Four years of always looking for ways to help customers succeed. He’s kept the same spirit since the company’s early days to create the ES team of today. [Takehiro Yamasaki]

He created the PMO at a major systems integrator and joined WOVN when there were only 10 members.
We asked him about how he usually helps customers succeed, and how the current ES (Enterprise Success) team came to be.

Takehiro Yamasaki / Enterprise Success Manager
July 2017: Joined WOVN
He joined a mid-sized systems integrator company right after graduating. After that, he was transferred when the business was sold to a major trade-related systems integrator company. In the past, he’s headed the PMO (project management office), development, quality control, and organization management of the base system construction projects at major food manufacturers and major convenience store chains.
At WOVN, he’s in charge of the Customer Success section of the ES team. To help improve productivity and quality within the company through the Business Improvements Project, he also created the Service Enablement section.

As a student, I focused on blaming myself and compromising

My friend during high school named Goto-kun used to say, “If something gets dropped, trampled on, and breaks, the person who dropped it is at fault.” That mindset stuck with me and became the basis for how I went through life.
If my point didn’t get across to someone, it was my fault. This is where I started to blame myself.

I had a very set way of thinking and wouldn’t budge if I thought something should be a certain way, but when I met my now wife in university, my ideas on food, clothing, and lifestyle were all directly challenged, which caused my personality to change. I learned how to compromise.
I’m still stubborn, but now it’s about “finding some common ground” instead of my old style of “just pushing my way of thinking” on the other person.
If the other person’s opinion makes sense and me not correcting the issue will cause friction, I’ll try to meet them halfway. I’m now able to accept advice from third parties. I’ve become a grown up.

Bankruptcy! That sense of urgency has led to my current style

Two jobs ago my company collapsed, and I remember feeling like I was in great danger.
Even though I managed the PMO for a systems integrator, I didn’t have a specific skill set, so I couldn’t put much down on my resume in terms of actual figures or knowing C#, etc. So I hit the books and studied about business skills, programming, and systems.

I still use two of the methods I learned while studying these topics as tools to help organize my thoughts.
The first method is to picture a task flow at the monthly level. The second method is to compile my thoughts in a mind map. I don’t think I would have gained these current business skills if not for that crisis.

Changing jobs added color to my world

The company on the verge of bankruptcy ended up being sold to a major systems integrator company that had tens of thousands of employees, and I worked on a wide variety of jobs as the PMO, focusing on work requests from existing clients.

My boss was starting a company and invited me to join, but I ended up changing jobs because I wanted to see the outside world for myself.
I only knew about my own company and customers, so when I was introduced to a whole new world of SaaS and startups, I remember seeing a world full of hope and potential.
I started thinking I’d like to try my hand working at a blue ocean company, and that’s when I found WOVN. I joined in July 2017 at the age of 34.

During the interview process, we had a lot of deep discussions about how to further scale business at WOVN. I was also asked a lot about the “visible productivity and quality” style I had implemented at my previous job, and I remember getting excited and overwhelmed about having such serious conversations at the interview level.

Is it not the department that designed CS with the biggest impact? The four years of CS so far

I noticed when I was working in PMO, but customers tend to directly thank the people who handled the smaller tasks and provided a work-friendly environment even more than the developers themselves.

That’s why I think that CS, which gets close to the customers and can create designs that let customers see results, has the biggest impact, which makes everything worth it in the end.

In 2017, CS had its hands full just responding to inquiries

When I first joined, Shoji-san (who is now a product manager) and I were the customer support team. The two of us had to respond to all of the customers’ inquiries and needs.
We had to direct them to the website’s Help section as well as manage those pages. There weren’t as many feature options as there are now, so we were making feature settings based on customers’ requests.

Becoming an enterprise-focused SaaS helped the CS team to shine

When WOVN became more enterprise-focused and WOVN PRIME came out in 2018, the CS team increased to 3 people. This period marked the beginnings of the current CS team, as we helped customers with integration, explained how to use things, and developed a more proposal-based style.

