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ILLUMINATE, an event series by Moon Creative Lab, shines a light on the next generation of business creators. It’s our way of connecting with teams and individuals across Mitsui to create something that’s never been done before within the company.On November 28, 2022, we hosted a kickoff event for the upcoming February ILLUMINATE at Moon Creative Lab’s Tokyo studio in order to inspire and educate future participants. Over 40 Mitsui &amp; Co., employees hoping to create new businesses gathered to learn how to create memorable pitches and attend business design workshops to further develop their ideas. Through group discussions, participants exchanged feedback on their ideas and brainstormed together to explore ideas even further.Kickoff Event Key Learnings<ol><li>How to create a memorable pitch&nbsp;</li><li>Define problems using design thinking&nbsp;</li></ol>All Mitsui employees were invited to share new business ideas with Moon through a company-wide open call. Once submissions closed, selected Idea Owners were asked to present their ideas for new business at the ILLUMINATE pitch event in February. If their idea is selected from the pitch event, they will be seconded to Moon to become Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) and start their journey towards incubation.&nbsp;In order to grow excitement for the upcoming pitch event and help people learn more about Moon, we hosted a kickoff event with Moon Creative Lab team members. During this kickoff event, the Moon team provided a variety of programs to help potential idea owners and future entrepreneurs prepare for the upcoming event.&nbsp;Some of these programs included a workshop explaining the different types of Moon offerings and support towards business creation. Additional workshops offered tips on how to create a memorable pitch and how to refine ideas using design thinking.<h2>1.How to create a memorable pitch</h2><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/L1500034_1bc6c9ba8b.jpg" alt="L1500034.jpg"><figcaption>&nbsp;Tomoyuki Takada, Head of Growth at Moon Creative Lab, explains how to create a memorable pitch.</figcaption></figure>Tomoyuki Takada, Head of Growth at Moon Creative Lab, gave participants tips on how to create a memorable pitch. He shared that in order to see your business idea come to life, you need to give a convincing pitch to receive any sort of investment. In order to do this, Tomoyuki stated that it’s important to create a memorable pitch, which you can do by following these six components:<ol><li>Keep it simple&nbsp;</li><li>Share the unexpected&nbsp;</li><li>Be specific&nbsp;</li><li>Share reliable facts</li><li>Make it emotional&nbsp;</li><li>Tell a good story&nbsp;</li></ol>Tomoyuki emphasized that it's important for entrepreneurs to be able to explain their ideas simply in just a few words. For example, explaining your idea by comparing it to existing services and products that people are familiar with such as Uber, AirBnb, or Google.&nbsp;One example might be, "Uber that arrives at your home to watch your kids."Tomoyuki also explained the importance of including unexpected information to surprise listeners by incorporating expressions using the five senses such as color, smell, taste, sound, and temperature. He also mentioned tips on including research to ensure reliability, telling personal experiences to convey emotions and reliability, and telling ideas in a story-based manner.<h2>2.Workshop: Define problems using design thinking</h2><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/DSCF_6947_3af1ce85fd.jpg" alt="DSCF6947.jpg"><figcaption>Brainstorming using post-it notes</figcaption></figure>In this specially designed 90-minute workshop, participants experienced a condensed version of the design thinking process, which normally takes a few days or weeks. Similar to Moon's incubation process, participants went through several brainstorming sessions to identify challenges and their personal visions. Participants were able to identify the four key processes to prepare for research:&nbsp;<ol><li>Painpoint mapping&nbsp;</li><li>User exploration&nbsp;</li><li>Bias check&nbsp;</li><li>Research preparation&nbsp;</li></ol>Participants need to not only identify issues and problems themselves, but also the reason why. Clarify motivations by answering questions like, “Who is impacted and how? What are their needs?” And by asking questions from various perspectives, as shown below, we can make ideas more concrete.<ul><li>What are the users’ needs?&nbsp;</li><li>Which of these needs are unfulfilled?&nbsp;</li><li>Are there any needs that users are not aware of, but will notice once it’s mentioned? &nbsp;</li></ul>Identifying questions and using the answers to help clarify issues can make your pitch more convincing.&nbsp;Once issues have been identified with a painpoint map, examining market data can help understand feasibility. Analyzing the data can show how many people are experiencing the problem trying to be solved and find more details about target users.&nbsp;When brainstorming, it’s more about quantity than quality. It is important not to judge the quality of an idea right away, but to focus on visualizing the ideas. Map hypotheses and questions while being aware that ideas can be biased.After identifying ideas, clarify the vision based on achievements, construct a story, consider what kind of hypothesis testing is necessary, and prepare for the next stage: research.<h3>Participants’ reflections</h3><figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/3_2113d5c560.jpg" alt="懇親会 3.jpg"><figcaption>Kickoff social was held at Moon Tokyo Studio following the workshops</figcaption></figure>Some people who attended the event arrived with business ideas in mind, but there were also attendees who were genuinely interested in Moon and design thinking. A wide range of participants gathered, ranging from those with extensive overseas work experience to individuals in their first year at Mitsui. Moon team members also had a chance to interact and get to know participants even better.&nbsp;Be sure to stay up to date on ongoing ventures and newly selected ideas to be incubated on our website’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/ventures">venture page.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Recommended Related Articles・<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/stories/ascend-zero">Building Ascend From 0 to 1</a>・<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/stories/prototypes">Low-Fi Prototypes for High-Tech Solutions</a>・<a href="https://www.mooncreativelab.com/stories/entrepreneur-journey">Beginning the Entrepreneur Journey</a>

