This personal learning story was originally posted on my Twitter in Indonesian 👉🏻 Link to thread & on my personal website 👉🏻 Link to website.

Seeing @IndoWorkAbroad’s tweet yesterday about giving compliments, it makes me think and reflect on the situation I’ve been through for half a year here. Then I thought, “Yes, too, just small things are complimented here.” I will share a little story about this.

🧵 Giving and how to react to a compliment 👇🏻

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I looked back and reflected, I personally rarely to give received a compliment when I was working in Indonesia. Even to @_zahraul my closest partner in various projects on my previous company.‍

And in my previous company too, my lead also likes to compliment the team that just finished presenting to BOD. But still, when I remembered, it feels like the team are still sometimes confused about how to react to a compliment, and resulted in just reading the compliment without reacting to it.‍

Maybe because if you use Indonesian, it’s awkward, right? Such as “hey, you’re doing a great job!” so “Hey, km melakukan pekerjaan yg sangat baik” Idk but yeah it shouldn’t be that formal anyway.‍

When I think about it again, I rarely do this (giving and receiving compliments) during work. And here, people don’t hesitate to praise other people’s efforts.‍

Before writing this, I was scrolling through the Slack chat in my office to see how other people give compliments and receive compliments, here’s a summary of what I got and hopefully useful:

• Be authentic
• Be Specific
• Communicate the impact‍

Be Authentic

Praise if they deserve to be praised. If the intention is not genuine, the compliment too. Praise for small or simple points is also okay. In fact, several times people here praise as simple as the new hairstyles of other people.‍

Be Specific

“This is great!” — what’s great?

“I really like your solution!” — why do you like it?

“You’re doing a good job!” — on what and why?‍

The details and context of why we give compliments are also important, so the recipient also knows why we give compliments. It’s not just nonsense.‍

This is also what people in the office often do. When they get a positive impact from what other people are doing, they will definitely give praise and say thanks, such as “Thank you for handling this, your work makes my project easier because…”‍

How to react to a compliment

- Keep it simple
- Share compliments to people who work together with you
- Don’t turn down a compliment

Again, this is based on my office mate and I’m trying to summarize the pattern, the breakdown is below:‍

Keep it Simple

Yes, it’s simple, “Thank you!” or “Thank you, I appreciate the compliment” or “Thank you, it means a lot to me” etc etc‍

Share compliments to people who work together with you

If you do something together with other people, when you get a compliment, share it with your colleagues. For example “Thank you! I did this together with … , he did great research that supported my design”‍

Don’t turn down a compliment

Usually, Indonesian people are like “uh, you’re beautiful”, the answer is “ah no, you’re more beautiful” Haha. In here, people rarely turn down a compliment, on average, it’s answered simply like above. Just enjoy the achievements that you have done.‍

That’s a summary of what I experienced on the office slack channel. I sometimes forget to react to a compliment too. If there is another talk under the compliment, I usually respond directly to other words below it. 😅

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End of Thread. Thanks for Reading.

Don’t forget to follow my Twitter & visit my website to read my weekly personal learnings. Hope it can be an insight for you too.

This personal learning story was originally posted on my Twitter in Indonesian 👉🏻 Link to thread & on my personal website 👉🏻 Link to website.

As the only designer in my pillar, which consists of 11 squads with 12+ PMs, apart from the project-level meetings, most of my meetings here are 1on1. Because of that, these are the points that I feel are the most appropriate to discuss on 1on1.

🧵 Having a better one-on-ones 👇🏻

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Personally, I often use this 1on1 session to build trust and get closer personally, especially to PMs.

And, tend to avoid talking about projects. Because there is already weekly/bi-weekly check-in to talk about the project with the full team.‍

So, What are we talking about in 30 minutes? Usually this:

• What was interesting in the past week (to get to know more each other, build trust)
• Focus on things that cannot be discussed in large forums (barriers, blockers, personal feedback, etc.)
• Just talk about the project when there is still time (optional)‍

The above format that I personally feel is good for 1on1 so far. But the purpose of 1on1 is better to discuss with the person, so from the beginning define and agree together about the purpose of 1on1.‍

1. What was interesting in the past week

I put this out early because it’s for ice-breaking. What’s interesting can be anything, usually something personal and outside of work. Just casual chat. Even I like to ask questions about my curiosity about the behavior of the Japanese people directly to the Japanese people, haha‍

2. Things you can’t talk about in large forums

Now, this is actually the main part of the 1on1 session that I’m looking for. Remove blockers or barriers, which can be helped by them.

