What do Econometricians have to do with Picnic?

For my first full-time role, I was looking for a company that truly applied econometrics in their business, which turned out to be harder to find than expected. Driven by a strong interest in the academic field, I completed a Master's in Econometrics with a specialisation in Operations Research, graduating cum laude with an 8.7 average. During my master's, I combined my thesis with an internship at TNO, where I developed an adaptive transport-planning algorithm that leverages AI techniques to generate routes and charging strategies for electric trucks. It was one of the first times I saw the concepts of my studies create tangible value, which I found particularly motivating.

Discovering true application at Picnic

I got to know Picnic through the Landelijke Econometristen Dag (LED). There, I had dinner with two Picnic employees, who told me about the projects they were working on and how they approached them. A lot of companies at those events claim to apply academic theory in practice, but Picnic was the first where I genuinely felt that they knew what they were talking about, and that these methods were truly applied in their business. That conversation was enough to convince me to apply as a business analyst after graduating.

The Challenge of a Fully Personalized Store

At Picnic, I'm in the shopping team, which is responsible for optimizing the Picnic app. A compelling aspect of an online supermarket is its ability to fully personalise the store for each single customer. In a physical supermarket, everyone sees the same shelves in the same order, whereas at Picnic we can tailor the entire store layout to each user. This is as much an advantage as it is a challenge: instead of a large physical space, we need to fit our assortment onto a small screen while carefully deciding which products to show and what to leave out. Specifically, I own the “Favorieten” page, where my goal is to show each customer their favorite products so that they can fill their basket in the easiest and most efficient way possible.

From Analysis to Implementation

I'm involved in every phase of the project:
● Business analysis: Using Picnic's data warehouse to spot opportunities.
● Design: Bringing business expertise into conversations with designers.
● Technical implementation: Outlining requirements clearly.
● Business implementation: Applying the built design and adding the logic to show
the right products to the right customer at the right time.

I like how diverse it is. It's a combination of the analytical way of thinking I developed during my studies (structuring problems, validating hypotheses, interpreting results...) and actually applying statistical methods based on econometric theory.

My Advice to Grads: Stay Open to the Unexpected

To someone starting their career, my advice would be to stay open to the different ways you can apply your studies in practice. I graduated deepdiving into routing, then joined Picnic in a commercial team where at first I thought "why would they ever put me here?". I assumed I would optimize routes or warehouses in the distribution teams of Picnic, instead I’m now finding myself solving the most interesting puzzles I didn't even know existed.