TechLab by Bol

What happens when AI agents start shopping for you? Maurice Jongerius, Product Director Consumer at bol and 15-year e-commerce veteran, takes us on a journey from 1% mobile traffic in 2010 to the AI revolution today. We explore how search is evolving from filters to natural language, why trust matters more than ever, and what "vibe coding" says about creativity in the AI era. If you're curious where retail is headed in the next 2–3 years, this episode is your crystal ball.

What this episode covers
• The two big shifts: social commerce vs. AI • Why trust is more important than ever when you can't tell what's real • The future split: routine purchases handled by agents vs. complex journeys with human-in-the-loop • The rise of "vibe coding" and what it means for creativity

We sat down with Loes, who made the extraordinary leap from Attorney to Frontend Engineer at Bol. She breaks down her journey from drafting contracts in suit, to coding components in sneakers—and why a GDPR talk can actually be fun.

What this episode covers
• The “why” behind a radical career change
• Legal vs. engineering—how contracts are like code
• GDPR, but make it fun—the 6 rules every engineer should know
• Practical advice—how to test if your career dream is serious, and when to “just be brave”

What happens when you realize you've tied your entire identity—and self-worth—to your job title? This week, we're joined by Vasileios Nikolopoulos, whose Space Summit talk became one of our most-discussed ever. We dive into the uncomfortable question: Who are you, when you’re not at work?

What this episode covers
We explore the trap of turning hobbies into side hustles, the surprising power of boredom (backed by Harvard research), and the moment a late-night Slack message became a wake-up call. Vasileios shares his personal journey from growing up in a culture of "doctor or lawyer" to rediscovering joy in broken motorcycles and un-posted moments. This is a conversation about breaking free from the "grindification" of life and learning to listen to yourself again.

What this episode covers
• The moment you have to stop coding and start coaching
• The surprising amount of administration (so many spreadsheets! 📊)
• How to build trust when your former peers are now your direct reports
• The #1 tip for new managers: walking meetings
• What no one tells you: office politics and the art of influence

Ever wondered who guides the technical direction for a company with over 1,300 microservices? In this episode, we sit down with Enterprise Architects Eleanor and Alexandra to demystify their role. We explore how they bring structure to massive scale, enable smarter decisions with Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), and why they believe that at bol.com, every engineer is an architect.

What this episode covers
• What Enterprise Architecture actually is at bol.com
• From chaos to clarity: How ADRs (Architecture Decision Records) stop the "Who decided this?!" debates
• Measuring architecture fitness: Using data to score encapsulation and reduce team coupling
• The RAPID model: How we make big, enterprise-level decisions in weeks, not months
• AI as the 6th team member: How we use AI to automate documentation and create podcasts

Want to know more about the persona based model? Alexandra and Elinor created an AI generated episode on this topic!

Have a listen here:
• Persona Based Architecture - AI Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMi9us1Gd4M