Can talk from high-level issues to micro-level issues, according to the person that we talked with. The key is to talk about what we can’t talk about elsewhere.

In the last 3 months, I got a new colleague so now there are 2 designers on my team. I also focus on that when having a 1on1 with him, trying to help him remove barriers and unblock things. And try to provide support in high-level and micro-level issues.‍

3. If you still have time, then talk about the project

This is rare for me. But if I still have time, I usually use it for Nemawashi. Look for help when I present and get initial feedback for something I’m working on. So it’s good when I have to present it in the larger forum because it’s already quietly laying the foundation on this step.‍

And, what my lead always asks at the end of our 1on1 session what I like the most is: “what can I do for you this week, my friend?” So you can ask for anything related to work, from asking for work device support, for example, to asking to be connected to XFN leadership to chat.

A good 1on1 can be our investment as designers to build trust and smooth out our work later. It also eliminates the awkwardness because we often share personal stories, which can finally make us relax and share about blockers at the office without feeling uncomfortable.

Lastly, considering the habit of working in Indonesia, when you call, you rarely open the camera. Try to get used to opening it at 1on1, so it’s really like talking to humans. Even the work situation can become a conversation like “Hey, where are you? How come it’s such a great place” etc.

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End of Thread. Thank you for reading.

Don’t forget to follow my Twitter & visit my website to read my weekly personal learnings. Hope it can be an insight for you too.

At every level in life, I believe we felt an Imposter Syndrome at least once. This is a list of how I overcome this situation.

This personal learning story was originally posted on my Twitter in Indonesian 👉🏻 Link to thread & on my personal website 👉🏻 Link to website.

At every level in life, I believe we felt an Imposter Syndrome at least once. I myself, when I moved to my current office, I experienced the highest imposter in my life.

My personal experience on overcoming imposter syndrome at work 👇🏻

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Why is it the highest? The problem is because I’m risking my own family, I was thinking “what if I don’t pass the probation period, what will my family eat if I don’t pass the probation, what will be the other responsibilities” and other worries as well.‍

Now in this 6th month, the imposter has started to disappear and I began to be able to solve it if the imposter appears again, it’s also written down on my notes, so I just want to spill my personal notes here.‍

1. Don’t feel inferior

You are here (wherever you are right now) for a reason. So that’s okay, just embrace it. When I wanted to resign, I was speaking to Yoel, my previous lead, then I said “I’m afraid I didn’t pass the probation, because my colleagues seemed to be good, etc.”‍

Then he said “It’s true that Indonesian people always feel inferior when they are working together with foreign people, even though there are a lot of them is also “Goblok”, take it easy, in average we can compete with them.” And it turns out that it’s true, on average, we can really compete.‍

2. Over-communicating

In a positive context, yes. This is also a message from my lead at my current company when I just joined, he said “It’s ok to be over-communicating, so you can learn and know faster”.‍

As someone who always feels shy, it’s hard to do this in the beginning. But in the end, I was forced to. Finally, in my early months, there were a lot of 1on1 with stakeholders in charge of a project. I have asked many questions in big forums, such as the product team, squad, or the design team itself.‍

Don’t hesitate to ask questions in the big forums. It can be through a group chat, or also during a meeting together. Sometimes the imposter exists because we don’t have the courage to just ask, so it plays in our own minds. Better just confirm it.‍

3. If you don’t know, then say don’t know

Rarely do this because it’s scary to be called (or is considered) stupid. In fact, there’s nothing more liberating than admitting that we don’t know something, or don’t know how to do something. So that someone will let you know.‍

After I said I don’t know, try finding out. And of course, after telling I don’t know, people who know will tell you. Acknowledging this won’t make other people lose respect for us.‍

4. Just focus on your own business

Compare yourself with other people who usually trigger this imposter. So it’s better to just “get shit done”. Do your own thing. Always love the words “You should look up for inspiration, not comparison.”‍

Sometimes I myself mostly care too much about what other people are doing, but my own business isn’t over yet. So, just finish your own business well, ask for feedback from someone you trust, then look for anything else that can be improved.‍

Actually, if it’s not too much, I think it’s a good thing to feel an imposter, so I can continue to improve because I feel like it’s not enough. But in a reasonable corridor, not too much.

