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Stefanie Schönebein
iOS-Entwicklerin
About me
Im Team Apps bin ich derzeit als iOS Developer unterwegs, schau aber auch ab und zu bei der Android Platform und unseren zugehörigen Backends vorbei. In meiner Laufbahn habe ich verschiedene Rollen einnehmen können, wie zum Beispiel auch die des PLs oder TDs und habe daher auch starke Interessen bzgl. Teamorganisation und Gesamtarchitekturen.
My articles
Team JarvisNovember 04, 2025Learning to Rank – To the Moon and Back(-propagation): Deep Neural Networks That Learn to Rank What You Love
Learn how OTTO optimizes search relevance using Learning to Rank – and the role Deep Learning plays for our Data Science team.Development
MarcoJuly 30, 2025Open Source at OTTO: Transparency, Community & Innovation
Find out how OTTO lives Open Source – for more transparency, developer satisfaction and digital sovereignty. Read more about our strategy now!Development
AashrikaJuly 22, 2025AWS & GCP – Two Summits, Countless Insights
Our personal insights & highlights ☆ AWS Summit Hamburg & GCP Summit DüsseldorfDevelopmentEvents and cultureWorking methods
NinaJune 18, 2025What is an LLM? | Large Language Models explained
Learn how large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT work. An overview of the structure, training & potential of modern language models.DevelopmentWorking methodsMachine learning
MarvinApril 29, 2025Visualizing Software Architecture with C4 Model
Problems with architecture diagram creation using traditional methods – e.g. UML? Solution: C4 model ► Tips for implementation & useDevelopment- AndreasMarch 26, 2025
How UV Solves The Hard Problem of Python’s Package Management
Package management in Python ✓ Master challenges with UV package manager ✓ Read more about organization & benefits now!Development 
AlexanderFebruary 19, 2025AI assistant: From Vector Databases to Multimodal Agents
Optimization of our AI assistant ✓ Use of agent-based modeling ✓ Read more about reasons for optimization & the path now!Data scienceDevelopmentMachine learning- NinaJanuary 22, 2025
Terraform Tips: Scalable and Reliable Infrastructure-as-Code – Part 2
Optimize directory structure & resource organization ✓ Handling of input & output values ✓ Read more about Terraform Best Practices now!DevelopmentWorking methods - NinaNovember 12, 2024
Terraform Tips: Scalable and Reliable Infrastructure-as-Code – Part 1
Terraform Best Practices ✓ Define Infrastructure-as-Code ✓ Terraform Lifecycle & Terraform Modules ✓ Read more now!DevelopmentWorking methods 
COSTNovember 12, 2024How we used a simple trick to save USD 500,000 in data transfer costs
Increased efficiency of cloud usage ✓ Cost reduction ✓ Migration to dual-stack IPv6 ✓ Find out more now!DevelopmentCloud
DominikSeptember 30, 2024Developer Hacks – Modern Command Line Tools and Advanced Git Commands
In this article, you learn more about a modern development setup, state-of-the-art alternatives to classic shell programs, and advanced git commands.DevelopmentWorking methods
Team PITAugust 13, 2024About the development of genAI assistants AskARev and Searchbuddy
Find out (in a very special way) how the PIT team at Otto Group data.works developed the generative AI-based products AskARev and Searchbuddy.ArchitectureDevelopmentOperations- NinaApril 17, 2024
Meet Nina – From Healthcare Management to Software Development
Find out how Nina mastered her career change into software development with the help of her team and her great enthusiasm for IT!DevelopmentOperationsWorking methods 
FabianApril 17, 2024Confluent Helps Power a Diverse and Scalable Online Shopping Experience for OTTO
Find out how OTTO is taking its 10-year-old data infrastructure into a new era with the event streaming platform powered by Confluent and making itself future-proof.DevelopmentOperationsWorking methods- JimMarch 14, 2024
Machine Learning Ops: What It's Like in Practice
Get an insight into Jim's work as an MLOps-focused engineer! In this article, he explains how a machine learning product is developed and how you can get started in this discipline yourself.Data scienceDevelopmentMachine learning - MircoFebruary 21, 2024
Spanner's Distributed Nature
At OTTO, Google Cloud Spanner is an integral part of several services. Mirco reveals the complexity of optimizing joins in Google Cloud Spanner and gives some helpful insider tips.Data scienceDevelopment 
Falk, KayJanuary 24, 2024Recap of the EuroRust 2023 conference in Brussels
Kay and Falk were at the EuroRust conference in Brussels in mid-October. There are more and more enthusiasts of the Rust programming language at OTTO. The two of them tell you what went on at the conference and why Rust is a useful tool.DevelopmentEvents and culture