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<h3>Tips for First-Time Entrepreneurs</h3><ol><li>Talk to users early and often.</li><li>Smaller teams can be more efficient than a bigger one.</li><li>Note-taking and building an assignment system saves time.</li><li>Making clear decisions early leads to faster progression.</li></ol><hr><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/EIR_Learnings_Ascend_5633c6524e.png" alt="Startup Learnings Ascend">Building our very own onboarding platform and first venture, Ascend, forced us to stretch our comfort zones, which led us to some profound key learnings and takeaways. As an HR Business Partner, I never thought that I would have landed in the position to be an Entrepreneur-in-Residence myself at Moon, but anything is possible here! Bold thinking leads to bold experiments, which Ascend was for our entire HR team. And as we look back together over our experience building Ascend, there are some key lessons we learned and wanted to share in hopes that it might be helpful for you, too.<h3> Talk to Users Early and Often</h3> We used the design tool Figma to build out a scrappy user journey for early prototyping, and used that to create an experience for our first user to test and give us direct feedback. This first experiment was extremely useful and provided details which are still included in today's build. We all agreed as a team that gaining feedback from others is something that we could have done even earlier and more frequently. It’s also not about the quantity of users who you interview, but the quality of information that you receive from their feedback.&nbsp;<h3>Smaller Teams Can Be More Efficient Than a Bigger One</h3> Originally we had started as a small team of five, but as the idea started to progress, so did the number of people joining our weekly calls. That number peaked at more than ten people joining our ideation sessions, team syncs, and working days. While we do believe it's important to include a diverse set of perspectives, we came to realize that “too many cooks in the kitchen” can lead to uncertainty, indecisiveness, and slow progression. Our team decided to scale down the core team back to five, which allowed us to work quicker, make decisions sooner, and meet our deadlines on time. &nbsp;<h3>Note-Taking and Building an Assignment System Saves Time</h3>Once we established our core team, our engineer Wilson started taking up-to-date notes, tracking our tasks and to-do’s between each meeting. This gave the team an easy reference when completing tasks and trying to remember what we discussed prior to each meeting. This also became a general record keeping protocol that we established moving forward to make sure all ideas and thoughts were well accounted for and never lost.<h3> Making Clear Decisions Early Leads to Faster Progression</h3>Building something from zero-to-one certainly is not easy. Taking an idea from words, brainstorming sessions, and off-shoot discussions to an actual viable working product takes time and requires detailed decision-making. We ask our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence to think big and make hard decisions, so why wouldn’t we ask the same of ourselves? The truth of the matter is, it’s much easier to talk about making hard decisions until you’re actually faced with them firsthand. However, when we ourselves were faced with those moments, we had to trust ourselves to make those tough decisions in order to keep the project moving forward towards success.While these four takeaways have been huge learning experiences, there will be new challenges to face and hurdles to overcome as we venture towards different stages in the build process. With this, we’ll continue to learn and discover new things each week working on Ascend. This entire experience has allowed us to have a better glimpse into the everyday lives of our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence here at Moon. Their undertaking isn't one for the faint of heart, but through our story, we hope you realize that anyone can create something from nothing.Be sure to follow along here to learn more about Ascend! Monique Riley&nbsp; HR Business Partner <a href="mailto:monique@mooncreativelab.com">monique@mooncreativelab.com</a>

