This article was originally written in Japanese and has been translated into English for our global audience. You can find the original Japanese article [here].

Eri Osonoe was named the winner of the internal employee award, "SmartNews Igniter 2026 Q2." Having joined SmartNews while still a university student, she has gained experience across a wide range of roles, including content operations, initiative planning, and partner company collaborations.

Currently serving as the lead for the SmartNews app's "Daily Mission"* feature, Osonoe's career trajectory reveals a consistent core philosophy: "leap into the user’s perspective" and "the harder a challenge is, the more you should enjoy it."

*Daily Mission: An in-app campaign where users earn rewards, such as points, by reading a specified number of articles within a time limit every day.

Tracing back her origins even further, the backstory connects to a time long before she joined SmartNews—when she stood on film sets as a child actress.

─ First, could you tell us about your career path before joining SmartNews?

Actually, SmartNews is the only company I’ve ever worked for as a professional adult. I joined as a part-time worker in February 2018, during my fourth year of university. At first, I worked on a new business initiative we were pursuing at the time, where my role was to check whether the distributed content met our quality standards.

I was the only person doing it at first, but it quickly became clear that one person couldn't handle it all alone. So, I invited five or six university students I knew to join, creating a small team where I also took on a team leader role.

─ So even as a university student, you were already on the side of building teams.

That's right. After that new business project, I worked on content operations—managing things like in-app banners and channels to deliver content to users.

From there, I gradually became involved in planning. When I mentioned to my manager that I wanted to work more on coming up with plans from scratch, I was entrusted with content planning and partner company collaborations.

Looking back, even though I’ve stayed at the same company the entire time, the actual work I’ve done has changed quite a bit.

— Did you ever go through the usual job-hunting process?

Nope, I didn't do any job hunting. I went on to graduate school, but working at SmartNews was so much fun that I even took a one-year leave of absence in the middle of it (laughs). As a result, I ended up transitioning directly into a full-time career here.

In graduate school, I belonged to Professor Dominique Chen's lab in Waseda's Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences. There, the focus was on giving shape to our own questions and concepts as creative works, putting them out into the world, and using them to spark dialogue with society.

When I came to SmartNews, I found many people who were thinking along the same lines: "How can we make society better?" I felt a common thread with the world I had experienced during my student days, and I thought, "This is a really wonderful place." That strong attraction was a big factor for me.

─ Word on the street is that you used to be a child actor?

Yes! I started around the second grade of elementary school. It began with modeling work for textbooks, and by junior high school, I was appearing in TV dramas. For one drama, I was cast in a named role, so there were periods where I couldn't attend school very often.

─ Appearing in TV dramas... That's much more serious than expected!

It really was! But looking back now, those experiences had a major influence on how I approach my work today.

A production set involves an enormous number of people. Staff members prepare everything so that actors can smoothly transition into the next scene, while actors also stay mindful of the staff. When the atmosphere on set is good, shooting can finish ahead of schedule; when things don't go smoothly, it takes longer.

Even as a child, I felt that when people move forward while caring for one another, they can create something genuinely great.

─ Does that connect to your work today?

It's deeply connected.

For example, with the Daily Mission feature I currently manage, I don't just hand off a task to a designer saying, "Please make this," and leave it at that. Instead, I try to dig deeper by asking, "How do you think we can make this even better?"

When I do that, ideas surface that I never could have come up with on my own. Bringing in diverse perspectives makes the final output far better than what I originally imagined. I absolutely love those moments.

─ When you took charge of Daily Mission, the metrics your team was pursuing changed significantly, right?

Yes. After I took over, our primary focus shifted toward encouraging more users to use the SmartNews app on a daily basis.

However, I hadn't previously specialized in planning aimed at that specific goal. For the team as well, it meant taking on a brand-new challenge. We started from a place of, "Okay, so what should we actually do?"

─ So you were in a situation with no established playbook guaranteed to deliver direct results...

Exactly. At that moment, what I returned to was asking: "How would the user feel?"

Rather than thinking, "How can we successfully grow the Daily Mission?" or "How should I perform this specific role?", I focused on whether users would genuinely find joy in this experience.

From there, we gradually started seeing tangible results.

─ Where did you develop that mindset of "looking at the user"?

Back when I was in charge of content planning.

I was assigned to a project involving a specific IP, but I initially had no background in that realm and didn't understand what fans were looking for. So, wanting to see it with my own eyes, I visited actual events and venues multiple times. Seeing what the fans were enthusiastic about made me grow fond of it too (laughs).