DanielNovember 27, 2023Securely managing sensitive data with HashiCorp Vault
Almost every application is using sensitive data, such as passwords or other login credentials, to log in to databases, third-party systems and the like. Such data should not end up in plain text in the version control system, but rather be kept under lock and key. For the secure storage of data, the use of Hashicorp Vault has gained acceptance at OTTO.DevelopmentSecurity
Christian, Jürgen, Konstantinos, Tobias, TungNovember 15, 2023Dagster: Data Engineering Best Practice during Slack Time
In the inc(AI) team, we are always trying out different tools and methods. Slack time has proven to be a good way of doing this, in which we learn alone or together. The motivation for such Slack time naturally comes from the challenges that we have to solve during our work. Our strategy is to always look to the open source community first to find suitable solutions for us. Some time ago, we also investigated a new tool called Dagster in our Slack time.DevelopmentWorking methods- StefanieSeptember 28, 2023
How to setup a Kanban board in Jira using sub columns
In this blog post I want to share the evolution of our Kanban board in Jira and how we worked around the missing feature of sub columns.ArchitectureDevelopmentWorking methods - Christian, Jürgen, Konstantinos, TobiasAugust 17, 2023
ProductGPT – automating the creation of product texts with ChatGPT
Although they've been around for a while, Large Language Models (LLMs) have taken the world by storm since ChatGPT was launched. ChatGPT currently dominates the AI landscape like no other model. Could it also be used for the creation of good product texts in the OTTO Webshop? This is precisely the question we wanted to tackle in the inc(AI) team in a 2-week sprint. The result is ProductGPT – a tool that can do exactly that!DevelopmentMachine learning - Tobias, TomAugust 01, 2023
User centricity beginning with the first keystroke
The majority of user journeys in search starts with a click in a search box. How can you guide your users after this initial click? At otto.de we strive to show our users the best suggestions for their need, right after the first clickData scienceMachine learning 
BirgitJuly 28, 2023Why using API Guidelines is a good idea
Working according to a standard... really? Come on – software developers know how to build APIs. Besides, they want to stay flexible and have neither the desire nor the time to plough their way through some endless set of rules. And even if you've read them, that doesn't mean you agree with them. Fair enough. Nevertheless, there are a few challenges to overcome in software development, especially when working in autonomous teams and when you're dealing with business growth. This post offers an insight into how we at OTTO came up with our own API Guidelines and implemented them successfully.ArchitectureDevelopmentWorking methods
Alexander, DavidJuly 10, 2023.Enterprise-scaled Self-Healing StackSets
At OTTO, we need to manage several hundred AWS accounts for our product teams while balancing agility and control. That's why OTTO IT's Cloud Competence Center, also known as the Governance at Scale (GAS) team, worked with globaldatanet to develop a solution to run AWS CloudFormation StackSets at Scale, integrated into the OTTO tooling ecosystem with Confluence and Microsoft Teams.DevelopmentCloudSecurity- PhilippJune 05, 2023
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) – keeping Terraform configuration DRY with Terragrunt
The key is to minimize, or even completely eliminate, code repetition by keeping the Terraform configuration DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself). This is why we migrated to Terragrunt. It's a small wrapper around Terraform promising reduced repetition, better remote-state configuration, and simpler work with Terraform modules. It can be a viable solution for better organizing configuration files and clearly stating differences between deployment environments.DevelopmentCloud 
AndreasMay 11, 2023YesWeHack and OTTO stage Live Bug Bounty Hunting event
At this year's Nullcon Berlin, the international IT security conference that brings hundreds of top experts together, we staged a live Bug Bounty Hunt together with YesWeHack, a leading provider of bug bounty services. Around 40 crack security researchers pitched in to subject OTTO's infrastructure security to a hardcore test. This was a welcome chance for us to check our Web applications for security loopholes and learn from a personal exchange with leading-edge researchers at the same time.Data scienceDevelopmentWorking methods
Christian, KonstantinosApril 04, 2023Return-rate forecasting with survival analysis