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In this article, we share experiences from Space Camp, a program that prepares entrepreneurs at Moon Creative Lab, which supports new business creation at Mitsui &amp; Co.<hr>In this article, you will learn about:<ol><li>How Moon entrepreneurs begin their journey</li><li>Exploring your problem space</li><li>How to prepare for the inevitable</li></ol><hr><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_Space_Camp_287e026290.png" alt="Moon+Creative+Lab+Space+Camp.png">When you set out to embark on your next journey, it’s likely you’ve been preparing ahead of time – &nbsp;a future trip, new job, or moving to a new city. For budding entrepreneurs, it’s no different when they begin their entrepreneur journeys building their first ventures with Moon Creative Lab.Before ideation sessions, prototype builds, and a minimum viable product (MVP) rollout, Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) must complete Space Camp, an intensive three-week program that aims to prepare them for their new roles at Moon. Imagine stepping into a CEO or founder’s shoes for the very first time. It’s a huge role to fulfill! Space Camp’s mission is to address some of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face not only with their ventures, but as their personal roles transform with profound responsibility. &nbsp;Space Camp gives EIRs a range of experiences and courses, from the transformative (“Life on the Moon”) to the exploratory (“Problem Identification and Design”) to the casual (“Coffee Chat with Moon Mates”). Held by people from the Moon Operating Team including executives, program managers, designers, and other facilitators, Space Camp allows members of the new venture team to get to know one another, and helps EIRs align their team and take the next big step towards bringing their ideas to the world.Throughout their time in Space Camp, EIRs learn by doing, failing, and trying again. Yes, we said failing! Failing and trying again is what the entrepreneur journey is all about. EIRs learn how to collaborate effectively to cultivate their leadership skills, take a deep look into problem spaces, understand concept definition, and learn how to communicate their ideas clearly to future committees – all foundational knowledge needed to begin their ventures.<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Inna_Circle_Space_Camp_268e9971b6.jpeg" alt="Inna+Circle+Space+Camp.jpeg"><figcaption>Dell Dela Torre and Grace Aldas, EIRs of Inna Circle</figcaption></figure><h3>The First Step In Entrepreneurs’ Journeys</h3>For two of our newest ventures, Space Camp was a valuable introduction to the world of entrepreneurship and startups. For Dell Dela Torre and Grace Aldas, EIRs of <a href="https://www.theinnacircle.com/">Inna Circle</a> (previously called MOM 247)– a service that aims to support mothers by addressing the stressors of motherhood and offers high-quality childcare – Space Camp helped them better understand the startup industry, something they were unfamiliar with in their previous roles. “In Space Camp, we learned about past and existing ventures at Moon, the diverse working culture, a better understanding of what design-thinking is and how to apply it, reflecting on what leadership means, and pivots,” recalls Dell. For Hiro Narihaya, EIR of Pioneer Guild – a service that helps make career paths visible and available through planning and mentorship – it was helpful to learn “the practical know-how of startups and ventures, how people start off, and the first steps.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Spring_Terrace_Oct_22_8_3d4e3d7573.jpg" alt="Hiro Narihaya, EIR of Pioneer Guild"><figcaption>Hiro Narihaya, EIR of Pioneer Guild</figcaption></figure><h3>Identifying Problems and Widening Perspective</h3>Space Camp gives EIRs insight into the demands of new business creation, especially when it comes to identifying the problems they aim to solve within their ventures. For Dell and Grace, they had their minds set on their original idea they had pitched to the Moon Committee back in November. But after attending Space Camp, it gave them a wider perspective and encouraged them to look at their idea in a new way. “We were able to step back and assess the problem we wished to solve and the possible solutions we can test,” Grace says. With a wider perspective, the pair started to realize their ideas might be reshaping. “We have a more open mind now in terms of exploring more value propositions and concepts, beyond what we initially planned,” Dell adds.<blockquote>&nbsp;“We have a more open mind now in terms of exploring more value propositions and concepts, beyond what we initially planned.” – Dell Dela Torre</blockquote>Looking deeper into the problem space also helped Hiro of Pioneer Guild rethink his original idea, too. “Before, I focused on the space I was originally thinking of, but now I can cast light to the spaces from different angles amplified by the diverse Moon capabilities, and advance my ideas.” Hiro expressed how inspired he was by Space Camp, which gave him a better idea of where he wants to take his venture moving forward. “Space Camp was a great opportunity for me to reflect on myself and how I want to be in the future, where I want to go, and that inspired me to want to go further” he says.&nbsp;<blockquote>&nbsp;“Before, I focused on the space I was originally thinking of, but now I can cast light to the spaces from different angles.” – Hiro Narihara</blockquote><h3>Preparing for the Inevitable</h3>An unavoidable part of any journey is unpredictability. Things are bound to change and might not always go as planned, and that’s okay. The lesson here is the willingness to adapt to change when faced with adversity. Space Camp teaches EIRs that this is an incredibly valuable skill and part of the entrepreneur journey. Dell and Grace, who are well underway with their venture Inna Circle, have been able to remain open to change. “Pivots are inevitable. We have to embrace it and learn to navigate it. Although we are still in the early stages of incubation, we started seeing potential pivots coming in our direction,” Dell says.Because of Space Camp, Hiro has reframed his thinking to stay prepared for the unknown. Knowing that not every step of the way will be smooth, he keeps his mind open for the journey going forward and is ready to learn from experience and inevitable setbacks. “There is no right answer. I need to dispose of the fixed mindset and instead be flexible to survive on this journey. I know there will be a lot of failure, rejection, and disappointment. To survive that disappointment, I need to learn from failure in a positive way. That’s the necessary part. That’s going to be my armor that will get me through this big ocean of unknowns to my destination.”&nbsp;<blockquote>“There will be a lot of failure, rejection, and disappointment. To survive that disappointment, I need to learn from failure in a positive way. That’s the necessary part.” – Hiro Narihara</blockquote>Key Takeaways:<ul><li>Expand your perspective. Looking beyond your initial solution to the wider problem space can offer valuable insight, which in turn can help paint a better picture of your businesses’ direction and core purpose.</li><li>Unpredictability is inevitable. Remaining open to change and realizing that every moment is a valuable lesson is an essential part of the entrepreneur’s mindset.</li></ul>To learn more about Inna Circle be sure to follow <a href="https://www.theinnacircle.com/">https://www.theinnacircle.com/</a>We also plan to share more updates here on Moon Stories for Pioneer Guild!&nbsp;

