Breaking the Norm to Create Innovative Services with Global Colleagues: The Product Team’s New Challenge

PayPay Leader Interview is a series of interviews with PayPay Group’s top executives that show a glimpse into their personalities and perspectives. This time, we interviewed Toshihiro Tomita (Tommy), the head of Product Division 2 at PayPay Card.

Aiming for Product Development Combining Quality and Speed

Please tell us about your career.

I worked as an engineer at a Japanese IT company for about three years and then freelanced for about seven years. I have experience in a variety of industries and have developed mobile devices and electron microscopes. Over the years, I have thoroughly pursued my interest and challenged various new fields. The last freelance job I was involved in was a merchant-side product of a mobile payment system. From that experience, I had a desire to develop large-scale products, so I joined SoftBank and got involved in launching a new international payment service utilizing blockchain technology. I then joined PayPay as an engineer. As the organization grew, I became Tech Lead and Engineering Manager, and am currently responsible for product development at PayPay Card.。

The newly launched Product Division 2 aims to become PayPay Card’s first global organization. How did you start the team?

The growth of the credit card business is crucial to the growth of the entire PayPay Group. As the product side was seeking to develop with greater speed, we explored to adopt a different development style and create an organization that allows us to develop products on our own while placing emphasis on technology.
If we can combine satisfactory quality with speedy development on a global level, I was confident that we would become an even better product team. This is why I wanted to launch a global organization within the Product of PayPay Card.

In the past, when I worked with Indian colleagues, I was greatly impressed and inspired by the development methods that allow them to deliver products with speed. Whether it is a correct approach or not, a right answer or not, their style was to always come up with a solution first and test it out. They refined the product by promptly solving challenges in front of them one after another. Even a huge obstacle that brings a team to a standstill can be overcome by resolving issues one at a time.
Obviously, each country has its own way of thinking and strengths. In order to make a breakthrough in a traditional credit card industry, it was evident that we needed to launch a global team that combines the different strengths and speed of each country.

What Brings a Smile to the Faces of Those with Different Mindsets and Viewpoints is an Optimal Solution

Please share the challenges and initiatives your team currently focuses on.

Since we do credit transactions, the core of our business is to ensure safety and profitability based on data such as how much we can lend to each user. Evolving the core element will allow us to create interesting and user-friendly services that have never existed before. For example, credit limits today are determined based on general attributes such as age and occupation, but with the evolution of AI, we are seeking ways to leverage the vast amount of data to manage credit limits and collection cycles for each user.

In order to achieve this, we need to break away from the standardized development process and develop an optimal internal system in our own way. With the new global organization, we will seek to incorporate new and interesting ideas from overseas that have not yet been put to practice in Japan, create an engineering team with the capability to internally develop the core of our business, and ultimately deliver more user-centric and meticulous services.

What do you consider important in terms of communication in building a global team?

Because each country has its own norms and ideas they take for granted, it is important to try to show an understanding of them. That said, it is natural to be different, so we don’t force people to adapt and agree to everything.
The benefit of being a global team is that we can share the same goals, while bringing various ideas to the table from different perspectives. I believe that we can find the optimal solution if people with different opinions can discuss and come to the conclusion, “This is a good idea.” This is how I place importance on building solid communication.

What do you value as a manager?

Rather than me taking the lead as the manager, I want each member to think about the user, have a clear idea of the product we should build, and have a sense of ownership that we are developing and nurturing our own product. When given the environment to create what we want, we feel more attached to the product, and this gives us the power and passion to drive even further.
Having been in the engineering field, I always believe that technology changes products. I am working on building a team that can iterate the process of introducing new ideas, taking on new challenges, and delivering better products.

Breaking the Norm to be the No.1 Service

What do you expect from your members?

I repeatedly ask my team, “What do you think the product should be if we were to build it from scratch?”
Many rules are made as the team grows, and gradually these rules start to feel natural, and, in the end, people follow them without questioning. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is important to ask ourselves periodically why we have these rules, and revise them in light of current internal and external circumstances.

I came to think this way largely because of the influence I received from four managers at PayPay. Looking back now, their requests involved a large degree of freedom, which led me to spend the last four years thinking deeply on identifying issues, justifying why I see them as issues, and determining the benefits of solving them. When assigned to a new team, it is my job to uncover problems hidden as part of the team’s norm, find ways to help the members recognize that it should not be the norm and discuss how we can make this more fun for everyone, and have this mindset take root in the team.

So, if someone comes to me and says, “These are the rules,” I ask in return, “What are these rules for?” If that person has a confident response, it shows that the rules are necessary to get the job done. However, if that person feels obligated to do it because they have no choice, then I ask, “What is the ideal state? If you could do anything, what would you change?”
I firmly believe that we can create better products if we continue to break the norm.

Lastly, a message for our readers please!

I invite everyone who has ambitions to create new credit card services through trial and error, exploring their dream service as if they could build it from scratch. Most people today have a good understanding of credit card services, and now is the time to reconsider how we could build our service from ground zero.

The same goes for building a team. We should create new rules and procedures through discussions without being bound by existing things. It takes a lot of energy to question the norm while collaborating to develop a new product, but I believe that breaking conventional rules will lead to a great progress and eventually the number one service.

The norm should never be taken for granted. Being aware of this fact is an important first step. Join us in our venture to create, from the ground up, innovative credit card services through the eyes of our users!

*Job openings and employee affiliations are current as of the time of the interview.