Especially in OTTO's retail business, accurately forecasting return rates and their fluctuations plays a major role in minimising unnecessary costs. In large-goods deliveries (fridges, sofas etc.) every single return results in very significant costs.Data scienceWorking methods
Michael, SergeyMarch 08, 2023'Real' real-time programmatic advertising with TensorFlow
In collaboration with Online Marketing, Team Siggi at OTTO BI developed an in-house programmatic advertising solution in 2018. For this purpose, among other elements a separate SSP (Supply Side Platform) and DSP (Demand Side Platform) solution was developed, called Orbidder.Development
Team NautikJanuary 08, 2023A Machine Learning approach to real-time display advertising Click here – it’s not an ad, we promise ;-)
Let’s be honest, display advertising usually makes people think of an aggressive e-tailers literally hunting them down. Many potential online customers therefore resort to all-or-nothing ad blockers to save themselves from visual overload. However, beyond these two extreme user experiences, in reality display advertising is simply a modern equivalent to a classic poster hanging at the bus stop.Development
ChristianJanuary 06, 2023Rethinking semantic product search: a new approach to queries with unusual spelling variations
In recent years, semantic product search has been widely adopted in global e-commerce. However, many systems exhibit issues in understanding queries with unusual spelling variations. In this blogpost, we show you how Otto’s Team Turing has developed a new system that alleviates these problems. It is live and has lifted the Click-Through Rates (CTR) in the low-recall segments of otto.de by more than 25% and the Conversion Rate (CvR) in the low-hit segment by more than 90%.Development
GuidoDecember 01, 2022Scaling Agile @ OTTO
Agile Development is definitely nothing new at OTTO – the term has long since reached Peak Hype. The first generation of Developers for whom 'Agile' is ancient history (or simply their regular working routine) are now almost Senior Devs. In brief, the term has lost its gloss and what we might now call 'Agile' is often a mix of Agile, Lean, XP and other working principles.Working methods
Andreas, PhilippNovember 01, 2022Kaggle: Machine Learning competition for the best Multi-Objective Recommender System
Major online retailers such as OTTO offer their customers millions of products to explore and purchase. However, finding the right product from such a vast selection without a little guidance can be exhausting! So we work to guide our customers to those products that best match their interests and motivations using personalised recommendations. For this reason we want to enhance our ability to forecast in real time which products each customer will want to see, add to their cart and order at any given moment of their visit.Development
JosefineOctober 26, 2022How we work at data.works
Are you interested in data and cloud technology? Would you like to understand more about different roles in development teams? Are you looking for a new job? This blog post series is about our way of working and our job profiles at Otto Group data.works.Working methods
SvenOctober 26, 2022How we work at data.works - Meet Sven
Are you interested in data and cloud technology? Would you like to understand more about different roles in development teams? Are you looking for a new job? This blog post is about our way of working and our job profiles at Otto Group data.works.Working methods- ChristopherOctober 11, 2022
Dynamic Pricing for otto.de
The article outlines the basic features of Otto’s Dynamic Pricing service, which is currently used to set prices for the majority of products on otto.de. It further describes how we successfully built the service as a robust and scalable cloud application able to deliver prices for millions of articles on a daily basis. It also explains how we benefited from working on our application in a cross-functional team setup and how we intend to secure the continuous improvement of our service.DevelopmentWorking methodsCloud - AlexanderSeptember 15, 2022
Fully-automated enterprise-scaled provisioning of AWS Accounts via Self-Service using Jira Service Desk
In this article, we’ll demonstrate how to automate the provisioning of AWS Accounts via self-service using Jira Service Desk, potentially reducing the provisioning time of out AWS Accounts from 4 hours to 25 minutes.Project managementWorking methods - Andrea, YunusAugust 16, 2022
Offline Ranking Validation - Predicting A/B Test Results
Implementing a machine learning model for ranking in an ecommerce search requires a well-designed approach to how the target metric is defined. In this talk we will share our approach to offline ranking validation and how it performed in practice.TestingEvents and culture 
