Introduction

Hello. I'm Sato, a frontend developer at KINTO Technologies Corporation (KTC).
In this article, I'd like to introduce my team developing a website for KINTO used vehicles, sharing how we proceed with the development and how our team structure looks like.

I recently started using a sun umbrella for the first time in my life. For learning more about myself, please check here

What Is the KINTO Used Vehicle Website Development Team?

In general, when you sign up with KINTO, a subscription with a new vehicle is started. At the end of the subscription, you need to return the vehicle.

Our team mainly work on developing and operating KINTO used vehicles (only in Japanese), a website that sells the returned vehicles as used vehicle subscriptions online.

A major difference of the e-commerce site from the one for KINTO new vehicles is that vehicle inventory fluctuates daily as used vehicles are basically one-of-a-kind items sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

We implement e-commerce-specific initiatives and approaches, considering how to display inventory and recommendation sections, which is very worthwhile.

Team Structure (as of November 2025)

• One product manager
• One producer
• Five frontend engineers
• Eight backend engineers

Team Atmosphere

My team members working at our office

Our frontend (FE) team, backend (BE) team, and contract partners are able to communicate casually without barriers and freely share opinions.

Since we're close to the business teams related to used vehicles, I think we are in the mindset of sharing opinions and growing the used vehicle e-commerce site together!

Sometimes people from other divisions join our regular project meetings, giving very pleasant comments like, "This meeting has a really great atmosphere."

Introducing Some Team Members!
Some of our used vehicle frontend team members have written articles, so please check them out too!

NAKAHARA Yuki

• Loves cheering for soccer
• Boosting work efficiency with his custom-built keyboard!
• NAKAHARA Yuki's article (below)
  • Website Image Optimization with Lambda@Edge & Next.js

Ren.M

• Basketball club captain! Shining as a point guard
• When it comes to iPhone, the high-end model is the best!
• Ren.M's articles (below)
  • Introduction to TypeScript
  • Introducing In-House Club Activities: Basketball Club

Project Team Structure

The used vehicle e-commerce site is developed and operated by KTC members in different teams.

Team	Role	Affiliation
Used vehicle business team	Business owner	KINTO Corporation
Used vehicle site development team	Handles all development	KTC
Creative team	Handles project direction and website design	KTC
Analytics Team	Manages numbers of website access and CVR	KTC

KTC is a tech company founded to drive mobility services developed by companies in the Toyota Group using diverse technologies and our creativity. It handles in-house development of KINTO, which is one of Toyota's mobility services.

By dividing business domains into two organization—KINTO Corporations (KINTO’s service operation domain) and KTC (KINTO’s development domain)—and working together, we are able to leverage each other's strength.

How We Develop Products

In developing the used vehicle e-commerce site, we determine what to do based on regular project meetings, and we growth hack the website through running PDCA cycles using the HCD development methodology.

We proceed with the development in four different teams led by the business team, and everyone shares opinions while developing with a sense of ownership.

What Is HCD?

User testing is underway

HCD stands for Human Centered Design, a methodology that focuses on understanding user needs and how to translate them into products.

We, the used vehicle team, specifically conduct surveys and user testing, organize website improvement points and user demands to make a better e-commerce site.

User testing involves communicating with users about what they're thinking while operating the website, which helps us to explore unexpected insights and is a very valuable experience for the website developers as well.

Example of How We Proceed

PDCA Cycle	Content	Responsible Team
Plan	Set goals and improvement plans based on analytics team reports, customer feedback, and achievements as a commercialized project Everyone shares opinions to make decisions on structure, design, etc. (repeat the above activities several times until we finalized the project)	・Used vehicle business ・Used vehicle development ・Creative ・Analytics
Do	Development to release	・Development
Check	Check metrics Discuss results	・Used vehicle business ・Used vehicle development ・Creative ・Analytics
Action	Plan next steps based on checked points, if needed	・Used vehicle business ・Used vehicle development ・Creative ・Analytics

Regular Project Meetings

Project members attending regular business meeting

In weekly meetings, we share information with the used vehicle business team while discussing improvements and considering service expansion.
The used vehicle business team, creative team, and analytics team attend meetings from their own working positions.

