Every Trip to the Basement Revealed More of the System

Connecting a London-Built System to the Reality of Japan

“Wow! The deeper I went underground, the more interesting the work became!”

With that strange but exciting feeling, I found myself heading down to the basement of the client’s building almost every day.

At the time, I was working on a project to introduce a system developed in London into Japan, serving as the system lead on the Japanese side.

The application itself had already been completed.

In other words, this was not a project where we were building a system from scratch.

But bringing an existing system into Japan was a completely different story.

There Was Still So Much to Do, Even Though the System Was “Finished”

On the Japanese side, a large infrastructure team had been assembled.

In addition, there was a lot of development work required in Japan, including changes to interfaces with surrounding systems.

My role in the project was somewhat different.

I needed to understand the system itself and then explain it to the people involved on the Japanese side.

The problem was that, naturally, the system documentation coming from London was in English.

So, I spent a great deal of time translating.

But simply translating the words into Japanese was not enough.

“What is this function actually for?”

“What does this process mean from a business perspective?”

“How does it connect with the systems on the Japanese side?”

As I translated the documents, I gradually began to understand the system itself.

Two Superstars Who Supported Me

There were two key people from the other side of the project.

One was Japanese, but completely fluent in English.

On top of that, he had a deep understanding not only of the system, but also of the business.

He was truly a “super Japanese professional.”

The other was British.

He had a similar level of understanding of both the system and the business, and he was also studying Japanese.

With the support of these two people, the project steadily moved forward.

Both of them were basically based in Japan.

And the project development team was located in the basement of the client’s building.

Upstairs Was “Business.” Downstairs Was “Strategy.”

The people responsible for the client’s business operations were on the upper floors.

Meanwhile, the project team working to build and integrate the system was underground.

It was quite an unusual structure.

Those two key members spent most of their time in the basement.

As I had more opportunities to translate documents and listen to explanations about the system, I also began spending more and more time downstairs.

In that basement room, I studied the system in English.

Whenever I came across something I did not understand, I asked questions.

I learned about the business background behind the system.

And then I transformed what I had learned into language that could be communicated to the Japanese team.

Before I knew it, that basement room had become something like a “war room” for me.

I Started Looking Forward to Going Underground

Normally, going down to a basement room every day might not sound particularly exciting.

But for me, it was different.

Every time I went downstairs, I discovered something new.

Every time I listened to English, I could see a little more of the world behind the system.

Every time I talked with those two colleagues, I gained a better understanding of the differences between how business and projects were approached in Japan and the UK.

And by sharing what I had learned with the Japanese team, I could gradually connect the system with the people who needed to use and support it.

That is why I always headed down to the basement with excitement.

Looking back, what I learned in that basement was not simply system knowledge or English.

To make a system developed overseas work in Japan, translation alone is not enough.

You need to understand the technology, understand the business, and then transform that knowledge into language that people can understand.

I believe that one of the most important capabilities in DX is the ability to stand between technology and people—and build a bridge between them.

That basement war room was the place where I learned that lesson.

I can do it! Tomorrow, I’ll take the next step.