Innovation Strategist
Unlocking the American plate
A strategy to transform American consumers to enjoy Japanese cuisine at home
Brief
How do we make Japanese cuisine a staple in American households?
As the first design-led strategist at a global food company, I tackled this challenge by rethinking how consumers discover, adopt, and integrate Japanese cuisine at home. Through research, experimentation, and cross-functional collaboration, I developed a 5-year innovation roadmap that expanded product lines and unlocked new market opportunities worth billions.
Client
A legacy international food manufacturer
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Role
Project Lead / Product Manager / Design Strategist
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Team
Embedded within the marketing team as the first designer, I led the entire project while collaborating closely with cross-functional stakeholders.
The specifics of this work remain confidential.
Below is an overview of the project without revealing the client's identity.
Context
A heritage Japanese brand remained underrecognized in the U.S.
A leading global food manufacturer, widely recognized for its vinegar and pasta sauce brands, sought to raise awareness for its Japanese sauce brand. Despite a 200-year history of crafting authentic Japanese flavors, this brand struggled to gain recognition in the U.S. market.
With the growing popularity of Japanese restaurants across the U.S., the company saw an opportunity to strengthen its presence and drive adoption among American consumers.
Challenge
How do we make Japanese cuisine a staple in American households?
Approach
To address this challenge and understand the full consumer journey, I conducted:
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In-depth interviews with Gen Z & Millennial consumers.
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Cooking observations to identify real-life challenges.
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Grocery shop-alongs to analyze purchasing behavior.
Observing a consumer's first attempt at making a rice ball
Insights
90% of consumers' decisions happen before shopping, and critical barriers prevent them from choosing Japanese food
The company believed its primary consumer touchpoints were grocery stores and kitchens—assuming taste and availability could drive adoption. However, the consumer journey extends far beyond simply picking up a product.
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​The journey begins when consumers experience a new flavor at a restaurant, search for recipes, and plan their meals—not when they reach the grocery aisle.
The most important decisions happen early in the journey, and three major barriers
prevent adoption:
Consumer Journey
Discovery
Recipe Search
Grocery Shopping
Home Cooking
1. Psychological Barriers
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Japanese cuisine is often perceived as having a high entry threshold, requiring expert skills or perfect replication—leading to hesitation.
2. Lack of Culinary Support
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Consumers struggle to identify which Japanese recipes are truly authentic.
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Unlike Italian or Mexican cuisine, which have been widely adapted for home cooking, Japanese dishes require more detailed instructions to follow correctly.
3. Ingredient Overwhelm
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A single dish often requires multiple unfamiliar ingredients.
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Consumers are reluctant to commit to a whole new pantry.
To drive adoption, we needed a strategy that lowered the barriers and made Japanese cooking feel approachable and rewarding.
Strategy
A 5-year roadmap to introduce Japanese flavors and expand comfort zones
Instead of pushing consumers to cook full Japanese meals overnight, the strategy focused on progressively introducing Japanese flavors into everyday dishes and gradually expanding comfort zones to full Japanese meals.
To achieve this, 16 service and product concepts were generated and prioritized through tasting events and scalability analysis, including production costs and market size.
Example concepts:
1. Redefining Japanese cuisine: Partnering with a meal kit delivery service to integrate Japanese sauces into pasta, steak, and other familiar meals.
2. Enhancing culinary accessibility: Collaborating with leading culinary platforms to provide reliable Japanese recipes with step-by-step guidance and high-quality visuals.
Impact
The strategy is now a central force in the company, with two concepts in development
The findings and recommendations were presented in an interactive and immersive format to C-suite stakeholders, ensuring that insights left a lasting and powerful impact.
As a result, early-stage concepts are underway, tapping into a $1B market.
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Bonus Point:​
The success of this human-centered design approach led to its broader adoption across the marketing team and beyond, shaping the company’s approach to consumer engagement.
Process
Highlight of my process
Collaborative engagement leads to a holistic approach to strategy development
I played a vital role in fostering close collaboration with internal stakeholders, including senior leaders, R&D, manufacturing, supply chain, research, and marketing teams.
In doing so, I made it a priority to understand the entire business—its value proposition, market advantages, and operational structure—while also actively listening to the passion and vision of those involved.
This collaborative effort, throughout the project, harnessed diverse expertise and resulted in innovative strategies that enabled the company to take decisive and impactful action.
Understanding warehouse management and inventory management
Exploring manufacturing perspectives and lean operation
Market research at the customer touchpoint
Communicating the value of design with their language leads to a new way of working
Introducing design methods to a team unfamiliar with methods was crucial. However, introducing new concepts can sometimes face resistance. To bridge this gap, I communicated in a language that resonated with our colleagues.
