Everything you always wanted to know about Hackathons (but were too afraid to ask)

I love Hackathons. They are a bit like a two day startup competition. You find yourself a cool team, brainstorm some crazy ideas and flesh out a cool concept into a shiny product. Well, as shiny as it can get within one or two days…

Team HIVE bringing in the juice #squadgoals

This year’s Techfest was our third Hackathon victory. Undoubtedly, this is not really credited to my contribution alone. Hackathons are 100% a team effort and it’s best for your idea and concept if your team is as heterogeneous as possible. While there is always a good amount of luck involved, I think every successful Hackathon project has the same tasks and phases that you need to undertake to end up with a cool concept.

In this blog post I’m going to explain to you what will likely happen at a Hackathon, so you can safely join the next one in your city and make the most of it!

Arrival

The first thing that probably happens in a Hackathon are the challenge presentations. Usually, there are a few different categories you can compete at. These categories are provided by the companies that host or sponsor the Hackathon itself and often relate to real problems they encounter as a business. You are going to chose one category to compete at, so feel free to focus whatever sounds the most exciting to you.

Team building

Let’s be honest, no matter how good your coding, hardware or marketing skills are, you’re not gonna do this alone. Most Hackathons assume you need a good amount of time in the beginning to get together into a team. Obviously, if you compete with a premade team you can skip a good amount of time and have a bit of an advantage, but even as a solo player you can do some pretty awesome things with cool people you just met.

There’s really not much magic involved in finding people to work with. Just socialize a bit with them. Be honest with what you can and can’t do properly. You don’t need to be an absolute wizard at your field, but don’t promise things you can’t do. Pretty much every kind of skill is needed, so let ideas flow and make some friends.

Brainstorming

When you assembled your awesome crew, you will first want to sit together for a while and figure out what you actually want to do. Which challenge do you want to solve is usually the first thing to decide, as it dictates the kind of product you are going to build. While deciding on the challenge, you will need to find the actual problem you want to solve. Sometimes the categories are laid out in a way that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Try to think about the context of the challenge or the company that hosts it, what are they trying to solve? Where do they need to innovate? In a way, the company is your market and you need to figure out the market’s needs.

Finding the problem and figuring out a solution is a creative process and can take a while. Sometimes this process can be very smooth and you find a cool direction that everyone is excited to start with in a short amount of time, but this can also be a frustrating grind. If you get stuck, you can always try to talk to the hosting company a bit.

Build a “thing”

After you figured out your idea, you should decide who does what in your team. Remember, you are not building a professionally built high-cost product, you’re hacking together a cool concept with a bunch of duct tape and node.js. Your goal is to showcase the concept, to underline your idea and the pitch, so don’t overdo the engineering. So it doesn’t really matter if you are lacking experience in a specific field, your proof of concept should be easy enough that a bunch of guides and online tutorials convey the basics you need to do it. Don’t be afraid to tackle a challenge you are not familiar with. In every hackathon I competed, I learned something completely new that I never touched before.

Blast from the past: WeldAR - Augmented reality assisted welding shield, our project from 2017

My recommendation for a prototype is definitely to built something “physical”. If you can, slap together some wood to build your product, or 3d print your proof of concept. In case you are building a purely digital product, make sure it’s interactive. It should be a bit of an experience to use it. Make people click some buttons to judge their reactions, add some LED’s or sound. A “haptic” product, something that people interact with is always cooler than just a bunch of powerpoint slides.

Marketing, baby!

Remember, the company that hosts the challenge is your market. Pitch your idea to them as often as you can. Judge their reactions and see if they like it. They are the experts of the particular domain you are entering, so often they have some valid input on how to improve your idea or what aspects are likely not going to work properly. There’s a good chance that you will readjust your goal a few times during the hackathon, so stay flexible.

Bu$iness case

Slapping some LED’s and a speaker on a RC car is all nice and dandy, but what is the value behind it? When you think about your product, remember one thing: it should be sustainable. You need to think about a business plan, even if it’s very basic. Show some statistics on why there is a market for it and think of a way to make some money to support the growth of your product.

Branding

Not always the case, but if someone in your team is a bit into design, you can always create a slick logo and branding for your product. Maybe you can even think of a cool slogan and design your product in your brand colors. Design matters. Think about popular fruit-based computing products. Are they popular just because they are good tech? No, in fact, the tech is on par with everything else. But the design and the branding makes it stand out.

The big moment: Pitching

If your team composition allows it, dedicate one team member to the pitch. You only have a few minutes to present your idea, and these need to be spot on. Good pitches usually have a common form: First, present some motivation. Why are you doing this? What is the problem? Show some graphs to underline your motivation. Show you have a market for your product. Next, present your solution. Don’t overload your product, you don’t have enough time in the pitch to present all the tools of your blockchain-powered swiss army knife. Instead, try to find some key aspects that are innovative and specific to your solution. Showcase your general plan on how to solve the category issue. Last, give a call to action. Talk to the jury directly and ask them to join you in solving the problem. Make it apparent that you are motivated and confident to solve the problem - but you need their help.

Don’t forget to have fun

I’m a firm believe in the “work smart, not hard” paradigm. Especially in my free time… You are here to chill with some nice people, maybe learn something new and just in general, to have fun. I know that there are a lot of teams that do all nighters to finish their projects, but honestly, if you reduce your concept to the core issues and just stick to a proof of concept, you can likely get some full nights of sleep. Besides, think about when you are the most productive? Is it when you are fresh and relaxed or sleep deprived as hell and stressed?

It’s over. What now?

Sweet, it’s done. Maybe you won a little prize, but hopefully you at least had a ton of fun.

HIVE - Insulin as a service (IaaS)

Now don’t abandon your project! Stay in touch with the organizers, tell your family and friends about your project. Often these projects are good opportunities to turn a cute little concept into a small startup with a little bit of support. Don’t ignore these opportunities and keep a savvy eye on the market!