Services
$360 / month
Start free, decide later
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1
Free intro call
No card needed to book. -
2
Ongoing calls + chat
2 × 60-min calls per month, unlimited Q&A. Replies in 24 hours or less. -
3
No lock-in
Month to month, no contract.
MentorCruise summary
Riccardo is a UX Design Lead at Amazon Japan with more than 15 years of experience in UX design. He has led design initiatives at Delivery Hero APAC and designs commerce, rewards, and payment experiences at Amazon. He helps designers strengthen portfolios, prepare for international UX roles, and communicate product impact more clearly.
Based on 3 verified mentee reviews
- Two reviewers value his clear guidance, including study direction and industry advice for Japan.
- Two mentees mention his thorough feedback and practical assignments that help them make progress.
About
Hi there, I’m Riccardo, an Italian UX Design Lead based in Tokyo since 2010. I help designers become employable in international UX roles, with a special focus on Japan, APAC, Big Tech, and AI-native design workflows.
I have 15+ years of experience across UX Design, Interaction Design, Product Strategy, and Design Thinking, working with startups, scaleups, and large global companies. Today I work as Lead UX Designer at Amazon Japan, where I design large-scale commerce, rewards, and payment-related experiences across Japan and global partner teams. Before Amazon, I led design initiatives at Delivery Hero APAC.
I founded Tokyo Graphic Designers, a community for designers living and working in Tokyo, created to help people share experiences, opportunities, and practical advice about the design industry in Japan.
I mentor product designers who want to grow beyond UI execution and become stronger, more strategic designers. I can help with portfolio reviews, case study storytelling, career advice, product critique, UX strategy, stakeholder communication, and preparation for international design roles.
I’m especially useful if you are building or improving your UX portfolio, preparing for interviews, trying to move from mid-level to senior, working in Japan or APAC, planning to move to Tokyo as a designer, or trying to communicate your design impact more clearly.
I can also help designers become more AI-native. Not just by using AI tools casually, but by building better design workflows, steering docs, UX specs, design system documentation in (design.md, agent.md, skills.md), reusable prompts, critique loops, and structured decision-making processes. My focus is helping designers use AI to move faster while keeping strong product judgment, taste, and customer thinking at the center.
My mentoring style is direct, practical, and honest. I will not just tell you that your portfolio “looks nice.” I will help you see what is unclear, what is weak, what hiring managers may miss, and how to turn your work into a stronger story of customer impact, product thinking, and business value.
What mentees say
5 out of 5 stars
He is very helpful in giving me confidence and good pressure to study. He also gives me good guidelines and also talks about the industry in Japan in general which is not knowledge easily found online.
Michelle
Standard Plan • 8 months
5 out of 5 stars
Kazushi
Lite Plan • 1 year
5 out of 5 stars
Ric is the most amazing mentor I have met and I am so lucky to have him as a mentor. He will try his best to guide you to the right direction with thorough feedback and assignments.
Alicia
Standard Plan • 2 months
Get to know Riccardo
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Article 5 min read10 things I’ve learned about product design while working in Japan
Japan is known as a homogeneous society with a strong sense of group and national identity and little ethnic or …
Read more
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Article 5 min readFeeling Behind Can Be a Career Advantage
Why detours, strange jobs, and uncertainty matter more than titles
Read more
What happens when you start
You tell Riccardo your goals. They see exactly what you want to work on before session one.
You meet within days. Riccardo reviews your application and books your first session, usually within a day or two.
You leave with a plan. Concrete next steps and a weekly rhythm from your very first week.
