication is often inefficient, and it's better to have a written record.

3. No meetings without a purpose

I really dislike meetings without a purpose — I've been drained by too many of them.

Making sure a meeting runs efficiently is a line I hold.

4. Switching focus modes

This is less a habit than the way I like to operate. I like to split my day into blocks, and sometimes I juggle several things at once — which actually keeps my attention sharp. Of course, when I want something done to the highest standard, I push everything else aside. Switching between the two modes is how I keep producing.

5. I learn fast

I pick things up quickly. At startups I did almost everything — things I had no idea how to do before, but I always found someone who could teach me. Learning across fields doesn't come hard to me.

6. I can't stand zero efficiency

Not low efficiency — zero efficiency. If something takes three minutes to do, but we spend ten minutes discussing whether to do it, that's zero efficiency. That kind of thing is genuinely painful for me.

What I do now

Today, everything I do revolves around teaching.

I'm an adjunct lecturer at NCCU, teaching Design Thinking and Solopreneur. I'm also a PhD candidate at the Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, researching how to redesign project management education so it truly trains the people who do the work.

Outside the classroom, I offer one-on-one coaching — helping professionals think more clearly about their careers, their projects and themselves. I also run workshops and give talks for companies. And I still take on project management work, because problems always find their own way to me.

I started writing in 2019, the same year I started working at NCCU.

Articles, a newsletter, and now a book — Organized Through Chaos — on the way.

Credentials, if you need them

Current:

CEO, MODE Limited
Senior Project Manager, Office of Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Xperimental College, National Chengchi University
PhD Candidate, Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology

Past:

COO, BKHole Creative
Researcher, Advanced Drone Systems Research Project, National Chengchi University
Senior Online Course Designer, ALPHA Camp

Education:

PhD Candidate, Science Education and Digital Learning Division, Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Master's Program in Digital Content, College of Communication, National Chengchi University
Computer Science and Information Engineering (Software Engineering track), Feng Chia University

Languages:

Mandarin, English, Cantonese, Malay

My values and work philosophy

Rather than some lofty set of ideals, this is the underlying logic of how I work — something it took me more than a decade and a lot of detours to settle on.

Research keeps me rigorous; the field keeps me honest. My methods are backed by research and tested on real projects across industries for 18+ years.

Organize, don't manage

If you ask me what project management is really about, my answer is simple: organizing.

Not scheduling, not chasing progress, not holding meetings to yell at people — but, when everything is chaos, building structure layer by layer out of the information, the people, the tasks and your own thoughts. I learned this at the quarry, and later I realized it applies to far more than projects.

You need to organize your thoughts before you can think well.

I'm always organizing my tasks, my desk and my schedule — and now I use AI to do it.

I often reorganize what I know, too. Revisiting the old to learn the new is how I sort through the past and come away with a fresh understanding.

Efficiency is a belief

I can't stand inefficiency — not the perfectionist kind, the practical kind. But it took me a long time to understand that efficiency isn't the same as taking shortcuts. When I ran the café, I wanted everything fast. I burned through it all in six months. So here's how I understand efficiency now: look further than what's in front of you. Learning takes time, and detours pay off the most in the long run. Real efficiency isn't doing things fast — it's putting your effort in the right place.

Teaching is where I belong

It took me more than a decade to be sure of this. At ALPHA Camp, I learned how to break knowledge down into something other people can absorb. While leading a research team at NCCU, I started coaching students on their careers for free. After burning out and leaving Virsody, I spent two months doing nothing. The answer had been there all along: teaching. Looking back at every job I've had, what I ended up doing was always teaching. What I truly love isn't solving the problem itself — it's the moment I've taught someone else how to solve it.

"The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology." — Edward O. Wilson, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and "father of biodiversity"

Find me

Email: [email protected] (I usually reply within 1–2 business days)

This user manual gets updated now and then — because I'm still iterating. Last updated: April 2026

If you'd like to work with me

Q: What kind of work are you taking on right now? A: Corporate training and talks, coaching on careers and project management, and a small number of "organizing" project consulting engagements. I don't take on outsourced, execution-only PM work.

Q: What do you mainly teach? A: Design Thinking and Solopreneur; for companies, productivity, project management and using tools. The common thread is turning chaos into structure.

Q: When is your book coming out, and how can I follow its progress? A: Organized Through Chaos is currently planned for 2027. The most direct way to follow along is to subscribe to AssignArch Weekly, which I write every two weeks.