Innovators in Japan Podcast: Robert Schuman
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into another episode of the Innovators in Japan Podcast with your host, Shohei Narron. Our guest today is Robert Schuman who’s the CTO of Zehitomo, a matching site for local services from photographers to personal trainers.
Now, Robert’s been on the software engineering side almost his entire career, starting from his first foray into startups with an electronic medical record company he started with his father, to being an engineering manager at a few startups back in the San Francisco Bay Area. But in between all of that, he took an English teaching job over in Toyama prefecture. One thing led to another, and he’s found himself back in Japan working on building a world-class engineering culture at Zehitomo while learning a few cultural lessons himself.
Our discussion covered a wide range of topics from how to hire engineers, how to (and how not to) effect change in a culture you’re new to, and general (but very important) advice for anyone considering living and working abroad. I hope you enjoy the conversation.
Some highlights of the conversation include:
- How to succeed in a culture that’s very different from the kind of culture one grew up in.
- How to communicate better in an international group environment.
- How to successfully implement the Silicon Valley startup ethos without being abrasive to those who aren’t used to it.
- How to hire engineers in an environment where startups are still the underdogs in both salary and job security.
- How US-based engineering teams can improve their output by learning from Japanese culture.
- Why he thinks working in the current Japanese startup scene, similar to the earlier days of Silicon Valley, is an exciting prospect.
