Accessibility in Tech

TechLab by Bol

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הוסף לפני six שנים

תוכן מסופק על ידי Anthony Moendir & Tim Beeren, Anthony Moendir, and Tim Beeren. כל תוכן הפודקאסטים כולל פרקים, גרפיקה ותיאורי פודקאסטים מועלים ומסופקים ישירות על ידי Anthony Moendir & Tim Beeren, Anthony Moendir, and Tim Beeren או שותף פלטפורמת הפודקאסט שלהם. אם אתה מאמין שמישהו משתמש ביצירה שלך המוגנת בזכויות יוצרים ללא רשותך, אתה יכול לעקוב אחר התהליך המתואר כאן https://he.player.fm/legal.

State Secrets: Inside The Making Of The Electric State

1
The Secret To Getting Inspired: Millie Bobby Brown & Chris Pratt Go Behind The Scenes 21:04

לפני 7 weeks21:04

הפעל מאוחר יותר

רשימות

לייק

אהבתי

21:04

Step into the mysterious and visually stunning world of The Electric State as host Francesca Amiker takes you behind the scenes with the creative masterminds who brought Simon Stålenhag’s dystopian vision to life. In this premiere episode, directors Joe and Anthony Russo, stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and producers Angela Russo-Otstot and Chris Castaldi reveal how they transformed a haunting graphic novel into an epic cinematic experience. Watch The Electric State coming to Netflix on March 14th. Check out more from Netflix Podcasts . State Secrets: Inside the Making of The Electric State is produced by Netflix and Treefort Media.…

לפני שנה 29:37

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In this episode, we dive into the crucial topic of Accessibility in Tech with special guests Leanne Scheepers, an engineer with a passion for inclusive design, and Niels Peter Foppe, our lead product designer and driving force behind accessibility at bol. Together, we explore how accessibility is approached at bol.com, from strategy and implementation to the practical tips and tricks that can make a real difference. Join us as we discuss the challenges, solutions, and key insights that can help tech teams everywhere make their products accessible for all. Whether you’re a developer, designer, or just interested in inclusivity, this episode has something for everyone!
Guests
Connect with Leanne Scheepers: • LinkedIn

Connect with Niels-Peter Foppen: • LinkedIn

Notes
European Accessibility Act (2025): https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1202
WCAG: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/
Level Level webwinkel toegankelijkheids onderzoek 2023: https://level-level.com/nl/webwinkel-onderzoek-2023/#h-resultaten-de-top-15

135 פרקים

#Tech #bol.com Techlab

TechLab by Bol

Accessibility in Tech

TechLab by Bol

published לפני שנה

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MP3•בית הפרקים

Connect with Niels-Peter Foppen: • LinkedIn

135 פרקים

#Tech #bol.com Techlab

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TechLab by Bol

1
Queer Bol 35:05

לפני 13 ימים35:05

35:05

This week, Ernst and Daniel from Queer Bol share how they're transforming workplaces - not with big policies, but through real, everyday actions. Like that time an educational poster in the bathroom made a colleague say: "I never knew this - thank you for opening my eyes." "It's not just about acceptance," says Daniel. "It's about creating space where people can truly be themselves." From rainbow pins to brave conversations, this is how small changes make big impact.…

TechLab by Bol

1
Chaos Engineering Day 35:05

לפני 5 weeks35:05

35:05

What happens when you dedicate a day to breaking things on purpose? Chaos Day! Join us as Bart Stroeken and Quido Meijer from Bol.com dive into the world of Chaos Engineering—a discipline focused on building confidence in your systems by intentionally causing failures. Learn how Bol.com organizes Chaos Days, the surprising findings they’ve uncovered, and how you can apply these lessons to your own systems. What this episode covers What is Chaos Engineering and why it matters How Bol.com runs Chaos Days twice a year Real-world examples of chaos experiments and their outcomes Tips for starting your own Chaos Engineering initiatives The importance of preparation and community involvement…

TechLab by Bol

1
How Bol Adopted GraphQL 33:17

לפני 7 weeks33:17

33:17

Join us in this deep dive with Lars and On from Bol.com as they share their incredible journey of adopting GraphQL in one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the Netherlands and Belgium. Discover how they tackled architectural challenges, influenced teams, and built a thriving GraphQL community within their organization. Whether you're a developer, tech lead, or just curious about GraphQL, this episode is packed with insights, lessons, and practical tips you won’t want to miss! What this episode covers Why Bol.com embarked on the GraphQL journey Overcoming challenges in a large-scale organization Building a GraphQL stewardship program Tools and strategies for successful adoption Future plans and community contributions GraphQL Conf 2024 Talk…

TechLab by Bol

1
Discovering Cloud FinOps 40:00

לפני 13 weeks40:00

40:00

Why is it crucial to track your cloud expenses? In this episode, we chat with two experts about mastering Cloud FinOps—how to monitor costs effectively and scale without breaking the bank. Plus, plenty of laughs and lively discussions along the way! What this episode covers Get ready to explore the essentials of Cloud FinOps! This episode dives into why managing cloud expenses is a must and reveals tips for monitoring and scaling effectively. Packed with insights and humor, it’s a perfect blend of knowledge and fun. Tune in and join the conversation!…

TechLab by Bol

1
Design & Engineering 46:44

לפני 15 weeks46:44

46:44

What this episode covers In this episode, we’re joined by our talented friends from the design community, Cansu and Wendy! The dynamic between engineers and designers is endlessly fascinating—and sometimes, a little chaotic. How can these two worlds collaborate more effectively? What are the biggest challenges (and funniest moments) that arise? We dig into the details, share some laughs, and uncover insights to help bridge the gap. Tune in and enjoy the ride!…

TechLab by Bol

1
100 Days as Director of Technology 37:21

לפני 20 weeks37:21

37:21

What this episode covers Join us for an inspiring and in-depth conversation with Ronald van Rijn , Senior Director of Engineering at bol.com (http://bol.com/), as he reflects on his first 100 days in the role. Ronald shares insights from his journey—starting as a passionate programmer with a Commodore 64 to becoming a leader of over 900 engineers. Discover how his experience as a former CTO, volleyball athlete, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu enthusiast shapes his leadership style and problem-solving approach. Learn how he tackles challenges like scaling technology teams, fostering impactful innovation, and creating an environment where engineers thrive. Tune in to hear about his plans for bol.com (http://bol.com/)'s future and valuable lessons in navigating discomfort and change.…

