Paul: Jenessa Carder is a CX transformation specialist, an inclusive designer, a multicultural thinker, and most recently, an author.
Jenessa and I spoke about her unique identity in Japan, shifting from aspiring aerospace engineer to creative strategist, relocating during the pandemic, her work on inclusive design, improv as a business skill, daily life in Tokyo, and her future goals, including a podcast and cultural preservation.
Hi Jenessa. Please introduce yourself.
Jenessa: I’m the misfit, the person who doesn’t really fit in, and can’t be labeled easily. Unique. I’m one part creative mind, one part business mind. One part from the USA, one part global citizen. One part extroverted socializer, one part independent introvert. Even my name—it’s not quite Jessica and not quite Vanessa, it’s a hybrid (although my parents didn’t make it up).
Especially while living in Japan, I’ve learned to embrace this uniqueness as a core identity trait. We’ll get to the topic more later, but I see myself as curious. I’m a person who is always trying new things and thinking of countless new ideas, and sharing with others what’s been uncovered. Professionally, I’m a strategist with a wide array of experience in sectors and applications, including transformation, campaigns, and digital work. Recently, I’ve become more interested in inclusivity. I grew up in the USA.
You studied graphic and advertising design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia, then went on to a master’s in marketing communications at Emerson in Boston. Were you a creative child growing up? Why advertising/marketing – what kind of career did you imagine for yourself?
Before I had my eyes set on SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design), I was set to be an aerospace engineer and an astronaut if I were lucky. However, in high school, I learned of the concept of flow—how, when you truly do what you are passionate about, you lose track of time and enter a state of “flow”. I realized that state was when I was creating and doing my art homework. This changed my trajectory, and I discovered design. I entered advertising because of a sort of career fair SCAD had, where they introduced each major. Advertising was showcased as a major that worked with all the other creative industries, which I appreciated, as I always had an interest in many creative pursuits.
You had several internships while studying and were active in supporting students on campus at SCAD. I’m a big fan of internships. How did yours influence you?
One of the big, defining moments was when the president of the company (TracyLocke) asked to meet with the interns. The leader explained how she wanted us to brainstorm with her on ways we could help “future-proof” her company. Here we were merely interns, but she was seeking our business advice.
That moment has stuck with me, as it illustrated that no matter how young or inexperienced you are, you can always offer a fresh perspective and the perspective of your generation to others. One always has something to offer—and I’ve found myself reinforcing that to young people I meet.
How did your career progress after graduation?
It was later in my career, while in graduate school, that a mentor pointed out I was very strategic for a creative, and perhaps my true calling was as a strategist. After interviewing several “strategists” and “planners”, my life’s interests aligned. Though I was in the creative industry, that child who wanted to be an aerospace engineer never left me. That side of me was the one that could bridge the worlds of creative and business—the art that great strategists need to master.
You transferred from Boston to Tokyo with Isobar in January 2020. How did that come about? Was Japan a place of interest for you before this time? Was it supposed to be a temporary assignment?
Around 2016, I was working for Isobar (now Dentsu Creative) USA and had the opportunity to be stationed abroad for a few weeks, working with a client in Copenhagen. The success of that Digital Transformation project led to several other international work placements, and eventually the opportunity to lead a proposal for a client headquartered in Japan.
We won the proposal, and I was the lead strategist on the project. Eventually, a need arose for some of the staff in the USA to relocate to Japan, and the client asked if I could relocate along with the leadership of the Dentsu Isobar (now Dentsu Digital) Japan office. Having a desire to experience living outside the USA at some point, I accepted.
Initially, I was to live in Japan for 1-3 years. It has been 5 years, although I have switched companies during this time.
COVID was just starting in early 2020. It must have been difficult to settle into a new home and culture during this time. How did you cope?
Absolutely, it was a challenging time. Before we knew the pandemic was so big, I moved knowing my team and the project I was working on. My biggest hurdle was going to be settling in and adapting in my private life. That was indeed the biggest challenge, since everything was shut down, meetups were not happening, and my ability to establish a personal foundation was quite inhibited.
