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# Shared mobility for everyone!

SEAT:CODE democratized shared mobility by avoiding premature microservices and building a Kotlin modular monolith. Discover how Domain-Driven Design and strict MVP shipping transformed their remote engineering culture.

- **Speakers:** Tom George
- **Event:** WeAreDevelopers LIVE
- **Published:** November 5, 2020
- **Duration:** 47:36
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/64-shared-mobility-for-everyone

## Summary

Urban areas suffer massively from the sheer amount of time wasted on traffic and parking, alongside the severe public health impacts of air pollution. Driven by rapid advancements in electric vehicle battery density and plummeting IoT data costs, SEAT:CODE set out to tackle these regional challenges by building a comprehensive shared mobility platform. Rather than limiting micro-mobility to large hubs, their vision centers on dramatically reducing the cost and technical complexity of fleet operations, effectively democratizing scooter, moto, and car-sharing capabilities for smaller municipalities.

To deliver this platform, the engineering organization prioritized a team-first culture rooted in the Agile manifesto and lean startup methodologies. Rather than reinventing the wheel while racing to market, they strategically consumed off-the-shelf APIs and leveraged AWS CDK for seamless infrastructure as code. On the application level, standardizing on Kotlin across both backend systems and Android mobile applications nurtured T-shaped engineers who could effortlessly cross technical boundaries. Furthermore, leadership intentionally delayed adopting microservices, relying instead on a highly modular monolith shaped by Domain-Driven Design (DDD) to avoid premature complexity before user load dictated the need.

Scaling the product and the workforce rapidly yielded several critical operational insights. Recognizing that IoT devices are inherently unreliable, developers had to implement distinct resilience paradigms to manage unpredictable vehicle endpoints. As the organization doubled in size within a remote ecosystem, they mapped DDD's bounded contexts to team structures, ensuring development units remained highly autonomous and domain-aligned. They also discovered that tracking cycle time—the duration from a definition of ready to a definition of done—was vastly superior to monitoring velocity, as it naturally forced product owners to write smaller, easily executable stories. Most importantly, the organization learned to prioritize shipping MVPs fiercely because "if you don't have your product live, it just doesn't exist." By moving away from internal "contract software development" where requirements are simply handed down, the engineers embraced true product ownership, driving their own roadmap, customer discovery, and ultimate pride in their execution.

**Keywords:** shared mobility platforms, EV fleet management, IoT endpoint reliability, AWS CDK infrastructure, modular monolith architecture, domain-driven design, bounded contexts, lean startup methodology, kotlin backend development, t-shaped engineering, software cycle time, product ownership mindset, agile team scaling, asynchronous remote communication

## Chapters

1. **Origins of the mobility platform and development centers** (00:18) — How strategic software hubs were established to boost digital transformation and agile delivery.
1. **Understanding the challenges of modern urban mobility** (03:13) — How severe parking shortages, heavy traffic, and life-threatening air pollution demand new transportation models.
1. **Driving shared mobility through electrification and connectivity** (09:13) — How advancements in battery density and falling internet of things data costs enable vehicle sharing platforms.
1. **Expanding shared mobility services to smaller urban centers** (14:24) — Why solving transportation challenges requires adaptable vehicle platforms that operate economically outside major cities.
1. **Cultivating a learning-focused and empathetic engineering culture** (20:43) — Why prioritizing kindness, peer knowledge sharing, and human connection drives successful software delivery.
1. **Applying design thinking and lean software development principles** (22:48) — How combining agile values with a continuous build-measure-learn feedback loop creates robust adaptive products.
1. **Architecting the platform with modern cloud and mobile technologies** (26:23) — How tools like infrastructure as code, cross-platform languages, and domain-driven design enable scalable application development.
1. **Mitigating the unreliability of connected hardware endpoints** (29:43) — Why dealing with intermittent internet of things connections requires fundamentally different operational paradigms and error handling.
1. **Structuring engineering teams around domain bounded contexts** (31:50) — How adopting domain-driven design concepts helps define specialized ownership areas and scale development organizations.
1. **Improving remote collaboration through deliberate documentation strategies** (33:12) — Why distributed teams must replace passive office interactions with intentional knowledge sharing and communication workflows.
1. **Choosing third-party integrations over immediate custom development** (35:00) — How leveraging existing external services accelerates initial product launches and delays unnecessary engineering efforts.
1. **Managing team cohesion during rapid organizational scaling** (36:26) — Why quickly doubling an engineering baseline requires dedicated energy for onboarding, relationship building, and team spirit.
1. **Prioritizing feature backlogs against corporate stakeholder demands** (37:53) — How establishing strict evaluation methodologies prevents scope creep and protects the team from chaotic prioritization.
1. **Measuring development efficiency through task cycle times** (39:05) — Why tracking the duration from definition of ready to definition of done encourages smaller stories and faster delivery.
1. **Validating products through early production releases** (40:37) — Why deploying a minimal live application is crucial for gathering user feedback and maintaining organizational momentum.
1. **Transitioning from contract software to authentic product ownership** (43:07) — How empowering development teams to dictate business decisions creates alignment, pride, and superior software outcomes.

## Related Moments

- [Embracing open source communities and scalable vehicle mobility](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1114-software-defines-the-vehicle-why-customers-and-developers-will-love-cars-even-more) (from "Software defines the vehicle: Why customers and developers will love cars even more")
- [Redesigning vehicle architecture for the digital lifestyle](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1114-software-defines-the-vehicle-why-customers-and-developers-will-love-cars-even-more) (from "Software defines the vehicle: Why customers and developers will love cars even more")
- [Adopting a software-first approach to vehicle development](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1114-software-defines-the-vehicle-why-customers-and-developers-will-love-cars-even-more) (from "Software defines the vehicle: Why customers and developers will love cars even more")
- [Real world mobility use cases and platform innovations](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/258-on-developing-smartphones-on-wheels) (from "On developing smartphones on wheels")
- [Accelerating software delivery through minimum viable products](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/520-how-to-build-the-best-food-service-in-the-world) (from "How to build the best Food service in the world")
- [Building connected components for a unified mobility ecosystem](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/780-car-s-are-technology-on-wheels-impact-of-software-and-it-competence-in-automotive) (from "Car's are Technology on Wheels - Impact of Software and IT Competence in Automotive")

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