Could you tell us about your career history so far?
After spending two years at the University of Arizona exploring different subjects and feeling uncertain about my career path, I ultimately decided to major in psychology. At the time, I was fascinated by human behavior and specifically wanted to understand why people behave the way they do. I gained some insight into this and also learned a bit about how an understanding of human behavior can be applied across different industries to design better services and environments to improve people's lives.
Though I didn’t realize it at the time, this academic background would later prove invaluable when I decided to pursue a career in product design. After graduating with a degree in psychology, I moved to Japan and began working as an English teacher. I chose to live overseas because I wanted to experience a new culture, learn a new language, and explore teaching—something I had developed a strong interest in during university.
After spending about five years teaching, gaining some fluency in Japanese, learning about Japanese business culture, and developing my professional skills, I began a career transition—one that unexpectedly led me into the field of design. I took a job working in content creation, developing English learning materials. As I took on project leadership roles and began designing materials myself, I realized I needed to improve my design skills. So I took some courses in my free time after work, and before long began applying user-centered design principles to my company’s creative processes. The more I learned about design, the more I enjoyed it, and eventually decided to pursue it as a full-time career.
Since then, I’ve worked as a product designer on projects in education, healthtech, and for one of Japan’s largest telecom companies.
What kind of work are you currently responsible for at Tokyo Techies?
As Design Lead at Tokyo Techies, my main responsibilities include growing the maturity of our design team and expanding our design methodologies, while also contributing to the design and research efforts of the various products I’m assigned to. It’s a good mix of work for me as I enjoy having lots of variety in my work day, and I get to be both creative and analytical.
I also do a lot of user research, which is great considering the size of our company. Not many companies of our scale dedicate the resources needed for proper user research, and that’s something that makes working as a designer at Tokyo Techies particularly rewarding.
Another thing I appreciate is the opportunity to collaborate with other designers—which is essential to my ideation process—as well as working closely with other stakeholders across different teams.
How do you maintain a work-life balance? Could you tell us about the company's support system in this regard?
Maintaining a good work-life balance at Tokyo Techies isn’t difficult because the company does a lot to support its employees, and I never feel pressured to take on more work than I can handle. We’ve also got a great policy that allows all staff to spend some time working from overseas each year, which is great for our international members who don’t get to see their friends and families back home all that often.
That said, I believe work-life balance isn’t just about what a company does for you—it’s also about how you spend your time away from the office. For me, that means prioritizing my physical and mental health, staying active by playing a lot of sports and pursuing creative interests outside of design, such as playing and making music. Recently, I’ve also started cooking more, which I’ve found to be a great way to relax after a long day at the office.
Can you share a moment when you felt particularly fulfilled or challenged in one of TT's design work?
Our project teams work with a lot of autonomy. Because of that, every time we complete a project, I feel a strong sense of fulfillment—I can look back at our work and know that the success we achieved was a direct result of our team’s hard work, creativity, and collaboration.
One recent project I’m particularly proud of is our usability and rebranding effort on Kotae, an AI chatbot solution for SMEs. As a newly developed product, it didn’t receive much design attention in its early phases, so we did some discovery work, understanding our target users’ pain points and analyzing competitors in the market, and created a new dashboard, brand, and website, improving usability and connecting better with our target audience.
Do you have a message for those considering joining Tokyo Techies?
To me, the two most important traits a person can bring to work are teamwork and a willingness to learn and grow.
The first goes without saying—the ability to work well with others is essential in any industry. Without strong collaboration, projects can stall, lose direction, and ultimately suffer in quality.
The second is just as important. Regardless of your level of experience—whether you’re a recent grad or a seasoned expert—there will always be company- and project-specific things that are new to you. Adapting to a company’s work environment and team dynamics is crucial. It will also contribute to your growth in the field, which is something we should all be striving for.
In my experience, mastering these two traits is what truly sets apart employees who thrive from those who struggle.
