Hi! I’m Kiyo from HR and Branding projects!

I’m presenting the vol.7 of let’s talk with Colorkrew engineers!

This time we talked with Jan, the developer of “Mamoru Biz,” a business concierge tool dealing with QR codes to reduce office duties regarding personnel, resource, and money.
He’s a web engineer who leads the team as the product development leader.
Now, Colorkrew has various nationalities of members, but at the time he entered, he was the first non-Japanese engineer.

Speak of Colorkrew on travel

Kiyo: We associate Jan with traveling. You often introduce people you met while traveling to the company.

 

Jan: Yeah.

 

Kiyo: Luisa entered this year thanks to your association.

 

Jan: Yes, I met her at a Japanese hotel at Itoh. She said she was looking for an internship, so I invited her.

 

Kiyo: Thanks! It’s great that you talk about the company with fun like that!

The original plan was to go back to Germany in a year, but…

Kiyo; By the way, Jan came to Japan at the end of 2015, right?

 

Jan: Yes, I came to spend working-holidays after graduation. But honestly, I originally planned to go back to Germany in about a year.

 

Kiyo: What? Really?

 

Jan: Then I thought, “Maybe I could stay for another year, or maybe one more,” and then…

 

Kiyo: Four years passed.

 

Jan: Haha, yes.

 

Kiyo: So, what exactly happened?

 

Jan: I thought I had experienced many and grew up, and I was sure that I could keep growing.

 

Kiyo: Sounds nice.

 

Jan: Also, I feet that people around me and the company has accepted me.

 

Kiyo: Yes, you made one of the best promotion stories in Colokrew!
*Note: Colorkrew makes various information available to everyone, so class and salary info is widely open in the company.

 

I think your scenario is a great one because you first grew up and contributed to the team at the same time, and the results are also recognized. In what area do you feel you have developed the best?

 

Jan: One thing, of course, is my development skills. However, I think I’ve developed other areas as well.

 

Kiyo: You first belonged to the payment project as your main project.

 

Jan: Yes. My part was to develop an online payment system. It was quite important for the clients, and the project was very thrilling because there could be no errors.

 

Kiyo: Then you moved to Mamoru, our in-house product, and have been developing Mamoru PUSH and Mamoru Biz.

 

Jan: With Mamoru PUSH, I tried Android app development, with which I had no experience before, and with Mamoru BIZ, I developed service from zero.
Mamoru Biz started small only with the payment function; however, other functions, such as seat management or schedulers, were added, and I had various experiences in one service.

Coding like story-telling

Kiyo: Could you tell me about the areas where you grew up besides development?

 

Jan: I often participate in interviews and student training. You know them pretty well, right?

 

Kiyo: Haha, yeah. I’m always thankful for you as a recruiter.

Jan: Thanks to that, I have expanded my ability other than development skills.

 

Kiyo: Thankfully, you actively participate in the recruitment project and join interviews regardless of the nationality of the interviewees. You also helped accepting internship students… oh, I heard a lot of good things from internship students about your coding review.

 

Jan: I’m glad to hear that.

 

Kiyo: Many intern students told me about your passion for simple code-writing.One of them wrote in the blogand called you Mr. “Readable Code.”
Is that your policy in developing?
Jan: Well, I guess the most important thing is to deliver products. However, especially in a long-term project, I think it’s important to write simple, well-organized codes.
Otherwise, it’ll be difficult to add other functions in the future. I want to keep things simple, to keep them flexible.
Kiyo: What do you say to the students to tell these kinds of things? Do you have any hacks?

 

Jan: I say it is to do like writing a story.

 

Kiyo: A story?

 

Jan: Yes. You don’t need to read and learn with other documents. You just follow the codes and then understand the stories in them. That’s how I say.

 

Kiyo: So, you’re writing codes like you telling a story! Intriguing!

Improvement as a whole through sharing

Kiyo: I feel you’re enthusiastic about telling things to others. For example, you hold Casual Seminars often. (*Casual seminars are inhouse seminars held for company members at lunchtimes)
Jan: I like learning new things. I hold seminars with the hope that others would do it by seeing me do it. I want to create a culture in which **everyone learns from each other*.
Also, since we may have the same problems on each’s own, I want to improve the whole company through such output.

 

Kiyo: So, I will do my best to hire those with whom we can share the passion!

 

Jan: That’ll be great! It doesn’t have to be someone specialized in development. It could be, for example, someone who’s extremely good at communications. It should be someone with a unique strength. I wish we could learn from each other’s strengths.

 

Kiyo: Do you have any challenges you want to try in the future?

 

Jan: Although we had to stop it because of the COVID-19, I still want to organize a workcation opportunity in the future.

 

Kiyo: Originally, we planned to visit Germany this May. Why did you decide to organize this for the company?

 

Jan: I want to fulfill the company’s vision of “make the world’s work fun” through our workstyles. I wanted to show my colleagues here the overseas sights.
I was expecting earthquakes and tsunamis before coming to Japan, but not the virus.
Kiyo: What kind of workstyle do you want to lead in the future?

 

Jan: I can work from anywhere, but I want to have lunch together once a week.

Jan: I also want to participate in many events including overseas ones. I’m a bit interested in giving presentations there.
But for now, I want to improve my development speed and my expertise in engineering.

 

Kiyo: You have a lot that you want to try. Mamoru is still in the development stage.

 

Jan: Yeah.

 

Kiyo: Maybe you could stay for another year.

 

Jan: Haha, probably.

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