MarcoJuly 04, 2022OTTO's future-ready Event Exchange Platform – with Apache Kafka
When we launched our platform implementation back in 2018, we jointly committed to creating state-of-the-art software aligned with thoroughly modern and proven practices. First off, we deep-dived on modern software architectures including Event Driven, Microservices, Distributed Systems, Cloud Native and DevOps – which resulted in a couple of positive architecture decisions.ArchitectureWorking methodsCloud
KarolisJune 02, 2022Power BI: OTTO's reporting vehicle
Following the official introduction of Power BI at OTTO in 2020, it’s quickly become a household name for many colleagues. Others have already taken their first practical steps in using this technology or have even become advanced and regular users - for good reason!DevelopmentWorking methodsCloud
OleApril 27, 2022The Open Source Private Cloud in the Otto Group
The term ‘cloud’ has been much more than just a buzzword for a long time now. The cloud, or rather the clouds, have become an essential part of our daily business. But what if – even though the wheat has long since been separated from the chaff in terms of IT expertise – I still don't know much about the cloud?DevelopmentOperationsCloud
MarcelMarch 22, 2022Life in the mob
While many of us are big fans of ‘mob’ (mafia) classics like ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘The Godfather’, in fact this article shows how mob (‘collective’) programming can help shape a new team and how great results can be achieved quickly through this collaborative working approach.DevelopmentWorking methods
RenéFebruary 28, 2022A brief guide to replacing legacy software
Some see the task of ‘replacing outdated software’ as punishment. Well, I see it differently! In this article I’ll explain how we successfully introduced an extensive new system and resolved over 100 dependencies. Software, just like natural organisms, has a finite lifecycle. However, the end of its useful lifetime does not necessarily mean ‘The End’ – it can also be the beginning of something new. In this sense, there is something evolutionary about software replacement.ArchitectureProject management
Manfred, ReshmaJanuary 31, 2022How an agile organisation enables scaling
The Business Intelligence Division is playing a decisive role on OTTO's journey towards becoming a connected company. It realigned and transformed itself in 2019 into an agile, adaptable organisational unit. Beyond data and algorithms, BI relies above all on its people and the continuous adaptation of the organisation through joint learning.Project management
Bartholomäus, MichaelOctober 26, 2021Scaling product development through collaboration
Together with our Product Teams, we – namely our Agile Coach Bart and our Product Manager Michael – have taken on an exciting challenge and ventured into scaling our product development process based on our culture of agile collaboration.DevelopmentWorking methods- MarcoSeptember 01, 2021
OTTO's Tech Manifest
OTTO is moving towards a tech-enabled company. Our software is business-related, not abstract. While complying with the requirements of our buying department, we have succeeded in becoming a great platform for customers, partners and suppliers.DevelopmentEvents and culture 
Michael,July 26, 2021Product Pioneers: Unbarcamp with John Cutler
This time we were once again fortunate to land a top-class speaker – John Cutler, known to many as the author of the post: "12 Signs You’re Working in a Feature Factory". As Head of Product Education at Amplitude, a leading provider of product analytics solutions, he deals intensively with the topic of data-driven product development. John speaks at conferences such as Mind the Product, blogs passionately about product management, and reaches nearly 50,000 people via Twitter.Development- July 07, 2021
Cloud-native SAP operation in the Otto Group
My last blog article "Pimp my SAP ERP" was about how to give old SAP systems a front-end based on modern Web technologies. This blog article will be about how to operate these monolithic SAP systems ourselves in a modern and agile way using the resources of the Google Cloud Platform.ArchitectureDevelopment 
Joscha,June 18, 2021Machine Learning Pipelines for Search: Learning to Rank
In this article we will provide some insights into how we built the judgement pipeline, which is to serve as a basis for future LTR pipelines. What does a judgement pipeline do in the LTR context? It computes judgements based on user data for a certain timeframe. These judgements are to serve as the labels a ranking model will be trained on. Right now we also export these judgements for live validation on selected queries.Development
