How We Created Futured Currency (FUC)

We interviewed Radek Doležal, our iOS developer, under whose watch Futured Coin was created.

Radk, what is Futured Coin?

Futured Coin, abbreviated FUC, can be understood as a fictional currency whose flow is controlled by all the people in Futured. Everyone can get some FUC and everyone can award them. With the FUC earned, you will then “buy” what you see fit, from various vouchers for the purchase of HW, to wellness and extra vacation days.

FUC is a variable remuneration system in which all the people in the company decide on the resulting rewards.

How does it work?

Everyone gets a monthly FUC budget, which they can arbitrarily redistribute among others during the month. Self-redistribution takes place through the so-called kudos\ *, just select the colleague to whom you want to give kudos, enter the FUC amount and write a comment, that is, praise, for which you give FUC. In the very awarding of kudos, everyone has complete freedom, it is up to them what to award them for, the only rule is that one cannot award kudos to oneself.

\ *Clever Window: Word“kudos” comes from the Greek language (κ) and means praise or recognition for achievement or outstanding performance.

Kudos is not the only way to get FUC...

Another option is one-time rewards, which are decided by our Leaders and Project Managers, who have the greatest insight into how people work in teams and projects. Each of them can propose candidates for rewards on an ongoing basis, and the others can vote for them. Leaders and PMs have one more thing in common with their own budget, from which they reward exceptional performance across projects and teams.

FUC can be turned into vouchers, days off or donated to charitable causes.

How do I convert FUC into rewards?

The FUC earned is accumulated in each person's personal account, from which they then purchase a reward of their choice in the Futured eshop. In the current offer we have countless different vouchers from restaurants, to electronics stores, books to wellness. But you can also choose to donate the amount corresponding to your chosen amount of FUC to charitable causes, thus taking the good generated from the praise even further. The icing on the cake, and at the same time the most expensive reward on offer, is an extra day off.

How did FUC come about?

At the beginning, we created a three-member action group, within which we gathered ideas for improving the reward system at the time. I then elaborated the stimuli into an overall design, which we iterated over until Futured Coin fell out of it. Thus, an ideal internal project was created, suitable for testing new technologies and approaches to development.

One of the motivations for FUC was also the dissemination of positive news and good mood among the people.

What does the system do?

In the Futured Coin system, everyone has their own profile, where they can see how much FUC they have saved and at the same time how much they can distribute from their remuneration budget for a given month.

Everyone has access to a feed of awarded kudos, can view reports on the overall functioning of the FUC system, e.g. how many FUC have already been awarded, how many are currently in circulation... and for competitors we also have rankings of the best, richest and most worthy.

The last part is the eshop, in which we exchange FUC for rewards.

What technologies did you use at FUC?

For example, we tried KMM (Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile). On iOS, we experimented with architectures that are suitable for connecting SwiftUI to the GraphQL API.

On the site, which contains both user and administrative sections, we use VueJS with framework Quasarsthat allows you to expose the web responsive version in PWA mode or environment Electronused by Slack, Discord, or Microsoft Teams, for example.

On the backend we use NextJS framework in combination with GraphQL, MongoDB and websockets. We also integrate the backend with Firebase for push notifications, Sendgrid for email notifications and with Slack to automatically share information and events directly in our popular chat tool.

The goal of internal projects is to learn something new. What was it in the case of FUC? And is there something that didn't work out?

In the end, we withdrew from cross-platform development in KMM because its effectiveness was blocked by the absence of free capacities of Android developers. For example, we had a free iOS developer who could dedicate Futured Coin, but that was blocked by the fact that there was no free Android to prepare the necessary infrastructure in KMM.

We finally divided the project into native iOS app and Android app, Web and related integrations, e.g. plugin to Slack, with the understanding that each team could try interesting technologies that they could deploy in future development for our clients.

Who came up with the idea and why?

Our HR Simča came to me with the idea, who took charge of adjusting the previous reward system. The main motivation at that time was to simplify the system, make it more transparent, and also to motivate people to appreciate each other for small and big things.

When we need something and cannot find a suitable solution, we will implement it as part of the Futured Hackathon.

Is there a similar solution already?

Before embarking on creating our own system, we tried to explore or possibly find suitable existing solutions. However, we did not find a service or application that would meet our requirements, so we started developing it ourselves. Such thinking is in the DNA of the company: When we need something and cannot find a suitable solution, we implement it as part of the Futured Hackathon**.

**As part of the Futured Hackathon, we regularly tame unknown technologies in order to advance in thinking and skills and solve the situation that is burning us in the company at the moment. This is how the company application Zextinguni or the Worthy Goblin application was created appreciative mindful colleagues. Internal projects can then be further developed by people on the bench, that is, those who are not fully occupied.

Photos tagged with the letter W were created for Futured profile on the platform Welcome to the Jungle.

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Do you want to join us and also do/earn kudos?

We are currently looking for several colleagues. Get in touch with Míš and talk about the possibilities of cooperation: michaela.kormosova@futured.app & +420 739 106 507. ‍