The biggest appeal of kintone is that beginners and veteran developers can work together to create a system.

Kintan Lab is a business improvement lab for kintone managers that was started in 2023 by three members led by Daisuke Motohashi. We are also deepening our involvement with the kintone user community, presenting the Kamiyama Town Hall case study at kintone hive Matsuyama 2023 in June, and reviving kintone Café Tokushima vol.5 in September ( see this article for details ).

This time, Motohashi visited Junya Kume, a kintone evangelist who is helping out at Kintan Lab. We had a conversation about kintone Café Fukuoka and the potential of kintone (Interviewer: Nozomi Nakajima, Editor: Kyoko Sugimoto).

I want to solve everyday problems with technology

-- First, I'd like to ask you about yourself. I'd be happy if you could tell me about how you got to where you are now.

Kume-san (hereinafter referred to as Kume) : I originally graduated from the Department of Electronics and Information Engineering at Kyushu Institute of Technology, so I took a lot of programming classes when I was a student, but I felt that sitting still in front of a computer was not my style. Instead, I found it more interesting to create student organizations at the university co-op, develop products with adults, and plan seminars. I couldn't imagine myself writing programs in the future, and I was looking for jobs in sales and marketing when I was looking for a job.

KumeHowever , a friend who wanted to become a software developer asked me, "Why don't you work with the programming you learned at university?" I thought to myself, "If I can become good at what I'm not good at, it will be a plus in my life," and got a job at a software development company in Kurume. When I was a new employee, I really couldn't write programs, so I studied a lot. At that time, an older man sitting next to me at a bar asked me, "Kume-kun, you're a system engineer, right?"

- What kind of consultation did you have?

Kume: "When I collect Excel files from my subordinates to input data into the core sales management system, the formulas are broken and they come back, which is a problem." What's more, he said he collects Excel files from about 10 people and spends 2-3 days inputting data. If you lock the formulas in the files, they won't get broken. Or you can put the files in a folder and create a system that aggregates them by pressing a button. But he doesn't know how to do that.

At that time, I realized that there were problems in our daily work that could not be solved by large systems. Engineers like us can provide the essence to improve those problems. That desire to make customers happy through this kind of work became one of my formative experiences.

Kume's office is conveniently located and many different people drop by.

There are two cats wandering around the office. Umemaru came to check on the interview.

Shishimaru was watching over the interview.

Kintone provides the space to explore the optimal solution

- Was that original experience also related to your decision to start using kintone?

When I attended a seminar in 2011 when Kumekintone was launched, I was excited and thought, "Access is on the Internet! It's amazing that you can create the basis of a business system so easily!" and I got excited by myself, thinking, "This can solve the problems of people who are in trouble!"

- What was it about kintone that attracted you, Kume-san?

KumeThere aren't many services in the world where people without experience in system development, or engineers like us, can work in the same environment. If anything, developers don't want people who might destroy the data to touch it. However, with kintone, the people who want to improve their business processes can create it themselves, and we can add our own positive essence to make it even better. I think the appeal of kintone is that we can create it together while providing "support to accompany" - kintone's keyword.

Motohashi : I think the interesting thing about kintone is the amount of space it offers. It has an API that can expand missing functions, and it has documents and libraries for engineers to customize it, as well as a system to support developers. By using these, engineers can get started right away with a low learning curve.

Motohashi : Of course, there are many web services out there that provide APIs and can be customized, but kintone is strangely easy to get into. I can't really put it into words, but it's like you can get started in a way that doesn't seem like an engineer's; you just call it up, change the style, and you can start customizing right away.

Kume: From the perspective of me and Motohashi, who have worked in system development, there are some areas that are lacking. It's about 80% complete, but depending on how you use it, you can build a process that's close to 100% complete. I think it's a tool that allows us to search for the optimal solution by making detailed adjustments. I feel that kintone is a great fit for engineers who can approach things from the perspective of "how can we solve the problems that our customers are having?"

The fun of the kintone community

- I'd also like to hear about the "kintone Café" study group for volunteer users. When was the first time you participated?

Kume: This is the second kintone Café Fukuoka in 2012. I asked a Cybozu salesperson if I wanted to know more about kintone, and he introduced me to it. I helped out at the third event, and from the fourth event onwards I've been in charge of hosting it, which continues to this day.

This day was the day of kintone Café Fukuoka.

Kume: Over the past 10 years, there have been many trial and error attempts. To attract a wide variety of people, is it better to hold the event on a weekday or on a Saturday? We once held two sessions, with technical sessions in the morning and user sessions in the afternoon. I also became an evangelist, and although I had to spread the word, there were times when I felt stuck and wondered, "Why me?"

- It's getting a bit tough for you.