TechLab by Bol

1
Canary Testing | Road to Pro 37:56

לפני 22 weeks37:56

37:56

What this episode covers In this episode, we dive into the world of canary releases—a modern deployment strategy that minimizes risk while delivering new features to users. Joined by Sonja Nesic and Diego Lira, we explore how tools like Argo Rollouts empower teams to test in production safely, offering seamless integration with Kubernetes environments. Learn how automatic rollbacks can safeguard your deployments and why progressive delivery is becoming a must-have for agile teams. Whether you're new to canary releases or looking to refine your strategy, this conversation is packed with insights and best practices to elevate your DevOps game.…

TechLab by Bol

1
Accessibility in Tech 29:37

לפני 24 weeks29:37

29:37

In this episode, we dive into the crucial topic of Accessibility in Tech with special guests Leanne Scheepers, an engineer with a passion for inclusive design, and Niels Peter Foppe, our lead product designer and driving force behind accessibility at bol. Together, we explore how accessibility is approached at bol.com, from strategy and implementation to the practical tips and tricks that can make a real difference. Join us as we discuss the challenges, solutions, and key insights that can help tech teams everywhere make their products accessible for all. Whether you’re a developer, designer, or just interested in inclusivity, this episode has something for everyone! Guests Connect with Leanne Scheepers: • LinkedIn Connect with Niels-Peter Foppen: • LinkedIn Notes European Accessibility Act (2025): https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1202 WCAG: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/ Level Level webwinkel toegankelijkheids onderzoek 2023: https://level-level.com/nl/webwinkel-onderzoek-2023/#h-resultaten-de-top-15…

TechLab by Bol

1
Tips for Data Engineering 47:02

לפני 25 weeks47:02

47:02

What this episode covers In this episode of TechLab, we're diving deep into the world of data engineering! Join us as we chat with Robin, a data scientist from bol.com, who shares how his team tackled complex data pipeline challenges by using layered approaches and innovative solutions like Apache Airflow. Robin makes it easy to understand by comparing data workflows to baking bread (yes, really!) and highlights how his team built a robust, reliable system to handle critical logistics data for bol.com. Tune in for insights, laughs, and some surprising analogies that bring data science to life! Guests Connect with Robin van Schaik: • LinkedIn Notes…

TechLab by Bol

1
Performance Testing & Chaos Engineering 28:10

לפני 28 weeks28:10

28:10

Join us as we explore performance testing with experts Nithya and Marcel from bol. They share insights on ensuring system reliability during peak seasons through chaos engineering and isolated testing. Discover best practices, tools, and strategies to tackle performance challenges and enhance user experience. Tune in for valuable tips from industry professionals! Guests Connect with Nithya Thirugnanasundaram LinkedIn Connect with Marcel Blok LinkedIn Connect with Tim Beeren: Blog Twitter Connect with Anthony Moendir: Twitter LinkedIn Notes…

TechLab by Bol

1
End to End Observability 40:08

לפני 30 weeks40:08

40:08

On this episode we're joined by Bart Enkelaar and Rob Klein Gunnewiek as the experts on SRE! This talk will cover lots of SRE principles, insights and innovations within the teams at Bol. Next to that, we've had a lovely chat with lots of laughter. So enough reasons to grab a nice drinks and enjoy the episode! Guests Connect with Bart Enkelaar: LinkedIn Connect with Rob Klein Gunnewiek: LinkedIn Connect with Tim Beeren: Blog Twitter Connect with Anthony Moendir: Twitter Notes…

TechLab by Bol

1
Neurodivergent by Nature, Leader by Choice 35:52

לפני 32 weeks35:52

35:52

What this episode covers On this episode, Lee September joins us to tell his inspiring story on Neurodiversity and Leadership. He shares his personal journey from engineer to management and how being neurodivergent played a role within this story. From personal growth to being inclusive to anyone. Knowing when to read the room and adjusting accordingly to put everyone in their strengths. Guests Connect with Lee September: LinkedIn Instagram Connect with Tim Beeren: Blog Twitter Connect with Anthony Moendir: Twitter Notes More information on Neurodiversity: https://www.instagram.com/neurodivers.show https://www.instagram.com/youthneurocoach https://www.instagram.com/hsp_world https://www.instagram.com/hsptools https://youtube.com/@psych2go…

TechLab by Bol

1
Distributed Tracing at Scale 36:34

לפני 34 weeks36:34

36:34

Today we're joined by Rogier Lommers, a Space Tech Lead within Bol who has been working on the roll-out of Distributed Tracing at scale. We'll dive into the initiative and how this currently works in production. Next to this, Rogier shares some insightful tips on how to start. What this episode covers In this episode, we explore distributed tracing in microservices architecture, covering how it enhances observability and helps quickly identify issues in large-scale systems. We discuss the basics of distributed tracing, practical tips for implementation, and the benefits of tools like Google Cloud Trace. Perfect for developers looking to improve system performance and streamline their debugging process. Guests Connect with Rogier Lommers: • Website • Linkedin Connect with Tim Beeren: • Blog • Twitter Connect with Anthony Moendir: • Twitter Notes…

TechLab by Bol

1
The Journey of a Google Developer Expert 58:42

לפני 36 weeks58:42

58:42

Ever wondered what it's like being a Google Developer Expert? What does this title mean, and how do you achieve being in this position? What do you day from day-to-day and what are the responsibilities coming with the title? Today we have a really inspiring guest joining us! Ahmed Tikiwa is a Google Developer Expert for Android and a seasoned full-stack developer with over 10 years of experience and possesses a strong passion for developing world-class applications that can help make a difference. Next to being an extremely good engineer, he loves sharing knowledge through blogs, talks and podcasts. This episode dives deep into his journey, and will explain lots about the process or preparing for your first talk. Time for a good coffee, some nice headphones and get ready to feel inspired by the lessons from Ahmed. We loved this one, so we're curious what you think of it! 🎧 Guests Connect with Ahmed Tikiwa: • Medium • Twitter • Linkedin • Google Developer Experts Program • Google Developer Groups • Upnext: TV Series Manager (Ahmeds Open Source App) Connect with Tim Beeren: • Blog • Twitter Connect with Anthony Moendir: • Twitter Notes…

