CTO of Sansan, Chatwork, and Yapuri talks about communication with engineers

My name is Umi Fujisawa, and I am in charge of public relations and recruitment

, which was held at Yahoo! Osaka on September 6th, 2019CTOnightI attended

[Sansan, Chatwork, and Yapuri CTO Discusses Communication Theory (MixLeap Special Edition)]

The third installment of CTO Night KANSAI, where CTOs from various companies talk about their company's products and communication!

So, just as I, a non-engineer, was wondering how I could communicate with the engineers in my company and the engineers I met at study groups, a fantastic event came along. Since the general attendance slots were full, I applied for the blog slot and set off

▼The venue was the Yahoo! office on the top floor of Grand Front Osaka. The night view was amazing

What is CTOnight?

▼Around 130 people participated this time, and one person who is a CTO at a venture company asked enthusiastic questions

We will be inviting CTOs (Chief Technology Officers) from technology companies to discuss how the top engineers at each company, both as individuals and as organizations, approach their company's products. This time, we will be gathering CTOs from companies that deal with "communication" in particular to discuss how the top engineers at each company approach their company's products as individuals and as organizations

Source:Yahoo! JAPAN Osaka connpass

This is a truly luxurious event where you can hear from CTOs from three companies in one night

Three CTOs talk about communication

which provides the cloud-based business card management service "Sansan"Sansan Corporationwere Mr. Fujikura fromChatwork CorporationMr. Yamamoto fromYappli Inc., which provides a cloud-based application development service. The three panelists discussed their respective approaches to communication.

▼ Seita Fujikura (Executive Officer/CTO, Sansan Inc.)

▼Masayoshi Yamamoto (CEO and CTO, Chatwork Inc.)

▼Masashi Sano (CTO, Yapuri Inc.)

Commitment to communication as CTO

The first, "As CTO, are there any specific things you are particular about regarding communication?"question

Chatwork Yamamoto-san

Since I myself come from an engineering background, I make sure that engineerswhy they are writing code. I also delve deeper into internal opinions to consider what users truly want. That's how I motivate engineers, and that's important.

What I dislike most is managing through information asymmetry. Instead of just telling people from above what to do, Imake management transparent. I keep the intermediate steps closed so that discussions can be based on facts, and I stand on the same playing field as the managers to make the same decisions. Only then do I let them decide whether to proceed or not.

Also, I always try to keep a sense of humor in my heart, so I also place importance on whether or not my comments are well-received in chats.ideas are born where there is humorI believe that

Things to be careful about in internal communication

Yapuri Sano

I'm more easily influenced by what I say than I realize, so I'm careful about what I say.I don't wear earphones. I work alongside my colleagues in the office as usual.

Chatwork Yamamoto-san

I try not to use phrases like "This might be good?" or "Personally, I think this,"people tend to assumebecause

Since it's difficult to communicate with everyone,"casual chat"we have a

How will communication change in the future?

sansan Fujikura-san

Well, it's really hard to say. Besides oral communication, we've also seen the emergence of LINE stickers and other things, but the one that really impressed me the most was NicoNico Douga. I felt like it was communication that transcends time and space. I'm excited to think about all the new communication tools that will come out in the future.

Chatwork Yamamoto-san

going forward, with synchronous communication being used only for important and urgent situationsasynchronous communicationI think we'll see an increase in

I think it would be great if we could decide how to use our time, and if the internal line rings while we're writing code, we can't use our time freely. I want to create a society where we can choose how we communicate so that we can concentrate as much as possible when we want to. Productivity would also increase, and I think business chat is effective in that regard

that prioritize face-to-face communication, "Look people in the eye when you talk! No chat!"but I disagree. Face-to-face communication conveys a huge amount of information, butit's inefficient. It requires both time and space. So, we use digital communication to increase the time we spend talking in person.Digital is a tool to create time for talking in person.Some people think that email and chat, which are forms of impersonal communication, are on the rise, but I think that's not the case at all. On the contrary, I think this is an era where analog communication will be even more valuable.

