What I Do:
User experience is fundamental to anything involving people. Whether it is a phone app, a website, a night in a hotel or managing a bank account, all these involve an element of human interaction. Coming from a diverse background in product design, branding and entrepreneurship, making products user-friendly and exploring new and exciting ways to deliver and differentiate them is what I do. I approach my work investigating many questions about people, technology and business to frame problems and explore opportunities to solve them. I then use a hybrid set of business and creative skills to construct an ultimate design and business plan to make it happen.
My Story:
Originally from Tokyo I was brought up in an expat family and grew up between Japan, Italy and Belgium. After graduating with a degree in Information Design from Bentley University in Boston (2008), I started my career as a project manager in New York City working in a boutique Italian ad agency (De Plano Group) helping Italian clients gain exposure in the U.S. In the midst of the recession, I decided to pursue my life long dream of becoming an inventor and moved to the Netherlands in 2010 for a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design at Delft University of Technology. During my time there, I co-founded a social impact startup in 2012 with the aim to create a sustainable packaging solution for beverages. This took me on a 3 year journey including one year in an accelerator (MassChallenge) learning the hardships and joys of running a startup. Although we ultimately failed there was a lot I gained including learning how to sell, network and manage stakeholder at a high level. Being surrounded by other entrepreneurs I was also inspired by new things happening in digital and tech. With this new found interest, I decided to take a UX design intensive at General Assembly in June 2015 to get involved! If there were three words that describe me they would be (1) Adaptable, (2) Diplomatic and (3) Ambitious. Some things I enjoy outside of work include reading up on anything science, hunting for the best burger in town and traveling.
Fun Facts:
I speak English, Italian and Japanese fluently, and am proficient in Spanish and French
I was a competitive swimmer for 12 years
I’ve lived in: Tokyo > Los Angeles > Tokyo > Brussels > Rome > Boston > New York City > Delft (NL) > Cincinnati > Boston > New York City