First, we visited 30-40 customers to hold discussions and offer proposals.
We learned that website localization was just one tool out of many, and that just localizing was enough. That’s how things sounded. So, our proposals would just end with “We see.” We got interested at things on a larger scale, thinking “Does this company not consult about foreigner-targeted strategies?” and realized how limited the scope was of what we could provide. I also felt impatient with the CS team.

Our job at CS was still “creating logic that leads to customer success.” Instead of lowering our standards of success, I applied the logic of “what do we really want?” to our team’s road map and we acted based on that.

Major companies keep on coming. From CS to ES (Enterprise Success)

As our services expanded, more major corporations began integrating WOVN, and at the beginning of 2019, our team’s name changed to “Enterprise Success (ES).” We began account management-related activities, including upselling.
I talked with the members, and to increase user satisfaction levels, we focused heavily on improving the UX during integration, which is when customers interact with WOVN the most. Our mindset of “creating the best onboarding experience” was born then.

Inspire customers before integration for smoother customer success

Thankfully, we now have Field Sales (FS) to handle pre-integration and Onboarding to handle integration, so customers can get a better understanding and have specific goals when it comes to localization.
The feel now is completely different from our visits a few years ago. Questions about how to use the service and operational support have increased, and I feel that customers are more aware of this customer success-focused style.

I feel like we especially strengthened ties with the FS and Product teams to bring our ideas to the table to brush up on what “helping customers succeed with localization” should look like.

Customers, the company, and products. How I can contribute because of my history

The ES department is split into Onboarding, Customer Support, and CS teams, and while I manage the CS team, I also helped create the UI/UX and Service Enablement teams and work with them as well.

At CS, we have a “WOVN CARE” followup pamphlet that gets sent to customers so we can stay in touch through visits and other ways. One reason for sending this report each quarter is to continually create ways to stay in touch.

Because CS is involved with both customers and our products on a daily basis, I think we can shape how people see WOVN. I want to find solutions that both sides can call a win-win.
At CS, I believe it’s our job to think of what WOVN should be doing so that customers can come back and say they were glad they chose WOVN.

The UI/UX team regularly looks at localized websites, checking the translations and for layout issues. This service was recently added to WOVN CARE to help customers achieve the best results, being 90% technology and 10% human powered.

I’d wanted to try out service enablement since before joining, and things are finally getting started.
As new members join, individual formatting quirks and work styles come out, increasing the factors that lead to inefficiency. We’ll do our best to make a work-friendly environment, to standardize materials for outside companies and our naming system, to create rules, and manage workflows, putting internal regulations in place to make the company more efficient and harmonious as a whole.
CS and UI/UX are customer focused, while Service Enablement focuses on internal matters.

I’ve watched over WOVN since its early days, so the thoughts and desires of founders Mr. Hayashi and Mr. Uemori, as well as former co-founder Jeff, have rubbed off on me. It’s hard to put into words, but the focus is to be simple, minimal, and global...designing services without losing that spirit might just be the key. I want to keep being a key member who can say with confidence that “This is just how WOVN should be.”

To everyone at WOVN

ES is the team that connects customers, the company, and our products, which is why I think we understand the uniqueness of WOVN’s services best. Even if something seems irrelevant at a glance, please share your thoughts and talk with ES.

ES is actively sharing information about customers and WOVN’s unique services, so let’s work together to make our company into one where we can openly ask “What ARE the services at WOVN?”

To all future WOVN members

Our company is product focused, but WOVN is not complete until both the product and service are shared, and ES is in charge of providing that service.
ES isn’t the supporting beam of WOVN, it IS WOVN.

We are involved with numerous stakeholders and deal with a wide array of work. We get to experience a lot of things unique to our department and can learn from that, making us the best fit for you, don’t you think?
Can’t wait to meet you all!

Book introduction

Here are the books mentioned during the interview.

“The Laws of Simplicity” by John Maeda, Translated by Shinobu Onizawa (Toyo Keizai Inc.)