I focus on streamlining work for teams. This starts by hiring experts, giving them opportunities to demonstrate their expertise, helping them grow to meet their goals, and establishing a fun and nurturing working environment. It also means making sure that leadership and partner team expectations are appropriately set and maintained, so an atmosphere of excitement and mutual respect can lead to awesome final products which delight customers and grow the business.
I partner with engineering & product teams and leaders across the company to ensure research & design are intelligently added into development cycles. This primarily means collaborating on ideas with various teams and senior leadership to incorporate product features and processes. Occasionally, I work directly on features and interact personally with users for light research. And if I’m lucky, sometimes I’ll do some graphic design, illustration, & animation.
PRODUCT & LEADERSHIP
In 2014, I moved to Seattle from Japan and dove into product development, beginning with the pivot for the automotive startup, TRED. Shortly afterwards, I joined Amazon and built a UX team from scratch for the cloud-computing software platform, AWS Marketplace. After several years, I was a founding member overseeing research & design for the internal organization responsible for all software building and operations, Amazon Software Builder Experience.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Completely revamped the enterprise cloud software buyer & seller experiences for AWS Marketplace
- Reshaped the ongoing evolution of the code, test, and deploy experiences, as well as ticketing & task management, operational review, and risk management for all of Amazon’s software builders
- Built teams and processes to increase trust and engagement from Amazon’s engineering and leadership teams to integrate user-centric, design-driven improvements into their technology products
AGENCIES (JAPAN)
In 2002, I moved to Tokyo and started overseeing web work for international clients at TBWA/TEQUILA. Later, I more heavily incorporated information architecture, branding,video, music production, and character design for Japanese & international clients. After leading teams in several agencies, I co-founded Art & Strategy with a Japanese colleague which quickly gained a strong reputation in the tech and education sectors.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Co-founded agency responsible for online revamp of Toyota, Disney Store Japan, Hitachi, & NTT Labs
- Lead creative for Japanese web experiences for adidas and Nissan in the early 00s
- Created new brands and mascots for dozens of Japanese companies and US/EU startups
- Drafted & taught courses on design & story-telling at a Japanese video-game/film university & built gamified learning experiences for Japanese children
MEDIA & GAMES
I joined Zenimax Media in the DC Metro area in 1999 to help develop early prototypes of online social experiences and streaming sites. In less than a year, I shifted to overseeing the marketing design for many of their games, via Bethesda Softworks, and eventually started working on the games themselves.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Launched real-time streaming-media for Big Brother, CBS, & Time-Warner
- Oversaw brand, print, and web materials for all their published games
- Produced SFX/VOs, directed the cut-scenes, manual, and packaging, and helped build an ambient-audio engine for their AAA PC/Xbox game, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
AGENCIES (US)
While agencies started embracing digital tools in the mid 90s, they still didn’t know what to really do with them. During this time, I was often spearheading creative production for the first interactive/web projects for agencies – and often their clients! I also seized the opportunity to learn from my experienced colleagues about branding.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Produced interactive materials for Bank of America, Reebok, Hasbro, and more
- Published early web experiences for AT&T, AutoDesk, NEC, & others
- Worked on brand packages for IBM, Xerox, and DreamWorks properties
EARLY CAREER
HIGHLIGHTS
- Produced motion graphics & visual materials for pharmaceutical presentations for AMGEN in 1989 (as my first job… at 16!)
- Partnered with the Design Department Lead Professor at my college to craft course-work and exams for their first Digital Design program
- Took on consulting roles with agencies and video production houses to incorporate digital media into their service offerings
Below are some previews of projects I’ve worked on and clients/companies I’ve worked for over the years. If you’d like more details, just contact me and I’d be happy to share.
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