TechLab by Bol

1
Who are Tim & Tony? 21:08

לפני 38 weeks21:08

21:08

Time to kick off the new season of TechLab! Before we dive into cool topics with all our guests, we'd love to introduce ourselves to all of you. This episode will dive into the introduction of the two new hosts. What is the reason of continuing the podcast, and what is on our minds? As always, we're super curious on hearing your thoughts! Let us know if you like the new format, or have some cool ideas. Guests Connect with Tim Beeren: Blog X (Formally Twitter) Connect with Anthony Moendir: LinkedIn X (Formally Twitter) Notes…

TechLab by Bol

1
Welcome to our new hosts 29:25

לפני 1 year29:25

29:25

It has been a while, we are back with a very special episode. One we never had before. One we knew one day would come. People were already asking on X “Will there be new episodes of Techlab”. And the answer is: Yes! As initiators of the Techlab Podcast we produced 118 episodes. Started in 2019 so 5 years ago. And the good news is, Techlab Podcast will continue!!!! In this episode we will explain more about this. Guests Anthony Moendir ; Principal Tech Lead • IT - Tech Enabling – TE Maybe you know him from the episode: Tech Radar - hard discussions lead to transparency Tim Beeren ; Software Engineer in IT - Buying Shop Core - S&A Products Maybe you read his blog on techlab about FrontMania Notes The Youtube channel of Anthony for his director experience The Spotify channel of Tim for his music production experience…

TechLab by Bol

1
Discovery for Technical Platform Teams 52:41

לפני 2 years52:41

52:41

There are two pillars in this episode. We start with the Technical Platform at bol.com. We'll explore what type of software engineering these teams are working on and what they are trying to achieve for the rest of our engineering community. The other part is Product Discovery. We try to figure out what problems we are solving in the discovery phase. While doing this we keep our focus on the Technical Platform and try to uncover how these specific challenges are solved. What this episode covers The Technical Platform: What are we trying to achieve by having Technical Platform teams? Which product are they working on? How differs their setup from product teams? Are there other things that are different? Product Discovery: What – in general – are we trying to achieve during Product Discovery? Which problems are we solving? What roles should be involved to do this well? How to document those? What are the questions we ask ourselves during this phase? How to keep a good pace? The “customers” are facing a problem now and also expect an instant solution. Is this different for Platform Products? What aspects need additional attention? How well do engineers in the Platform Space know the challenges engineers in product teams are facing? How to get a common understanding of their problems? We wanted to stay away from discovery techniques as Double Diamond, Triple Diamond, Opportunity Solution Tree, Hypothesis Prioritization Canvas. Let us know if you want a specific episode on these techniques. Guests Taco Bakke r – Head of Product in our Technical Platform Onno Ceelen – Group Product Manager Engineering Productivity You might recall him from his appearance in the episode on engineering productivity roughly 2 years ago. Notes The Axle framework is one of the products our platform teams work on. We use Backstage as our Developer Portal The Axle framework is one of the products our platform teams work on.…

TechLab by Bol

1
Elastic Search to the Cloud 45:10

לפני 2 years45:10

45:10

Moving Elastic Search to the Cloud. Elastic is one of the core components of the eCommerce Tech Platform. It powers the search engine as well as other trivial functions. In our own data center it has the biggest footprint. Time to discuss how the team approached this cloud journey. What this episode covers In this episode we want to answer these questions: How do I transfer my Elastic Search data? What is Elastic Search migration? How do I set up Elastic Search on Google Cloud? Does Google Cloud have Elastic Search? Is Elastic Search cloud free? How do I change my Elastic Search storage location? How do I upload data to the elastic cloud? How do I back up my Elastic Search data? Guests Egbert van der Wal ; Software Engineer in the Buying Domain Rasjaad Basarat ; Software Engineer in the Buying Domain Notes Our Episode on building an FTP server on Rust is mentioned by one of our listeners Colin McAllister in reaction to a post about What are the advantages and disadvantages of using C for FTP server development ?…

TechLab by Bol

1
DDoS - specific attacks require AI powered washing solutions 48:08

לפני 2 years48:08

48:08

If you look at the title of this episode, you might think that we are going to unveil our details about how we protect the bol.com platform against DDoS attacks. We should be clear about this, we just can’t in the current world we live in. But we wanted to talk about this because the solution used is worthwhile sharing. So we double-checked with our security department and verified what aspects we can share; they are interesting enough. What this episode covers DDOS protection For an ecommerce site like bol.com, is this a large problem? With DDOS protection in place, what did we still miss? What needed to be improved? Could you give an overview of the solution you came up with? What sets it apart from solutions that are available in the market? Let’s look at the data science part How do we train the model? Is there a way to validate the model besides just using it in production? How do we deploy the model? Or how do we get the configuration for the servers from the model? How do cloud and DC (data centre) servers work together? How do we leverage for example the scalability of the cloud? Cloud load balancer Cloud armour Looking back what did we learn about Cloud that can be used in other innovations? What did we learn about Data Science that can be used in other innovations? Guests Barrie Kersbergen – Principal Research Scientist – Data Scientist Recommendations Was on the episode on the Artificial Research Lab ~Recommendations Frank Kootte – Product Tech Lead in Shopping/Buying Notes Pythorg AI Platform (Please check)…

