Meet the Design Team of Zeals
Say hello to my awesome teammates in Zeals, committed to delivering great user experience to our users!
(Not) a (very) long time ago, in one start-up, (not) far, far away…
Zeals has long been a hub of uber-talented engineers, coming from different parts of the world, that help achieve the company’s vision to start the next industrial revolution through communication AI (as mentioned in this article).
However, up until June of 2021, there has only been one super-designer, who accommodated all the requirements of the development team.
Along with the exponential growth of Zeals’ development team, the need for design support has increased, so one designer became two, and two became three…
Two’s company, more than two’s a party! 🥳
I’m very pleased to introduce everyone in our design team. Although our team is very young, our dream is big, with a common goal of helping Zeals provide better experiences for our users, and creating a culture that values our users in every part of the development process.
We gathered the whole team together, and asked questions to try to learn more about everyone both individually, and also as a team.
But before that, we have prepared a digestible team profile:
Interview time! 🎤
Q: How did you get into design?
[V]ish: I feel like I got into design by accident, and by being a bit greedy and self-indulging at my previous workplace, where I was initially a Content Editor. At the time, there was no UI UX designer in the company, and I saw that the design of the product that we had was — well — not that great at the time. I thought I could help, but I had no kind of training; all I had was some sense that, “okay, I think this might look nice”, or “I think this might be easier to use”.
So, I tried out designing a few things, and when the engineering team decided to go with my designs, I was ecstatic. I got motivated to do more designs, and my role shifted to being more of a design/product-related role. Eventually I was making all the designs with the help of the company’s graphic designer, who helped me gain fundamental knowledge about design.
From then, I just started loving what I was doing, and that’s when I started doing a bit of studying by myself. I have no particular qualifications, but I definitely spent a bunch of time learning how I could do my job better. And that’s what brought me to being able to join Zeals.
[J]unio: I think it was 2013 — I’d just finished my degree and I had no idea what to do with my career, and I was just doing an internship to figure stuff out. One day, I was hanging out with a friend who had this book called “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug . Out of curiosity I read a bit and found it very fascinating.
Discussing with my friend, I asked them, “Why do you have this book? Interestingly, there’s a lot of psychology on this and that.” They told me that they were taking a course in Art Direction, and made me understand that Art Direction has nothing to do with actual art and I started thinking: it’s design, it’s how you communicate with people. I felt connected to that. The week after, I was looking for a design school: everything changed for me from that day.
Finally, I was doing something that I wanted to do. Something that allowed me to engage with people, communicating with them in a way that was so difficult for me in the past. That’s how I got into design.
[R]oy: I started with my love for Pixar animation studios. It was my life goal when I was little. Going to college, I wanted to take up multimedia arts; I wanted to explore different types of media — photography, video, and graphic design, or web. I really wanted to go in that direction but I was basically forced into studying Computer Science by my parents (which I eventually think was an okay decision).
But when I started working as an engineer, I found myself always talking with designers who were working in the industry ,asking about their experiences, and I just enjoyed learning about what they were doing.
During the later part of my engineering career, I started talking to more UX designers, and formally got mentored through a program in one of my previous jobs. During that time, I was much more interested in the mentorship than my job (lol); because of that, I realized “Okay, I have to start studying this,” and I think that was the start of it — I quit the engineering/infrastructure space, and then started formally studying design, and looked for design jobs after that.
Q: What made you decide to become a designer in Zeals?
[V]: I initially decided to join Zeals as opposed to becoming a designer Zeals, because I met Masa (Zeals CEO) first, and I was just very interested in Zeals. One of the reasons that I joined was that the vision of the company was inspiring and I identified with what they were trying to do. After I joined, that’s when I realized that I’ve made a really good decision because I felt like I had a lot to do, I felt like I could contribute a lot, and it’s kept me motivated. And now, we’ve got to the stage where we have you guys, and we’re looking for more people to join us in the design team and, like I keep saying, we’re trying to make an even bigger impact on the team and the product. And so it’s constantly adding to the motivation that I have, to work in this company as a designer.
[J]: The vision fascinated me, how the company started and where it is going. I discovered Zeals through an article and thought, “Wow, this is awesome!”. So I just sent a message via LinkedIn to Vish, to understand where Zeals was going, and where I wanted to go for my career: I wanted to do something different, Zeals was (and is) doing something different. I saw all the good that the company is doing, and it’s a reflection of the work environment. It is a people, human company. Arrogantly, I think Japan needs more of Zeals’ culture in the tech environment. People can do much more if they are truly happy in the workplace.
