Coffee unleash Creativity: Diverse career through what you like
Introduction
Last week, I talked about what you like unleash creativity with my two coffee projects at WRAP 24 : Spectrum Tokyo End-of-Year Meetup. Beyond boundaries is challenging but what you like will unlock your potential.
If you're curious about the presentation, check out the YouTube video. I’ve also added some points here that I didn’t get to cover during the presentation.
About Me
Hi, I’m Hal. I design Shisho Cloud , a vulnerability assessment product at Flatt Security, while also serving as the Coffee Guy for Spectrum Tokyo.
The title "Coffee Guy" was a surprise to me—I only discovered it after receiving my staff pass!
The key takeaway from this talk is:
"What you like can unleash your creativity."
As someone who brews and drinks three cups of coffee daily and roasts beans at home on weekends, coffee is a passion that has expanded my creativity.
My Journey With Coffee
My journey with coffee began at LIGHT UP COFFEE.
I was a designer on their projects, including their corporate site and a storybook. During our meetings, the owner, Mr. Kawano, would brew coffee and teach me about coffee story. Which made me fell in love with it.
Coffee opened up a world of possibilities for me, and today, I’ll share two coffee-related projects that represent this.
Coffee x Festivals
The first project is the Spectrum Tokyo Festival 2024, held just last weekend. This is an annual event I’ve been involved in for several years. Once again, I was invited by Mr. Sanpei to take on the role of coffee lead.
I worked alongside volunteer staff, Oki-san and Osoyo-san, to provide coffee at the main stage area. In the café area, I teamed up with Tani-san to serve attendees. One of today’s speakers, Ayaka-san, also joined us as part of the café staff.
While I’m glad if attendees enjoyed the coffee, this event wasn’t perfected overnight. It’s the result of learning and evolving from repeated past failures. Each iteration brought improvements and updates to create a better experience.
Design Matters Tokyo 23
The first time I served coffee at an event was at Design Matters Tokyo 23.
For this event, we ordered coffee pots from a major coffee shop near the venue.
However, the coffee consumption far exceeded our expectations, and during the morning—a peak time for coffee—there was a period of over 30 minutes when no coffee was available at the venue. This unexpected shortage highlighted the challenges of managing coffee supply for large-scale events.
To avoid repeating this on Day 2, I applied the Theory of Constraints (TOC):
TOC posits that a system’s performance is limited by its most critical constraint.
Identifying Constraints
- Bottleneck: It took 30 minutes to collect empty pots, place orders, and receive refills.
- Observation: Ordering only when six pots were empty caused simultaneous delays in supply.
Solution
- Limit the number of serving coffee pots in tables to six.
- Once emptied, replace with stocked pots while placing new orders.
This operational change ensured continuous coffee availability on Day 2.
Spectrum Tokyo 2023
At last year’s Spectrum Tokyo Festival 2023, my former company freee sponsored a French press coffee booth.
This experience inspired me to suggest providing coffee independently at future events, which led to this year’s setup.
Design Matters Tokyo 24
The first time I provided coffee as part of event operations was this year at Design Matters Tokyo 24. I prepared all the necessary equipment and carefully planned the coffee service operations.
Reflecting on last year’s experiences, I decided not to serve all the coffee at once. Instead, I released half the supply initially and kept replenishing the empty bottles in the back. This approach allowed us to maintain a steady supply of coffee throughout the event.
I was thrilled to see many international attendees enjoying the coffee. However, the beans we prepared—equal to last year’s amount—were consumed at a much faster pace. By the end of Day 1, it became clear that we were at risk of running out.
To avoid running out of coffee during the morning of Day 2, we switched to a bar counter service format instead of having self-serve coffee pots at the venue.
This change not only solved the supply issue but also allowed us to interact more directly with participants. We received positive feedback about the coffee and enjoyed the event as staff more than ever before.
This experience inspired me to aim for an even more interactive café-style setup at the next event. Coincidentally, Ryo-san also shared the same vision, and together, we realized this ambition at Spectrum Tokyo 2024.
Spectrum Tokyo 2024: A New Café Experience
After three previous events, the coffee service at Spectrum Tokyo 2024 has truly come together. Each time, I’ve aimed to make improvements rather than simply repeating what was done before. Through coffee, I’ve been able to unlock my own creativity.
During this event, we served 200 hand-drip coffees in the café space and 400 coffees in the global area. However, as with every event, there were lessons to learn. On Day 1, long queues formed, and the operations became chaotic. One major issue was the overly extensive coffee menu.
As a coffee enthusiast, I believed that having a wide variety of menu options would enhance the experience for other coffee lovers, allowing them the joy of choosing their favorite. However, this assumption turned out to be misguided. The abundance of options led to delays, as customers took longer to decide and we had to start preparing their orders only after they were placed. This slowed down the entire operation.
Interestingly, when one of the coffee beans scheduled for Day 1 sold out, leaving us with only two menu options, we noticed a significant change. With just two baristas—Tani-san and myself—it became possible for each of us to prepare one of the remaining menu items in advance, even before orders were placed. This allowed us to streamline the service and significantly reduce waiting times.
With the elimination of the waiting time caused by preparing drinks only after receiving orders, we were able to prepare drinks in advance even during slower moments. This operational improvement was applied on Day 2, allowing us to maintain a steady pace even during peak times.
As a result, the baristas, including myself, were able to provide coffee calmly and efficiently, creating a much smoother experience for both the staff and attendees.
Finally, on Day 2, we were able to achieve one of the key concepts of the café: creating a relaxed space where baristas and participants could casually chat about design and coffee.
While I usually focus on designing digital products, these events provided me with the invaluable experience of directly interacting with customers and iterating on improvements in real-time.
Preparing for these events required careful consideration of budgets, venue limitations, and teamwork with staff. It was a challenging experience that pushed me to use problem-solving skills I don’t typically rely on in my daily work. However, my passion for coffee gave me the motivation and resilience to overcome these challenges, and I firmly believe it was the driving force behind these successful events.
Coffee x Engineering
The second project I want to share is my personal app development, Collective.
This app:
- Generates coffee recipes based on bean weight.
- Includes a timer to help anyone brew great coffee.
Thanks to over 1,500 users, the app has received positive reviews. If you enjoyed the coffee at the festival, try brewing at home with Collective! Download Collective
Through this project, I deepened my understanding of React and now collaborate with engineers at Flatt Security. My passion for coffee ultimately led me to designing Shisho Cloud, a security product for developers.
Conclusion
Pursuing a career path you aspire to is one way to build your future. However, I’ve taken a different approach—shaping my career by following what I like at each stage of my life.
I believe What you love is what unleashes your creativity.
Thank you for reading!