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Key Takeaways:<ol><li>Defining human-centered design.</li><li>Find inspiration from personal experiences.</li><li>How to design for products using human-centered design.&nbsp;</li></ol><hr><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Ascend_Moon_Original_b4d4cc765c.png" alt="Ascend+Moon+Original.png">What does human-centered design look like when creating a new product? <a href="https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-human-centered-design">The Harvard Business School</a> defines human-centered design as “a problem-solving technique that puts real people at the center of the development process, enabling you to create products and services that resonate and are tailored to your audience’s needs.” At Moon Creative Lab, we believe that human-centered design is a key component to our success, especially within HR.The past two years have had its fair share of ups and downs for just about everyone, especially when having to navigate a pandemic for the first time and adapting to a new way of working together. We were isolated and forced to work alone. The physical distance caused strains on human connection and a sense of personal belonging, and led to questions of self-worth after being used to working in group settings. Our team noticed all of these shifts in Moon Mates which led us to critically examine our current employee experiences, the main one being employee onboarding. We really wanted to make sure that whether a Moon Mate was just hired or had worked at Moon for years, everyone felt important, valued, and heard by evoking a better sense of belonging and inclusion.Without the in-person experience, but with building a human-centered culture as our North star, the challenge for our team became, “How might we better establish human connection and build trust in a virtual workplace using human-centered design?”<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Ascend_9f9f591f24.png" alt="Ascend.png"><h3>Use Your Personal Experiences To Spark Inspiration</h3>The onboarding process is one of the most crucial and important parts of an employee's journey at our company. We believe that setting up every new hire for success at the beginning directly correlates with how they will feel later on at our company – not only with their peers, but with the satisfaction of the work they will do.When we first started taking a deeper look at our onboarding process and those of other companies, we noticed a common theme. Onboarding processes were simple one-pagers full of checklists. If you complete these 20 items on the checklist, then you will have completed the onboarding. This felt very flat, boring, and not aligned with our value of being human-centered at all. From the outside looking in, it seemed as if we were putting the company’s needs first before better understanding the person’s experience and needs.Noticing this sparked inspiration for us.We felt motivated to rethink the entire onboarding process by making it more fun, interactive, and thoughtful while still making sure individuals felt up to speed with all of the information about our company and the role they would be fulfilling. Traditionally as HR professionals, our first thought isn’t to consider building a tool ourselves when there wasn’t one we could use already on the market. However, Moon Creative Lab is a unique place with a unique position. Since Moon is an incubator for new, bold ideas, we felt inclined to explore this idea further, simply because we could!<h3>How We Reimagined Our Product Using Human-Centered Design&nbsp;</h3>Now, two years after the onset of the pandemic, we have taken on one of our greatest challenges: building our first, one-of-a-kind onboarding tool specifically for Moon, which we call Ascend.Ascend is an onboarding experience that greets a new hire two weeks before they start and leads them through their first 90 days by providing them with all the information about Moon, our parent company, past and present projects, our values, and more! This allows for new Moon Mates to digest information and meet fellow Moon Mates at their own pace. We really wanted the platform to feel as customized to them as possible. We believe that if someone feels instantly welcomed to a new team and acclimates to a new role as quickly and seamlessly as possible, they will feel valued and confident from their first day. Our hope is that with a human-centered approach and experience is pursued, it will result in overall better work performance and employee satisfaction. This is why we strongly believe reimagining the onboarding process using human-centered design is so critical.&nbsp;While building anything from scratch is a huge undertaking, we urge anyone that is looking to solve a problem to first think of the human-centered approach. Use that as your North Star. When a solution resonates with a person’s needs, the problem at hand can become way less daunting and more attainable. This helped us a lot on our journey towards building Ascend.Be sure to follow us here to read more progress of Ascend!Monique Riley&nbsp; HR Business Partner <a href="mailto:monique@mooncreativelab.com">monique@mooncreativelab.com</a>