At the time, the only real sense of comfort was my friends and family back home. I talked to them constantly, having frequent phone dates, sending them care packages, and notes from Japan. To keep my spirits high and encourage some sense of adventure, I started a private Instagram series, “Jenessa’s snack time”, where I reviewed 3 Japanese snacks a day. I still keep it up, but don’t eat as many snacks. Yuzu snacks will always be tried, though. Yuzu is the best!
Walk us through your career since you came to Tokyo.
After a while, I experienced my first company merger when Dentsu Isobar became part of Dentsu Digital. Thankfully, the team I was on didn’t change much after the merger—I was VP on the CX team and working on international and domestic work, including large-scale transformation and smaller work on websites, CMS, or CRM systems, creative and social campaigns. Eventually, Dentsu and I parted ways, as I joined a Dentsu competitor known as Publicis. I’d previously worked in the Publicis network under the brand Sapient (formerly SapientNitro), but this time I joined a different brand, the company Digitas. The role at Digitas was quite similar to my previous roles. I led CX for a variety of international clients and stayed there for about a year. Now, I lead CX work at a small agency that services both domestic and international clients known as Relativ*.
You were a board member for ImprovBoston, a non-profit comedy organisation. How did you get involved in this and why?
The ability to think on one’s feet is an underrated yet important business skill. In nearly every client interaction, the principles of improv come into play—one needs to acknowledge a client’s questions and contributions as well as actively contribute in a way that allows a client to give feedback. Sometimes it also means saying “no” softly via the “yes, and” technique of improv. Coaching and training in exactly these skills is one of the great things about many improv troupes, and especially ImprovBoston. At the time, ImprovBoston’s mission was to support the full-time employment of as many artists as possible in the craft—the business workshops were a strong driver of this. When the opportunity arose to be selected to the ImprovBoston board, it offered an experience to both personally grow and champion growth skills in others. A win-win.
You recently published a book, The Curious Nail Who Stuck Out, a guide to inclusive business design. What is inclusive business design, why is it important, and why did you write a book about it now?
Take a moment to think about a time when you haven’t felt included or you’ve felt incredibly frustrated by a product or experience you couldn’t use. Inclusive design is about intentionally designing to correct these moments.
Essentially, inclusive design is about ensuring products and experiences can be accessed and used by as many people as possible. It doesn’t always mean designing for one group of people the same way. In fact, it’s often about designing flexibility or multi-modality into something. This, in turn, adds business value through enhancing the use cases of a product or experience.
Many who think of inclusivity will think of those living with a disability or other condition, as well as the labels we place on each other in relation to our gender, race, sex, eating preferences, etc. These are not wrong, but when thinking about my personal stories and moments where I haven’t felt included, I realized many of those instances related to cognitive things like my sense of confidence in something or biological sensations that only I feel, like my energy level. I realized inclusivity is much border and more ubiquitous than we realize. It’s a widespread challenge we all face. As members of the business and design community, we can change this through the work we do.
The book tells stories from my personal life living in Japan, intermixed with Japanese anecdotes, while illustrating a framework on inclusivity. People who are interested in Japan and living in Japan will enjoy it for the Japan stories, while the business community in different industries like hospitality, real estate, and CPG, will also experience several studies in how the framework can inspire innovation through inclusivity.
What does your typical day look like?
By nature of a client-based industry, every day is different. However, I’ll typically wake up and immediately connect with my friends and family at home, and the international and industry news for a while.
I enjoy online Barre3 classes to stay active, and frequently engage in one before breakfast, a coffee, and getting ready for the day.
At some point, I’ll often head to FamilyMart and scope out the new snacks, especially if it is a Wednesday, the day the new products are certain to be stocked.
I’m often working from home throughout the day, so after work, I’ll squeeze in social time at a networking event or cook myself dinner.
In an ideal world, I also have energy for reading, listening to a podcast, or creating some art in my visual journal, but that’s not always the case.
What are some of your goals for the future? Short-term, long-term, personally and/or professionally
Professionally, I am passionate about inclusive design and making the world a bit more friendly for each human and would love to collaborate with more clients in this space. Since I wrote the book, of course, sales are good, but identifying participants for the associated podcast is also important.
The concept behind the podcast is extending the book’s topic, inclusivity, beyond my personal stories. Each guest helps demonstrate the opportunities for inclusive design by showing the ubiquity of exclusion.
