Translated from 日本語 • View original Team Introduction
- Libero (Project Leader) Japanese
- FW (sales in charge) Japanese, Italian, Brazilian×2
- MF (UI/UX Front Engineer) Japanese×2, German
- DF (Back-end Engineer, Infrastructure) Japanese ×3, German, Dutch, Korean
- GK (Customer Success) Japanese (Kumiko)
I didn't gather members of a soccer power to make soccer stronger, but I was working to create a service that "makes the world's people happy", and before I knew it, I had become the leader of a global team.
This team is developing Mamoru PUSH, a push notification and QR authentication service, and Mamoru Biz, a business concierge tool that utilizes its authentication technology.
Introduce yourself
I would like to introduce me, Toshiki Maezawa. I'm not good at English. The TOEIC score he took immediately after entering ISAO (now Colorkrew) was 400 points. I hate English. Of course, I have no experience studying abroad!
I was in that state, and now I lead a global team.
If you're reading this blog right now, I'm sure one day you'll suddenly have to lead a global team. I hope it can be of some help so that I can deal with such a day even if it suddenly comes.
This is the flow after this. It's long, so I'll leave it at the table of contents.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: English comes suddenly
- Chapter 1: I tried to continue the English meeting even in a chaotic state
- Chapter 2: Japanese players start boycotting English meetings
- Chapter 3: I persevered, and gradually I saw the light
- Chapter 4: New members added, and English for non-meetings
- Chapter 5: Future Prospects
Introduction: English Comes Suddenly.
The beginning comes suddenly. One of the quotes of KEIJI, the representative of Colorkrew, " English comes suddenly. ".
In April 2019, Luisa, a German who only speaks English, and Daniel Thiago, a Brazilian, joined the team.
Until then, I thought, "I'm aiming for the time being, and I'll try to hold meetings in English, but if I can't explain it well, I can use Japanese." I tried English loosely.
At this point, the members who did not speak English ignored the rules and explained everything in Japanese.
This situation changes greatly with the addition of new members.
Chapter 1: Continuing the English meeting even in a chaotic state
After joining the new members, I had no choice but to speak in English if I could speak German or Portuguese, so I immediately translated the meeting into English. **The first is chaos. **
We were divided into a group that could speak English, a group that did not understand English, and me, who pretended to understand English and hosted the event. To be honest, I only understood about 30% of the total, but I managed to hold a meeting with the ability to understand my natural feelings.
Looking back on the meeting at that time, I was terrified, and I think everyone endured well and followed me.
I was the type of person who wanted to do everything I had decided, so I repeatedly said to the members who spoke in Japanese, "Could you try to speak in English again?" and I didn't give up.
Chapter 2: Japanese players start boycotting English meetings
But that's when I keep doing that. The boycott of the Japanese members begins.
Moreover, the boycott is carried out quietly. They don't show any rebellious attitude like booing. Everyone is an adult. Humans want to run away from unpleasant things. The number of Japanese people who do not participate in the important regular meeting once a week has increased, citing reasons such as having an appointment or being busy.
Before I knew it, there were only about two Japanese people in the meeting, which was bad. We persistently urged the need to participate to somehow turn it around, and in the end, we returned it to its original form with all participants. It is important to be stubborn, persistent, and not to give up.
Chapter 3: I was persistent, and I gradually saw the light
If you insist on Englishization, there will be people who can't keep up. Still, we won't change our policy, so we will talk about it at today's meeting in advance using our SNS-type goal management tool "Goalous." and Teams in advance, and explained using materials that could be seen and understood as much as possible.
Over time, I realized that it was taking shape. Continuation is a good thing.
I would like to share some recommended English phrases.
- Teppan 1: Could you say that again?
- Teppan 2: How much does it take?
- Teppan 3 : How do you say "unknown word" in English?
- Teppan 4: Call by name. What do you think about "what do you want to hear your opinion" after calling? What do you think about this?
- Teppan 5: Does anybody have any questions?
The trick for moderating is to get everyone to talk well and to be able to use a number of phrases to ask questions. Otherwise, basically non-Japanese people will speak in English meetings, and Japanese people will be silent.
Chapter 4: New members added, and non-meeting languages are translated into English
As you do what you write in Chapter 3, you will level up again. Until now, we had only spoken in English during so-called regular meetings and individual conversations, but it was decided that a new Dutch graduate would join the team. Therefore, I decided that it would not work unless all conversations were translated into English, so I started switching everything to English.
In fact, information sharing meetings are manageable. What can't be done is a meeting that requires discussion to decide on specifications. Until now, I have managed to do it through chat, but that alone does not increase the sense of speed, so I finally translated the meeting to decide on the specifications in EnglishI did.
This was really difficult at first. Development meetings must be visually informed and shared in advance to be discussed.
Chapter 5: Future Prospects
To be honest, I haven't been able to run the team well enough to talk about my know-how to everyone, and it's still in the development stage, but that's all I can say. It is more fun and stronger to play soccer with members of the world than to play soccer (work) only for Japanese people. I would like to express the good atmosphere of this team as it is in the service.
Currently, the Mamoru series is only used in Japan and 17 other countries, but I would like to develop it as a service that makes more people "enjoy working", and for that purpose, I would like to gather friends from all over the world and strengthen the team.
Yes. That's roughly all, but if there is a response, I may write a sequel. Thank you for your long post.
▼Click here to learn more about the business concierge tool "Mamoru Biz" planned, developed, and operated by a global team.