[R]: For me, the main reason is, Zeals checked a lot of my boxes during my situation before joining. I’m coming from a consulting company and I always felt a disconnect from the client company’s vision. I can’t fully empathize with them. The time is so limited for one project that there’s only so much that I can do. After one project, I just forget everything and move on to the next one. Consulting is good for gaining experience, but not when you’re looking for that long-term vision, or when you want a team/product that you want to grow with, which is what I was really looking for. The others are just a really big plus — the vision, passionate people, team-centered culture, and everything, just really checked a lot of boxes for me during that time.
Q: How would you describe the current Zeals design team?
[V]: I think we are bursting with potential and ideas. We’re all looking to contribute a lot more to the product, team, department, and the company as a whole. I think it’s also great that you guys are also really interested in communicating with everyone. And that’s the team that I’m hoping to build up — a team that is communicative with a lot of other members in the organization, not just internally. I think we have great communication in the team; we are always keeping up with what each other is doing and I think we’re pretty open with reviews of designs, sharing ideas, and stuff. And I think that’s a really great precedent that we’re setting for the future team.
[J]:We do not settle. It’s exciting how we are building products, and how we collaborate is powerful. It’s possible because we have the same shared ownership mindset; each one of us. In my opinion, the best way to describe our team is the abused quote of Steve Jobs: “Hungry and Foolish”, which I think means not accepting the status quo, challenging it, and aiming to be meaningful. That’s how I see the team right now. I think I’m very lucky.
[R]: What I really like about the team is that everyone cares. “We’re humans first” — I think that’s how everybody here thinks; we’re humans first, designers next, Zeals team members next, and so on. I think that’s so important; in my previous companies, sometimes I feel like the company sees the employees as assets. Whereas here, it’s totally different; I think it’s because of the culture where there’s a lot of focus on “being human”, and I really like that.
Q: What are your aspirations for the future of Zeals design team?
[V]: My vision for this team is that at a more practical level; we are able to autonomously propose ideas for changes to the product. Not everything has to be a business requirement, a request from a client or a PM or anything. We’re able to execute proposed ideas, not just when there’s time, but more intentionally.
As a makeup of people, I see it as a really big team with senior designers, new designers, interns, where we are almost like a company within a company. Also to have people with very different expertise coming in who can help to share some knowledge, and teach others within the team. I hope we can get to a point where Zeals design team is hosting webinars for designers about stuff we created that would make a big impact not just inside the company, but also outside the company as well.
[J]: I think what Vish said is somewhere we are already headed. But, looking far in the future, I see an expanded design team, close to an actual department; it requires lots of effort and time, but we can do that, for sure. Also, I want to see a more shareable design culture that can be accessed and shared with everyone in Zeals, which will allow the creation of a mentorship program.
[V]: There’s one thing I want to add, which is related to what you’re saying — I don’t want to create a culture where people feel a huge gap between being a senior and being a junior designer. I want it to be an integrated kind of team where there’s lively and open communication between everyone.
[R]: For the very short term, it’s about creating awareness for other teams about what the design team really does, and I think it really starts from there. And, yeah, for the mid-term future, it’s the same with you guys; having a bigger team with this solid culture that we really can be proud of, and being able to pass it on to younger designers. And in the really, really far future, what I really want to do is, maybe related to what Vish said, about sharing outside of the company, and also designing for a cause — something that is not for profit, but tackling social issues outside of the company, through design. I think that kind of proves that we’re really mature as a design team, where we can contribute to society. I know it’s a long shot but it’s really cool if we can get to that point.
Q: Do you have any thing else to say to whoever is thinking of joining the design team?
[V]: I guess one thing which is that I think it’s really fun working in Zeals, I think especially it’s really fun working in this team. As intense as it may seem about how we talk about people; how we’re emotionally invested in the work and caring, that is, I think, a sign of how much fun that we have, because we’re able to do so. So if you are interested in working at Zeals as a designer or anything like that, then, Yeah, don’t hesitate to apply.
[J]: I agree with Vish! If you are starting now in design or if you want to change your career in design this is the right company to do it. And if you’re an experienced designer, you can teach us!
[R]: I’m not lying when I say this is probably the best work environment I’ve had so far. So that says a lot. It’s a really good place to join as a designer, too. If you like a challenge, and motivated, this is a really good place to be. And I think the whole team is very supportive with each other.
If you’re interested, please click on the link below or apply, so we can share more details about Zeals!
