Goodpatch Anywhere uses Scrapbox to support a remote team of 60

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Goodpatch Inc., is a design service consultancy specializing in UI / UX.

With UI / UX design as their strength, Goodpatch are engaged in a wide range of services from startups to large companies, including new businesses and design renewals.

In 2018, the company established a new organization called “Goodpatch Anywhere” that performs client work remotely. It embodies their new design team's next-generation work style.

Scrapbox is currently one of the essential tools for Goodpatch Anywhere. What are some cases where you are using Scrapbox?

We interviewed Mr. Keita Saito, head of Goodpatch Anywhere business.

Keita Saito

Goodpatch Anywhere Business Manager

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Since 2008, Saito has been in charge of numerous projects as an engineering-focused director within the design team. Experienced with HTML, WPF, JavaScript, ActionScript 3.0, Unity, iOS, etc. and centered on web projects, he gradually shifted to a managerial role in the business.

He joined Goodpatch in 2013. He was engaged in the Money Forward iOS App (Good Design award winner), designing new media apps for major newspaper companies, official iOS apps for major telecommunications carriers, and app / service design for FiNC Technologies (Google Play Best of 2018, Self-improvement category Grand Prize).

In October 2018, he launched "Goodpatch Anywhere" as the business manager to provide design services with a fully remote team. They established a new design organization from scratch and are providing services as design partner for clients.

What is "Prove the power of design" Goodpatch Anywhere?

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First of all, can you tell us about the number and location of the Goodpatch Anywhere design team?

About 60 members are involved, including freelancers, designers, and engineers who work part-time. Staff in Japan are mainly from Tokyo, Hokkaido, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Okinawa. There are also members abroad in Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland and Malaysia. At present, all the communication is in Japanese, including all designers and engineers who are overseas. "

Could you please tell us the reason why you launched Goodpatch Anywhere as a separate business focusing on a “Full Remote Team”?

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Our company is developing its business with the mission of "demonstrating the power of design." To achieve our mission of better service by design, we decided we would need a wide variety of staff. We needed to collect as much talent as possible, and what we focused on was the existence of freelance designers in various places.

There are many different people and they have many different problems. I'll give a few examples. As soon as I became freelance independent of the company, related activities such as landing pages and banners were not provided for me. However, even if you were working on UX design in the center of a city before, if you move to a rural area due to family circumstances and want to continue to be a UX designer there aren't many jobs. There are also many people who can't get to an office while they are married and have a new baby or other childcare needs. It means that there are many talented designers who can't make the most of their abilities because of these hurdles. By solving that problem, we may open up a new world for both companies and designers... thinking that, we launched Goodpatch Anywhere.

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Tell us how you use Scrapbox for an online meeting. What uses of Scrapbox are strong for remote work?

I think there are various challenges in achieving a full-remote team, but what was the biggest challenge?

There is always an issue in "communication". In order to create a full remote team that has real communication between members, online tools that complement this situation are essential. Chats, online meetings, design tools, etc. Almost everything is built online, and I've tried some documentation tools to output text, but I had never been able to get a lot of posts up and running. That was true until Scrapbox.

How did you first hear about Scrapbox?

When I was helping FiNC Technologies Co., Ltd with client work, I was introduced to Scrapbox. For the first time, I experienced Scrapbo being seriously used for work. The number of users increased and spread in an instant. When I witnessed it up close I thought it can be used by a fully remote team.

What are you currently using Scrapbox for?

First of all, it's used for meeting agendas. We always share the core information so that members can recognize each other's work and eliminate discrepancies. The other is to use it as a glossary. In design work, there are many foreign words and new concepts are frequently used. Some people do not understand the meaning of the word, or some people think of the word in a different way because they joined recently. Also, because we are involved with new clients and industries for each project, we can understand the industry-specific terms. Since Scrapbox allows you to browse related pages from a word with the link feature, the more you write pages, the more a common understanding is created and deepened. Some people are using it to introduce new terms or to make a self-introduction page. It's used quite freely for many different things.

Being a full remote, I am wondering how to teach new joining members how to use it. Are you mastered?

Once a week, we have a "knowledge time" meeting. Of course, it's online. We update a Scrapbox page while displaying it with screen sharing. At one time we have 10 - 15 people updating various pages. Not only is it easy for new members to understand how to use it, but everyone can also experience the fun of Scrapbox, which is "to update with everyone." At the same time, by recording a video of the online meeting, members who could not participate can see it later.

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Taking advantage of tools for online meetings is a unique technique for remote teams. You have many staff members working overseas, but do you have any problem with using Scrapbox across borders?

Not particularly. There is a time difference, but that is unavoidable. Scrapbox is usable without any problems.

Designer no longer find themselves in a "holding pattern". We aim to create a freelance communication hub with Scrapbox.

Has there been any change to your organization since introducing Scrapbox?

Isn't the ease and speed of creating new pages different from other documentation tools? It has become overwhelmingly more frequently used and communication has become more active. Normally, designers and engineers are the main focus. A remote team tends to be in a “holding pattern” where each person independently performs tasks on a ticket by ticket basis. Now we have a team where each member can play an active part voluntarily and in real-time. Scrapbox is an important documentation tool that enables this internally, and for some projects we also share Scrapbox pages with clients. For our clients, we are not just "suppliers," we are able to build the ideal relationship by being a “design partner”.

So finally, can you tell us what you want to achieve with Scrapbox in the future?

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This is more about thinking about diverse ways of working rather than simply working as a company. Most engineers and designers involved in Goodpatch Anywhere projects choose the independent style of'freelance.' Compared to people who work in an organization, it is harder to communicate with others and to learn new technologies, especially in rural areas because there are few events and peers. It tends to be more and more closed and it is difficult to take risks, so frequently people think about ​​“getting the job done with their own power.” Only some strong people survive in that situation. Then, there is a sense of crisis that the design industry cannot grow soundly, and we hope Goodpatch Anywhere will become a hub and help grow a place for everyone to communicate. I think Scrapbox is very effective in creating an environment where all members can make their comments and suggestions flat, even remotely.

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Thank you, Saito!

This is a translation from the original interview in Japanese with writing and photos by Shingo Shimojo on August 28, 2019

About Scrapbox

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Scrapbox lets you instantly capture and find knowhow at any scale, both solo and with a team.

You can rapidly capture notes, manuals, tasks, code, meeting minutes, and research results. All pages are automatically connected based on bi-directional links, allowing you to seamlessly work across thousands or even tens of thousands of pages.