I'm Yoshizaki from the Retail Application Co-Creation Department.

The other day, while we were talking about recruiting internally, the topic came up that "many people who are thinking about changing jobs say they want to go to a business company (an in-house/product company)." I have no quantitative evidence, but I feel the same way from my own gut sense.

I myself come from business companies. I spent more than 20 years at them, but I did not stay at a single company the whole time. It wasn't unusual in the internet industry back then, but I was a job hopper who changed jobs repeatedly. I have also experienced freelancing and starting a company, and out of my 30 years of working life, I have belonged to 7 companies as a full-time employee.

About half a year after I joined Classmethod in 2020, I wrote an article called Looking back on before and after joining Classmethod. More than 5 years have passed since then. Since I have the chance, I'd like to write it again from my current perspective.

I'd be happy if people who are thinking about their future careers, not only engineers but also PMs, sales, and planning roles, would read this.

A quarter century spent at business companies

i-mode, music distribution, a search portal, a machine translation service, a blog platform. Most of what I worked on at business companies was internet media.

The work began with service planning, moved on to driving development projects, and after release, building the business while operating the service as the product owner.

I think I was lucky to be involved in businesses fairly well known in Japan, from the dawn of the PC internet to the heyday of mobile apps.

When I looked down a little on contract development companies

Development back then was mostly done in-house. The only things we asked outside parties for were companies with technologies or knowledge we didn't have, or content holders.

Even when we made requests, the approach was to carve out a certain scope, entrust it, receive the finished parts, and integrate them ourselves. Honestly, I hardly had the feeling of building a service together.

To be honest about one more thing, I can't deny that I looked down a little on contract development companies. Thinking about my current job, it's rather painful to hear...

A view that broadens across industries I didn't know

What I felt first after coming to Classmethod was the fun of learning about industries I had known nothing about.

The familiar supermarket I always use, the pro sports teams people rush to stadiums for on weekends, that cafe everyone uses. I'm involved in businesses that are both familiar and large. Besides these, when I line up the industries I've worked with since joining—department stores, dispensing pharmacies handling prescriptions, fashion ranging from global brands to brands representing Japan—even I am a little surprised.

The opportunities to see the products and services I'm involved in being used in the hands of ordinary customers have become far more frequent than when I was at business companies. When I see my family, relatives, and friends using them, I get shivers of joy.

I can't be specific, but there is know-how that can be used in common even across completely different industries. There are also many cases where knowledge gained in one industry is useful in another.

Above all, I feel my view of society broadening and my depth of understanding of business increasing. This is a sensation I couldn't get while inside a single company.

Development where we reach agreement while building

Recently there's another big change: generative AI. Generative AI, which has grown rapidly over the past few years, has both positive and negative impacts on every business. I think the "positive impact" is overwhelmingly greater. In particular, thanks to generative AI, even business-side people can now build small things on their own.

I'm a business person who can't write code, but thanks to generative AI I was able to build the minutes app "Gijiro" myself without borrowing the strength of other engineers or designers (The story of building an app myself). After that, I handed this product to an in-house app engineer who has made it even better, and it is now conveniently used by many people in the company. This joy is truly irresistible.

The same thing is happening in work with customers. We show customers what we've built as is, and turn it into a product while receiving their feedback. The struggles we had with requirements definition in the waterfall era and with consensus building in agile development seem like a lie.

When we can build what the customer really wanted, the joy on release day becomes 100% for both sides.

The growing meaning of One Team in the generative AI era

From here on, these are my own thoughts.

With generative AI, people at business companies can now build what they really wanted on their own. Many people probably feel that there's no longer a need to ask outside development companies. This could be called a "negative impact" for our business.

I think it is a good thing that customers themselves can move forward using AI. On the other hand, now that security is strictly demanded, it's not easy to keep building consumer-facing services and core systems with only the people inside the business company.

Precisely because people at business companies can now build with AI, I believe the meaning of building as One Team with people who have expertise as a foundation will only grow.

Co-creation that is neither full delegation nor in-house development

I believe this is where Classmethod excels and where we come in.

We have never been a company that "builds what we're told" from the start. We have long valued the stance of understanding the customer's business, getting involved as a group of engineers, and co-creating with the customer as One Team.

What we aim for is neither "a form where everything is entrusted to us" nor "a form where the customer does everything in-house," but a third way. We value the customer using generative AI themselves while we, with our expertise, move forward together. This is the "co-creation" we put in our department name. It is "co-creation" for an era in which customers create too.

The fact that a fellow engineer with app development expertise is reinforcing "Gijiro," which I built on my own for my own needs as mentioned above, is, I think, an example of realizing One Team on a small scale.

I see a very different landscape from the contract development in which I "couldn't feel it was One Team" back when I was at business companies. There is no "negative impact" here.

Differences from contract development and SIers

When people hear "contract development," many probably think of so-called SIers. From my view on the inside, what I feel most distinguishes Classmethod is its pioneering spirit.

At Classmethod, it can be said to be an obligation to always obtain and practice information at the cutting edge. The whole company goes after the latest technologies, information, and experience, and puts them out faster than anyone. The DevelopersIO blog you are reading now was born from this culture of a "giver," passing what we've learned to the community.

The speed of change is also fast, and many things keep changing. From the outside it may look tough, but from the inside it isn't so bad. Responding with the full strength of the company to circumstances that change moment by moment, and growing as an individual too, is very stimulating and simply fun.

A workplace where everyone gets through tough situations together

Of course, since it's work, there are sometimes tough situations.

Even then, few people make unpleasant faces. Rather, the gears engage as if it were a festival, and everyone cooperates to get through. I have seen such scenes many times, and I myself was one of those people.

Sometimes we fail.

Even then, there is a culture here of earnestly accepting the facts, reflecting, not blaming anyone, and building mechanisms so that, as an organization and as a system, we don't fail again.

Looking over the companies I've worked at in the past, and the companies I've been involved with through work, I can say with confidence that no other company has this kind of atmosphere. I think most business companies don't have it either.

A word to those who want to move to a business company

I understand well the feeling of wanting to go to a business company. I think it's because you want to be involved in a business as a principal party.

At Classmethod, while getting deeply involved in a single customer's business, you can experience businesses in various industries as a principal party throughout your career. This is something I couldn't get during my business company days, when I kept changing jobs.

Perhaps because new experiences and stimulation continue, not many people leave Classmethod for other companies. The average attrition rate over the last 3 years is about 7%. Even I, a former job hopper, seem likely to end up with this being the company where I stay the longest in my life.

Finally

The Retail Application Co-Creation Department is recruiting not only engineers but also PM, sales, and planning colleagues.

If you read this article and are even a little interested, I'd be happy if you applied directly from the recruiting page, before a casual interview.

Open Positions | Mid-career Recruitment | Classmethod, Inc.

When I left the world of business companies where I had spent nearly a quarter century, I never imagined I would stay at a contract development company for this long.

Life is unpredictable.