Why Japanese Design Is So Different & What You Should Learn from It

There are a lot of passionate opinions about Japanese design. From the beauty and subtlety of the best Japanese anime to the design horrors of most corporate Powerpoint presentations, Japanese design covers a huge range.

Things are changing though, and today we sit down and talk with Naofumi Tsuchiya, the founder and CEO of Goodpatch, one of Japan’s leading, and most richly valued, UI/UX design startups. We talk about how Japanese design is evolving and why we might be seeing (for better or worse) a more global design standard and sensibility.

Goodpatch is one of the new breed of Japanese design firms, and they’ve been able to raise substantial venture funding. Nao and I also talk about how that venture money has forced his startup to move in very specific strategic directions.

It’s a fascinating discussion, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

UPDATE: The conversation below on the future of Goodpatch's two products is a bit confusing. Goodpatch has stopped development of Balto, but is continuing development on Prott. They are now in the process of a major rewrite and will soon launch a revamped Prott 2.

Show Notes

How you can choose your customers in Japan, and why most startups think you cannot How a life-threatening illness actually turned Nao's life around What makes a product meaningful How to discover passionate teams hiding inside large enterprises Why it's hard for a startup to move from services to products Why design in Japan is so different today How to improve user acquisition by over 50% (at least in Japan) How we should be raising the next generation of designers

Links from the Founder

Learn more about Goodpatch on their homepage Check out Nao's blog Follow him on Twitter @tsuchinao83 Check out the Goodpatch blog

In English In Japanese

Listen to the Goodpatch podcast (sorry, Japanese only)

[shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="7994466"] Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan. Straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

Today, we’re going to be talking about design in Japan and it’s going to be good. Because Japanese design is a topic that people have a lot of strong opinions about. From the subtlety and nuance you see in the very best of Japanese anime to the visual horrors of Japanese corporate PowerPoint presentations. The topic covers both the wonderful and the terrible.

And so, to dance us through this minefield is Nao Tsuchiya of Goodpatch.

Now, Goodpatch is one of Japan’s fastest growing and most highly valued design startups. We’ll talk about Japanese design not only as it exist today but why we might see a global convergence of design, style, and UI sensibilities in the coming decades. Even if it’s inevitable, it’ll be sad to see the current global diversity disappear.

And though we don’t talk about it during the interview, I first ran across now a while back when I recommended Goodpatch to one of my larger consulting clients. Before providing an estimate or drilling down into the requirements, Goodpatch sent back a detailed questionnaire, asking this enterprise about their dreams for the project and who their ideal users were, and how they normally communicated with them.

Now, these are great, in fact, even common sense questions for designing a user experience. They show that the designers really do care about what they’re building over at Goodpatch. But the enterprise employees running this project simply did not know how to deal with it. And rather than trying to answer the questions and challenge their own assumptions about the project, they went with a more traditional and more obedient vendor. The final product was definitely the last because of that decision.

I’ve been a fan of Goodpatch from the day I saw that corporate client questionnaire. But you know, Nao tells the story much better than I can. So let’s hear from our sponsor and get right to the interview.

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[Interview]

Tim: So I’m sitting here with Nao Tsuchiya of Goodpatch, one of Japan’s fastest-growing digital design firms.

Nao: Thank you.

Tim: Now, normally, I avoid service companies because the demand for web and mobile app design, this demand rises and falls with venture investment but Goodpatch is doing things a little bit differently. You’re actually creating your own products, Prott & Balto.

Nao: Yeah.

Tim: So tell me a bit about those.

Nao: We decided to stop making those.

Tim: That’s interesting. When did you decide that? When did you make that decision?

Nao: We made the decision last month. They’re already some released to the public.

Tim: So just announced?

Nao: Yes.

Tim: A little later on, let’s talk about why you made that decision and the challenge of product versus service. Because I think that’s really important. Tell me about your customers. Who are your main customers right now?

Nao: Our customer not really the big or small. They want to make meaningful product.

