Continuing to deal with products with integrity

Joined mid-career as an engineer (2018)

Ken Kakizaki

I heard something like this

  • ・What is your background?

  • ・ What is your current job?

  • ・What are the characteristics of GA technologies Co., Ltd.?

  • ・ What are your future goals?

From entertainment to real estate. The encounter that decided to change jobs

I started my Quality Assurance career at Sony Computer Entertainment (now Sony Interactive Entertainment). After that, I was in charge of QA for SNS, EC sites, smartphone games, etc. at multiple companies. In the late 2010s, there were already many stars among development engineers. However, the QA job did not attract much attention, so I went to work with the motivation to become a leading QA expert.

Before joining GA, I had never worked in the X-Tech area, much less in the real estate industry. However, as a consumer, I had a strong sense of challenge when it came to real estate. This is because until then, it was very inconvenient when moving to rent or buying a house. It has been pointed out that "information asymmetry" is a problem in the real estate industry, and the fact is that consumers have an overwhelmingly smaller amount of information that they can access compared to real estate agents. In addition, very few people buy and sell houses many times in their lifetime, so consumers have to spend a lot of time without knowledge or experience. At that time, I learned about GA technologies, and when Mr. Higuchi, the representative of the company, said, "I want to change the industry with the power of technology," I thought that it was exactly the kind of problem I was facing. I also felt a connection with the appointment of Mr. Kutaragi, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment, where I started my career as a QA, as Outside Director.

QA engineers have a lot of responsibility

I manage the product QA team and security team.

Mainly through product inspection, it aims to reduce accidents caused by defects and vulnerabilities. Basically, the release schedule is set on a weekly basis, and the inspection process is executed in cooperation with the planning team and development team.

As GA technologies product group has become capable of realizing advanced things, the complexity has increased and the responsibility required of the QA team has increased. I think that is both difficult and rewarding.

In addition, thanks to the development of technology, the number of finished products with fewer defects and vulnerabilities has increased. On the other hand, finding defects requires advanced skills. Only hard-to-find bugs cause serious problems, so it's essential to constantly hone your skills.

Fortunately, since I joined GA, there have been no incidents that have shaken the foundation of our business. We would like to continue this situation.

Companions who respect each other

One of the things I like about GA is that the real and tech departments respect each other. Regardless of the industry, companies that develop their own products often raise the question of whether sales and development can build a cooperative relationship. In that respect, GA has a good cooperation between the sales and real estate contract clerks who are responsible for the real side and the engineers and designers who are responsible for the technical side while acknowledging each other's strengths. I believe that this is related to the GA GROUP SPIRIT value standard that GA cherishes, "HEART (Sincere. Honest. Do everything decently as a person)." As colleagues aiming for the same goal, we have a culture of acknowledging each other's differences and praising each other.

It is also attractive that the company has a lot of momentum. Since we are actively conducting M&A and hiring, the number of people and organizational structure are constantly changing. Along with that, the speed at which the development themes we work on changes rapidly, and that's a lot of fun.

Although the group has already grown to about 1,000 people, it still retains the free atmosphere of a venture company. On the other hand, I think that the "good morals" of tightening the parts that should be tightened is also suitable for me.

Aiming to improve the skills of the entire development organization

I would like to further improve the product inspection capabilities of the entire development organization, including the QA team. I think there are various ways to do this, but in addition to continuing to hold study sessions, I would like to appoint a key inspection person to each product development team and work closely with them.

In order to realize the world view that GA technologies group is aiming for, it is essential to raise the level of the entire development organization. We believe that staying true to our products is the way to change the industry and change the lives of consumers.

* This article is based on information at the time of the interview. Please note that it may differ from the latest information.

Joined mid-career as an engineer (2018)

Ken Kakizaki

In 2003, he started his career as a QA engineer at Sony Computer Entertainment (now Sony Interactive Entertainment). After that, he changed jobs to an entertainment company that handled Flash games, and joined mixi in 2008. Engaged in SNS services and has been in charge of the quality assurance department for 8 years. Joined Cybird in 2016 and was in charge of QA work for mobile games. In 2018, he joined GA technologies as a senior manager of the QA department.

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Mid-Career

Mid-career employee interview

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