I personally like how Kitahata-san from the used vehicle business team facilitates—there's no formal icebreaker segment, but he keep things running in a great atmosphere throughout.
For more about Kitahata-san, see here

The regular meeting agenda is structured like this:

• Updates from individual teams
  • Used vehicle business
  • Used vehicle development
  • Analytics
  • Creative
• Topics
  • Planning improvement measures based on inquiries received
  • Proposing ideas on what we want to do
  • Sharing results of initiatives, etc.

Development Team Initiatives

We implement various initiatives alongside development.
Recently, we've been actively adopting AI-powered development and using the external service Findy Team+ to improve our development process.

Item	Details
AI-related	・Devin 　・Minor fixes, document creation, etc. ・Copilot 　・Source code review 　・Implementation assistance ・RCA (Root Cause Analysis) 　・AI-powered critical alert root cause analysis
Internal development meetings	・Scrum events ・Study sessions ・Pair programming
Development process improvement	・Findy Team+ ・Process improvements related to code review

Interview

I, Sato, interviewed some of members involved with the e-commerce site development.

Sato, leader of the development FE team
"Nobe-san, it's been about 3 months since you joined. What are your impressions of the used vehicle website development team?"

Nobe, producer of the development team
"By participating in various development meetings, I was particularly impressed that everyone speaks up and thought that this is an environment allowing everyone to share opinions."
"And I could feel that opinions are quickly adopted, and everyone wants to make things better together."

Sato, leader of the development FE team
"Thank you. I'm very grateful that you've already shared your opinions and made many improvement suggestions."

"How are things going with the BE team lately, Kaneda-san?"

Kaneda, leader of the development BE team
"Well, the BE team is also trying to boost productivity and holding study sessions to raise the skill level of team members."
"Recently, we've been focusing on domain-driven development."

Sato, leader of the development FE team
"Thank you. The BE team's initiatives and success stories that you share are always helpful for my FE team’s improvements too."
"I'd like us to enhance our products as a whole team, regardless of FE or BE."

"Let's also talk with Kitahata-san from the used vehicle business team. What do you think about the used vehicle website development structure?"

Kitahata, member of the used vehicle business team
"I always feel that new features are released at a good pace and progress are being made daily. The style of 'just try it first and run PDCA' feels like a very good match for us."
"What's great about this project team is that anyone can say anything regardless of job title or position. The development side often proposes things we, the business side, never thought of, and it feels like we're all doing business together."

Sato, leader of the development FE team
"Thank you. I also feel that each team is united in development and operations."
"I'd like to continue increasing KINTO fans one by one."

"Finally, a question for Mizuuchi-san, our product manager. What do you expect from the development team?"

Mizuuchi, product manager of the development team
"It's not just about doing development. We discuss in meetings how to improve the website, expecting the service to grow in mind. That's why I want project members to speak up and make the website even better."
"As an ideal way of working, I don't intend to fix a role, like 'this is your job,' so I want people to proactively do what they can and what they notice for any improvements."
"Technology is a means of achieving what you want to do, so I want the members who can develop with a service-first mindset rather than technology-first. We bring members with that perspective in mind."

Sato, leader of the development FE team
"So it is ideal that we have members who are service-first and can develop proactively."
"I also thought this is an important perspective in terms of growing all services in KTC. Thank you."

In Closing

I hope this has given you at least a glimpse of how we develop the used vehicle e-commerce site and the atmosphere of our team.

We've also introduced our team atmosphere and processes here!
If you're interested, please read it, which makes me very happy.
A Development Culture That Starts with "Let's Just Try It." The KINTO Used vehicle Team Talks About the Driving Force and Flexibility Behind the Scenes (only in Japanese)