Meet Noriyasu, Design Manager at Fujitsu

I've spent over a decade in IT, collaborating with designers, engineers, customers, and users. Together, we've crafted fresh experiences in various areas like mobile UI/UX, robot interactions, and design systems, tackling business challenges along the way.

Fujitsu, a top Japanese tech company, is a global leader in technology and business solutions that transform organizations and the world around us. Fujitsu has a long heritage of bringing innovation and expertise, continuously working to contribute to the growth of society and our customers.

Our Design Center, with over 150 employees, is involved in a wide range of design aspects, including software UI/UX, services. brand, hardware, co-creation.

What were you trying to solve?

As a leader of a team with both software engineers and designers, I saw we needed a better way to talk to each other and improve our skills. Our team was so busy that our usual occasional training sessions weren't enough. We had to make learning a regular part of our day and focus on growing our skills continuously.

We faced two main challenges: first, making learning a natural part of our daily work, and second, measuring how much we were improving. This would help us understand our current skill levels, set realistic goals for getting better, and give everyone the tools they needed to succeed, all in one place.

What are the superpowers you have unlocked with Uxcel?

1. Quantifying Skill Growth – Uxcel helped me really understand each team member's skills, what they're good at, and where they need to get better. With this information, I was able to use the quantitative data to talk about skills and growth, making conversations more specific and data-driven, not assumption-driven.

2. Smarter Check-in Meetings – Uxcel's detailed information turned our regular meetings into active sessions where we set personal goals for getting better at our skills. Choosing learning materials for each team member became a lot more accurate and really matched what each person needed.

3. Cutting Learning Clutter – Uxcel eliminated the need for us to sift through tons of online content. Having access to a unified platform, we were able to establish team knowledge and a sharing culture, where team members share their learning experience: what are the new things they learned, or things they didn’t know about before. It helps us foster better collaboration through shared knowledge.

4. Improved Team Culture – We started talking about learning in our weekly retrospectives, which really pushed us to keep getting better. Everyone is encouraged to share their discoveries and breakthroughs, making our team more about working together and learning from each other.

5. Building a Habit of Learning – Being able to access Uxcel easily, whether on a computer or through mobile apps, made it a lot easier to turn learning into a regular habit. The fun, short lessons fit into our busy schedules, letting us learn whenever we had a little time, like during a commute or a break.

Two tips you’d like to share with fellow design managers?

1. Strategic Skill Growth – Take a planned approach to improving your team's skills. Measure how much your team is learning, and set specific goals for each month, quarter, and year. Choose learning materials based on what your designers really need, making sure their learning is on point and useful.

2. Creating a Learning Habit – Make learning feel more like fun than a chore. Use Uxcel on your computer or phone to spend a little time each day learning. Turning learning into a regular, easy part of your day can really help improve the way your team works together.

Conclusion

In short, Uxcel has made our design team work better and changed how we think about learning. It also lets managers plan better ways to improve their team's skills and support their career growth by measuring how much they learn.