{"id":3520,"date":"2026-07-10T04:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T04:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tucumandevelopers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/10\/the-history-of-kodee-kotlins-mascot\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T04:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T04:23:12","slug":"the-history-of-kodee-kotlins-mascot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tucumandevelopers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/10\/the-history-of-kodee-kotlins-mascot\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Kodee, Kotlin\u2019s Mascot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kotlin<\/a> Research<\/a><\/p>\n

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A few years back, the Kotlin team figured it was time their programming language had a mascot \u2013 something fun and friendly to make developers feel more at home. After all, so many other programming languages have their own characters \u2013 Gofer<\/a>, elePHPant<\/a>, Dart\u2019s Dash<\/a>, or Rust\u2019s Ferris,<\/a> for example.<\/p>\n

Bringing Kodee to life wasn\u2019t just a design challenge; it was a deeply collaborative effort by the Kotlin Marketing team, together with the Design and Strategic Research teams at JetBrains. The project\u2019s goal was to create a mascot that truly resonated with the developer community. To do that, Strategic Research team leaned into a structured approach: gathering feedback through surveys, analyzing user sentiment, and facilitating a focus group to uncover the values and traits developers wanted to see. <\/p>\n

What follows is a behind-the-scenes look at how thoughtful research and creative iteration turned a simple idea into a beloved mascot.<\/p>\n

First iteration of the Kotlin mascot<\/h2>\n

The mascot project was initiated and driven by the Kotlin Marketing team. The first design concept was the result of a thoughtful and detailed creative process in which Kotlin designers explored everything from the character\u2019s shape and traits to its personality. The initial idea was to introduce a robot companion that subtly echoed the Kotlin logo \u2013 one that was helpful and approachable by nature, with a screen for a face. A reliable sidekick, always ready to lend a hand!<\/p>\n

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Preliminary sketches of the Kotlin mascot<\/em><\/p>\n

Following its release<\/a>, the character received mostly positive feedback. However, a few social media channels and online forums made it clear that the character hadn\u2019t quite clicked with some members of the Kotlin community. This is where the Kotlin Marketing and Strategic Research teams partnered to validate the direction, and the researchers launched a mixed-method project to better understand community sentiment and shape the next iteration. Here, user feedback was indispensable. We started by scouring the internet to get a general idea of how the community felt about the mascot. This allowed us to make a few initial adjustments. At the same time, we realized we needed to dig deeper, so we moved on to the survey phase.<\/p>\n

Survey feedback gathering<\/h3>\n

The Strategic Research team organized a feedback round to learn more about developers\u2019 feelings about the character. We wanted to understand not just what people liked or disliked about the mascot, but also the reasons behind their sentiments. And the clock was ticking. With barely more than six months remaining before KotlinConf 2023, starting everything over from scratch (naming, production, etc.) wasn\u2019t an option. Moreover, a lot of Kotlin users had already been vocal about liking the first variant, and it didn\u2019t seem fair to totally replace a mascot that had already won the hearts of so many in the community.<\/p>\n

We kicked things off with a survey. As researchers, we\u2019re used to getting responses that only express broader emotions (\u201cIt\u2019s bad\u201d, \u201cI don\u2019t like it\u201d, etc.), so this time we designed the questions to help guide responses toward more specific insights. The survey included a mix of:<\/p>\n