This is a high level (non-technical) view of the Bob product history. For a detailed technical changelog of recent Bob releases, see CHANGELOG.md.
Note that this is history as seen in hindsight, events were not necessarily perceived as such at the time.
June 2015: Paul's talk at l'Échappée Volée starts the initial momentum around the project idea (using algorithms to help the unemployed).
Oct. 2015: Brainstorming between Paul & Stephan to figure out how to best tackle the (broad) problem; first product idea: "MyGamePlan" (a tool to simulate career decisions).
Dec. 2015: First interactive demo prototype - GitHub - Demo.
Jan. 2016: Partnership signed with Pôle emploi to research data-driven recommendations based on anonymized data.
Mar. 2016: Build project team in France, build a functional prototype, rewrite code for the long term: "MyGamePlan" becomes "Parcours Emploi".
June 2016: First user test session at Pôle Emploi Lab; decision to keep exploring other product ideas as feedback is inconclusive.
Summer 2016: 4 prototypes in 4 weeks: Plan Comparator, Companion, Game Plan Builder, Daily "Bob the bot" Emails (this is where the "Bob" name first appeared). Another prototype not finished: Checklist.
Sept. 2016: Mix best product ideas together ("Mashup"); project gets named "Bob Emploi": a coach that provides daily personalized actions.
15 Nov. 2016: Bob Emploi Public Beta Launch! See launch article on Le Monde.
Nov. 2016: Fix bugs and iterations on each feature of the Mashup. Sticky Actions attempt, but the feature doesn't stick :(
12 Dec. 2016: Strong decision to refocus Bob's core value proposition for the "Advisor" (providing high-level strategic advice rather than daily tips), in order to maximize the potential impact.
Jan. 2017: Start measuring Net Promoter Score, among other metrics; make the drastic choice to stop the Mashup and switch to the early Advisor so as to enable faster development.
16 Jan. 2017: Export of Bob's code to an Open Source repo.
8 Feb. 2017: Bob goes mobile.
17 Feb. 2017: Decision to rollback to the Mashup and work undercover until we're ready to switch.
Feb. 2017: Iterate on Advisor UX.
24 Mar. 2017: Advisor is still early, but we deem it ready for prime time. Release the Advisor for new users.
12 Apr. 2017: Release the Advisor for all users. Implement the Bob Score feature.
Apr. 2017: Iterate on Onboarding and Dashboard Flow.
May 2017: Refine Value Proposition: Bob's goal is to "create sparks" and inspire users to think of new job search strategies. Creation of many advice modules.
June 2017: Focus on making the Value Proposition clear to users. Launch project modification feature.
July 2017: Add sections in Dashboard to better differentiate between each piece of advice's priority level. Value Proposition is clear for team and users.
18 July 2017: End of milestone 1 "Value Proposition is clear for team and users", beginning of work on milestone 2 "Reasonable quality content".
Aug. 2017: Create an evaluation tool to measure the quality content and the advice selection on day 1.
5 Sept. 2017: End of milestone 2 "Reasonable quality content". Start working on milestone 3 "Ready for growth".
Oct. 2017: Send automatically a survey to users 3 months after they used Bob to evaluate our impact.
Nov. 2017: Create internal dashboards (Kibana) to track our impact evaluation across time, and publish it in our Transparency Page
Dec. 2017: Create more advice modules.
11 Jan. 2018: Release the diagnostic feature, a deeper view on a user's situation instead of the previous simple score
24 Apr. 2018: Launch Bob Action, an app and communication campaign to have volunteers help jobseekers
June 2018: Introduce a little man "Bob" talking to users with a chat-like interface. Clarify in our Landing Page that the main feature is the diagnostic.
Summer 2018: Attempt to gamify engagement using Bob points. The idea didn't work as much as expected and was turned down.
9 Oct. 2018: Release the "tutoiement" feature, for those users who prefers we say "tu" instead of "vous"
Nov. 2018: Decision to reorganize the content to follow a "Bob Mind", structure the diagnostic and advice in three layers: main problem (category), strategy & methods.
8 Feb. 2019: Release of the first category with strategies.
Mar. 2019: Automate data import to get fresh data with no human intervention.
12 July 2019: Release OpenJobGroups - Medium
15 July 2019: Release "Late Sign-Up" to allow users to try out the full app without entering their email
2 Aug. 2019: Introduce the Stats Page to users
Sep. 2019: Finally release "Bob Mind" to all new users.
2 Oct. 2019: Present all the categories as an explanation of the diagnostic.
Dec. 2019: Improve the post-Bob coaching via e-mail.
Currently: Work in progress