Tim: A meaningful product?

Nao: Meaningful product.

Tim: So what is a meaningful product?

Nao: Market and the people need – they also want impact for the society.

Tim: Not just making money?

Nao: Yes, not only. They have to be profitable, of course, but not only.

Tim: It’s interesting. One of the companies that I work with actually sent you a request. They wanted to work with you. What was interesting is you sent them back a very detailed list of questions. Not about their product but about their vision and how they wanted to – what their relationship was with their customers. I’ve got to say, it scared of scared them off. They didn’t know how to answer. So when you say companies that just want to make money versus having a vision for a better society, let’s dig into that. What does that mean? Because I think most people, whether it’s a company or an individual, they think they have a vision. They believe they have a vision. How do you tell the difference between a company that has a vision and wants to make money and a company that just wants to make money?

Nao: Company has strong vision. They have the passion, strong passion. If I can feel the passion, I want to work there.

Tim: Does that mean you’re usually working with startups? My image of large Japanese companies isn’t very passionate.

Nao: Yes.

Tim: Does that mean you’re mostly working with startups or do you work with big companies who have passion as well?

Nao: The big company has the passionate people. I don’t know there are few people. But they have.

Tim: So sometimes you can find maybe like a passionate team inside a big company.

Nao: Yes.

Tim: Okay.

Nao: And we send a message for market.

Tim: Are you approaching people you want to work with or--?

Nao: Yes or through broad media.

Tim: So you attract people you want to work with?

Nao: Yes. We attract the kind of people we want to work with.

Tim: Okay. That makes sense. Before we talk more about the Goodpatch story and why you changed from product to pure service, I want to back up and talk a little about you. You have a rather interesting history. You left college for health reasons. And after you recovered, you went back to school but decided to quit again. Why is that?

Nao: When I was 21 years old, I had a very big health emergency. Then I heard tomorrow cannot come.

Tim: You were worried you’re actually going to die or you were just worried about your future in general?

Nao: I actually was worried about dying. I am not alive a long time, I felt that time.

Tim: Okay. After you recovered and you went back to school for a brief period of time, you moved to Silicon Valley to, as they say, follow your dream. You moved to Silicon Valley to learn and you even worked at B-Trax for a while. What did you learn in Silicon Valley?

Nao: Manage motivational people and how to work Silicon Valley people.

Tim: Why Silicon Valley?

Nao: I thought I have to go to Silicon Valley. It’s a gut feel.

Tim: But at that time, you didn’t speak English at all.

Nao: Yes.

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Tim: What did you learn there?

Nao: Work environment, different. People, more international people. Japan is only Japanese and I heard most impressive is weather.

Tim: The weather?

Nao: Weather.

Tim: Okay.

Nao: Silicon Valley, I was wondering why talented people and smart people go to Silicon Valley. I live in Japan so I don’t know. But when I went to Silicon Valley, I understand. The clear sky, the blue sky, and comfortable temperature.

Tim: Okay. Very nice weather, especially if you like fog in the summer times. You left and came back to Japan and started your own company.

Nao: When in worked in San Francisco, summer school is very popular, startups. Many startups launched --

Tim: Yes. More in San Francisco than probably the rest of the world put together.

Nao: Yes for experience, Uber, that time, maybe it has only around 10 people, maybe has only 30 people.

Tim: Right, right.

Nao: Instagram has only 10 people.

Tim: Right. That first generation of cloud-based startups was just getting started in 2011.

Nao: Yes. Very small. But the first growth in the five years.

Tim: In 2011, in Silicon Valley, the startup boom was moving along fine. It was growing.

Nao: Yes.

Tim: But in 2011 in Japan, things were still pretty slow for startups. It was before the boom really started. So why come back to Japan and start a design company at that time?

Nao: Silicon Valley and San Francisco startups, they knew the importance of design. The UX and UI. They put so much effort. They were aware of user-centered design.

Tim: Okay.