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Experimenting fast with GORIL, a digital tool teaching native-Japanese speakers better English pronunciation.<hr><h3>Key Takeaways:</h3><ol><li>Interview potential users early on to help steer the direction of your product concept.</li><li>Having potential users engage with prototypes can draw new insights and validate assumptions quicker.</li><li>If resources and time are low, get creative and experiment fast!</li></ol><hr><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/GORIL_Moon_Venture_3dbacc4b9d.png" alt="GORIL_Moon_Venture.png"><h3>English Is Most Commonly Used Worldwide, But Is It Spoken With Confidence?</h3>Working in a multicultural and global environment like Moon Creative Lab has shown us just how important the English language can be when it comes to team communication and coordination. GORIL, a Moon Creative Lab venture, is aiming to support native-Japanese speakers looking to develop a more natural pronunciation of their English. Through the power of GORIL, participants will be able to communicate more clearly and confidently in any setting.You might be surprised to find that English is the most commonly used language across our studios, especially because we are an established Japanese company and a majority of our team members' native language is Japanese. Many of us have had to step outside of our comfort zones to speak English at a level where we felt confident to communicate with different team members around the world and effectively work together.We believe that in order to have a more diverse team with people from different backgrounds and nationalities, English is possibly the most important skill we all share. &nbsp;And in today’s globalized world, many of us rely on English to be able to communicate in various settings, including traveling to various countries and navigating different business environments. Some might assume that most people speak English, but that’s generally not true. While a large percentage of the world can speak English, we are unsure of the population’s proficiency and confidence in speaking the language.We have to remember that learning English is not easy. And learning a different language is not only about vocabulary and grammar, but context, idioms, popular expressions, and pronunciation, especially, are key.So we asked ourselves, how might we build a tool that supports pronunciation and articulation of the English language?<h3>Interview Potential Users Early On To Help Steer the Direction of Your Product Concept&nbsp;</h3><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/GORIL_Prototype_English_b1711ccc64.png" alt="GORIL+Prototype+English.png">Our team has been hard at work designing GORIL to become the first tool that supports goal-oriented learners to improve their English pronunciation and articulation. During our product concept development stage, we connected with many potential users and discovered the importance of personalized learning. Normally, personalized learning would come from a tutor or teacher. However, in order to reach as many users as possible, we had our biggest key learning yet: understanding that technology itself should be convenient and effective.<h3>Having Potential Users Engage With Prototypes Can Draw New Insights and Validate Assumptions Quicker</h3>At Moon, we believe that listening to our users and tailoring solutions to respond to their needs is the ultimate goal for each and every project we incubate. In order to optimize processes and validate ideas faster, we focus on building prototypes that support us. These prototypes are a mockup of our concepts to illustrate the vision and story we’re trying to tell. Users can then engage with our prototypes and in turn, we can collect real feedback to validate assumptions, find potential flaws, and discover new insights. &nbsp;<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/GORIL_Prototype_Japanese_92a09f2ddb.png" alt="GORIL+Prototype+Japanese.png"><h3>When Resources and Time Are Low, Get Creative and Experiment Fast!</h3>For GORIL, we decided to use technology that required voice recognition, which meant that creating a high-fidelity interactive prototype would require a lot of team resources and time. Since “Experimenting Fast” is a Moon value we embrace, we went back to one of our early reflections: learning through tutoring. We decided that we would create our first prototype by running an English lesson through tutoring. The tutor was our program manager and native bilingual, Chiaki, and the materials were static slides containing our methodologies.It took us only one week to deliver a few classes and find a lot of insights that supported us in the further development of GORIL. We learned that talking to our users and understanding their life experiences, motivations, and pain points helped shape the direction of our product development. We also learned to not let time and limited resources hold us back from experimenting and testing our ideas!If you’d like to continue following GORIL’s product journey, be sure to <a href="https://www.goril.jp/">check out our website</a> to learn more.

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Moon Partnered with Mitsui &amp; Co.’s Diversity Management Department team to celebrate Pride Month.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/D_and_I_Pride_Month_06d98828fa.png" alt="D&amp;I+Pride+Month.png">By being present all over the globe, Mitsui is, in essence, diverse. But its understanding and desire to foster diversity does not stop with geographical presence. Thrive on diversity is one of the company's four core values. Still, many might wonder what diversity really is. Mitsui's HR itself has a whole team of engaged professionals working on Diversity &amp; Inclusion (D&amp;I). With them, there is a wide group of D&amp;I ambassadors, people who dedicate part of their time to engage with this community in order to make Mitsui more diverse and inclusive.Diversity is plural. It means breaking homogeneity from ethnicity to thoughts, from gender to social structures. It means having different people and different ideas innovating together. <a href="https://www.inclusion.me.uk/news/what_does_inclusion_mean">Inclusion</a> is providing the same positions and benefits to all people regardless of race, gender, disability, medical, or other needs. Together, Diversity and Inclusion are about embracing differences based on nationality, religious faith, gender, sexual orientation, or whatsoever.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/LGBT_87695c8377.png" alt="LGBT.png">Among all the actions toward diversity that Moon has started, our team partnered with Diversity Management Dept. of Mitsui to create a series of activities during Pride Month in June 2022. Already well known in many countries, June is considered the month not just to celebrate, but to encourage discussions and actions to increase the awareness of LGBTQIA+ people. While at Moon, we collaborated with Mitsui to host a series of activities. Anna Hiraoka from Diversity Management Dept. of Mitsui worked with Machi Rezende, Moon's Lead UX Designer and current researcher of intersections of Corporate Culture and Gender Diversity at Waseda University, to host an online forum for Mitsui's D&amp;I ambassadors.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/D_and_I_Presentation_b91d595f68.jpg" alt="D&amp;I+Presentation.jpg">Through an interactive presentation combined with an interactive quiz, participants had the chance to learn more about gender, sexuality, and ways to increase awareness and create safe spaces for LGBTQAI+ employees and professionals in the workplace. In the end, a Q&amp;A session was held.Global surveys and research all over the globe, <a href="https://www.moonstories.blog/blog/working-with-pride#:~:text=like%20this%20one%20in%20Japan">like this one in Japan</a>, show that at least 10% of the world population identifies themselves as LGBTQIA+. This means that one in ten people around us is an LGBTQIA+ person, proving that it is essential for companies to promote policies and actions to create an inclusive and safe space in which everyone can thrive.Machi Rezende Lead UX Designer <a href="mailto:mateus@mooncreativelab.com">mateus@mooncreativelab.com</a>

