Returning to his hometown to work remotely: Mr. Kikuchi, a back-end engineer developing “Chouseisan”, has a unique way of working

This is an interview series introducing the team members behind “Chouseisan and TimeRex”. This time, we will introduce Shun Kikuchi, a back-end engineer who is synonymous with “Chouseisan”.

Mr. Kikuchi is the main person in charge of programming and engineering for “Chouseisan”, and has been working remotely since returning to his hometown in October 2022. We asked Mr. Kikuchi about what made him decide to join the company, how he spends his day, his work flow, what makes him happy, and other things about working at Mixtend!

First, please introduce yourself!

I joined Mixtend’s development department in March 2022 and am currently working as the main person in charge of “Chouseisan”. Specifically, my main job is to implement new functions using Laravel and Vue, and to respond to technical inquiries and requests.

Mr. Kikuchi, you graduated from the University of Tokyo. Were you studying programming back then?

No, I originally studied plants in the Faculty of Science and had no experience with programming. However, in my first year at university, I studied Java in an information processing class and programmed a simple game, which is what inspired me to aim to become a programmer or software engineer.

After that, I worked at various web development companies, and before joining this company, I worked as a freelance back-end engineer.

What made you decide to join the company?

There are two reasons. First, I thought it was a service that would be useful to people. Even before I joined the company, it was common for people to arrange dates for drinking parties on “Chouseisan,” and it’s actually often used to arrange schedules in virtual worlds like online games. I use it regularly, and I felt it was a service with a proven track record.

The other reason was that I felt secure in the interpersonal relationships. A senior colleague who had helped me out at my previous job had joined Mixtend and was involved in the “Chouseisan” project. At the time, he often told me stories about the workplace, and I thought he must have had good interpersonal relationships.

What was your impression when you actually joined the company?

I’ve worked for nearly 10 companies, but Mixtend’s psychological safety is the best I’ve ever experienced! At my previous company, I was intimidated by some of the harsh words I received from some hot-headed programmers, but here, everyone is gentle, and there is a warm atmosphere where we respect each other, share our opinions, and express our gratitude to each other. I think I’m able to work more freely and express my opinions than ever before. I’m grateful!

Mr. Kikuchi currently lives in Iwate Prefecture.

That’s right. After joining the company in March 2022, I worked remotely in Tokyo for about half a year, and when the project came to an end, I asked, “Is it okay if I’m not in Tokyo?” and they said yes. So, in October, I returned to my hometown of Iwate.

What is your schedule like while working remotely?

I wake up at 7am, eat breakfast, and start work at 9 or 10am. I work hard for 8 hours from then, finishing around 5 or 6pm. The good thing about remote work is that I don’t have to commute, and I can sleep in my futon during my lunch break. My quality of life has improved significantly!

In my private life, I surf the internet and play games. There’s a lot of greenery around my house, so I feel refreshed when I go jogging. I’ve been enjoying dieting lately, so I’ve reviewed my diet and started jogging twice a week, and I’ve lost about 10kg in a year.

You seem to be really enjoying remote life! How do you communicate?

The basic method for face-to-face discussions is weekly online meetings. Other than that, we set up meetings ourselves and communicate via Slack. Once the development policy is decided, the rest is “implementation → review (testing) → release,” so there is no inconvenience even if we only use Slack.

The good thing about Slack is that it keeps a record of your interactions.

That’s right. I write it so that I can use it as minutes or materials when I look at it later. Even when I’m not sure how to respond, I want to be able to find the answer by searching Slack, so I don’t have to ask the same thing over and over again. That said, the amount of communication is still less than when we’re in the same company every day, so you may need to have some ability to solve problems on your own and the ability to proactively talk to people yourself.

What is the usual flow of your work?

We hear from users and within the company saying things like “We want this kind of function” or “We want to be able to do this,” so we plan to make it happen, implement it, review (test), and release it.

The estimated time it takes for one project is about one week for small modifications. Implementation can often be done in half a day or a day, but it takes about that long if you include planning and review.

For large projects that take six months to release, we often decide on a concrete release plan when about two-thirds of development is complete, rather than deciding a strict schedule from the beginning and then starting work.

What technology do you usually use?

Currently, Chauseisan runs on Laravel/Vue, so naturally we deal with technologies related to Laravel/Vue.

There are times when we need to select new technologies, and in those cases, we decide in consultation with CTO Raj-san (※) and other engineers.

If we were to create a new web service with Mixtend and were allowed to choose the technology ourselves, I think we would use Laravel as the backend framework, and Vue if we needed a framework for the web front end. These technologies have a large number of users and have a track record of being used by the team, so they are easy to solve when any problems arise.

Is there any recent work that has left an impression on you?

This is a replacement for “Chouseisan” released in October 2022! It was a large-scale project that took six months to develop, as we changed the Chouseisan framework from FuelPHP to Laravel.

Does this mean that the registered data will be preserved but the way it is processed will be changed?

That’s right. For example, FuelPHP and Laravel use different hashing methods, so we took appropriate measures such as inheriting the FuelPHP hashing method while adding a process to rehash the Laravel hashing method.

The difficult part was making it work the same way after the replacement without changing the previous data. If we were not careful, users would end up in situations where they could no longer log in, could no longer edit their events, or had to change their passwords.

We thought the transition would be a success if users could see it unchanged from before, so we wrote the code with the utmost care.

The release went smoothly and you were able to use it as before. Thank you for your hard work!

This was a project that was carried out with the cooperation of many people, and it wasn’t done by me alone, but it was still a great relief! Switching to Laravel at this point made subsequent modifications much easier. I researched and tinkered with it a lot during this replacement, and now I’m even more familiar with the specifications. It gave me more confidence.

“Chouseisan” regularly conducts user surveys. How do you interpret the results?

I’m very grateful and I read them all. We sometimes receive the same requests from many different people, so we want to respond to those that are technically possible as quickly as possible.

In particular, when we add new features, many people send us comments saying “Thank you!”, and I was surprised at first because I never had the opportunity to receive this kind of feedback in my previous job.

Just the other day, when we improved the CSV download function, I received a comment saying “I was impressed,” and it really touched my heart. Receiving direct feedback really motivates me.

Were there any features that received an especially strong response when you implemented them?

The most recent one is the “read-aloud” function for people with visual impairments. I received many comments of thanks, and some people posted on the web article and X (formerly Twitter) that “Chouseisan can be used even without relying on vision,” so I was happy to think that I was able to help them even a little!

Is there any technology that you’re interested in right now?

I guess it’s AI. Not a day goes by without seeing an article about AI in the technology news section, and I feel that the field of programming is rapidly evolving.

I can’t use it at work yet because I’m worried about security, but there are things like GitHub Copilot that support code creation, so if we use these in the future, we may be able to respond faster. If security can be guaranteed, it’s one of the technologies I would definitely like to learn.

Finally, please tell us your outlook for the future.

The number of visitors to “Chouseisan” has been growing every year, reaching new highs. However, I believe there is still room for improvement. I would be delighted if we could improve it one by one and make it even more convenient for our users.

If you would like to work with us, share opinions, and work towards creating something even better, please apply for our position!