On July 18, 2020 (Saturday), we held an online workshop “Proposal of new Jobkan services” with IT company Donuts Co., Ltd. Mr. Shin Negishi (Donuts Co., Ltd. / Co-Founder / Director) participated, and 20 doctoral students from 8 universities gathered from all over the country to propose a new service for the cloud service "Jobcan" that supports back office operations. I had a discussion for
Date: Saturday, July 18, 2020, 13:00-18:00
Method: Zoom meeting
Lecturer: Shin Negishi (Donuts Co., Ltd./Co-Founder/Director)
Organizer: Ph.Discover / Hokkaido University Ambitious Leader's Program Fostering Future Leaders to Open New Frontiers in Materials Science
Co-sponsored by: Donuts Co., Ltd. / Faculty of Science Hokkaido University University
Cooperation: Akarik Co., Ltd.
昨年度までは東京会場に全国から大学院生が集まり起業家体験もできる、課題解決型ワークショップ「アカリク式PBL」(主催:株式会社アカリク)が実施されていました。しかし、今年は新型コロナウィルス感染症拡大の影響を受け、初のオンラインでの実施を実験的に行いました。大学院生たちは、初めてモニター越しに顔をあわせることになり、はじめは不安を感じながらのスタートとなりました。
Valuing an environment in which opinions can be freely exchanged
First, Mr. Negishi, who was involved in research on intelligent systems at the Graduate School of Tokyo Institute of Technology, introduced himself, introduced Donuts, and explained the Job Can business. It seems that he was interested in entrepreneurship because he was studying data science and machine learning from the time of research. After completing his master's degree, Nishimura joined DeNA Co., Ltd. in 2004 as one of the first new graduates. Founded Donuts Co., Ltd. with Keisei. Currently, we are mainly focused on four fields in the IT field: SaaS (Software as a Service) business, game business, media business, and medical business. He has launched various businesses, but he seems to be working on it as if he were starting a business each time. In doing so, it is important to maintain an environment where team members can express their opinions freely. It is precisely because of this corporate culture that I have been able to witness many times how a breakthrough is born even when faced with difficulties.
The theme of this workshop is to propose a new service for the SaaS business "Jobcan". Initially, it started as an attendance management service. Various tasks occur in so-called back-office operations, such as coming to work, leaving work, business trips, vacations, and year-end adjustments, but the same tasks tend to be repeated. Therefore, "Jobkan" is a system that automates those tasks and puts them into the system as a product. By adding various services, UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) have been evaluated and used by many companies. In general, decision-making in a company or institution requires the approval of a superior, and the decision-making process is usually carried out by collecting the seals of each person in charge on documents. On the other hand, at Jobkan, such procedures are automated by the system, and it seems that it is also possible to approve with a smartphone.
After introducing and explaining the above services, Mr. Negishi asked graduate students, "Please organize your job information based on the 3Cs (market: customer, competitor: competitor, company: company), and propose new products and services. ” was presented.
Group work by three teams using Zoom + Miro started
After the graduate students were divided into three groups from A to B, group work to test teamwork began. Because it's online, breaking the ice is important for the team to hit it off. In order to familiarize themselves with using Miro, each team introduced themselves by writing their name, hobby, and purpose (what they wanted to achieve through the workshop) on sticky notes. After that, we proceed with the work of putting together a proposal for a new business in two hours with a break in between. The results of that discussion are presented below.
Team A: Utilization of data accumulated in job cans and collaboration between job can users
JobKan is primarily a tool for improving the efficiency of corporate back offices, but it also offers services in various fields such as attendance management, workflow management, accounting, labor, and recruitment. Therefore, we thought about supporting business improvement from the data obtained from those back-office operations. It is an image of respecting the policies of individual companies, adding a function to output processed data that is easy to handle, and using that data by companies. In addition, as a back-office management support tool, JobKan currently has a track record of installation in more than 0,000 companies. Therefore, we would like to further increase Jobcan's share in the industry and propose a service that can be used by Jobcan users. It is a smooth business management service between companies, including sole proprietors, conscious of working styles that are becoming more flexible.
