How to organize an online Hackathon

Create

‍A hackathon’s primary goal is to solve some problem by creating something new, something unique, something you have in your head but never found time, resources, or courage to make. Whether it is some new product, shared template, development framework, or process optimization, the only constraint is the hackathon topic, but more on that down in my recipe.‍

Challenge‍

It is usually not so easy. If it were, you would already do it, right? You have limited time at a hackathon, only one attempt, which makes it even more challenging. But don’t worry, stay focused on your problem. You have to evaluate your solution; you don’t have to build the final product. Please don’t go into nitpicky details; it is only a waste of time.

Together

Taking aside company team building, I could not recall any occasions where you can do something together as a company at the same time. Use this time for all-hands team statuses and presentations. You can mix-up teams or try a whole different team role than you are used to.

Do you want to read more about us and our values?

So this was the theory behind the hackathon; let’s get to the recipe part:

Preparation: 1 day
Cooking: 2 days
Additional: 4 hours
Servings: the whole company

Ingredients

‍1 topic - community and knowledge sharing
The topic is the central theme of a hackathon; try to choose something trendy or something that suits your company goals. Let it be broad enough to fit your whole company but not too open so that it can be almost everything. You can change the topic every year, so it does not get boring.
‍1 or more places - at your home via Google Meet
Usually, we use our offices, but we had no problem moving it online. You probably already have tools and processes to work remotely, use them for team communication and all-hands presentations.
‍1 program - on Jira/Confluence with reminders on Slack
Schedule everything well before the hackathon starts, from the welcome speech to final presentations. Include some ongoing status updates where every team can present what they have done and what are their next steps.
‍A lot of feedback - via Google Form
After the hackathon ends, we publish an online feedback form to gain some insights from attendees, so next time we can fix the pain points and make it even better. We also include a question to suggest the topic for next year.