Kentaro Nagashima, Junior Product Designer

Joined in March 2022, from 🇯🇵

What led you into design?

LEGO was the reason I started being interested in design. On my 5th birthday, my grandparents gave me an Xwing flighter set. Once I finished building it according to the instruction, I broke it down into pieces and built my own. I could spend hours building, and I didn’t get bored. Before going to college, I needed to think about what I wanted to study and become. Although I didn’t spend much time with LEGO as I used to, my passion for LEGO didn’t change; I wanted to become a LEGO designer. I googled what I needed to learn to become a LEGO designer. I needed to study industrial design. The major was set; industrial design it is!

It was fun but stressful as a design student. Despite the fact that I got to sketch and design all day, I was anxious. My inner voices kept talking to me. “Am I artistic enough?” “Will I get a decent job with a design degree?” All the voices clouded my dream job, and I eventually changed my major and transferred to business school.

With an IT management degree, I started working as a management consultant. While the job was highly rewarding with a high learning curve, that was not what I wanted. I’ve always wanted to be involved in product design and product development, but I did not get a chance to do that at a traditional consulting firm. It was conspicuous that I needed to change my career and life.

I decided to take a UX design boot camp since I know a bit of all the components: technology, design, management. This time, I was confident that I would be a designer. I have tried another path, and building a product has been and will be what I want to do for the rest of my life. It took me a while to land on this design path, but I have no regret.

What does a typical day look like?

Wake up -> Gym (A couple of times a week) -> Read and/or design course -> Work (From Home) -> Watch Youtube or Play Game -> Sleep

Name three non-designers you feel inspired by when designing.

Kobe Bryant
The legendary basketball player has inspired me in every aspect of my life. Keep grinding and pay attention to details. When I need the motivation to design for a long period of time, I recall what Kobe said.

Try Guys
They remind me of not forgetting to have fun about what I do.

Literally Everyone
It is surprising to see how people use the same product differently. I can learn from everyone about design. That is why we do research in design🤔

What would your self-portrait look like?

😪🏀⛹️‍♂️🍣✈️💻🇺🇸🇯🇵🥴

Anything you want to promote or plug?

Rotten
It is a Netflix documentary series that reveals some dark truths about food. It is definitely reducing appetite (Helped me reduce some weight), but it makes us think about what we eat every day.