Our world looks different, even compared to just a few years ago: remote work is the norm and people are using AI more and more to get their information. With these recent changes, we felt that we also needed to rethink how we go about our training program for new graduates. After much thought and discussion, we launched the redesigned version in April 2025. The new format is called Training Week and is a retreat that takes place over four days.  It was designed to facilitate spontaneous communication and create experiences that are only possible in person.

Last year on Mercan, we ran two articles that introduced the content and intent behind 12 of the sessions that made up our new graduation training program.

• AI/LLMs, CTB and More!—Introducing Mercari’s Unique New Graduate Training Program
• Mercari’s Unique New Graduate Training Program: Planning the Tokyo Office Sessions and CS Training Session 

In this article, we will be shifting our focus from the “what” to the “why”—rather than going into what is taught at Training Week, we will be exploring the reasons why a revamp was necessary. In order to get the answers, we spoke to Juan, who led the Training Week redesign, and he emphasized three key phrases: skill development, culture alignment, and relationship building. 

  Note that this article was structured and written using AI tools based on ideas and notes contributed by team members.

Avoiding an information avalanche with three clear themes

—To start things off, what is Training Week?

@Juan: Training Week covers all of the sessions that Mercari’s new graduates need to participate in regardless of their job type, from engineers to corporate staff. It includes all of the training sessions that our new graduates are required to take. 

The goal is for them to get familiar with Mercari’s mission, values, and basic operations in a short amount of time. For engineers, we also have a separate program called DevDojo.

—How is the program designed?

@Juan: Simply piling on information that we want new graduates to know won’t get across a clear message. It just makes it harder for participants to understand how all the information is connected. That’s why we organized Training Week around three themes to make it clear what each session is for.  

—What are the three themes?

@Juan: Skill development, culture alignment, and relationship building.  We made sure all of the content in Training Week is linked to one of these three themes.

• Business skill development: Covers skills that help members apply conceptual ideas and knowledge to real-world scenarios. Includes training in areas where new graduates are most likely to stumble, such as how to approach their tasks, business etiquette, 1-on-1 meetings, and feedback.

• Culture alignment: Focuses on understanding Mercari’s values and operations. Includes general sessions not specific to job type, such as the Group Mission Workshop, I&D Onboarding, and CS training. The goal is for new graduates to not just understand these concepts but internalize them.

• Relationship building: Helps members create connections across the organization and foster a sense of belonging at Mercari. This theme has to do not so much with the content of the sessions, but rather how they are conducted—we made sure the sessions are conducted in person, designed them like a retreat, and incorporated shared experiences.   We believe that the more opportunities for spontaneous and casual conversations there are, the more members can learn and feel comfortable in their new environment.

—How did you balance these three themes?

@Juan: This year, we had an even balance of 50% culture alignment and 50% business skills. However, we are planning to review this ratio every year according to the business situation and what we want new graduates to get out of the program.

And note, relationship building isn’t included in this ratio because it shouldn’t be limited to specific sessions. Rather, relationship building is a general theme that we applied to all of Training Week by incorporating face-to-face communication, designing it like a retreat, adding group work, and so on.

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What stayed and what changed in 2026

In last year’s article, we were holding 12 programs spread over the course of one month. However, this year, Juan and his team made major changes while keeping the core framework the same.

1) Consolidating the program into four days

—What was the biggest change that you and your team made?

@Juan: Before, the sessions were scattered across a month or so, but we made the training period much shorter, consolidating everything into four days.  We also decided to gather all of the participants in one place to experience the training together.

Up until now, when the sessions took place throughout the month, it was difficult for us organizers to adjust our schedules and secure blocks of time for our other work. It was also complicated for the new graduates, since they had to go back and forth between training and their day-to-day work, which made it harder to focus.

That’s why we decided to consolidate the program into four days, rather than spreading it across a month.

2) Creating an environment for bonds to form

—I understand that the venue was changed as well.

@Juan: Yes! Day 1 takes place at the Tokyo office, and then we spend the rest of the training at a hotel (three days, two nights).

In this new version of our training program for new graduates, we wanted to go beyond just changing the content of the sessions. We turned it into a retreat at a hotel to allow participants to not only focus on the sessions but get to know their peers. Since they spend all day together, there are naturally more opportunities to chat and bond with one another.

With that said, it was our first time organizing an event at a hotel, so we were actually pretty nervous on how it’d go. (laughs)

In order to make sure everyone was getting a chance to talk to different people, we switched around seats and shuffled members for the group discussions each session. It was clear that everyone was getting closer as they spent more time together, which was really rewarding to see.

3) Experiencing the user perspective

—What new sessions have been added?

@Juan: The only new addition is the “Logistics Training” session, where we visit the logistics base to see and experience their work hands-on.  We added this session to have participants put themselves in the shoes of Mercari users and better understand the people who use our product.

In last year’s CS training, we visited the Sapporo office and got to see firsthand what kinds of user inquiries the CS Team receives, how they respond to them, and in what kind of timeline.

This year, we will be conducting this CS portion remotely, and instead we will be taking participants to visit Mercari’s logistics base. The purpose of this visit is to experience the real transactions that happen on Mercari by entering a physical space and handling physical items. 

We hope that adding this trip to the logistics base will spark discoveries that are not possible with a passive experience like sitting through a one-sided lecture.  Similar to last year’s CS training, we’ve received a lot of positive feedback from participants, saying that the session was meaningful and how they were able to learn things that directly relate to their own work.

The value of in-person training

—I’m guessing there was an option to have participants go through their training online or using AI, but why did you decide to hold the training in person?

@Juan: I do think that in the future, we’ll be able to have AI agents handle more of our knowledge sharing and onboarding. However, we’ve seen that meeting our new graduates and teaching them about our organization face to face has positive effects—I think the messages resonate better, and the shared experience makes them excited and motivated to thrive at Mercari. With that said, we’re still trying to figure out the best balance of AI and in-person communication. Currently, we’re positioning in-person communication as an opportunity to convey emotions and build relationships rather than for simply conveying information.

—You mentioned positive feedback from participants; could you tell us more about the feedback you’ve gotten from them?

@Juan: We get a lot of comments saying that they liked joining the training in person, especially because they were able to meet and talk to new people.  It’s nice to get that kind of feedback, since it feels like our focus on the theme of “relationship building” is paying off.

If the entire training is done online, you don’t have a chance to ask the person next to you a quick question or ask the facilitator about something you didn’t understand on the spot. I think it also might start to feel lonely, reflecting on my own experience during the pandemic and how it felt isolating at times to be working remotely and spending less time with my peers. So that’s something I was thinking about when redesigning the program as well. 

We switched to a retreat format given the feedback and issues we were seeing in the old format. Considering the more recent feedback that I mentioned earlier, I think there will be an even greater emphasis on in-person communication going forward.

—So then, do you think Training Week will continue to change? If so, how?

@Juan: Yes! We actually make updates to Training Week every year. Our goal is to treat the training not just like a checklist of information to cover, but as an opportunity to design meaningful experiences.

Besides what we teach, we also consider the sequence and environment in which we want them to experience it. That’s what it means to design an experience, and moving forward we will continue to update our training program to what is needed for our members and organization at the time.