Case study / Custom software & team workflows
Recognition that builds
towards something together.
I built YumDonut so my classroom team could recognise each other’s contributions, celebrate shared values and put their rewards towards team goals.
The problem
A useful idea, without another subscription.
I wanted a simple way for people in my team to acknowledge one another. Services such as HeyTaco showed the appeal of peer recognition, but I wanted to meet that need without taking out a paid subscription.
I built YumDonut around our own team: virtual donuts for recognising contributions and values, with the option to contribute earned donuts to a shared goal.
My contribution
From a team need to a connected product.
I developed the standalone app and connected it to Microsoft Teams. The web interface brings together recognition, balances, an activity feed, a leaderboard and team goals. The Teams bot lets participants recognise one another within their conversations.
Both routes use the same underlying records. Recognition given in Teams feeds into the web app’s balances and activity, while the standalone app remains usable without Teams.
Design decisions
Make appreciation specific. Make progress shared.
Recognition connects an action with a value: teamwork, initiative, resilience or kindness. The shared goal gives participants a way to turn individual recognition into something the team works towards together.
The implementation includes a daily giving allowance and checks for repeated Teams messages, so the integration can share the app’s recognition rules. React provides the web interface; Firebase stores the shared records and runs the Teams integration.
Use & evidence
Part of how our team recognises each other.
YumDonut has been in use for two years with me and my students—a group of more than 20 participants. Students use it to acknowledge what others do, recognise the values they show and contribute donuts towards team goals. Both the standalone app and Teams integration are now working in use.
Use is based on my experience running the programme, as of September 2026. The two-year history is for the app overall; the Teams integration is working now. Screenshots show the signed-in app, with source code available for inspection.
Business relevance
Build around an organisation’s own workflow.
This is a classroom deployment with a clear workplace parallel: peer recognition tied to team values and collective goals. It demonstrates identifying a need, developing a usable system and connecting it to an existing communication tool.
For a company, I would bring that same approach to a focused internal tool: understand the users, decide what should be built and test it in the workflow where it will be used.
Let’s talk
Let’s talk about the role.
Need someone who can build useful tools, communicate clearly and help a team deliver? Send me the challenge, the role and where your team is based.
carl@carlrayner.com · Hamilton, New Zealand