Orientation before depth

Before my first day in eMobility, I thought I was doing everything right.

In 2018, I began my journey as a Product Owner.

My first responsibility was to work with a development team on the implementation of a protocol.

I wanted to be prepared. That has always been my standard.

So before my first day, I read the specification. Not just parts of it. All of it.

And because I didn’t drive an electric car at the time, I borrowed one for a while to understand what charging actually feels like, not just how it’s described.

On paper, I had done everything right.

When preparation meets reality

Very quickly, that preparation met reality.

In the first sessions with the team, I was asked questions like:

What happens outside the “happy path”?
When exactly does which message trigger which event?
Who owns the session once things don’t behave as expected?

They were good questions. Necessary ones.

And they made something clear to me.

Not panic.
Not confusion.

But a quiet realization I hadn’t expected:

Being well prepared wasn’t helping in the way I thought it would.

My reaction was predictable

I assumed I needed to go deeper.

More documents.
More protocol details.
More edge cases.

I had worked in IT for years before eMobility. I had led large, complex projects.

So if something felt unclear, I assumed I was missing something.

Looking back, that wasn’t the real problem.

What actually changed things

Clarity didn’t come from going deeper.

It came from stepping back.

From realizing that EV charging isn’t one product. It’s an ecosystem.

Built from many layers, systems, companies, and shared responsibility.

No single document explains how all of this fits together. And no role sees the whole picture by default.

Once I started asking a different question

Where exactly are we in the system right now?

my work began to change.

Not because I suddenly knew more.
But because I could place things better.

Questions became easier to sort.
Issues felt less random.
Conversations became calmer.

I didn’t become smarter.
I became more confident.

What surprised me most

What surprised me wasn’t the complexity itself.

I was onboarded into parts of the system.
Into roles.
Into responsibilities.

But not into the bigger picture.

That’s what I wish I had back then:
a guide that starts with orientation, not depth.

What this newsletter is and isn’t

This newsletter exists for that reason.

It’s not here to:

• turn you into an engineer

• explain standards line by line

• make you memorize protocols

It’s here to help you:

• understand how the EV charging ecosystem fits together

• see where responsibilities shift

• orient yourself before diving into details

Everything I write is based on lived experience. Mistakes included.

Who this is for

This newsletter is for you if:

• you work in eMobility, but don’t always feel fully oriented

• you prefer understanding systems over chasing details without context

• you value clarity over noise

You don’t need a technical background.
You don’t need to be new.

You just need the sense that things would feel lighter if the bigger picture were clearer.

How to read this newsletter

One email at a time.

Each one starts with a real situation.
A moment.
A question.

Not to teach you something new.
But to help you place what you already see every day.

Think of it as a map you slowly learn to read.

If that sounds useful, you’re in the right place.

We’ll continue from here.

Looking back, how did your start in eMobility feel?