I recently went one-on-one with Yoky Matsuoka. Yoky is the founder and CEO of Yohana, the CEO of PanasonicWELL, and the Managing Executive Officer of Panasonic Holdings. Yoky was previously the CTO of Google Nest and a co-founder of Google X.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Yoky: Thank you for having me, Adam! I’ve certainly had an interesting path. I was born and raised in Japan and made the move to the US when I was 16, which is where I’ve been based ever since. I’m an only child and my parents still reside in Japan to this day so I feel lucky to have had an upbringing and perspective from both cultures. I initially came to the US to focus on tennis, which was my passion growing up but was forced to sideline my hopes of playing professionally due to an injury. Despite this setback, I was fortunate to discover a new passion — science and technology. I got my B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, my M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and completed my postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. 

My career began in academia as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Washington. My area of expertise is in neuroscience and robotics. During my tenure at UW I founded and directed the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering and the Neurobotics Laboratory to create devices to restore the human body’s capabilities for sensation and movement. My career took a turn when I decided to take the leap from academia to work in Silicon Valley as a way to get closer to consumer products so I could change how people live. Since then, I’ve worked with leading tech companies having held roles including CTO of Google Nest, Vice President at Google’s Healthcare organization, Co-Founder of Google X, a senior executive at Apple, and CEO of Quanttus, a wearable health technology startup. I’m currently CEO of PanasonicWELL and CEO and Founder of Yohana, where I’ve merged my technical background, my experience, and challenges as a working mother, to build technology that will help families thrive.

Adam: In your experience, what are the key steps to growing and scaling your business? 

Yoky: My unconventional background of coming from academia as a researcher, to deeply studying robotics and AI, to my time as a professor, and then crossing that valley of death and coming over to build consumer products has given me a unique perspective and approach. 

From my learnings, as well as starting Google X, was that doing a lot of research and trying to transfer that into a company idea is really, really hard. The chance of success there is in the single-digit percent. The first step to growing and scaling a technology business lies in really understanding what problem you are going to solve for customers. And if you can start there. Then everything else will follow. But if you start with the technology, there's every chance you'll get lost.

The second step is to know your customer. I’m not talking about doing run-of-the-mill market research, I mean really, really, get to know your customer - their pain points, their needs, their habits, likes, dislikes, etc. Think of it as building an intimate relationship that evolves throughout the years. Without this deep understanding, it is impossible to create technology that can truly help people at scale. 

Find the right partners to scale. Whether that’s venture funding or partnering with a leading brand like Panasonic, be open to working with partners who have the infrastructure in place to truly scale. You need to move fast, fail fast, and come up with a product in a way that no business or organization could do. 

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?

Yoky:

• Make work meaningful for your team 

• Focus on outcomes not clock out times 

• Embrace context switching 

Adam: What are the most important trends in technology that leaders should be aware of and understand? What should they understand about them?

Yoky: I am incredibly optimistic about AI as it is a true evolution in technology and a huge milestone. It is as big if not bigger than the internet, the World Wide Web, or the iPhone. AI without a doubt will change the world as we know it and will affect everyone’s lives in some way. On the other hand, AI is moving too fast and this concerns me. It is moving forward in a way where humans (all of us) are being used as lab rats. There are companies using consumers as a giant science experiment and I am against this approach. There are so many consequences to misusing this powerful technology in a manner that has not been thought through because it is all moving too fast. We need to approach AI responsibly and establish guidelines worldwide for the use of AI. 

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?

Yoky:

• Be strategic and action-oriented. 

• Hire the right people. 

• Be a good team player.

Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

Yoky:

• Be mindful and live in the moment - There are so many moments where leaders can get lost in the work we do every day, but if we work intentionally and stay mindful, it can help us and our company stay on track. 

• Focus on the mission - Speaking of staying on track, it’s important to continue to be mission-driven. As leaders, we have an opportunity to build solutions that can help people in their everyday lives, we can only do that if we remember the why in what we do. 

• Be authentic - Authenticity as a leader is important to me. I’ve shared my highs and lows. I want to help empower people by embracing the wins and the imperfections. 

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders? 

Yoky:

• Stop perfectionism - As leaders, it’s a hard one to do, but realizing that things will never be perfect will go a long way

• Delegate - It’s not a bad thing to ask for help. If anything, it means you trust those around you and you can focus on the higher-priority items that need your attention. 

• Continue to grow and learn - I’m constantly learning and growing every day. It’s a journey that never stops and the more open we are to that, the more we’ll have at our disposal as leaders. 

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received? 

Yoky: “Put your own oxygen mask on first.” This is a lesson I definitely learned the hard way. As someone who’s used to successfully doing it all. I eventually found myself in a position where I was doing too much. I no longer had time for myself. I found myself struggling and feeling helpless. But after some work on myself with a coach and developing a Me List - ten things for me to do for myself every week -  I found myself becoming a better partner, mom, daughter, etc. I needed to focus on myself in order to reconnect and have genuine connections with my loved ones. 

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Yoky: Leadership can look different for everybody, but I believe as long as we continue to follow our purpose and understand the why behind what we do, it should help us be successful leaders. 


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally-recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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