Executives and veteran employees talk about Untype's idea of "breaking the mold" Part 2
Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 10:38 am
Hello. This is Tsuji from the recruitment department.
The theme of this blog is "unconventional," which is also the origin of our company name.
"Unconventional" is an essential word to describe our company.
We spoke to directors Yamashita and Miki, as well as front-end engineer Ogata and web director Nakagawa, who have supported UNTYPE for many years, about why "unconventional" became the origin of the company name, what kind of thoughts they put into it, and stories from their work that made them realize how "unconventional" they were.
This is the second part.
In the first part, we mainly asked how "unconventional" became the origin of the company name, but in the second part, we asked them to tell us some specific stories from their work that made them "unconventional"!
You can see the first part here.
[Roundtable discussion] Executives and veteran employees talk about Untype's idea of "breaking the mold" Part 1
Representative Director Yamashita
joined an advertising agency as a web designer after graduating.
After working as a freelancer, he founded Untype Inc. with Miki in 2007.
Director Miki
Graduated from university and joined an advertising agency as a web designer. There he met CEO Yamashita and they hit it off.
In 2007, he founded Untype Inc. with Yamashita. He is still involved in various projects as a designer.
Front-end engineer Ogata
joined the company as a new graduate in 2008. Since then, he has worked as a front-end engineer and has been a central member of the company.
Web Director Nakagawa
After working in sales at a telecommunications company, he joined the company as a front-end engineer in 2011. After that, he changed jobs to become a web director, where he could make better use of his sales experience.
The company's pursuit of essential value cyprus b2b leads and its willingness to experiment and try new things in order to provide products that exceed the expectations of its customers is always apparent.
--Mr. Ogata and Mr. Nakagawa, you have both been working at UNTYPE for over 10 years. Do you have any stories that made you realize what it means to be "outside the box"?
Ogata: I think the concept stage of a design is the stage where you tend to get stuck in a formula the most, but Miki-san doesn't have that. After all, the previous design will remain in you, and I don't think it's necessarily bad to apply and use the previous design, but if you do that all the time, you won't grow as a person, and above all, it's not a design that meets the customer's needs, so you have to go beyond that. I think Miki-san embodies that. What I
've felt watching Miki-san since he joined the company is that he doesn't stop at creating designs that can be passed without spending a lot of time, but continues to create designs that are optimized for the site. He always has a mindset of trial and error in pursuit of essential value and creating something that exceeds the customer's expectations.
There is not just one approach, so I try to think outside the box and think flexibly.
--What do you think about coding, Ogata-san?
Ogata: In terms of coding, I think the approach to the process of seeking essential value is not fixed. I always think about not being bound by the means.
Engineers should not just code.
For example, when the director asked me at the design stage, "Which design do you think is better, plan A or plan B, to achieve this?", I suggested, "That approach is good, but I think plan C is better." I wasn't asked directly, but as I listened to him, I noticed something that bothered me from an engineer's point of view. When I
was writing the code, if I thought there might be a better way to appeal to the audience, I would not hesitate to suggest a different idea, or something that slightly applied the original idea.
The ultimate goal of increasing value must not waver, but there is not just one approach to get there, so I try to think flexibly and not be bound by fixed ideas.
I think that Untype's strength is that each person thinks about how to improve the final site.
Yamashita: Customers are pleased with proposals that are born from such flexible thinking.
Ogata: Yes, that's right. It's not like we just do what the customer tells us to do, but rather we think carefully and come up with the optimal solution.
Yamashita: Maybe one of the good things about Untype is that they don't just leave things as they are.
I think it is important to find the optimal solution by considering the customer's position, budget, schedule, and the person in charge's position in order to solve the underlying problem.
--What about you, Nakagawa-san?
Nakagawa: I share with Ogata-san the tendency to think flexibly about how to arrive at essential value.
In terms of direction, even when things don't go according to schedule or there are problems during the project, instead of saying "this is impossible, let's give up," I work together with the production team to think about how we can create something good without compromising value .
I often get consultations from clients saying, "I want to set up this function to solve this problem on the current site," but I first dig deep into why the problem exists, why it hasn't been improved yet, and how to solve it.
For example, if someone says, "I want to make an inquiry form because there isn't one," I dig deeper into why they hadn't made one until now, and find that it's not just the budget, but also that they don't get many emails and can handle them by phone. In such cases, I start by asking myself, "Do we really need an inquiry form?" and then make suggestions to solve the original problem that the client hasn't noticed.