No matter how much you know, there’s always more to learn.

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End of Thread. Thank you for reading.

Don’t forget to follow my Twitter & visit my website to read my weekly personal learnings. Hope it can be an insight for you too.

My personal experience on getting trust from the team and having a good partnership with them

This personal learning story was originally posted on my Twitter in Indonesian 👉🏻 Link to thread & on my personal website 👉🏻 Link to website.

When I first joined, I was the first designer on my team. For a company that has been in existence for 9 years, my team has never had a designer, at first it was difficult to get the trust to involve me and tell that they could get other benefits apart from the visual output, of course.

🧵 My personal experience on getting a seat at the table 👇🏻

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As a newcomer and the first designer on the team, I used to think I couldn’t come right away, like “hey everyone, please involve me!”. If you want to be involved, you have to get trust first. To get trust, you have to show example and impact first.

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So in the beginning, what I did in the first 4–5 months were this:

- Having conversations and learning the team’s current workflow
- Present about what our responsibilities and the benefit of having us
- Show, don’t tell

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1. Having conversations and learning the team’s current workflow

When I joined, the first 1 month I didn’t open Figma at all. Every day there are really just talking to the squad or 1on1. In my pillar, there are 11 squads, 12+ PMs, 6 Squad leads, 40 Engineers + DS. Not everyone is invited to chat, but it’s possible to talk a lot in the first month.

In these sessions, I focus on asking and listening, don’t forget to introduce myself. The question I ask more often: “what works? what doesn’t? what can be improved? what can I help you?”. If you still have time, just ask about the projects you are working on, the challenges, the goals, the barriers/blockers.‍

2. Present about what our responsibilities and the benefit of having us

After getting insights about the team, I myself listed the problems which are designer scopes and which are not. For designer scope, I’ll try to propose in the presentation, then what’s not in my scope is just a suggestion.

Because the goal is “get a seat at the table”, and to introduce specifically what the designer’s role is to the team (not everyone knows what the responsibilities of a product designer are) so I present this to the all-hands team:

Background of our objective

The contents include what background we usually do, what are our objectives, where is our working area, what is our scope of work.

Why is it important to involve designers at the beginning?

This was the root problem in my team in the past because for 9 years the company was founded there has never been a designer so the workflow is also used to being without a designer. Not a few projects that have been released have been taken down so far.

They are used to relying on data only. Whereas “to have an impact, numbers need stories and vice versa”

Goals and examples of success

Let them know what our goal is, what root problem we want to solve. At the same time, tell them about success examples when we worked together to build a product.

Examples of success here I use 2 types, internal and external.
External is my previous work. Internally, I asked for the work of a designer from another team to be shown.

Let them know what we want

Finally, let’s go straight to the point, what do we want and which project will we try for the initial stage.

3. Show, don’t tell

This is when it’s running when you already have an output and outcome for what you’re doing. What I do:
- Show what I’m working on (design, research report, plan, etc) bi-weekly/monthly on Slack
- Booking a slot in monthly all-hands to present an impact
- Initiate the quarterly design newsletter in the team

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After all of that, now is improved already. There have been many PMs who consulted before making plans, I have been involved in many planning meetings and even involved in making SYP (single year plan) 2022 now.

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End of Thread. Thank you for reading.

Don’t forget to follow my Twitter & visit my website to read my weekly personal learnings. Hope it can be an insight for you too.

Getting a seat at the table was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This personal learning story was originally posted on my Twitter in Indonesian 👉🏻 Link to thread & on my personal website 👉🏻 Link to website.

Disclaimer: This story is not representing all of the Japanese Companies. This is only my personal experience in my current company which is based in Tokyo, Japan. There might be differences with others.

One thing that makes the most difference when working at JP and ID (at least at my current company) is effectiveness and punctuality. Want to share a bit about it and how I adjust it to a new habit.