TechLab by Bol

1
The Buying Drip - A scoop of the 2nd book of Chantal Schinkels 58:46

לפני 2 years58:46

58:46

Chantal is on a mission. To make people aware of the buying drip or in Dutch "Koopinfuus". Together with Chantal we dive into this phenomenon and discuss what it is. We find out what the three pillars are that contribute to this drip. We make the connection with Tech. Tech empowers platforms like bol.com to use for the good and bad. Never before it was so important to be aware of this phenomenon and ask ourselves the question how we contribute to this. And just like her first book, it backed by a lot of research. The book will be released on the 17th of May and can be pre-ordered. What this episode covers We dive into the buying drip (koopinfuus) by asking ourselves the questions: What is the buying drip? (Koopinfuus) Is there something in the tech culture in general that's amplifying this? What are the three pillars: Marketing Tactics Brain manipulation Hyper personalization How this is used for the good and bad Guests Chantal Schinkels - Social tech & e-commerce | Auteur "Het Koopinfuus" & “De IT Girl" | Professioneel Spreker | Columnist | LinkedIn Top Voice Notes 7 principles of persuasion Robert Cialdini influence is your superpower Dark patterns Earlier Episode/Blog posts: Women in Tech Women in tech encourage inclusion in tech…

TechLab by Bol

1
Tech Radar - hard discussions lead to transparency 54:12

לפני 2 years54:12

54:12

The Tech Radar is a tool to inspire and support Engineering teams at Bol.com to pick the best technologies for new projects; it provides a platform to share knowledge and experience in technologies, to reflect on technology decisions and continuously evolve our technology landscape. Based on the pioneering work of ThoughtWorks, our Tech Radar sets out the changes in technologies that are interesting in software development — changes that we think our engineering teams should pay attention to and use in their projects. What this episode covers We will answer questions like: What is a tech radar? What are we trying to achieve? What were the hurdles to get this technology radar? How do we maintain the techradar? Guests Rogier Lommers – a regular on this podcast – Space Tech Lead in our Tech Enabling space Anthony Moendir – Discipline & Community Leader of the Tech Leads Remco Overdijk – Has also been on our podcast before – Product Tech Lead for our Compute & Networking Infrastructure within the Shared Technical Platform Notes https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar…

TechLab by Bol

1
Neurodiversity - Two brave guests sharing their personal stories 1:10:55

לפני 2 years1:10:55

1:10:55

Neurodiversity is the idea that neurological differences, such as autism, ADHD, Tourette syndrome and dyslexia, should be recognized and respected as a natural form of human diversity, similar to cultural and ethnic diversity. The neurodiversity movement advocates for the rights and equality of individuals with neurological differences and promotes the idea that these differences should be celebrated and not stigmatized. What this episode covers We structured this episode about neurodiversity into a couple of main topics: Introduction of the topic of neurodiversity and providing some background information about what it is and why it is important. Share personal perspectives on neurodiversity; two very personal stories from the guests of our show. Key Issues, Actionable Advice, conclusions and Call to action. The famous closing round; what are the key takeaways from our guests? Guests Koen Suijkerland – Systems engineer for our TPS (Technical Platform Space). Krissie Prusinskaite – Software engineer in Logistics. Notes (Image: https://cdn.sanity.io/images/qxrxmo3r/techlab-prd/66a43f26137fbbb9c23c31cde7e15acd3dafe715-1045x255.png) In this episode, we refer to the episode about the Inclusion of introverts In the Netherlands you can also check out Neurodivergence and Mental Health in IT on Meetup One of our listeners pointed out to a closed channel on Slack as well. Let us know if you want to know more.…

TechLab by Bol

1
Data Build Tool - a tool to build data 39:47

לפני 2 years39:47

39:47

The guest of our show presented the Data Build Tool, DBT, in one of our knowledge-sharing sessions. Especially the fun part is what I recognize when I look at this knowledge-sharing session. The guest of the show presented it in an enthusiastic way and used terms like: the macro functionality makes DBT awesome and Ephemeral is the Unique Selling Point. What this episode covers In General What is a Data Build Tool? What problems does it solve? What are the two versions? Cloud, CLI Why is it much more interesting to use than other ETL, transformation tools? Analytics Engineering Explain a bit more in debt the Basics of a DBT project: dbt project data pipeline, data model, tests, macros. Model dependencies DBT-packages ecosystem One of the powers of DBT is Jinja. What could you compare Jinja to? Is it easy to comprehend and learn? Ephemeral (CTE) was the unique selling point for you, why? An engineer enthusiastic about a documentation feature… that asks for an explanation. Within bol.com Usage started as an experiment, how are we using it in bol.com? Can you share some learnings you and your team had when you started using DBT? Guests Sander Boumeester – Software Engineer in the experimentation team. Notes On the website of getdbt there's a cool picture that explains the framework really well.…

TechLab by Bol

1
The IT Girl - Chantal Schinkels 50:45

לפני 2 years50:45

50:45

Five years ago, Chantal found out she got a lower salary than a male colleague with less experience. Till that moment she was ok with the male-dominated Tech world. But this triggered her. She started reading about this topic, interviewed many people and decided to write this book. She became very passionate about this important topic which you can already feel when reading the book. And while interviewing her, Peter Paul and Peter were triggered many times by this passion. What this episode covers The Book The book is an excellent combination of research, examples, tip&tricks and even a dedicated chapter for men. It’s structured in three main parts: I: Voordat je het ziet - before you see it; there is a lot of information about why the situation is like it. It is going back to the past and explains why it is such an important topic. II: De ladder op – climbing the stairs; A lot of different work situations explained covered with tips to deal with this in a way close to yourself. III: Breek het system – breaking the system; last but not least the way forward to make a huge step. A dedicated chapter for men, a manifesto for more women in Tech and ideas to deal with the broader picture in and outside the company. Guests Chantal Schinkels – Author of “ de IT Girl ” Years of experience in the world of Tech. Supports companies in e-commerce ventures. Speaker at tech events. Trainer. Author Notes Cynthia Nixon - Be a lady they said (short film) Women and inclusion in Tech…