Then actually witnessing the power of design thinking boosted confidence in our strategies through consumer insights and prototyping.
Tasting events to understand American Consumers’ preference
Tasting different Ramen soup flavor
Internally generated ideas cultivate ownership and ensure implementation
While leading this project, maintaining an open and inclusive approach was vital. Actively involving individuals across the organization was key to success.
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Prioritizing solutions originating internally and conducting ideation workshops stimulated creative contributions.
Many team members initially expressed doubts about their creativity, but within just one hour, 30 fresh ideas were generated and carefully synthesized into 16 validated concepts, all born within the team.
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Importantly, all of these ideas were born within the team, creating a sense of ownership and motivation for successful implementation.
Ideation workshop:
Prepared worksheet filled with new ideas
Detail of my process
Commenced with a comprehensive analysis that delved into both macro and micro trends, encompassing the cooking needs and habits of the typical American consumer. This process extended to examining industry trends and conducting a thorough analysis of the company itself.
In the course of this extensive procedure, we meticulously pinpointed the target consumers within the Gen Z and Millennial demographics who had limited prior experience with Japanese cuisine at home.
......................... SWOT Analysis
Brand Strategy Analysis
.................... PEST Analysis
.................... 3C Analysis
Research strategy
Based on secondary research, a detailed research plan was created, intentionally involving two distinct consumer categories: those new to Japanese cuisine and those with advanced cooking skills in this area.
The choice of extreme users was deliberate and crucial.
They were selected because they place the most demanding requirements on products and often have amplified needs, even though they constitute a smaller portion of the total
user group.
Setting the research participants
To gain insights into cooking behaviors and uncover the barriers and opportunities related to the adoption of Japanese cooking products, I conducted ten in-depth unmoderated interviews. Due to time constraints, unmoderated interviews were chosen for their efficiency and unbiased observational data collection. We initially received 1,432 responses from a screening question, from which ten participants were thoughtfully selected for interview sessions.
Utilized data from a 200-response survey to enhance clarity, aiming to minimize ambiguity and foster the confidence necessary for efficient progress.
Observation
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Cooking Japanese dish
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Finding Recipe
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Grocery store shopping
Consumer interviews
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Asking about routine
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Pantry and fridge storage
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Perception of Japanese cooking
Observing grocery store shopping behavior
Observing a consumer's first attempt at making a rice bal
Analysis of 200 survey answers
Scrutinized survey data, coded interview responses, and analyzed observation findings.
Synthesized findings from both primary and secondary research to create a consumer journey map, insights report, and design principles.
Coding and analysis on Mural
Ideation Workshop:
I developed a comprehensive facilitation plan for the ideation workshop, ensuring active participation from cross-functional teams.
Pre-work ideation board
Ideation workshop facilitation plan
Prototyping:
We conducted weekly tasting sessions with the internal team to familiarize ourselves with new flavors, ideate and test new products. Additionally, we hosted tasting events to gauge the reaction of American consumers.
Ideation Prioritization:
To streamline the process, I created a scorecard for effectively prioritizing and selecting the new ideas generated during the ideation workshop.
I developed Desirability, Viability, Feasibility (DVF) model score card
I specialize in engaging, active, and compelling presentations. My approach goes beyond traditional one-way slide deck presentations, ensuring key insights and recommendations are delivered in a memorable and easily comprehensible manner. This approach has been instrumental in motivating C-suite executives to embrace and move forward with the presented strategies.
My learning
Leading design in non-design fields by bridging people and culture to achieve impactful results
As the first designer hired by this company, I was responsible for managing every aspect of the design project, from initial planning to execution. Being entrusted with creating a comprehensive 5-year strategy was both an exciting opportunity and significant challenge.
To meet this challenge, I deepened my understanding through self-study, reviewing books and resources, and seeking advice from the right professionals at key moments. A crucial part of the project’s success was engaging stakeholders and securing their buy-in. This experience allowed me to not only refine my design methods but also develop the soft skills necessary to effectively communicate the value of design and support its implementation across the organization.
I also learned that the success of a product or service is shaped by more than just customer needs. It equally depends on the passion of internal stakeholders, the company’s culture, and its legacy. Moving forward, I aim to continue looking beyond the product or service, understanding the entire ecosystem, respecting the vision of those involved, and contributing to outcomes that are distinctive and aligned with both customer desires and organizational strengths.
Learning the manufacturing process and visiting warehouse
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