Here, there are rarely meetings that are longer than 30 minutes. Meetings with a duration of 60–90 minutes, only on company-wide meetings such as Global All Hands or Pillar-level All Hands. Even in some cases, there are meetings that are only 15 minutes long.

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And here, people are super punctual. The meeting is at 09.00, and people are already in the meeting room by 08.58. When Finished at 09.30, really finished at that time. How could that be? This is my short analysis:

1. Write the agenda in the description of the calendar invitation

This is important, I just realized now that this is quite important. Every time you are invited to a meeting, the description is very complete, from the link notion, related documents, until the Figma links, etc. are all attached there.

So before the meeting, everyone is well-informed about what will be discussed. So when the meeting starts, we directly discuss the main point, don’t need to explain the context again.

2. Stick to the agenda

While here, it feels like there has never been another discussion outside the agenda written on the invitation. So the scheduled 30 minutes is really used to discuss the written agenda. What if there is another discussion? Usually, we schedule another meeting or discuss it via the Slack channel.

3. People On-time

This is very important. It’s a simple word, but it’s hard to do it. I myself have always been strict about the time with myself. Pandji Pragiwaksono said: “It’s not that I don’t want to wait for the late one, but respect who came on time”‍

Being on time here is not only a matter of arriving but also a matter of finishing. Because if it’s too late, it will have an impact on the next agenda/meeting, right?‍

I experienced this once. In my first month here, I wanted to present a design, but I was long-winded because there was no preparation. After 30 minutes, it was cut and the meeting ended and continued with slack. Yes, simply because “respect who came on time” in their next meeting.‍

The things above, have a huge impact on my personal productivity. For example, there are 4 30-minute meetings in a day, the total meeting is only 2 hours. There are still 6 hours left for focus time. So far, the most meetings in a day are only 5.‍

Here is my meeting statistic from google calendar, in average I just have almost 2 hours of meetings per day‍.

So, now, how’s my adaptation? Here is:‍

1. Make daily planning & goals

Actually, a lot of people have told me to do this, but I’m just doing it here myself. At the same time, learn to be strict with the plan too: When should you focus time, when can you have relaxed time (youtube, random browsing, etc.), when having meetings. And who do you want to follow up with?

2. Make an outline if you want to make a presentation

Until now, I still make this. I really wrote what I wanted to say. The advantage is that I can know if this is effective or not, or long-winded? Isn’t 30 minutes enough? I’m also able to trim things that aren’t to the point.

3. Write the agenda on the calendar invitation

Because I feel the benefits of this, I also try to write an invitation with an agenda that I want to discuss. And also include links to related files so that there are no 5 minutes wasted just to share the links in the google meet chat.

So, the 30-minute meeting is very doable and very effective. During this time when there is no barrier between work and life, this 30-minute meeting habit is really good for me.

That’s all. Seems simple but I’ve never done it when I was in Indonesia. It turns out that the impact is quite large & great. Every day always finishes on time, there is no overtime. At least this is what I saw in the design team. I’ve never seen anyone working overtime so far.

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End of thread. Thanks for reading!

Don’t forget to follow my Twitter & visit my website to read my weekly personal learnings. Hope it can be an insight for you too.

This personal learning story was originally posted on my Twitter in Indonesian 👉🏻 Link to thread & on my personal website 👉🏻 Link to website.

During my first 4 months in a Japanese Company, I adjust my design style quite a lot. Because, what good means for Indonesian is a bit different from what good means for Japanese people. I once did a Concept Test for my design and several users called it “unclear” 🥲

I try to summarize some of what I learned here 👇🏻

#1 — Information must be clear

The reason why my design is called “unclear” by the user is because my design is too clean and minimalist. Which is my assumption if in Indonesia is fine when making it that way. So I’m making items cards like that on a screen.

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In my design, I only show the product name, price (+ discount), and seller’s name. Meanwhile, many users ask for review info, the amount purchased, how many eligible coupons are there for that item. They also think it’s important to put the shipping cost upfront, so if the cost doesn’t match, they don’t need to open PDP.