TechLab by Bol

1
Order Sourcing Simulation with Data Science 45:50

לפני 2 years45:50

45:50

Order Sourcing Simulation is needed to enable capacity steering over our warehouses, network of sellers and logistical partners. Data Science is used to predict customer behavior and simulate capacity impact. What this episode covers What is: Order Sourcing Capacity Steering (multiple warehouses, locations, etc) What is needed to do this well? Intake Etc. Now the context is clear, we can dive into the issue What do we need to solve/achieve? And when the why is clear, we can dive into the Data Science part: When did Data Science popped up? How do you use this for this issue? What challenges do you need to deal with? Business Tech Guests Bart Terpstra – Data Scientist Logistics Timo van Hooijdonk Business Analist en Product Owner Notes We refer to earlier episodes on the use of Data Science in our logistical area and for forecasting: Digital Twin of our Warehouse Predict the unpredictable…

TechLab by Bol

1
Product-led the engineering perspective 46:42

לפני 2 years46:42

46:42

What is a product-led organization? If you google it you will find a definition in the 1.4 billion answers similar to this: Product-led means being guided by the potential of products and product teams, and breaking down the silos between “the business” and “the product”. The business IS the product. At bol.com, we are on our own journey to discover what product-led means. And we see similarities with the other journeys like becoming Agile, implementing DevOps, move to the cloud we went through. Only when we start to ask our Engineers what they need it really starts to fly What this episode covers From your perspective what is a product-led organization? Organization and roles. How work comes to the team of how the teams find work. Questions that are asked of engineers. How people in teams collaborate. How is it different for a software engineer compared to our Agile way of working? Design and preparation Implementing Experimenting Bringing to production How did you get your first experience with this way of working? Does it require new skills and habits from our engineers? Or a more or less completely new mindset? Was there something you struggled with Taught you something new Led to new insights If there were one blog post, book, or video that engineers should consume, which one would it be? Guests Werner Hofstra , Product Tech Lead in Assortment & Selling Notes Empowered by Marty Cagan Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres Experimentation Innovation Rhythm Product Architecture Product-led by Tech Lead and Architect…

TechLab by Bol

1
Bye bye boring retrospectives 47:48

לפני 3 years47:48

47:48

Many know the retrospective from the agile way of working. It's one of the most important sessions in working agile. If done correctly and followed up it will make you better step by step. This is also the reason many people use it as instrument to improve after for instance an emergency. But what if retro's become boring? Some might recognize this so time to dive into this and make retro's great again. What this episode covers The topics of the episode are: What were the symptoms of these boring retrospectives for you? Why are these bad for our teams? And our people? Could you share with our audience why this topic was important to you? Why do we need good retrospectives? What are the elements of a good retrospective? What were the alternatives or additional styles and structures you came up with? Could you share some insights on the struggles you had and what you learned from them? Guests Erik van der Kieft - scrum master in Assortment & Selling Jake de Oude - Software engineer and scrum master in Assortment &Selling Notes The Spotify Retro Kit…

TechLab by Bol

1
Growing quality in our webshop 41:40

לפני 3 years41:40

41:40

With 2 of our engineers, we look into how we keep enhancing the quality of our webshop using canary testing and analysis, contract testing and end-to-end testing in isolation. What this episode covers We have quite some communities within bol.com. One of those focuses on quality. For this episode, we invited 2 engineers from this community to share some of our latest developments on this topic. They share their knowledge and experience with canary testing and analysis, contract testing and end-to-end testing in isolation. We go over questions like: What is canary used for? What is a canary deployment? When should end to end testing be done? What is End 2 End test? How do you perform end to end testing? What is the purpose of doing end to end testing? Guests Sonja Nesic ; Test Engineer in the buying domain Ronald Nikkels ; Test engineers in the buying domain Notes Ronald shared a link to a meetup/youtube video: Pactflow and Cypress ( End-to-end Tests in Isolation using API contracts with Cypress and Pactflow ). Sonja shared an article in the quality community about Deployment Validation and Graceful Degradation at Pinterest .…

TechLab by Bol

1
Tech Culture Month and the Tech Culture Manifesto 38:02

לפני 3 years38:02

38:02

In the introduction mail, it said: “Having a culture in which we all can thrive, is one of our most valuable assets. To celebrate and cherish our unique tech culture, we are organizing events throughout the month of June. ” From Meetups to Games, from Tech talks to sessions with the IT management and most important of all, interactions. That's in brief Tech Culture Month. We hope to inspire you to have one yourself or participate in these tech community-building events. What this episode covers We discuss Tech Culture Month. What is Tech Culture Month? Why is a series of events like this important? What was the feedback from the community? During this month our Tech Culture Manifesto got introduced. What is it? You Build It, You Run It, You Love It! Have Fun Why do we have or need this manifesto? What did we learn putting this on paper? Guests Babiche de Jong – Software Engineer in Logistics Jonna Hietkamp – Principal Engineering Manager in Assortment & Selling Tim van Hardeveld – Coordinator Onboarding, Learning & Development Notes…

TechLab by Bol

1
Demo-time; Google Glass capabilities in a pop-up Warehouse 50:06

לפני 3 years50:06

50:06

This experiment triggered so many questions with us: Creating a pop up warehouse with Google Glass implementation, how much time does it cost? Why are we doing this? Is this totally new in the market? What this episode covers We dive into the experiment with this business usage of the Google Glass in a popup warehouse. (Image: https://cdn.sanity.io/images/qxrxmo3r/techlab-prd/1ee7d3b5ecc11dc4ba0e0f381665fc820b5ee8b2-4032x3024.jpg) Guests Turan Bulmus – AI/ML Practise Lead at Google for the Benelux Niels de Vries – Data Scientist at bol.com within Logistics – stock allocation Melih Gultekin – Software engineer/Android developer at bol.com – decide to buy Notes Google glass, Own OS (oreo, android) Figma – design - https://www.figma.com Google cloud visualizer on laptop - https://www.vysor.io/ Jackpack compose (google library for android dev.s, Kotlin)https://developer.android.com/jetpack/compose/documentation Customer cases: Samsung, DHL and outside logistics: Health Sector Google guidelines for color schemas…