From there, I started planning from the perspective of: "If I were an individual fan, what would I want them to do?" Once I did that, user reactions genuinely changed. That experience taught me firsthand that "there are things you can only see once you actively adopt the perspective of the person involved."

That’s why even today, whenever there's something I don't understand, I prioritize diving straight into that side of the equation.

─ Watching you, it feels like you naturally embody "Nothing is Somebody Else's Problem" (NSEP), one of SmartNews's Core Values.

NSEP is actually my favorite among all of SmartNews's Core Values.

Rather than something I newly acquired, it feels more like a name was given to something that was already inside me.

─ It’s the philosophy of "taking ownership rather than assuming it's someone else's problem," right? But if you push that too far, isn't there a risk of picking up everything yourself—or stepping too far into someone else's job?

That's very true. But for better or worse, I am "just lazy enough" (laughs).

─ Just lazy enough?

If someone says, "I'll handle this," I believe it's best to leave it to them.

On the other hand, if a ball hasn't been picked up by anyone yet, or if I notice something that nobody else has realized but feels like "we really should do this," I'll go grab it. In the past, I sometimes overstepped a bit, but as I gained experience, I learned where to draw the line.

Practicing NSEP doesn't mean doing everything yourself. It means finding an open space and stepping in where needed.

Including my own "laziness," I think I'm managing a good balance with it now.

─ Another striking aspect of your perspective is the stance that "the harder something is, the more fun it gets."

That forms a pretty fundamental part of my personal philosophy. People sometimes say to me regarding Daily Mission, "That must have been really tough," but I’ve rarely felt that it was painful. Of course, there are plenty of times I worry about what to do next.

However, the presence of a wall simply means there's something I haven't done yet—something I don't know yet. To me, that's a healthy state to be in.

─ So when you see a high mountain, instead of thinking "that looks tough," you think "it'll feel great to reach the top."

Perhaps so. I’m naturally drawn to challenges like: "If we try, we can overcome this—but nobody has done it yet."

There’s that moment when something everyone thought was too difficult actually works out, and the atmosphere shifts to, "Wait, we can actually do this!"

I think I just really love that moment.

When my actions spark enthusiasm around me or shift the team's mood, being present for that moment makes me feel from the bottom of my heart, "I'm so glad I did this."

─ Have you always had such a positive personality?

Actually, it was the exact opposite (laughs).

As a child, I was quite negative. Around junior high school, I thought, "I hate being this negative," and tried imitating a positive character from a novel I liked. At first, I was merely "acting."

But when I acted like a positive person, the reactions around me changed, and things actually started going well more often. So my positivity is something that was added on later.

─ Your child actor experience connects in unexpected ways!

It really might (laughs).

Even if you can't believe you can do it right from the start, if you try thinking just once, "Hey, maybe this could work?", it enables you to take that next step.

─ Has anything changed since receiving the SmartNews Igniter award?

My own mindset has shifted.

Up until now, there were parts of my situation where people thought, "Let's lend her a hand" or "Let's give her an opportunity" because I was still young or lacked experience.

However, now that I’ve received the SmartNews Igniter award, I feel I must walk out in front.

It feels a little bittersweet (laughs), but it also means I’m in a position where it's easier to be recognized as a professional. Personally, I view it as a very positive change.

─ Are you seeing a different landscape with Daily Mission as well?

Yes. Up until now, my primary focus was planning "what to do next" within a single timeframe.

Going forward, however, it's not just about extending what we already have. I feel I need to commit myself more deeply to what kinds of businesses SmartNews will build as a company and how we will grow overall.

Rather than just "how to expand what currently exists," I want to think about "what ought to exist in the first place." While there are things I can't talk about just yet, several preparations for the next stage are already underway.

─ How exciting! Finally, could you share any ambitions for the future?

I want to create things that make users think, "SmartNews is such a fascinating company!" when they see them.

Whether that takes the form of something inside the SmartNews app, an event, or a completely different format, I don't know yet.

But I want to make something that gets everyone saying, “Wow!”

And as younger people join SmartNews in the future and start transforming the company themselves, I think that would be incredibly compelling.

Someday, I hope to be in a position where I can support those people in taking on their own challenges.

Interview/ Editing / Photography = Inside SmartNews Editorial Team (Hanai)