Uncover how bol's data science team reimagined logistics forecasting by building a sustainable data foundation. Instead of quick fixes, they restructured workflows, embraced monotasking, and aligned their codebase with evolving needs. This journey offers insights and lessons for anyone curious about strategic data engineering.
Fast is slow, slow is fast - rethinking Our Data Engineering ProcessJoin us on a twisted journey through bol’s ambitious data migration from a legacy monolith to new “micro” databases. Discover the challenges, solutions, and strategies that shaped our approach—from testing and transforming data to managing long-running scripts and navigating unexpected hurdles. Whether you’re looking for practical insights or just curious about the journey, this story uncovers the lessons we learned on the path to go-live.
Splitting the data of the monolith – Because who needs to sleep anyway…Alright, folks, unless you’re one of those rare people who own a genius cat that can code (and if you are, we need to talk), setting up a local database might seem like a daunting task. Fear not! With Docker and Flyway, it’s so straightforward that even your cat could do it — well, theoretically. So let’s dive into it!
Database Setup So Easy, Your Cat Could Do It: Docker and Flyway EditionAs manager Tech Community Training & Onboarding, Michaela leads a full-fledged team of community builders at bol, organising dozens of successful events annually. With us, she shares the pitfalls, challenges, and triumphs she has encountered over the past five years.
The success of the bol tech communityAs a company, bol has 25 years of growth, exciting challenges and changes behind its back. Its IT department is no different. Going from 10 to 170+ teams, from 10 to ~1400 applications, embarking on a DevOps journey in 2015, starting the shift to the Cloud in 2017 and going Product Led in 2022, the IT landscape and organisation changed drastically. And while the way we test, release and run our applications changed along the way, early 2021 we realised we need to step up our game when it comes to quality, testing and observability. We took a serious look at where we are in our journey of shifting left and shifting right and realised that besides a clear vision, we also need to focus on providing building blocks to our teams to realise it.
Bol’s journey in shifting left* and shifting right**: our VisionIn our ongoing saga of bol's evolution towards excellence in software development, we've traversed the realms of shifting left and shifting right, each step guiding us closer to our ultimate goal: delivering unparalleled value to our customers. Today, our focus shifts RIGHT to the indispensable role of Canary Releases in our quest for innovation and reliability.
Bol's Journey in Shifting Left and Shifting Right: Canary ReleasesWe’re talking to Elisa, bol’s very first UX Research Lead. With us, she shares stories about her journey, her future goals, ánd Continuous Interviewing – a successfully implemented program that now empowers several of bol’s product teams to regularly connect with their shoppers.
Leading the way in UX research: “This role was completely mine to shape”Senior Data Scientist Eryk plays a crucial role in developing and maintaining forecasting projects, specializing in aggregated sales. We talk to him about his journey, facing a challenging pandemic, and being part of the data scientist community at bol.
Navigating chaotic times: forecasting amid the pandemicAt Bol, we have observed a significant increase in engagement and conversion rates since implementing a personalized product feed, prominently featured on customers' homepages as "Top deals for you". Building on this success, we have extended the feed to also include "Top picks for you," and "New for you". These personalized feed systems curate the most relevant items for each customer's homepage using a combination of their recent and historical item interactions.
How we built near real-time “X for you” recommender systems at BolIt’s been four years since bol started creating its own Design System. The main goal? To speed up innovation in a scalable way. Product Designer Rens and Product Manager Redmar share their insights into the development and construction of the ambitious project.
Shaping the future of bol: “Our Design System helps speed up innovation.”