TechLab by Bol

1
Golang as simple as 57:46

לפני 3 years57:46

57:46

Over three years ago we published our third podcast episode. The topic of the episode was the Go programming language. We noted, “When you listen to the stories our two enthusiastic guests share in this episode, you might even believe Go is the future.” So, let's check in and see how things have evolved. The number of feature teams in bol.com using Go has grown. What else has happened? Our guests share their experiences and provide solid advice for starting your journey with Go. What this episode covers Introducing the Go programming language in an organisation What do we like about Golang? How to onboard people in the Go experience? What is a good approach to deal with boilerpate code in Go? Should you generate it? Or use a "framework"? What frameworks are available? Guests Patrick Akil – Consultant, Software Engineer, Trainer in Go, Podcast Host Albert Brand – Consultant at Xebia – Software Engineer, Go Trainer Goos van den Bekerom – Software Engineer Hannes de Jager – Software Engineer Kevin van den Broek – Software Engineer Notes Our 1st podcast episode on Golang The power of Go Axle The Functional toolkit for Kotlin HTTP applications - http4k Cookie cutter Go kit…

TechLab by Bol

1
Product Led - Easier when done together 46:59

לפני 3 years46:59

46:59

We discuss the way of working of the Tech Lead and Architect in the Marketing Domain. Functional- and Technical aspects need to be taken into account when defining the direction of the development teams. From our guests Alexandra and Lennart, we learn what cooperation means in these relatively new functions. What this episode covers Product-Led is adapted more and more as a way of organizing for innovation. In bol.com we are shifting towards this concept. One important topic in the adaptation is forming the leadership in a product organisation. Given the nature of the innovation teams we both need to focussing on functional- and technical aspects. Guests Alexandra Eghe r ; Product Tech Lead in the marketing domain Lennart Billekens ;Product Architect in the marketing domain Notes Learn more on the introduction of Tech Leads at bol.com. Product architecture for the product organization. Check how we adapted out innovation rhythm when introducing a product led approach.…

TechLab by Bol

1
To indie game developer and back 47:55

לפני 3 years47:55

47:55

A few months ago we noticed a message that stood out on our internal platform. Basically, it stated: "I'm back". Naturally, it happens every now and then that employees explore their horizons but still return to bol.com. What this episode covers However, the number of software engineers that turn to indie game developer and come back, is quite limited. That sparked our curiosity since for a vast group of engineers it is some kind of dream job to develop games. That must have something to do with the large number of gamers among software engineers. There are some interesting learnings and experiences in our conversation with Roy. Listen and check what is in it for you. Have you always been intrigued by creating (computer) games? How did you prepare for your adventure to make games for a living? What were the obstacles you had to overcome trying to make a living crafting a computer game? What did you learn? Please share also some examples of how you learned this? What will you take with you now that you are back at bol.com? How is it to be back at bol.com? Guests Roy Kok – Software engineer at bol.com in Buying and former Indie game developer. Notes Unity…

TechLab by Bol

1
Front-end Framework Journey 39:25

לפני 3 years39:25

39:25

Everybody can go to bol.com and check the Front-End of our webshop. But what if you are a seller, supplier, partner or internal employee? What is your view when interacting with our IT systems? In general, you will use one of our Portals. These portals made a long journey to get to the stage where they are today. What this episode covers Not only does the backend site, mainly covered by SWAP's (Small Web APplications) rely on different frameworks, also the Front-End work does. How to adapt to a new 'Look and Feel'? How to be consistent? How to make the lives of Software Engineers easier? Listen to this episode and find out yourself. What does the Portal and SWAP architecture look like in bol.com? What is a front-end framework? What role play Design Systems like Figma , Storybook , Zeroheight , Frontify , Stencil? What are design tokens? How do UX Designers, Front-End Developers and Back End Developers work together and profit from a framework? Guests Jake de Oude - Front-End Software Engineer Robin Aldenhoven - Software Engineer within Logistics working on Front-End applications Robin Cijvat – Product Tech Lead Rens Jansen – Visual designer \ design system designer – new bol.com style in the component libraries Notes In an earlier episode back in 2019 we already talked about SWAPs and a blog on this topic is available here.…

TechLab by Bol

1
Inclusion of Introverts 1:01:15

לפני 3 years1:01:15

1:01:15

Welcome to episode number 100! A special show with a very interesting topic: Inclusion of Introverts and Introversion. We asked our CEO Margaret Versteden for a quote for this number 100. She surprised us with the fact that this topic is so important for her as she is dealing with this her whole life, as an introvert. So if you are an extrovert, we think this is a "must listen". What this episode covers It will help you to understand and to make the world and your environment safer for introverts. It is about the inclusion of everyone and the inclusion of introverts Why is it so much harder for an introvert to be included than for an extrovert? To understand this, we first dive into questions like: What is an introvert? And what it is not, what are the common misunderstandings? Why is it so important to be more aware of these differences? We touch upon neurodiversity and neuro non-typical persons, as some of the requirements for a safe environment also applies for these groups. After this understanding we dive into the environment: What creates a safe environment? How to include diverse people? What can you do as a facilitator? We talk about meetings, presentations, standups, dealing with feedback, spark meetings and many more examples We discuss tips and tricks to build a more inclusive environment And we are confronted with our own bias, more than once. Guests João Martinelli - Software Engineer and Scrummaster in one of the Payment Teams Sarah Gruneisen - Engineering Manager, Agile Coach and Liberator Reena Choudhary - Software Engineer in one of the Payment Teams Notes Liberating Structures: https://www.liberatingstructures.com/ Other shows on Diversity and Inclusion: Cultural Diversity…

