What goes behind the scenes at TikTok, and how does the Operations team work? We asked these questions to Yoichi, the Head of Operations and Marketing for Northeast Asia at TikTok. After nearly three years here and having experienced two different role changes, we asked Yoichi for his reflections and musings from his time here.
Tell us about yourself.
I'm Yoichi, and I love playing the guitar. I wanted to be a professional musician when I was in university. That didn't quite work out as a career but I still currently play in a rock band with my brothers and old friends in my free time. I have more guitars than I can count, and my wife always tells me "You cannot play two guitars at the same time so you just need one!" and I respectfully disagree. Apart from my guitars, I am also Head of Operations and Marketing for Northeast Asia at TikTok. I started out my career at a business publishing house before moving into tech and within tech, all in the business development space before coming to TikTok to lead the Business Development team in TikTok Japan in September 2019. I later became TikTok Japan’s General Manager in January of 2020, and recently became Head of Operations and Marketing, Northeast Asia.
What was it about TikTok that attracted you here?
TikTok is a mobile-optimized product, which uses our phone cameras and is constantly evolving together with cellphones. Our people at TikTok are constantly innovating, and ensuring that our platform is a comfortable and safe place for our creators. I love that there is so much potential to TikTok, and there are endless opportunities to bring joy to our users. When I first came in, I knew that TikTok could be much bigger in Japan, and I was excited about the opportunity. It's been more than 2 years since I became GM of TikTok Japan (nearly 3 overall!), but it still feels like Day 1! We still have so much more to do going forward to make TikTok an even more joyful, and safe community for our users.
What does your role entail?
For me, my role is to bring together teams to create a bigger impact. I set clear directions and goals for growth, and encourage our teams to amplify their impact and achieve their goals in a way that they are comfortable doing. I want to give people the freedom to unleash their creativity to succeed, encourage and motivate them, and back them up when they need it. The way I envision it is similar to the role of a manager of a baseball or soccer team. As a lead, I cannot be a field player, but has to be there to help the team win the game. If we win, it's the team's win, but if we lose or sometimes miss the mark, it's my responsibility to own it, and to also get the team back on track. We build TikTok for people to have a space to be themselves and to be creative. We do the same for our people too, and aim to inspire creativity and bring joy to them.
With a busy work schedule and new responsibilities, how do you re-energize yourself when to-dos pile up?
Firstly, keeping fit physically is important to me as it affects one's mental health. When I am working out (I usually run), eating, and sleeping well, it helps me make good, timely decisions. I also try not to take things personally. At TikTok, we move fast and our job involves endless experimentation. With every experiment, there are learnings to be had, and when things don't go the way I envisioned them to, it's important not to take it as a failure. TikTok is organic in the way trends are created and made viral, and this is because of our amazing creators and users. We are here to help them be creative, and be themselves on our platform, and when things happen it is important to roll with it, and stay humble and open to new ideas.
Are there any stories you can share from your time here that meant a lot to you?
I was hospitalized two years ago in 2020. I had to spend 10 days doing nothing before my surgery, and everyone reached out to see how they could make this period easier for me. It made me so thankful to be a part of this team, and I am still grateful to be working alongside an amazing team. This period also made me better understand how TikTok also enables so much connection - by watching videos of other creators, we are able to maintain connection with our families and communities, no matter where we are, and this is a role that TikTok can fulfill for anyone. TikTok is a window for people, no matter where they are, and who they may be, and this episode allowed me to empathize on the importance of TikTok. Now that I am working with an expanded scope of Northeast Asia, I think there are more things we can do together to make a greater impact beyond borders and across different markets on a global scale. I am excited by the opportunity to work with cross-border teams to drive projects, learn from one another, and innovating for our users. We want to make things happen here at TikTok, whether this be bringing joy to our users, or our teams, and we are still just getting started!