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And when I take a look at the local eCommerce, there is really a lot of information in one product card 😅

My hypothesis is, yes they don’t mind reading as long as they get clear information before deciding to go ahead. Whether it’s buying goods, reading the news, or whatever.‍

I once said, Information is very important for Japanese people, it is also proven from the difference between Marie Kondo Global & Marie Kondo Japan youtube thumbnails 👇🏻

Again? Here is the Ant-man movie poster that is localized to the Japanese market. The difference between global movie poster & Japan movie poster 👇🏻

#2 — Information > Image

Continued from the previous point, because they don’t mind reading something long. As long as it is clear for them. Pictures are not the main content to trigger people to click, in the context of my work: trigger to read the news.‍

One great example, Let’s see the design made by yahoo designers to localize their designs for the Japanese market and compare them with the yahoo Indonesia version 👇🏻

Even in the Japan design version, new/trending news, just use text, there are no pictures at all 😅

While in Indonesia, we usually use a big picture to trigger it to read the article, don’t forget to add the clickbait title 😝

#3 — Color Psychology

This is also quite unique. The most obvious is the Red. In Japan, red is associated with Boldness or Positivity. Meanwhile, in my experience, Red in Indonesia is for emphasis errors or warnings.‍

A great example of localizing again, Rakuten Japan vs Rakuten Europe.
In Rakuten Japan, everything related to SALE or promo, using red. While in Europe, use orange or blue.👇🏻

Even at my office, red is the color of the main channel, which is トップ チャネル. The red color is also the color of something that must be noticed, such as coupons, notifications, etc.

#4 — Relevancy

I don’t think it’s only in Japan, but wherever relevance is important, it should be. But here, I have to adjust the relevance from the Japanese user’s point of view.‍

Why? Because if you see the population continues to decrease in Japan from year to year (+covid in last 2 yr). Users aged 40 years and above are more than users aged 40 years and below. 👇🏻

What is relevant to us, is not necessarily relevant to them. That’s why I sometimes try to do surveys, interviews and sometimes chat with colleagues who are originally from Japan. So that I can at least guess what is relevant to them. Where the project that I’m working on should be “Give a Recommendation”.‍

And most of them often read the channel まとめ, aka Humor.

It’s a little less relevant if I offering an apple watch to a 75-year-old person who is reading a humorous article.‍

End of Thread. Thanks for reading!

Don’t forget to follow my Twitter & visit my website to read my weekly personal learnings. Hope it can be an insight for you too.

This personal learning story was originally posted on my Twitter in Indonesian 👉🏻 Link to thread & on my personal website 👉🏻 Link to website.

This week, I feel that I can understand this cross-cultural team more and get a lot of insights as well. Just because I tried to throw one simple question on 1on1: “What good means for you?”👇🏻

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“What good means for you” here can be widened to “what good means for business”, “what good means for users”, etc etc, depending on who we are talking to and what context.

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And for some people, when asked “what good means for you?” the answer is not only what is good for/according to him, but in the end, he explains the intent of something he wants to make, in this context, for example, projects/features in his squad.

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Behind the “good or bad” of something, there must be a reason why it looks like that. For example, the “good” aesthetic according to the US is clean and minimal, while the “good” aesthetic of Japan is bold, colorful, and provoking. For example, the difference between Marie Kondo JP & Global youtube thumbnails 👇

And, getting “the reasons of why they look that way” is very useful for me to do or decide something. At least this week.

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Then, I did not only asking, but I also tell them “what good means for me”, this is equally important. Make expectations aligned. Without a clear understanding of what is good, bad can come out of nowhere.

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In fact, when we make decisions, we as designers balance the intent of stakeholders (business) and users (goals & problems) right? Well, I’ll try to add what they believed to be “good” also.

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So it may be possible to split between “looking good” and “being good”. As Abby Covert said: “pretty things can be useless, and ugly things can be useful. Beauty and quality are not always related”

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By asking “what good means for you” earlier, I personally feel like I can try to give balanced attention to “looking good” and “being good”.

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Because from what I experienced when I was asked that, people always answered “good” from the point of view of “looking good” and “being good”. If it doesn’t how it looks, it’s about how it performed.

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So, hopefully, I can produce output that is not only useful but also looks good.‍

End of Thread. Thank you for reading!

Don’t forget to follow my Twitter & visit my website to read my weekly personal learnings. Hope it can be an insight for you too.

“What good means for you?” was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.