Tech that feeds the nation.

 

Meet Mike. He’s passionate about great tech, doing a great job, and working with some truly great people. We sat down to ask him a few questions about his role, and what it’s like to build the tech that feeds the nation.

 

Thanks for speaking with us, Mike. Could you tell us what you do, in a nutshell?

 

I’m a Lead Technical Programme Manager and my role is all about customer fulfilment. I work on the software that enables an order to be placed online, picked up in the shop, put in a trolley, then in a van to be delivered to your door. We’ve built our own retail platform from scratch so that this can happen securely, accurately and at scale. Everything has to work together, and it all has to work for our internal teams too. It’s my job to make sure the customer fulfilment requirements are in line with all the other microservices, so we can deliver value early and often.

 

So, how do you make it happen?

 

There’s a lot of moving parts. If you imagine a customer orders a delivery four weeks in advance, a lot has to be in place for that order to be fulfilled. The items need to arrive in the correct store, on the correct day. A picker needs to be available and have enough time to go around and collect it. A driver needs space on their van and the customer’s home needs to be put on their route. There’s a lot to consider, and the software is the backbone of the whole operation. Then there’s the scale of the whole thing. We can make a tiny change to our software or user systems, and it impacts millions of customers and over 500 stores across the UK. It adds that extra layer of complexity, but it also means the work we do touches loads of people. It’s a great motivator.

 

So how does the software work? Can you get into the nitty gritty?

 

Sure. We use a lot of different systems, but the big thing we’ve been working on recently is creating a bespoke piece of software specifically to make customer fulfilment more effective. It’s huge, and it does a lot of things. But to explain it simply, it’s all about optimisation. For example, it gives us the ability to analyse the speed an order can be picked, based on the store it’s being picked in and what the items are. We’ve got the ability through this software to give the picker the most efficient path around the store. It might only mean they do it 1% quicker, but when you multiply that across all the Tesco stores across the UK, saving that time can have huge impact. It means we can be sure we’re working at maximum capacity for our customers and delivering for them in the best way possible.

 

How does it feel to be making that impact?

 

I remember working for a small company and celebrating our 1000^th app user. Here, the work I’m doing is making things better for millions of customers. That feels great. More than that, I really see my role as being part of ‘feeding the nation’. What we do helps families who don’t have time to go shopping. It helps people who might not have the ability to leave their home as easily. And it makes people’s days a little easier. I find it incredible that I get to use tech to have that impact. Other places I’ve worked, it’s been all about making money or selling a product – here, it’s all about the customer. It's about people. And internally, we’re all on the same page. We’re trying to create the perfect order, and we all care about quality. You can see everyone feels the same way about the job we’re doing, and that creates a great environment to work in.

 

And finally, what does the future look like at Tesco?

 

Tesco is always pushing the boundaries in whatever we do, and tech is no exception. They want to go the extra mile for customers, but they also care about their people. I’ve worked for a lot of companies, and the thing that stands out at Tesco is how much they invest in your learning. They know that the better we get, the better Tesco gets. That’s what makes the future so exciting. I work with some incredible people, some beautiful minds. We all know that our imaginations are a huge part of building Tesco’s future. As for right now, our next goal is to keep improving and optimising our software so we can take it to stores around the world. And with Tesco’s backing, we know there’s nothing to stop us.

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