Hacking corporate culture

I love hackathons. Therefore, for 7 years, I organized almost 40 hackathons on Facebook. At first, I did this simply because I liked the energy of all these people and the freedom to explore ideas that went beyond my work. Over time, hackathons have evolved from events in which 20 people participate in each other into an important part of Facebook’s corporate culture. Expanding hackathons along with the growth of Facebook was difficult, we had to think through and experiment with the format in order to be sure that he was keeping up with the development of the company. At the same time, due to the fact that I was trying to catch, strengthen, increase the magic that made these hackathons so special, I realized that by themselves the hackathons strengthened and defended our corporate culture during our growth.

Time limit inspires innovation

Most ideas die in the early stages, because people lose their enthusiasm, knowing how many steps will need to be taken to implement them. Does that make sense, right? A great idea, not limited in time, becomes what we put on the table. Of course, we know that nothing is usually taken out of the table. This is the beauty of hakatons - there is no "later." When your time is very limited by the time from the beginning of the hakaton to the presentation of the finished product, it tunes your thinking in a different way.
')
Instead of giving yourself a promise that you will work on this idea sometime later, when you have time to properly implement it, you have to work with your team and implement the necessary minimum for the product to work, and you could say whether he has the right to life or not. The limitation of a few hours is a very good way to clarify whether the project will work or not.

This state of consciousness is a very powerful thing, it forces you to make tough decisions, and often forces you to realize a creative approach. Constraints are a great way to increase the power of innovation.

Scales of self-organization

Just before the hackathon, I always organize a wiki page, posting a document where people can add their ideas, make lists of skills that the team needs - such as backend developer, mobile application developer, product designer. In the e-mail with the announcement of the beginning of the cardboard there is always a link to this document so that people can contribute their ideas. An added advantage is that people who do not have their own ideas can still join the team and work on ideas that they find interesting. The process of forming small teams, a quick discussion of ideas and developing a concept, combining various things, solving problems in real time is like jazz, and this process inspires improvisation.

This uneven rhythm allows the team to be something more than the sum of its parts, and affects all other aspects of their collaboration. Passing through the hackathon, you can feel this energy, and this is a beautiful thing.

Hakatons naturally inspire the construction of corporate culture and teamwork within the company without supervision from above. This is very important, because the culture can not just be planted. Teams start to meet, and this increases the importance of the ability to prioritize, and reminds both veterans of the company and newcomers to move forward and work together as quickly as possible.

Trust and empathy accelerate processes

Organic self-organization leads to the fact that people in the company meet new people and build relationships that they would not otherwise be able to build. When teams of different specialists work together, people get to know each other and build friendly relations, and also begin to understand what teams are and what they do in the company. In my experience, it is such a disclosure that builds social ties that provide trust and empathy and create alternative ways by which information is transmitted - all this makes the company faster and more flexible in achieving goals. Teams in which people do not know each other, work together not as effectively as those in which people know each other. Before the hackathon, the front end developer could think: “It will be very difficult to coordinate with the system operator.” After the hackathon, the same engineer will most likely think: “I will contact Rachel and see how we can do it quickly.” Building trust in positive situations will help your company to better overcome difficult times, because people will feel connected to their colleagues and will rely on them.

Risking everything, win together

To risk, a person needs to be ready to lose. Hackatons are loss incubators and failure accelerators. By making failures a normal occurrence, we inspire ourselves to take risks. Hackatons help teach people that failure is good, that this is the other side of innovation. In the end, you can’t think of amazing ideas if you haven’t studied hundreds or thousands of bad ideas. When people work on ideas that they like, they often go to uncharted and interesting territories. Some of these trips will pay off with the birth of a revolutionary idea that will change the whole course of the company's work - I have seen such cases and it is always amazing. Most ideas for your hackathons will not lead to the birth of new wonderful ideas or technological breakthrough - and this is normal, because the goal of the hackathon is to support experiments and fearless readiness to admit defeat and start all over again. And, although these rare wonderful moments of insight are wonderful, when they happen, you will undoubtedly discover thousands of less obvious, but equally important things that will help to form a stronger team and a bold culture of innovation. In any case, the journey itself is a reward. In addition, there are always free t-shirts.

Code wins arguments

Too often, the loudest debater or the most arrogant wins the debate. Fortunately, in a company of developers, nothing can argue with the code. The hackathon turns great ideas into reality through the “here and now” paradigm. The hackathon goes beyond the limits of hypotheses, and makes ideas flourish or fail. They create a safe space for promoting ideas, despite opposing points of view. Take Facebook Chat, for example. There used to be a lot of negativity and objections to including it on Facebook. Fortunately, our team created it during the hackathon, and proved that the doubter was wrong. Several years have passed, and this simple service is the main method of communication for millions of people.

Be playful be curious

Not every idea should focus on gigantic achievements and changes. By focusing too much on major changes, you may miss all the obvious ideas that will be right in front of your eyes. By giving people space to play with ideas, you allow them to awaken that curious part of the brain that was active in childhood.

Now I work in Uber, behind me I have two “official” hackathons, hundreds of informal ones, and a few rantus (work + vacation). Now I am organizing my own hackathon, and I am already beginning to feel the creative energy that comes from all the employees. I can't wait to see what people can do and how these hackathons will build our corporate culture in the future. And I believe that in Uber, as previously in Facebook, these hackathons will inspire everyone to teamwork, strengthen culture and help us reach the future as quickly as possible.

In Facebook, we hacked to unite the world, and in Uber we do it to move the world. Join our trip.