TechLab by Bol

1
Transforming your experimentation knowledge into a book 51:40

לפני 3 years51:40

51:40

We are not only the hosts of the show but so far we also do the selection of the topics ourselves. Research what’s interesting. Find diverse subjects and guests, etc. What this episode covers And sometimes guests make it easier for us. They post on our internal platform a message…. “What is the superlative of bragging? I don't think I can go any further than telling you that I co-wrote a book. And of course, it's about experimentation Yesterday I received the first copy in my hands, and it is of course for sale at bol.com ” The book is called “Steering on results”, how to work together on the greatest ambitions. Work smarter not harder. (So far only available in Dutch but English translation is being worked on). And since this week we know that the book is on the long list of books to become Management book of the year in 2022. A Dutch award organized by one of our partners managementboek.nl. (how can I check if this is true?) This triggered us in two ways: First – what is the book about? Learning by three elements Data Tangible Objectives Introduction of CRAFT: Create, Refine, Align, Finalize & Transmit (CRAFT) Introduction of Objectives, Progress Metrics & Estimates (OPME’s), in bol.com we refer to this one as OKR's. 3. thorough research methods Second – How is it to start writing a book? So we know how it started, let’s find out what it is to become an author next to your job When did it start? Why did you choose to do it? How did you work together? What steps did you take? Did you already have experience in writing? Was it according to expectations? What were the learnings? Do you advise others to write a book? Guests We have an award-winning guest: Denise Visser ; According to Linked in it says Product Manager Experimentation at bol.com and freelancer. You probably know Denise from a previous show about experimentation. Notes Sturen op resultaat website The Book Sturen op Resultaat Blog on experimentation Podcast Episode on experimentation with Denise and Maarten Longlist management boek van het jaar…

TechLab by Bol

1
2021 Wrapped 34:55

לפני 3 years34:55

34:55

This episode is 2021 Techlab Wrapped. Inspired by one of the platforms that host our podcast Spotify. It is the end of Season 3 and the end of 2021. Time to look back and to look ahead. What this episode covers 2021 Wrapped and maybe a glimpse into 2022. We look back at 2021 by the numbers. Top 3 lists Top 5 countries We discuss the topics and episodes that really got us. For instance the one on Log4j and the PMC member who is working in bol.com. We share the plans of 2022 and the OKR we set ourselves: "we get on TikTok and you get to decide what dance we should perform if we double our listeners on the best episode ever" Guests Peter Brouwers Peter Paul van de Beek Shownotes Top 3 according to Blubrry Episode 91 - Retailer API Episode 93 - The Programmers Brain Episode 81 - Data Maturity and Data Literacy Top 3 according to Spotify Team Topologies The Data-Driven Approach to supporting products with KPI's and OKR's Curiosity is the common denominator for our business analysts The new Bol.com ECOmerce podcast about sustainability Notes…

TechLab by Bol

1
Load testing with Locust 41:21

לפני 3 years41:21

41:21

During the recording of this episode, we are in the week of Black Friday. An exciting week for people hunting for bargains. And also for a lot of our colleagues. What this episode covers Whether that is from a commercial point of view or an engineering one. All the eyeballs on our website, bring a lot of traffic. And consequential a lot of load on our systems. In this episode, we focus on one aspect of preparing for a large load: Load Testing. In this episode, we are going to talk about Load Testing with Locust . An open-source load testing tool. Triggered by our guest's presentation during the spaces summit, we wanted to know more about this and share it with you. What is Locust? Why did we start using Locust for Load Testing? Examples of Load tests and Performance tests performed with this tool What did we need to setup for it? How to configure your Locust tests How to run your tests on Kubernetes What were the challenges? How does it make use of the cloud benefits like scalability? Guests Leon van Wijk ; Full Stack Software Engineer at Craftsmen and engineer in our Logistics Team Notes Distributed load testing with Locust Locust presentation at the Spaces Summit Performance testing the Chat App…

TechLab by Bol

1
How could this happen 48:06

לפני 3 years48:06

48:06

If you are a regular listener to the podcast or an e-commerce watcher, you know “the season” is very important for us. It is a yearly recurring theme in the podcast. You are probably also aware that uptime and responsiveness of our app and website are crucial. What this episode covers And you might have noticed that enabling our software engineers to perform at their peak is very important for us. Enabling teams and engineers is what we do to build a great place to engineer. And sometimes things just go sour. A perfect storm occurs that is definitely not a tailwind… As our CTO will say “never waste a good crisis”. We have to learn from what happened. Let’s explore one of those incidents. We go back to the season start of 2019. Just before the start of the Friday Afternoon Drinks, a huge incident started in our Android App. This triggered downtime in other areas of the platforma as well. And maybe just like when investigating a plane crash there is not just one thing that was off but a series of unlikely things happened in a short span of time. Let’s dive into this. Why is learning from failures an important topic to share? Some context, what part of the landscape are we talking about in the episode? What was your perspective? What were you doing and what happened? Taking a few steps back: What was the process of incident management and how did we step by step fix the issue? When the dust settled: What did we learn? What did we improve? Guests Julius van Dis – Full-Stack engineer at Flock. He was responsible for the app, specifically its direct backend. Some of the projects he has done include making the app and service landscape multilingual, the migration and integration of a new gateway, creation of a basket API and improved app updates. Notes Julius adventures at bol.com Mobile App updates Moving to multilingual Podcast on multilingual Refactoring the mobile app API Learnings and next steps…

TechLab by Bol

1
AI for Retail Lab on recommendations 46:14

לפני 3 years46:14

46:14

In this episode, we virtually visit the AI for Retail Lab and dive with two members into the world of recommendations. The AI for Retail (AIR) Lab Amsterdam is a joint UvA-Ahold Delhaize industry lab and conducts research into socially responsible algorithms aimed at the retail domain. Think of developing models for recommendations and managing goods flows. What this episode covers The research, testing and application of the models take place in Albert Hein Delhaize and bol.com. What is the AIRLab (Artificial Intelligence Research Lab) and what is it trying to achieve? PHD projects? How does science profit from business involvement and the other way around? We take a deep dive into recommendations What is being researched? Why is this important? What is the hypothesis? What has been discovered so far? Explore the approach to the research. How can both business and academia benefit from this research? Guests Barrie Kersbergen – Recommendations bol.com & PhD Candidate at AI for Retail LAB Sebastian Schelter - Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam Notes AIRLab research papers Earlier episode on the gathering of measuring data. The feedback loop for recommendations…

