The Data Playbook Podcast

Dataminded

🎙️ The Data Playbook is a podcast where we aim to build a playbook for data leaders. We do that through a series of interviews with other data leaders, data practitioners and data experts. In each episode, we break down real-world data challenges: from building modern architectures and embracing Data Mesh to navigating cloud sovereignty, we help you make smarter decisions one play at a time.

  1. 1월 29일

    How Dataminded Was Built: Kris Peeters on 11 Years of Data Engineering & Culture - The Data Playbook podcast with Kris Peeters & Pascal Brokmeier

    In this season finale of The Data Playbook Podcast by Dataminded, the tables turn: Kris Peeters (Host & Founder of Dataminded) is interviewed by Pascal Brokmeier (guest from the Episode 2 and former colleague). Kris shares the real story behind 11 years of building Dataminded - from the stress of having zero customers, to landing the first project, to scaling from a small team to a company with a leadership layer. We dive deep into what makes an engineering-first culture work: autonomy + responsibility, raising (and protecting) the hiring bar, learning from mistakes, and why timeless engineering practices (Git, CI/CD, testing, monitoring) still matter, no matter the tech hype cycle. If you’re a data leader, data engineer, engineering manager, or founder, this episode is a practical playbook on building a company (and a culture) that can survive and scale. ✅ Subscribe and follow Dataminded for more episodes, deep dives, and real-world data engineering stories. https://www.youtube.com/@Dataminded ✅ Explore The Data Playbook Podcast archive for more conversations on data platforms, data products, AI, and cloud decisions. https://www.dataminded.com/resources/podcast ✅ Want to work with us? Check our open roles or reach out directly. Open vacancies: https://www.dataminded.com/about/join-usOr email: careers@dataminded.comChapters: 00:06 - 11 Years of Dataminded: Why This Story Matters01:54 - Why Kris Founded Dataminded (Engineers First)04:12 - From Zero Clients to the First Big Win07:53 - First Hires & How Culture Was Born11:14 - Git, CI/CD & Why Engineering Discipline Wins15:59 - Growing from 6 to 20: Chaos to Structure23:30 - Autonomy, Trust & Professional Culture35:13 - COVID, Overhead & the Push to 50 People41:13 - How Dataminded Keeps the Hiring Bar High55:59 - Germany, The Netherlands & What’s Next

    1시간 5분
  2. 2025. 11. 27.

    S2 E7. Data Engineering Meets Excel: Building Explainable and Reliable Decision Models with River Solutions

    Kris Peeters sits down with Amaury Anciaux, founder of River Solutions, to tackle a painful reality for data leaders: critical decisions still depend on fragile Excel models. They explore why Excel won’t disappear, how River turns spreadsheets into visual, explainable and reliable decision models, and what happens when you bring data quality checks, testing and documentation into the analyst workflow. Topics include: Why 99% of models in organisations are still built in ExcelSilent errors, risk, and the real cost of debugging formulasVisual flow-based modelling and model maps inside ExcelBuilt-in checks for missing data, duplicates and broken lookupsHow AI copilots helped build River, and why AI won’t replace transparent modelsThe evolving role of analysts and managers in data-driven decisions🎧 Listen to more episodes of The Data Playbook for real-world stories on data platforms, GenAI, data products and cloud independence from Europe’s leading data practitioners and leaders. 🌐 More at https://www.dataminded.com/resources Chapters: 00:00 – Intro & episode setup00:45 – Amaury’s background & consulting career02:00 – The hidden reality of Excel decision models04:00 – Why “just get it out of Excel” doesn’t scale05:10 – What River Solutions does in Excel06:40 – Visual model maps for explainable models08:40 – Removing formulas & adding data quality checks10:50 – Why Excel errors are so risky for big decisions13:15 – Who River is for: analysts, Excel gurus & managers16:05 – Why Amaury started River now & building with Copilot19:00 – Will AI copilots replace River and Excel modelling?22:51 – How River works as an Excel add-in (UX & interactivity)26:25 – How River changes the analyst role (less debugging, more thinking)28:10 – Roadmap: community, cloud, AI & connecting to data warehouses31:14 – Biggest lesson learned: software is easy, change is hard

    32분
  3. 2025. 11. 20.

    S2 E6. 5 Years Kate 🎂: Inside KBC’s AI Playbook - The Data Playbook Podcast with Kris Peeters & Dr. Barak Chizi

