FUIB held the first hackathon for employees. The purpose of the hackathon is to develop innovative ideas for solving FUIB's business problems.

On December 21-22, the first PUMB STORM hackathon for employees took place in the UNIT.City innovation park. This is a 36-hour challenge of ideas, thoughts and decisions. 80 FUIB employees from all over Ukraine (FUIB employees from Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Kherson, Rivne, Mariupol, Berdiansk, Nova Kakhovka and Kamyanske came to the hackathon) in 17 teams worked enthusiastically to develop ideas for solving business problems. 

The organizers invited the participants to develop the following cases: use of alternative data sources; best customer experience for micro-entrepreneurs; innovative payment services for microbusiness; services for children and adolescents; cryptocurrency transactions and blockchain capabilities.

During the hackathon, the teams selected tasks, generated relevant ideas, consulted with the bank's mentors/experts and presented their decisions to the expert jury. 

"The format of the hackathon involves the development and creation of working projects in a short time. The bank is transforming, we strive to develop innovation, creativity and teamwork skills of our people, all this is part of Agile-culture," said Yulia Nikolayeva, head of the FUIB Project Office. – "I was especially impressed by the enthusiasm of the participants and their willingness to defend their ideas and projects. We can turn the mountains with such a team".

The hackathon aroused interest among the participants, allowed to gather interesting ideas for further implementation, meet colleagues from different cities, train skills in presentations and defending the decision before the jury.

"In order to be faster, provide the client with cool and necessary solutions, innovative worldviews, creative solutions and teamwork are key. We tried to create conditions for colleagues in which interesting ideas, unobvious decisions will be born. It was important for us to focus employees' thoughts on a product approach that excludes inside the box thinking. We also sought to help build cross-functional team relationships,” commented Veronika Khramova, hackathon project manager.

The bank has chosen the hackathon as a corporate event format because it is undergoing Agile transformation and supports activities that promote cultural change, shift the focus towards innovation, develop teamwork skills and entrepreneurial spirit of employees. 

FUIB IT Director Andriy Behunov shared his opinion about the PUMB STORM hackathon: “I have never seen my colleagues in such a creative state, when they were all so stormed by ideas at the same time. These two days have shown that we at FUIB can quickly gather into effective teams, we can create working projects and, I am sure, we will be able to implement them.” 

According to the results of the hackathon, the "Alternative Revolution" team won; its members worked on a case about the use of alternative data sources. Each team member received a certificate for UAH 20,000. Participants of the teams that won in other nominations received certificates for UAH 3,000 each. 

The project was implemented as part of initiatives to develop Agile culture at FUIB. The next stage of the project will be the consideration of the best ideas by the Board of the bank and the decision on the implementation of cases in 2022.