Spotlight on Nulab: Staying close as a global team
Apart, Together, the classic corporate love story of star-crossed coworkers blazing through the driest deserts and widest oceans, battling wind and hail, all with the shared lust for collaboration and working simultaneously on their passion for success.
CUT!
That’s not how the story goes. For us, working as a global team with several continents in between, yet still working together, is no different than being in the same room (minus the handshakes and conversational spit landing just below your temple). Let’s start this scene again.
ACTION!
Apart, Together, the modern-day corporate adventure where team members across the globe blaze new paths and pioneer emerging technology by engaging with digital tools to collaborate and work together.
With Nulabers covering over a half-dozen locations around the world, including Japan, the U.S., Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam, the desk lamp never goes out on Nulab (except weekends). The company energy continuously flows from office to office on the International River of Time, as we pass the torch of hours-of-operation each weekday.
No matter which office you find yourself, the Nulab corporate culture is homogenous and strong. Despite the miles that separate our offices, we come together by communicating through our home-grown chat app, Typetalk. It’s a powerful communication tool where we meet with our product teams, brainstorm new ideas, work on projects in the individual topic groups, and socialize in the “Coffeeshop” topic to share ideas, music and conversation, all while fostering a uniquely “us” culture that translates clearly through Typetalk. It is a digital world where we come together to chat, work and create.
A key component to our community is organization. In order to keep our projects organized and the workflow focused, we are all on board the same project management program, Backlog, with a non-stop track leading our projects to fruition. Backlog allows us to create “project” hubs for our different products and departments, and then assign detailed tasks for projects under these various hubs. Within each task, we can communicate with the others working on it via the messaging feature. Through frequent updates via emails and in-app reminders, as well as Gantt charts and burndown charts visually graphing work progress, Backlog keeps us updated on projects being worked on throughout the company as well as the status of each. In these ways, Backlog bridges any possible communication gap and keeps the ongoing workload organized and focused, ensuring that the general flow of work continues to move forward.
Hiroshi Matsuoka & Ryuzo “The Dragon” Yamamoto hold an office jam session
We actually do get to work together, together! Not that apart kind of together, but hands-on, trust fall, pass me the scalpel sort of together. The Cacoo canvas is our meeting space for collaboration, where we transform our organized brainstorming into a creative adventure – as a team! We can jump in all at once to collaborate on a wireframe for a product. We can talk through the process via the chat feature in the editor, so we never have to leave Cacoo, which keeps us focused and the creative process flowing. We can jump into a project at any time and catch up on the new additions to the design by reading the comments on the diagram page. The canvas is always a-buzz, and with the option to share any diagram, we can get everyone involved in the canvas.
Nulab New York collaborating over Cacoo with Nulab Phoenix
Once a year we get the opportunity to join together in person at our annual pilgrimage to Nulab HQ in Fukuoka, Japan, the mecca of all things Nu. As the teams around the world continue to grow each year, this gathering is a great opportunity for us to see old and new faces, and drive home what it means to be part of our greater global network. Have Nu will travel – at least as far as Fukuoka.
A group of Nulabers gather in Fukuoka
Although there may be many desks between us, we share a common culture that has developed into a successful camaraderie that transcends distance. We are Nulab. And this is how we Nu.
THAT’S A WRAP!
Visit us on Instagram to see our global antics play out IRL.