    What happens when a bank decides that AI and IP are so strategic they must be built in-house - then actually follows through for more than a decade? In this episode of The Data Playbook, Dr. Barak Chizi, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at KBC Group, joins Kris Peeters to reveal how KBC built one of Europe’s most mature AI organisations and what it took to bring Kate, their AI assistant, to life, and keep her evolving for 5 years. You’ll hear how KBC: Grew from early machine learning to 2,000+ AI use cases in production Developed an AI-driven anti-money laundering platform and commercialised it for other banks Scaled Kate, now celebrating 5 years and upgraded with GPT. Uses the U-model to govern AI safely from idea to production Keeps ROI at the centre of every AI project Stays vendor-independent while still leveraging hyperscaler LLMs Builds diverse, high-calibre AI teams with a rigorous recruitment approach Explores soft logic and modelling customer intent as the next frontier of financial AI If you want to understand how to turn AI from experiments into a true competitive advantage, this conversation is your playbook. 🌐 More at www.dataminded.com and subscribe to our channel. Show notes: The Foundation of Soft Logic👉 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-58233-2 Dan Ariely – Predictably Irrational👉 https://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Revised-Expanded-Decisions/dp/0061353248/ ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 – Intro to The Data Playbook & today’s guest01:15 – Barak’s backstory: 25 years in AI & high-dimensional data03:02 – What a CDAO does at KBC & enabling 24/7 AI-assisted service04:55 – Towards continuous, machine-supported customer journeys06:37 – The U-Model: KBC’s framework for data & AI projects08:35 – Flagship AI products, finite project lifecycle & retraining10:07 – Prioritising AI use cases across 5 countries12:31 – ROI mindset, conservative risk culture & data as an asset14:21 – Why KBC keeps AI in-house & limits external consultants18:17 – Beyond data warehouses: from reporting to prediction22:21 – AI-driven AML platform & the creation of SKY25:30 – Patents, AI IP and KBC’s competitive positioning27:25 – Generative AI at KBC since 2018 & early transformer experiments29:11 – Pragmatic tech choices: LLMs vs ML vs simple automation31:42 – Avoiding GenAI hype and focusing on customer value33:03 – Why KBC built Kate: 24/7 banking & impatient customers35:28 – From FAQ bot to execution engine: Kate’s end-to-end capabilities37:07 – Customer reactions, branches vs digital & Kate’s 2026 roadmap39:24 – Multi-LLM strategy, vendor independence & design partnerships40:44 – Inside Kate’s architecture: NLU, open source & KBC-built layers42:37 – Proactive AI: timing, context and personalised offers44:51 – Soft logic, consciousness & modelling customer intent49:19 – Building a diverse, 24-nationality AI team at KBC51:37 – Recruitment process, tests & how candidates are evaluated55:21 – What KBC looks for in modern data scientists57:15 – Lessons after 10 years at KBC & book recommendation

    58분
  4. 2025. 11. 13.

    S2 E5. Beyond Hyperscalers: How to Run Modern Data Platforms on European Clouds - The Data Playbook Podcast with Kris Peeters & Niels Claeys

    EU clouds without the hype. Niels Claeys (Partner & Lead Data Engineer at Dataminded, and our technical hiring lead) breaks down data sovereignty vs. Cloud Act, GDPR realities, and a portable, Kubernetes-first stack with Iceberg, Trino, and Airflow. We compare Scaleway, OVH, Exoscale, UpCloud, look at cost drivers, encryption/KMS, egress policies, and how to avoid vendor lock-in plus when best-of-breed beats all-in-one and why “keep it simple” still wins. What you’ll learn: When EU clouds make more sense than hyperscalers (and when they don’t)Designing a portable platform: Terraform/Tofu for infra, Argo CD for appsTable formats 101: why Apache Iceberg over plain Parquet/CSVQuery layer choices: Trino for open SQL across object storage & DBsOrchestration in practice: Airflow patterns, dependencies, SLAsSecurity & governance: OPA for fine-grained policies, IAM, catalogsCost & ops: egress, managed services gaps, version lag, troubleshootingTeam skills: what to hire for, and the “hard questions” Niels asks in interviews🌐 More at ⁠www.dataminded.com⁠ — and subscribe! Chapters 00:00 Intro & why EU clouds now 04:40 Compliance & legal: GDPR, Cloud Act, sovereignty 11:55 Platform blueprint: Kubernetes + Iceberg + Trino + Airflow 20:30 Catalogs, OPA, IAM & access control 27:10 EU providers deep dive: Scaleway, OVH, Exoscale, UpCloud 36:20 Cost, encryption/KMS, egress & performance 43:10 Best-of-breed vs all-in-one (and glue work) 51:00 Getting started: IaC, Argo CD, day-2 ops 56:40 Hiring: interview signals & practical takeaways Keywords EU cloud, European cloud providers, data sovereignty, GDPR, Cloud Act, Kubernetes data platform, Apache Iceberg, Trino, Airflow, vendor lock-in, OPA, Argo CD, Terraform, Exoscale, Scaleway, OVH, UpCloud

    56분
  5. 2025. 11. 05.

    S2 E4. Build vs Buy in the GenAI Era: Inside Belfius’ Data & AI Strategy - The Data Playbook Podcast with Kris Peeters & Hannes Heylen

    Belfius Insurance’s Head of Data & AI, Hannes Heylen shares how his team scaled GenAI - from a fraud detection flywheel to “Nestor,” a claims copilot that speeds summaries, completeness and coverage checks. We unpack AI agents in the claims flow, build-vs-buy decisions, and why content/data governance drives LLM quality. Plus: a pragmatic delivery mantra - make it work, then right, then cheap - for CIOs, CDOs and Heads of Data. What you’ll learn How to pick first AI cases that prove €ROI (fraud models)Designing a claims copilot: summarization, completeness & coverage checksWhere AI agents fit (GenAI + ML + humans) across the claims flowBuild vs. buy in 2025: foundation models, vendor flexibility, cost controlContent/data governance as the make-or-break for LLM apps“First make it work, then right, then cheap”: an AI operating model for CIO/CDO Guest: Hannes Heylen, Head of Data & AI, Belfius Insurance 🌐 More at ⁠www.dataminded.com⁠ Chapters: 00:00 Why AI now in financial services 06:30 GenAI’s impact on text-heavy insurance processes 18:40 AI agents across claims 31:00 Governance > model tweaks 38:00 Fraud detection: the € case 41:30 Claims copilot (“Nestor”) & lab-to-prod 55:00 Lessons for CIOs/CDOs Topics: ROI-first use cases • Claims automation • AI agents (GenAI + ML + human-in-the-loop) • Governance • Vendor flexibility & costs

    57분

소개

🎙️ The Data Playbook is a podcast where we aim to build a playbook for data leaders. We do that through a series of interviews with other data leaders, data practitioners and data experts. In each episode, we break down real-world data challenges: from building modern architectures and embracing Data Mesh to navigating cloud sovereignty, we help you make smarter decisions one play at a time.

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