Klika interns developed an internal application to spur employee engagement and make office life fun
The idea
Klika developed an intensive 2-month internship program designed for IT and tech graduates to help them hone their skills and gain an advantage in the job market. For most of them, it is their first time working in a professional software development team.
In those two months, the interns are tasked with developing a product from scratch under the mentorship and guidance of Klika experts. The project simulates a real project environment with specified requirements and deadlines in an Agile setting.
One of the most prominent products our interns built was an internal reward application for employees, and it has been very popular in the company ever since. The app became essential to our “caring is sharing” culture, promoting our values and team collaboration.
Klika interns were entrusted with developing the coin-based system that would encourage employees to reward each other within a one-month cycle. The employee with the most coins by the end of each month would be the winner. The interns were responsible for both web and mobile application development.
The challenges
Even though they had good technical skills, the team building the app was inexperienced. It needed to be shown the ropes of working in a team under Agile methodologies and how to handle tasks and interdependencies successfully. The short deadline was also intimidating and required each intern to prioritize their tasks. The team was led by a Klika Scrum Master/Product Owner, consisting of back-end and front-end developers, QAs, and iOS and Android developers.
Regarding technical challenges, the interns had to find a solution to successfully automate the app to reset monthly and develop a leaderboard showing the winners. The second tricky part was enabling integration with Slack, which meant successfully linking our internal employee database to the channel, making sure privacy and security were not affected.
Klika intern solution
The team was first introduced to the Product Owner/Scrum Master, who presented the specified project requirements. Each intern was assigned a task backlog and acquainted with Agile methodologies and Scrum as a concept.
First, the interns worked on the backend, working out the logic of coin distribution and process automation. They built a coin-based system that automatically credited 50 virtual coins to each employee every month. Employees could spend the 50 coins how they like, i.e., all at once to award just one employee or gradually on multiple colleagues until all coins were gone within one-month cycles. They also had to add Klika values as features (#giveback, #doyourbest, #beafriend, etc.), representing the basis for the entire reward program.
Building the reset feature, the team ensured new coins would be available on the first of every month, starting a new cycle.
The mobile team ensured the application was available on iOS and Android, providing an equally smooth experience for all users.
At a later stage, integration with Slack was added to make the reward and recognition program available on Klika’s main communication channel. Integrating the internal employee database with the channel required skillful configuration to create web and mobile versions compatible with Slack workspace, and the team did a beautiful job, enabling a seamless data flow between the two.
Automated notifications and analytics reports were also part of the system, as well as a modern user interface that made the system easy to use and highly popular among employees.
Results
The internal reward and recognition app underlined and promoted Klika’s values and culture and encouraged employees to participate, fostering a work environment of positive feedback and engagement. It enabled all our teams, on-site and remote, to better bond with their colleagues and build a culture of appreciation. The application remains one of the most successful projects completed during an internship cycle at Klika and has reached cult status in the office.
Technology stack
Ruby on Rails, Kotlin, Swift, Node.js, Bolt.js
