Hackathon in the company: how to do it and why to participate in it
Initially, hackathons appeared as independent competitions in the developer community, but today they are often satisfied with many IT companies, not only for invited developers, but also for their own employees.
We want to share the experience that we recently gained by arranging an “internal” hackathon for 70 people in the Wrike team. For the company, its benefits are obvious - an additional opportunity to unlock the potential of employees and run in the most viable business ideas. However, the question was no less important - what is the benefit of participating in the corporate hackathon for the employees themselves. You can often hear the skeptical point of view that such a hackathon is a way to get high-paying specialists to work free of charge during non-working hours.
Therefore, we decided to seriously consider how to make this competition interesting and useful for the participants and came to five conclusions.
One of the most interesting opportunities that a hackathon provides is to try yourself in a different role and use skills that are not used in daily work. For example, so that developers can better understand how the process of thinking through the new functionality is structured, only those who are not in ordinary life could play the role of product-managers of the project. In addition, when working on prototypes, it was sometimes necessary to use languages ​​that participants did not work with daily. For example, backend developers were very inspired by the idea of ​​creating a prototype of an application for Android. Testers are also happy to take the code. But, of course, in difficult cases, participants could consult with colleagues specializing in a particular technology.
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As a rule, developers are more likely to solve technical problems than they think through the impact of their work on the market and the company's business. The conditions of the hackathon were designed so that the teams could feel that they were the founders of a startup and evaluate, among other things, the business value of their idea. Among the evaluation criteria for projects is the ability of the prototype to have a critical impact on the sales funnel in our market. To guarantee the fairness of the assessment, top managers with extensive experience in product launches and market promotion were included in the jury of the hackathon.
Wrike make in wrike . In a sense, we use our own service in working on it, so that we know firsthand what it is especially good for and what can be improved. Employees who lacked certain capabilities, the hackathon gave an excellent chance to promote their idea, translate it into a prototype and, ultimately, to achieve its release (three ideas are already in the works). Before the start of the hackathon, we created a bank of ideas where everyone could add their own, and the teams could use any of the ideas left in the bank. Thanks to this brainstorming, any employee could share his thoughts without even participating in the hackathon.
Several hackathon projects have been created using the Wrike API. So the developers were able to check the usability of it in terms of potential integrations. This allowed developers to identify things that are unnoticeable in their daily work and optimize the work of the API.
Probably the most attractive part of the hackathon is the excitement of competition, when the teams are ready to sacrifice sleep and rest for a day to realize their idea. Recreating the same level of involvement and motivation in daily work in the company is very difficult, so it was a useful shake for both employees and management.
Of course, almost no one takes part in the hackathon for the prize, but good encouragement becomes an additional incentive and a way to emphasize the importance of the hackathon projects for the company. Reflecting on the reward, we have identified two conditions.
As a result, we stopped on a trip for the five winning teams to Dublin, where one of the Wrike offices is located. It turned out such a tourist and business trip, where the winners could get acquainted with colleagues from another city and spend their free time in Ireland.
And of course, we are very interested in the experience of hackathons in other companies, so if you have one, welcome to the comments!
We want to share the experience that we recently gained by arranging an “internal” hackathon for 70 people in the Wrike team. For the company, its benefits are obvious - an additional opportunity to unlock the potential of employees and run in the most viable business ideas. However, the question was no less important - what is the benefit of participating in the corporate hackathon for the employees themselves. You can often hear the skeptical point of view that such a hackathon is a way to get high-paying specialists to work free of charge during non-working hours.
Therefore, we decided to seriously consider how to make this competition interesting and useful for the participants and came to five conclusions.
Role-playing games
One of the most interesting opportunities that a hackathon provides is to try yourself in a different role and use skills that are not used in daily work. For example, so that developers can better understand how the process of thinking through the new functionality is structured, only those who are not in ordinary life could play the role of product-managers of the project. In addition, when working on prototypes, it was sometimes necessary to use languages ​​that participants did not work with daily. For example, backend developers were very inspired by the idea of ​​creating a prototype of an application for Android. Testers are also happy to take the code. But, of course, in difficult cases, participants could consult with colleagues specializing in a particular technology.
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Business as a victory condition
As a rule, developers are more likely to solve technical problems than they think through the impact of their work on the market and the company's business. The conditions of the hackathon were designed so that the teams could feel that they were the founders of a startup and evaluate, among other things, the business value of their idea. Among the evaluation criteria for projects is the ability of the prototype to have a critical impact on the sales funnel in our market. To guarantee the fairness of the assessment, top managers with extensive experience in product launches and market promotion were included in the jury of the hackathon.
Do for yourself
Wrike make in wrike . In a sense, we use our own service in working on it, so that we know firsthand what it is especially good for and what can be improved. Employees who lacked certain capabilities, the hackathon gave an excellent chance to promote their idea, translate it into a prototype and, ultimately, to achieve its release (three ideas are already in the works). Before the start of the hackathon, we created a bank of ideas where everyone could add their own, and the teams could use any of the ideas left in the bank. Thanks to this brainstorming, any employee could share his thoughts without even participating in the hackathon.
Sight from the other side
Several hackathon projects have been created using the Wrike API. So the developers were able to check the usability of it in terms of potential integrations. This allowed developers to identify things that are unnoticeable in their daily work and optimize the work of the API.
Healthy excitement
Probably the most attractive part of the hackathon is the excitement of competition, when the teams are ready to sacrifice sleep and rest for a day to realize their idea. Recreating the same level of involvement and motivation in daily work in the company is very difficult, so it was a useful shake for both employees and management.
Of course, almost no one takes part in the hackathon for the prize, but good encouragement becomes an additional incentive and a way to emphasize the importance of the hackathon projects for the company. Reflecting on the reward, we have identified two conditions.
- In terms of cost, it should be approximately equivalent to the cost of time spent on projects, so that no one has a sense of injustice.
- It should be something professionally interesting, ideally something that a person would not do for himself.
As a result, we stopped on a trip for the five winning teams to Dublin, where one of the Wrike offices is located. It turned out such a tourist and business trip, where the winners could get acquainted with colleagues from another city and spend their free time in Ireland.
And of course, we are very interested in the experience of hackathons in other companies, so if you have one, welcome to the comments!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/310070/
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