TechLab by Bol

1
Warehouse Mechanization 45:12

לפני 3 years45:12

45:12

Warehouse mechanization is a part of our IT landscape where our IT meets the physical world. It is one of those places where we encounter that while we could scale our IT almost indefinitely in the cloud, the physical world and warehouses don't work that way. As you listen to this episode you will learn how the world of IT has to adapt to the physical world to make things work. And as Peter states this is also the place where e-commerce comes to life. What this episode covers This is the place where all the bits and bytes in the webshop have to lead to tangible products that are picked and delivered to our customers. By all measures a real interesting place. : What sets warehouse mechanization apart from other software engineering? To enable our growth we need more and more warehouses. What do we need to get a warehouse live from a WMS and/or warehouse mechanization perspective? To what extent do you need access to the physical parts? Do we use simulation? Guests Frank Lakerveld – WMS consultant in Logistics Dennis van Duijn - Systems Engineer in Logistics Notes Simulation and Data Science for our warehouses Performance boost the picking algorithm The life of a WMS consultant…

TechLab by Bol

1
The Programmer's Brain 58:07

לפני 4 years58:07

58:07

Some aspects of software engineering are easily overlooked. In the book The Programmer's Brain some of these like reading code, thinking about code and collaborating on code are at the centre. In this episode, we talk to the author of this book to guide us through these aspects. To improve your coding skills it is good to know how your brain works. What this episode covers That will enable you to set your brain to work for you. If you spent significantly more time on reading code than on writing code, shouldn't we focus more on learning to read code? These are the topics we explore in this episode. If you’ve ever wondered what working smarter instead of harder is supposed to look like, you should read this book. I am already seeing improvements in my day-to-day work. What the programmer's brain covers What every programmer needs to know on how the brain works. What you should know about cognition. A lot of exercises for programmers. How do I improve myself on coding? What is the difference between an expert and an intermediate programmer? And Felienne shares ideas and working formats to improve collaboration on programming. Guests Felienne Hermans - Associate Professor at LIACS - Universiteit Leiden. Keynote speaker, podcast host and book author. Notes The book on bol.com: https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/p/the-programmer-s-brain/9300000033887759 Code Reading Clubs: https://code-reading.org/ More on Engineering Productivity .…

TechLab by Bol

1
Understanding customers using their search queries 45:07

לפני 4 years45:07

45:07

Imagine you want to buy something. You go to bol.com and you start typing the article in the search bar. Automatically you will be served suggestions and as a result, you want a limited number of articles from our 30 million products catalogue. What this episode covers You select the product you want, press the buy button and there it is, at your doorstep at the selected moment. Sounds simple, right? Inspired by a talk of our guest of this episode earlier this year, we wanted to find out what's behind the search bar. We wanted to understand search queries. Simple at first glance, but when we dive into it we found out it's way more complex than you might think. We had great learning: as a customer, I help other customers to improve their search results. How that works? Listen to this episode. (Image: https://cdn.sanity.io/images/qxrxmo3r/techlab-prd/bd51783981f1b35051359902ea03bea2213d1a9f-680x361.jpg) The search bar on the bol.com website What it takes to search Questions will be answered like: How do I search for a product? We are not talking about the Google Search Engine and SEO and why we do not use Google Search? How important is search? What happens when you type in a search query? Terms you need to understand when we talk about search: relevancy, ranking/sorting, first page, tail page. What items do you need to take into account: Spelling, Target Category, Filter values, Broadness. How do we take trending topics into account? As an International Engineer, is it hard to work on a search engine with Dutch Product Content? Guests Nikolai Bogdanov – Software Engineer in the Buying domain – Help me find. Notes Spaces summit Talk on Youtube The search result of the red water kettle as given in the example Search via Voice is different, check this episode for more detail…

TechLab by Bol

1
How the Retailer API became the heart and soul of an ecosystem 51:00

לפני 4 years51:00

51:00

In early April the latest version of our Retailer API was launched. Given the importance of the API for almost 15.000 partners this was again a major step. Over the years the retailer API became the heart and soul of our ecosystem. What this episode covers But this path wasn't always that obvious. It took vision, decisiveness and perseverance to get this far. In this episode, we explore this journey. The importance of the Retailer API API’s are considered a major part of a serious platform. They enable growth and stability. The 80/20 rule applies when it comes to the usage of the partners of their interaction with bol.com. 80 per cent of the sellers use the seller dashboard, 20 per cent the Retailer API. But when it comes to the number of orders, it’s the other way around. 80 per cent via the API and 20 per cent via the dashboard. And if you imagine that over 50% of the goods being bought at bol.com are goods from our partners, it shows the importance of this API. What we discussed about the Retailer API (Application Programming Interface) What is an API in simple terms? Why is API used? How did we start the API? What functionality is in the API? What is API and types of API? What is API to API integration? What is API example? How does the API interact in the Landscape? How do we balance "adding new functionality" vs. "maintenance" Why became the Retailer API the heart and soul of the ecosystem? Guests Maarten Roosendaal – Business Architect / Product Owner for our Retailer API; Jarno Walgemoed - Owner at Sourcelabs; Software engineer with a strong focus on partner API’s at bol.com and host of the sourcelabs podcast Notes In an earlier episode, we talked about API development for bol.com and we also touched upon the Open API. The API is used for customer interactions. https://techlab.bol.com/api-development-for-the-retail-platform/ API Developers can find more information here: https://developers.bol.com/…

TechLab by Bol

1
Engineering Productivity and Backstage 47:09

לפני 4 years47:09

47:09

Engineering Productivity With the growth of our engineering community, the need for more focus on engineering productivity is clear. We invited two experts to discuss this topic with us. We actually got to this point when one of our listeners pointed out one of the products we are using for this and how awesome a topic that would be for our podcast. Backstage The product he was referring to, is Backstage. What this episode covers Backstage is a platform for developer portals that is used as an app store for tools for software engineers. This product was build inside Spotify and later on open-sourced by them. We thought it was a good idea to get these tools in a unified package Questions we touch upon What does engineering productivity mean? How is engineering productivity measured? Why is engineering productivity important? How can engineering productivity be improved? What is Backstage open source? Who uses backstage io? Why Backstage io? What is Spotify backstage? Guests Roy Jacobs – Software Engineer – Technical Platform. Already joined us when we explored Axle – the opinionated support for our scrum teams using Java Onno Ceelen – Product Manager – Technical Platform Notes Backstage homepage Introduction to Backstage at Spotify Axle the bol.com Springboot framework: podcast , blog on Axle usage…

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