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In this article, we talk with two Moon Creative Lab Designers about their experiences designing for inclusivity and how inclusive design can reach unexpected and wider audiences.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/110822_Blog_Image_Inclusive_1500x2500_c1f4ad11ce.jpg" alt="Moon Creative Lab_ Inclusive_Design"><hr><h4>Key Takeaways:</h4><ul><li>What is inclusive design</li><li>Examples of inclusive design</li><li>How to design for inclusivity in your own work</li><li>Resources for learning more about inclusive design</li></ul><hr>Inclusive design is a design practice that we are always considering when supporting our ventures. At Moon Creative Lab, one of our core values is “Be Human-Centered” which focuses on designing for human needs rather than the business outcomes – the essence of inclusive design. We believe that unexpected opportunities come when we look outside of ourselves and really get to know our users. &nbsp;With Moon’s parent company, Mitsui &amp; Co., celebrating Diversity &amp; Inclusion Week this September, we interviewed two of our designers in Tokyo on what it means to design businesses, products, and services that are inclusive of everyone.&nbsp;<hr>What does inclusive design mean to you?<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Takuya_Moon_Creative_Lab_0db86155e2.png" alt="Takuya, Senior Design Researcher"><figcaption>Takuya Yamagishi,&nbsp; Senior Design Researcher</figcaption></figure>T.Y. “For me, inclusive design means design that is welcoming for everyone and can apply to many fields, from architecture to consumer product design to employee experience design and more. Sometimes there are conflicts and it is not possible to make everyone happy. However, in my view, we should always strive to maximize the happiness of every user.”<blockquote>Inclusive design is welcoming for everyone.</blockquote><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Machi_Moon_Creative_Lab_63026b0b6e.png" alt="Machi, UI/UX Design Lead"><figcaption>Machi Rezende,&nbsp; UI/UX Design Lead</figcaption></figure>M.R. “For me, inclusive design is all about understanding and including the plurality of people and realities we have in the world. You’d be surprised – a recent study showed that only 21% of people are able to fully use most products, which means that inclusive design, which seeks to lower barriers to effective use, is actually for the majority of people.”<blockquote>Inclusive design is about including the plurality of people and realities.</blockquote><hr>What are some examples of inclusive design?T.Y. “When I studied at design school in Europe, I was impressed by the inclusivity of design there compared to design in Japan. Public notices were clear, simple, intuitive, and visual. In Japan, on the other hand, public notices still tend to be extremely wordy, complex, and non-user-friendly. Things are improving little by little, though. I also noticed that train station ticket gates were wider, allowing easier access for people in wheelchairs.Inclusive design encourages us to think about people who are not the same as us, empathize with them, and question our own assumptions. There is always a danger that we will design things that work best for us, the designer – but we are not everyone, and what works for us may not always work for others.”<blockquote>Inclusive design encourages us to think about people who are not the same as us, empathize with them, and question our own assumptions.</blockquote>M.R. “When talking about inclusivity, we usually think about the Physical aspect of design - <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ergonomics">ergonomics</a>, accessibility, design for the elderly and the physically challenged, and so on. But there are also cognitive and emotional aspects to consider.From a cognitive perspective, for example, we should consider such things as color blindness, but also dyslexia, which, as studies show, affects up to 12% of people globally. And also consider deepening our understanding of the wide range of neurodiversity that humans exhibit. Not everyone processes information in the same way and our design should take that into account.In terms of emotional inclusivity, we must also consider how people feel when using the products that we design. Recently there have been great improvements. For example, Instagram now provides more pronoun options for people who don’t identify as Male or Female. And you may have noticed that Slack now includes a range of skin color options for emojis so people can represent themselves online in the way that feels most comfortable for them. These changes may seem subtle, but they have a huge positive emotional impact on those who may otherwise feel excluded or ignored.”<blockquote>Not everyone processes information in the same way, and we must also consider how people feel when using the products that we design.</blockquote><hr>In your own work, how do you design for inclusivity?T.Y. “I am currently working on <a href="https://www.goril.jp/">GORIL</a>, a Moon Creative Lab venture that is creating an innovative way for people to improve their English pronunciation. Originally the project was called “Speak Like Native,” but in the process of interviewing potential users, we learned that the main goal of attaining native-like speech excludes many people, and our project has evolved as a result. We decided to avoid idiomatic expressions and use simpler, more direct language so that more people can use the product effectively.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/GORIL_Logo_4d44bb3542.png" alt="GORIL_Logo.png">In the past, I also worked on a Moon venture that was developing a product for people with epilepsy, and this forced me to consider many new perspectives. We built a journaling system for the users, but learned that after an epileptic seizure, they are exhausted and unable to write. So, we simplified the design to include only icons indicating the most common range of experiences. This way, users could record their condition in a quick and intuitive way, and we later added an audio function which made it even easier for them.What’s important is that the insight for these improvements came from speaking with epileptic users and getting their feedback on our early prototypes. Without actually speaking with those who would use the product, we were designing in the dark.”<blockquote>Without actually speaking with those who would use the product, we were designing in the dark.</blockquote>M.R. “A while ago I was working on an application for visually impaired people in Japan that helped users navigate around train and subway stations. The app allowed them to find the right exit, restrooms, and so on by scanning QR codes in the station and guiding them around the yellow floor paths.What was interesting about this project was that – as a designer – it wasn’t about making something look good (because the users, by definition, had limited visual ability), but instead about making it work well. Because for these users, this app is not for entertainment or simple convenience, but rather a powerful tool that hugely impacts their lives and can, in some sense, change their reality.&nbsp;<blockquote>It wasn’t about making something look good, but about making it work well.</blockquote>To build this, we talked with visually impaired people and consulted with support associations in Japan to get a deeper and more authentic understanding of the users’ experiences with the product prototypes. We couldn’t have done this just based on our own experiences and realities.During this project, I also learned some interesting things about how inclusive design principles can contribute to design in general. Did you know that dark mode, which your phone or PC might switch to in the evening, originally comes from products designed for people with visual impairments? Or that text-to-speech technologies were first developed for people who could not read screens, but now are a major component of AI assistants like Alexa and Siri? In the end, inclusive design helps everyone.”<blockquote>In the end, inclusive design helps everyone.</blockquote><hr>Are the products and services you design for inclusive? Learn more about inclusive design here:<ul><li><a href="https://www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com/whatis/whatis.html">What is Inclusive Design?</a> (Cambridge University)</li><li><a href="https://inclusivedesignprinciples.org/">Inclusive Design Principles</a> (inclusivedesignprinciples.org)</li><li><a href="https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/principles/design-systems/what-is-inclusive-design-principles-and-examples/">Inclusive Design: Principles and Examples</a> (Adobe)</li></ul>

