Stijn’s story - Wolfie walking bot

We all know that walking as you work has many positive benefits - releasing endorphins that can lift your mood, boosting energy and motivation and reducing the ill-effects of sitting at a computer all day. Plus, it’s a great way to spend time with your colleagues in a different environment. TechWolf’s walking culture has no bigger champion than Stijn, one of our Software Engineers. Stijn not only talks the talks; but walks the walk - he created the Wolfie walking bot in Slack, which pairs colleagues randomly each week and encourages them to go on a walk together.

What’s your background and how did you join TechWolf?

I studied Computer Science at the University of Ghent before starting a PhD, which I had to stop due to the pandemic. I then moved into freelancing before I was introduced to TechWolf by a friend who works here and asked if I wanted to join. Even though the HR tech world was new to me, I trusted his judgement and knew it must be a great company. I then met one of the co-founders, Jeroen, who further convinced me and I started working there the week after. This was in November 2021 and I’ve been enjoying the ride ever since!

What is the Wolfie walking bot and what inspired it?

There’s a strong walking culture at TechWolf, which I’ve always really liked. We like to connect with each other, unwind or get inspired by going on short walks near the office.

I decided to make a bot for Slack that connects two random colleagues to go on a walk each week. The bot messages each person on Monday morning, encouraging them to go on a walk that week. If the chat is silent for a few days and no walk is set up, the bot pokes you as a reminder.

How did you make Wolfie?

Slack has a bot framework which allows you to communicate with Slack through their API. They also have bot functionality that gives you access to send messages in Slack from another account.

Behind the scenes, there is a small service running that listens for triggers (scheduled or manual). On that signal, it looks in the database for all Slack users that have been registered as part of the walking group, and scrambles them up at random. If there is an uneven amount of people, someone gets a group of three. For each group, it puts them together in a chat and invites them to go for a walk together.

What’s Wolfie’s impact been so far?

I received lots of positive feedback for keeping the walk culture alive, most people enjoy the extra push as it serves as a friendly reminder during busy weeks to get out and get some fresh air.

Currently, I’m looking to improve Wolfie even further, for example, by looking into matching colleagues from different teams consciously or allowing you to set your preference for walk frequency. I also want to make sure walks with the same person don’t repeat too much so you connect with as many different people as possible. It can be easy when you work at a desk or within small teams to forget how important (and fun) it is to meet new people and make friends with colleagues across the business.