Kume : Yes. At that time, I attended a session by organizer Hideki Kojima at the community marketing event "CMC Meetup". I realized that in community management, it is important to make an effort to increase the number of people involved. In fact, if you just go ahead and ask, they will be able to speak, and since you have asked them, you can be more proactive in knowing that you have to create a proper space. It changed my motivation for kintone Café. If they really didn't want to speak, they would have refused, so I was able to break away and think, "Let's ask," and that was a big thing.

Motohashi: I also don't know how to make Kintone Café Tokushima more popular. I'm just thinking about participating in a few events, so this is really helpful.

- You started out just wanting to learn about kintone, but what made you want to expand the community?

Kume: Today's kintone Café Fukuoka is a place for everyone to gain knowledge, and for me it's a place to hone my skills in creating a space and facilitation, which are very important as a consultant. Since I started to think like that, my approach has changed again. Another benefit of kintone Café is that people from various industries participate, which broadens my horizons.

At kintone Café Fukuoka, we hold "problem-solving sessions" where people bring to the table any problems they are having in their daily work and come up with solutions in group work. Humans tend to get used to inconveniences and think, "That's just how it is," but I think it's very important to create a space that fosters a process for verbalizing potential issues.

kintone Café Fukuoka's "Problem-solving session"

- Mr. Motohashi, how did you feel when you heard what we just said?

Motohashi: I was listening to the talk thinking that I haven't reached that point yet. Right now, I can tell you how to solve your problem and the cost involved, but I think that's probably the same as opening a catalog and saying, "You can do it if you buy this." Earlier, Kume-san said, "I want customers to customize kintone themselves and use it as a system they created themselves," and I think that ties into the discussion about facilitation.

In a "problem-solving session," you use the power of the space to dig deeper into your own issues and bring back ideas for solving them. This allows you to see potential issues and work while facing them. I thought that this was like creating a wedge to improve your work on the spot.

During the problem-solving session, a real estate agent who is one of Kume's clients asked for advice on how to promote the use of the system within his company.

While running the Kume Kintone Café Fukuoka, I thought that the participants would work hard not at the Café, but when they returned to their own organizations. So when I consulted with the management team and said, "I want to make this a place where the person who came up with the topic can take home the biggest thing," they said, "That's a great idea," and so the "problem-solving session" began. With this method, all you have to do is ask participants to write a page introducing themselves and what they're struggling with, and they can feel free to make their presentation.

The people who come to kintone Café are the ones who are most knowledgeable about kintone in their organization. But they come to kintone Café because they don't have anyone to consult with within the company. It's meaningless if it's not a place where people can go home feeling refreshed and thinking, "Oh, I have an idea like this." If someone presents a problem once, it's fine for them to present a new issue six months later. If they can see the continuity of the discussion, even people who come for the first time will be encouraged and think, "Maybe I can solve this problem if I come here."

Motohashi : This was extremely helpful. I would like to try this at Kintone Café Tokushima as well. However, it seems like it will be difficult to connect with new participants.

When I visit kintone Cafés in Kume , I find that most of the participants are from other areas. However, many kintone staff are from the general affairs department and are not allowed to travel much. It would be great if we could get people who can only attend local events to come. Cybozu's sales members know kintone users, so it might be a good idea to ask them to let you know if they are in trouble. I'm sure they will be able to connect you.

A developer community with a spirit of giving

- Aren't kintone developers in a rival relationship competing for the same customers?

Kume: The kintone community has a culture of trying to feed back what you have learned into something else. You could say they are rivals, but it feels like they want to work in a slightly different relationship.

Motohashi : If anything, we have a relationship similar to that of people developing on the same OS, so everyone is very give-up-like.

Kume : Exactly. Many people have a strong giver spirit, so they can be harsh towards people who only take. For the past few years, I have been holding meetings to give feedback to members of Cybozu who are developing kintone products. By conveying the requests we hear directly from customers, we can help them create better libraries and services, and we can provide better products. In November 2023, we launched a community for developers called " devkin meetup! " Motohashi joined us as a starter member. In the future, we would like to hold study sessions for developers and share our know-how on kintone development.

During the problem-solving session, a real estate agent who is one of Kume's clients asked for advice on how to promote the use of the system within his company.

Motohashi : I think kintone developers are having fun. Until now, there was a joy in having other people use what engineers developed, but with kintone, there is a joy in creating something together with customers. I want to spread that joy at kintone Café Tokushima.

But that was just "Let's all play together using kintone." I didn't think we had the perspective of bringing together everyone's concerns and motivating them like Kume-san did. I think we had a big realization that "we're all working adults, so we can't just play around all the time" (laughs). I gained a lot from this. Thank you very much.

- Thank you very much. Please let us know how Kintone Café Fukuoka and Tokushima are doing someday.