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<h4>Not Starting From Zero:&nbsp; Tips for Starting a New Product or Service</h4><ul><li>Challenge your assumptions</li><li>Understand your customers</li><li>Move fast and test in the market</li></ul><hr><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/CAAV_MBSD_Moon_Creative_Lab_247f21ccca.jpeg" alt="CAAV_MBSD_MoonCreativeLab.jpeg">Innovation can simply be defined as doing something new. And sometimes that “something new” can be taking something that already exists today and using it in a new, different way. That’s what the team at Mitsui Bussan Secure Directions (MBSD), Inc. did when they created a new service (and a new revenue stream for its business).MBSD, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui, is a leading Japanese provider of IT security services. The company offers a wide range of services including vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, managed security service, and cybersecurity consulting. Its team of security professionals offer a combination of in-depth knowledge and understanding of attackers' methodologies with granular support to bring a comprehensive yet highly technical approach to protect customers in terms of cybersecurity.Two years ago, MBSD’s talented team of engineers developed its own award-winning tool, GyoiThon, using sophisticated machine learning to help their enterprise customers track the software running on their web servers – which can be a big challenge since proliferation of web servers go hand in hand with the proliferation of services an enterprise may deploy to support its business. Tracking that software is essential to ensuring OS and middleware software updates are deployed and security risks are mitigated. The tool used by MBSD’s security consultants was very effective. Even though the engineering team initially had no intentions of selling it to customers as a product or service, they knew they had something customers wanted and needed.So, how do you turn an internal tool into something that customers can buy and use on their own? Where do you start?&nbsp;<hr><h3>1. Challenge your assumptions&nbsp;</h3><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/CAAV_Yo_Hayashi_5fbaf20dd9.jpeg" alt="CAAV_Yo+Hayashi.jpeg"><figcaption>Yo Hayashi,&nbsp; GM of R&amp;D Division,&nbsp; GM of IoT &amp; Advanced Analytics Division MBSD</figcaption></figure>“We didn’t know how to move forward with this project,” said Yo Hayashi, General Manager of R&amp;D DIvision, General Manager of IoT &amp; Advanced Analytics Division, MBSD.“We have very knowledgeable engineers – they know about the market and the customers’ voice, but their perceptions were already fixed. Talking to Moon, we realized we had to take a step back to really understand our customers and what they really needed step by step.”Working with the Moon Creative Lab team, Yo and the MBSD team worked to challenge their assumptions of what they already knew about their customers and their needs. They worked together to clearly define the personas of their potential customers and put themselves in their shoes.<hr><h3>2. Understand your customers</h3><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_Vlad_2_a16b935e8a.jpg" alt="Moon+Creative+Lab_Vlad_2.jpg"><figcaption>Vlad Almonnord,&nbsp; Moon Design Director</figcaption></figure>“We wanted to get clarity on the entire ecosystem,” said Vlad Almonnord, Design Director, Moon Creative Lab. “Who is the actual end user versus who are we selling to? What is their day-to-day life? How will this new service enable them to make key decisions in their job? Becoming truly empathetic of the customer was a big light switch.”This revealed several challenges that IT teams face within an organization and humanized a complex industry. “It not only helped us in expanding the offerings of the original service, but also helped drive a lot of clarity on how to deliver actionable information to different stakeholders involved in the value chain (the type and granularity of information is different for each stakeholder or decision maker in the ecosystem).”<hr><h3>3. Move fast and test the market</h3>MBSD then worked with the Moon Creative Lab team to build a prototype service called the Continuous Assessment of Asset and Vulnerability (CAAV) based on their core technology. The MBSD team then went and tested the service directly with customers and incorporated feedback to improve the user experience.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/CAAV_MBSD_Logo_4fe4ee91b2.png" alt="CAAV_MBSD_Logo.png">The CAAV service is now available for sale and the team recently acquired its first paying customers! This new service gives MBSD a new conversation to have with their customers as well as a new revenue stream. With CAAV, the MBSD and Moon team proved that innovation for your business does not need to come from zero. It can come from using something that exists today, but used in an entirely new way.For more information on MBSD, visit their corporate <a href="https://www.mbsd.jp/en/company/">website</a> and <a href="https://caav.jp/">CAAV website</a>.

