Monosus has members with various titles such as director, designer, coder, etc. I can roughly understand what their work entails, but when I listen closely, it seems that even though they have the same title, what they do is somehow different.
So, we decided to ask the members of Monosus who work hard at manufacturing, "If you had to compare your job to another profession, what would it be?"
The second person is designer Kagawa-san.
What is your job?
The strengths of a designer in the operations business
- Mr. Kagawa, what kind of work have you done since joining Monosus?
Kagawa : I joined the company seven years ago and joined the website operation business (hereafter referred to as operation business) department. I originally joined the web industry because I wanted to do coding, but I had never actually done it. During the interview, I showed a fictitious site I had created by myself, but the coding was a mess, so I ended up working mainly as a designer. Now I'm mainly involved in direction, design, and access analysis.
- So you want to expand the scope of your work beyond just design.
Kagawa : That's right. Even though I'm a designer, I mainly do design work derived from operational work, so I think I have less experience than average web designers in designing creative work from scratch, such as building new websites or renewing websites. That's why I'm thinking about moving forward with "things that can only be done because I'm involved in the operational business," and I'm trying to shift to work such as suggesting improvements and analyzing access.
Rather than just "designing and finishing," I want to be able to seamlessly carry out the entire process of planning, creating the design, and verifying how the page met the objectives... I want to have the strengths that only a designer in an operational business can have, such as having a lot of experience with page configurations and UIs that produce results.
- If you were to compare your job to something else...?
Kagawa: I thought about it a lot yesterday, but I couldn't come up with anything.
- You don't have to make a forced comparison. Can I ask you about the characteristics of your job from a different perspective?
Kagawa: The scope of my work is so wide that it may be a feature of me as an individual or an operations manager, but I will explain it. One thing is that I am in charge of each project from interview to delivery. For things I cannot do myself, such as coding, I ask for help from in-house members and external partners.
- For example, when a solo musician is recording, would they ask a guest musician to play some of the parts?
Kagawa: That may be true if you just look at it as "I ask for help with things I can't do myself," but I think there's more to it than that. I want to be able to make suggestions for improvements while committing to the goals of the customer's website. I think each site has its own goals, such as increasing sales for an EC site or branding for a BtoB business corporate site, and I want to be able to make suggestions to achieve those goals.
Combining design with other skills
Kagawa : For example, wireframes can be made to easily convey the creative image beyond, and as a director, it is also quicker to communicate with clients. If we can set up effect measurements and verify improvements, I think we can smoothly run the PDCA cycle of measures. We are in the midst of moving towards that goal now, so if we see results, we may be able to say, "This is it!"
- It seems like you're trying to create a synergistic effect by combining design with other skills.
Kagawa : That's right. There are combinations where 1+1=2, but there are also moments when 1+1 becomes 4 or 5, and I hope to become like that.
- Of all the jobs I've done up until now, it's probably closest to the feeling of having all the ingredients on hand and thinking, "I'm going to make something really delicious from this!"
It may be a little different from the image of Kagawa cuisine, but it's like you have the ingredients and seasonings, but you hope to make it taste really delicious.
- By the way, it's been almost five years since you joined the company and came to Kamiyama. Has the way you work changed since you moved to a new place?
When I first came to Kagawa , I realized that the working environment here was more suitable for me. When I first joined the company, the Yoyogi office was always ringing, people were walking around looking busy, and I could hear people talking about various projects. The Kamiyama office is very quiet, and I feel like I can really concentrate on my work.
It's true that the people at the Kamiyama office were concentrating on their work. Also, since all the members are part of the operations business team, it seems that they have opportunities to discuss how to improve their individual skills and the team's capabilities. Once the direction that "we are in the midst of moving forward" becomes concrete in the project, I would like to hear Mr. Kagawa's story again.
SUGIMOTO Kyoko
Freelance writer. Since autumn 2016, she has been serializing ``Kamiyama no Musumetachi'' in Hinagata, in which she interviews women who have moved to Kamiyama.