I am also passionate about preserving the local culture in Japan and enjoy supporting initiatives along these lines, such as supporting local craftspeople. In the long term, I see myself engaging in this area as well.
Quickfire questions
– If you could go back in time to your arrival in Japan, what advice would you give yourself?
I titled my book the Curious Nail Who Stuck Out after a Japanese saying that describes how the nail that sticks out gets hammered down to look like the others (出る釘は打たれる). As with many foreigners who live long-term anywhere outside their home country, I learned to embrace my strengths and who I am at the core. Those things that I’ve always been might make me stick out in Japan, but they are also my strengths and things that make me unique and add value to teams. They’re to be embraced.
Anyone seeking to live outside their home someday should remember to stay firm in their sense of self.
– What advice would you give to someone considering transferring to Japan with their current company?
Just as I predicted, the hardest part was my personal life. Try your best to make a plan to help yourself adapt, but also embrace the unexpected. The unexpected things are the things that make life in Japan incredible.
– How do you learn new skills?
Professionally, I’m currently working on an audiobook and updating the ebook version of my book to align with the upcoming European Accessibility Act standards, enacted on June 28, 2025. A mix of professional advice, as well as ChatGPT, is coaching me through both of those. But typically, I find hands-on learning is the best way for me to learn professional things. Also, I feel just being curious about the world and doing new things makes you better at your job.
– Tell me a few of your favourite or most recently read books, movies, podcasts, and games.
Book: A book on inclusion design, Mismatch by Kat Holmes, inspired my own book.
Book: Folk Tales of Japan by Kyota Ko has fascinating stories, but his Instagram posts are highly entertaining. I presume his audiobook is as well.
Podcast: Joe Baz & Shane Brown both recommended the deep inquiry questions from Coach Jerry Colonna.
– What’s your favourite place to visit in Japan?
The place I frequent the most is Echigo Yuzawa in the winter. I started to ski a few seasons ago, and Echigo Yuzawa has a phenomenal ski school, Snow Country Instructors, who hired an instructor who took me from the magic carpet to the black diamonds (the tough ones) in just a season. Now, I’m learning to control my fears of going fast through the trees in deep powder.
In the “green” months, I really enjoyed visiting San’in Kaigan UNESCO Global Geopark in Kyoto prefecture for the beauty of the water and rock formations. Also high on the list is the Tango Peninsula, for the people, the beauty of the water, and the history of silk production in the area.
– What’s the best thing you’ve spent 10,000 JPY on in Japan?
During the Pandemic, I started taking Shibori dying lessons (which is resist dying with indigo usually)—each lesson was under the 10,000 price point. The lessons not only taught me the useful art of sewing but also unlocked incredible opportunities to learn about Japanese culture and textiles. Such as visiting the Tango Peninsula mentioned previously, which is home to the majority of silk produced in modern day.
Are there topics we haven’t discussed that you’d like to add?
At one point, while at Publicis the first time, I was an adjunct professor at Emerson College, teaching a course in Visual Literacy. George Lucas sums up the topic quite nicely in this conversation, where he describes the importance of understanding the syntax of the modern world. Breaking down what we encounter every day, we see that visuals are becoming even more important: Our entertainment is dominated by short-form vertical visuals, emojis are an entire language in how we communicate, even areas of communication dominated by sound or text are visual in terms of the metaphors they evoke in our minds.
As prevalent visuals are in our everyday life, it is an underrated field of study. However, the study of this topic will enhance one’s ability to give feedback and dissect why something does or doesn’t work. If any reader anticipates that they will experience a foreign country, where they will discover the importance of visuals in human survival.
Finally, do you have any asks for our readers?
If you have a story about feeling excluded in your own life and might be interested in sharing it on my podcast, The Curious Nail, please reach out!
Remember that being different is a good thing—stay curious about the world!
Thanks for speaking with me, Jenessa.
You can find Jenessa on LinkedIn and visit her portfolio here.
Check out the Curious Nail Who Stuck Out book and read the foreword.
And finally, listen to The Curious Nail podcast.
Looking for a new IT job in Japan? Check out my job board. Hiring? Get in touch and let’s see how I can help.
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