I think it's important to find the optimal solution by considering the client's position, budget, schedule, and the person in charge's position, so I think about it more flexibly.
The theme of this blog is "unconventional," which is also the origin of our company name.
"Unconventional" is an essential word to describe our company.
We spoke to directors Yamashita and Miki, as well as front-end engineer Ogata and web director Nakagawa, who have supported UNTYPE for many years, about why "unconventional" became the origin of the company name, what kind of thoughts they put into it, and stories from their work that made them realize how "unconventional" they were.
This is the second part.
In the first part, we mainly asked how "unconventional" became the origin of the company name, but in the second part, we asked them to tell us some specific stories from their work that made them "unconventional"!
You can see the first part here.
[Roundtable discussion] Executives and veteran employees talk about Untype's idea of "breaking the mold" Part 1
Representative Director Yamashita
joined an advertising agency as a web designer after graduating.
After working as a freelancer, he founded Untype Inc. with Miki in 2007.
Director Miki
Graduated from university and joined an advertising agency as a web designer. There he met CEO Yamashita and they hit it off.
In 2007, he founded Untype Inc. with Yamashita. He is still involved in various projects as a designer.
Front-end engineer Ogata
joined the company as a new graduate in 2008. Since then, he has worked as a front-end engineer and has been a central member of the company.
Web Director Nakagawa
After working in sales at a telecommunications company, he joined the company as a front-end engineer in 2011. After that, he changed jobs to become a web director, where he could make better use of his sales experience.
The company's pursuit of essential value cyprus b2b leads and its willingness to experiment and try new things in order to provide products that exceed the expectations of its customers is always apparent.
--Mr. Ogata and Mr. Nakagawa, you have both been working at UNTYPE for over 10 years. Do you have any stories that made you realize what it means to be "outside the box"?
Ogata: I think the concept stage of a design is the stage where you tend to get stuck in a formula the most, but Miki-san doesn't have that. After all, the previous design will remain in you, and I don't think it's necessarily bad to apply and use the previous design, but if you do that all the time, you won't grow as a person, and above all, it's not a design that meets the customer's needs, so you have to go beyond that. I think Miki-san embodies that. What I
've felt watching Miki-san since he joined the company is that he doesn't stop at creating designs that can be passed without spending a lot of time, but continues to create designs that are optimized for the site. He always has a mindset of trial and error in pursuit of essential value and creating something that exceeds the customer's expectations.
There is not just one approach, so I try to think outside the box and think flexibly.
--What do you think about coding, Ogata-san?
Ogata: In terms of coding, I think the approach to the process of seeking essential value is not fixed. I always think about not being bound by the means.
Engineers should not just code.
For example, when the director asked me at the design stage, "Which design do you think is better, plan A or plan B, to achieve this?", I suggested, "That approach is good, but I think plan C is better." I wasn't asked directly, but as I listened to him, I noticed something that bothered me from an engineer's point of view. When I
was writing the code, if I thought there might be a better way to appeal to the audience, I would not hesitate to suggest a different idea, or something that slightly applied the original idea.
The ultimate goal of increasing value must not waver, but there is not just one approach to get there, so I try to think flexibly and not be bound by fixed ideas.
I think that Untype's strength is that each person thinks about how to improve the final site.
Yamashita: Customers are pleased with proposals that are born from such flexible thinking.
Ogata: Yes, that's right. It's not like we just do what the customer tells us to do, but rather we think carefully and come up with the optimal solution.
Yamashita: Maybe one of the good things about Untype is that they don't just leave things as they are.
I think it is important to find the optimal solution by considering the customer's position, budget, schedule, and the person in charge's position in order to solve the underlying problem.
--What about you, Nakagawa-san?
Nakagawa: I share with Ogata-san the tendency to think flexibly about how to arrive at essential value.
In terms of direction, even when things don't go according to schedule or there are problems during the project, instead of saying "this is impossible, let's give up," I work together with the production team to think about how we can create something good without compromising value .
I often get consultations from clients saying, "I want to set up this function to solve this problem on the current site," but I first dig deep into why the problem exists, why it hasn't been improved yet, and how to solve it.
For example, if someone says, "I want to make an inquiry form because there isn't one," I dig deeper into why they hadn't made one until now, and find that it's not just the budget, but also that they don't get many emails and can handle them by phone. In such cases, I start by asking myself, "Do we really need an inquiry form?" and then make suggestions to solve the original problem that the client hasn't noticed.
I think it's important to find the optimal solution by considering the client's position, budget, schedule, and the person in charge's position, so I think about it more flexibly.