It is also important to communicate by distinguishing between sharing information and sharing emotions, and I think it is best to share information efficiently and keep things creative in an analog format

Yapuri Sano

I believe that new forms of communication will emerge in the future that we can't even imagine. At that time, I think that exploring things that you think are "interesting, even if you don't know what they can be used for," and even if you fail, learning what went wrong, andaccumulating information by playing around with new technologies yourself,will be useful for these new forms of communication.

I also believe that empathy is important, and I think that non-engineers often ask engineers to "do this" or "do that." Whilenon-engineers are doing things inefficiently, engineers can just quickly create something convenient, so instead of thinking, "That person is asking for something troublesome," I think it's important for engineers to be empathetic and understand the other person's difficulties.

A tool for sharing emotions

Chatwork Yamamoto-san

I think it's common to hold meetings via chat, but there are some meetings that can't be held via chat. For example, morning meetings, kick-offs, brainstorming sessions, and retrospectives - I don't think it's a good idea to do these sorts of things via chat

When you're doing creative work, there's a lot of information being exchanged between people, so brainstorming via chat can be tough. But you can share the excitement and reactions as you talk"That's interesting!"That's the good thing about face-to-face meetings. Even 1-on-1 meetings are tough if you do them via chat, right? (laughs)

sansan Fujikura-san

As an engineer myself, I feel that current technology can't keep up with real-life communication. I think the key issue is how to use technology to recreate the feeling of "emotions being conveyed." Even when you're talking face-to-face, there are misunderstandings about emotions, right?Couples argue, for example. So, eventually, I want technology to improve real-life communication even further,"to the point where people will say, "Apparently, couples used to have a lot of misunderstandings in the days before technology existed.

Chatwork Yamamoto-san

When I thought about what kind of technology it was, I realized that typical American couples go to a counselor when they have a fight. When you're married, things get so heated and you get angry, but if you talk to a third party, you can become more objective. I thought it might be that kind of technology, using a smart speaker or something to listen to each other (laughs)

Communication that only engineers can do

Yapuri Sano

believe there's a kind of communication only engineers can do, like showing meticulous attention to detail, doing things without being asked, anddemonstrating it through the things we create. For example, if you see someone struggling in a chat, secretly making something for them—that's something unique to engineers, I think.

Chatwork Yamamoto-san

In my personal opinion,engineers are well-suited to management roles. Engineers are good at abstract thinking, and I think that can be seen in everyday communication. I think it's very beneficial for them to be able to communicate by switching between abstract and concrete concepts, such as standardizing inefficiencies within an organization and creating departments, or noticing loops between these two things.

sansan Fujikura-san

I agree. Engineers use things every day thatare intangible and don't exist physically. The output they produce also lacks a tangible quality. That's why discussions among engineers are always vague and abstract. Every day, we have to figure out how to grasp that abstract structure, communicate it to others, create a shared understanding, and then have a discussion. I think engineers who continue to grow are those who are good at that kind of thing.

Whether it's sales or marketing, the problems you encounter in your daily work are often almost tangible. I think that people who are successful in the business world are generally good at that kind of thing.Engineers are forced to do that from their first year in the workforce.That's why I think they have an advantage.

▼After the panel discussion there was a social gathering. Mix leap social gatherings are always lively!

summary

At a social gathering, I asked Mr. Fujikura from Sansan how I, a non-engineer, could communicate with engineers, and he: "Don't think of them as engineers; just trust and like them completely." I realized thatthis is absolutely true. I was made aware that the foundation of communication, both inside and outside the company, is "trusting the other person."

This CTO Night featured IT company chief technology officers talking about communication. It was a luxury to be able to hear such rich content in one night, and I simply thought that all three of them looked cool while speaking, even though it's a rather ordinary impression. Thank you to Yahoo for always planning such interesting events! I'll definitely be visiting Mix Leap again in the future!