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<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_Amelias_06e11d3123.jpg" alt="Moon+Creative+Lab+Amelias+.jpg">When <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/arihorie/">Ari Horie</a>, a known advocate for women to lead and thrive in business, shared her vision of creating a foundation for both girls and women to pursue entrepreneurship in Japan, we knew <a href="http://www.mooncreativelab.com/">Moon Creative Lab</a> could help. Our visions for creating a more inclusive and robust center of innovation, creativity, and new business creation in Japan were absolutely aligned. This is what Moon Creative Lab was created to do – for Mitsui and beyond. We also knew it wouldn’t be easy.Entrepreneurship itself is a very difficult (yet very rewarding) path. And in Japan, it’s even less common for women and girls. According to <a href="https://www.accj.or.jp/the-accj-journal/tokyo-women-vc">research</a> by Tokyo Women in VC, 91% of venture capital (VC) firms in Japan have no female partners; 59% of VC funds have no women on their investment team; and 44% of funds do not have any women employees. In addition, only 13% of VC employees, 10% of actual VCs, and 3% of VC partners are women.This is why Ari launched her new non-profit organization, the WSL Impact Foundation, <a href="https://www.amelias.jp/">Amelias</a>’ program designed to build a foundation of support for high school girls and women throughout Japan. Partnering with cities like Kobe, Hokkaido, Sapporo, and Shibuya, the Amelias program offers education, workshops, mentoring, and networking opportunities with former and current entrepreneurs from Japan and Silicon Valley.<h4>Moon Leads Workshops on Startup Design</h4>In July, <a href="https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000089.000060069.html">Moon became a founding sponsor of the WSL Impact Foundation</a> and we hosted an event for 60 women entrepreneurs at our Spring Terrace studio in Omotesando. This event was livestreamed at other locations in Japan including Shibuya, Kobe, and Sapporo to more than 130 women. The morning program featured guest speakers on entrepreneurship including <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/fujiyoishiguro/">Fujiyo Ishiguro</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathymatsui/?originalSubdomain=jp">Kathy Matsui</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nager/">Marc Nager</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shayanne-wright/">Shayanne Wright</a>. Moon’s CEO, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaichi-yokoyama-67973580/">Kaichi Yokoyama</a>, gave an inspiring talk about how to “Think Crazy” to expand your business and your journey as an entrepreneur. He shared examples of how he did just that with the creation of Moon Creative Lab four years ago by bringing the best of Silicon Valley and Japan together to create new and innovative businesses that would have an exponential impact on Mitsui and the world. The concept of “thinking crazy” was a big theme for the Amelias program to encourage participants to think and act outside of their comfort zones.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_WSL_c9819ed32e.jpeg" alt="Moon Creative Lab Womens Startup Lab">In the afternoon, Moon led two Startup Design workshops – one at our Spring Terrace office in Omotesando and the other at nearby Shibuya Parco. Workshop participants learned about the importance of human-centered business design, the practical process to discover opportunities for innovation, and the importance of entrepreneur networking – especially for women.<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_Spring_Terrace_WSL_44c779f906.jpeg" alt="Moon Creative Lab Spring Terrace WSL">Here’s what participants had to say about the Moon workshops:“I had learned from reading books, but it was interesting because it was the first time for me to put it into practice.”“I was able to experience the process of thought and the process of realization. A place where failure can be seen positively. I was able to experience that I was further brushed up by working as a team.”“Good prototyping and pitch! Prototyping should be done quickly and without spending too much time and money. Also, I am very grateful for the pitch because I can't practice without this opportunity. By giving us the opportunity to review our value proposition, we were able to review our business more clearly. There were voices saying "be crazy" in various places, and it was good that I was able to think outside my own frame.”<img src="https://moon-website-prod-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/Moon_Creative_Lab_Workshop_WSL_726d36c34a.jpeg" alt="Moon Creative Lab Workshop Spring Terrace WSL"><h4>More To Do To Support the Entrepreneurship for Girls and Women</h4>Ari Horie’s vision for the Amelias program is to make entrepreneurship not only an acceptable path for girls, but a viable and desirable one. We at Moon Creative Lab are delighted to support this vision to help make it a reality. While there is still much to do to increase the numbers of women entrepreneurs in Japan, we are excited about the potential for the future.To learn more about the WSL Impact Foundation Amelia's program, please visit: <a href="https://www.amelias.jp/">https://www.amelias.jp/</a>Mary Ann Gallo Chief Marketing Officer <a href="mailto:maryann@mooncreativelab.com">maryann@mooncreativelab.com</a>

First-Hand Experience Designing a New Business | Kickoff Event Key Learnings

Building Ascend From 0 to 1

Beginning the Entrepreneur Journey

How the Pandemic Inspired a New Human-Centered HR Solution

Low-Fi Prototypes for High-Tech Solutions

Working With Pride

Inclusive Design: Building With Everyone in Mind

Starting a New Product or Service

Empowering Women Through Startup Design Workshops

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