Team B: Providing customizable job-specific business efficiency programs
The weak point of the current job can is that it is a service that can be used in any industry, so there are cases where unnecessary services are included depending on the industry. Having a variety of services is an advantage, but at the same time, there is a risk that it will become complicated and troublesome for users. Therefore, by preparing job-specific services, it may be possible to respond to even more detailed needs than before. Furthermore, by allowing each company to customize the functions they need, it is thought that they will be able to respond flexibly when expanding or shrinking their business.
Team C: Introduction of a new evaluation axis based on the premise of diversification of work styles
With the spread of working from home, there are concerns that the evaluation criteria for attendance management will become unclear. In response to this problem, I would like to propose a project that allows JobKan to provide consulting while presenting an evaluation system. During the workshop, discussions were held on the axis of evaluation that should be created, how to use the data held by each company, and evaluation standards. As a new system/product, we would like to propose the introduction of delivery dates, the degree of achievement of self-set goals, and external evaluations.
Novelty is as important in entrepreneurship as it is in research
3チームの提案が発表され、根岸さんから各チームへの評価とアドバイスがありました。「慣れない環境でおつかれさまでした。2時間でアウトプットする作業はリアルな現場でも大変ですが、実はこのような作業の繰り返しをビジネスの世界ではいつもやっています。制約条件はつきものです。今回のワークショップを通じて、新規事業の提案が研究と似ていることに気づいていただけたのではないでしょうか。基本的な知識であったりSurvey(サーベイ)であったり、議論するための胆力、人間力が試されます。今回みなさんの発表を聞いていて良かったことは、時代の趨勢を踏まえた提案が多かったことです。Aチームはデータ活用、それはSaaSにおけるトレンドです。Bチームの業種に特化させる提案は重要なことだと考えており、それを「バーティカルSaaS」と呼んでいます。特定の業種をカスタマイズさせることは弊社も議論している最中でした。Cチームは、コロナ禍の影響もありテレワーク、リモートワークが広がっている中、実績評価の手法は課題になってきているので参考になりました。研究と同様に、新規性は起業においてとても重要です。でも、新しいものをつくって自己満足するだけではダメです。サービスを買ってくれるお客様の共感を得ることが重要になります。さらに、みなさんに助言をするなら、課題を明確にすること、つまり何が改善されるのかを具体的にしていくことを意識してください。そういった姿勢は投資家にも響きますし、ジョブ型評価は各社異なりますが、深く調査していくことで、さらに具体的な提案ができるかもしれません。今日はあっという間に過ぎてしまいましたので、またみなさんと議論する機会を持ちたいです。どうもありがとうございました。みなさんのこれからの活躍に期待しています。」
participant
Wu Jiayi (Hokkaido University Graduate School of Environmental Science Department of Environmental and Material Science)
Sayuki Oka (Hokkaido University Graduate School of Environmental Science Department of Environmental and Material Science)
Yoshimi Kato (Hokkaido UniversityGraduate School of Life Science Life Sciences)
Noe Kawamoto (Hokkaido UniversityGraduate School of Science Mathematics Major)
Yuhei Kumagai (Department of Hokkaido UniversityGraduate School of Life Science Life Sciences)
Zhu Ruijie (Hokkaido University Graduate School Chemical Sciences and Engineering Department of Integrated Chemistry)
Takumi Kayahara (Hokkaido UniversityGraduate School of Science Mathematics Major)
Eiki Tomita (Department of Hokkaido UniversityGraduate School of Life Science Life Sciences)
12 others
*
Kosui Horiuchi (Hokkaido UniversityFaculty of Science URA/Ph.Discover Cooperating Professor)
Tamako Otsu (Associate Professor Hokkaido UniversityFaculty of Science / Ph.Discover Instructor)