Hackathons

Hackathons have been the bastion of engineers for so long! Considered an event that’s right up their alley; engineers and developers have practically staked their claim to it.

Having witnessed countless successful hackathons for almost 3 years since I work for HackerEarth which offers hackathon software for organizations, I had a strong feeling that the format would work wonders for marketers as well. The reason was the structure of the format which allowed participants to solve pressing issues and churn out new ideas to achieve the objectives… both non-negotiable for any marketing function to succeed.

In my mind I had clear objectives to create impact for the business, but in the same breath I was slightly unsure because I had never tried the format at first hand.

So here I am, having concluded a hackathon with a team of 25 marketers at HackerEarth, ready to share an honest case with all growth hackers and marketers to determine if hackathons are worthy a tool to explore and what problems they can really solve with it. I will also discuss my learnings, mistakes, dos & don’ts, and, above all, insights on how and when hackathons can become valuable ammunition for marketers.

Simply put, a “hack” & a “thon” is what makes a hackathon. While we understand the term hack; a “thon” means an event or a contest with an objective of reaching a goal within an unspecified duration.

But honestly, what pulled me to the idea of a hackathon is this deep-rooted belief that extraordinary things can be delivered in a short duration. It was not difficult to realize that the genesis of this belief came from two integral constituents of a hackathon — “autonomy” and “learning.” To understand the context better, autonomy makes us feel that we are the “masters” of our own ship, and in turn instills a sense of “ownership and responsibility” in us, helping to navigate our ship with due care to its destination. Autonomy is also about the little rebel in us, who likes to experiment unbridled without being questioned. And this in turn breeds “creativity and purpose.”

Above all, the short duration of the hackathon breeds urgency, a single-minded focus, and involvement which leads to “try fast and fail” approach and brings out the true hustler within us. All this eventually leads to “intense learning” in a short time span, which is rewarding and immensely satisfying for participants.

Another point about the word “thon” may need clarity. While hackathon is run for a specific duration, say 24 to 48 hours, the definition of the term has “unspecified duration” bound to it. This is because the objective of a hackathon is to build something within a short duration. But more often that not, the hacks don’t get fully completed during the event and this incomplete hack (or call it WIP prototype) is attended to after the hackathon is over. So, in that sense, the duration is unspecified because the hacks get fully completed after the Hackathon gets over.

The hackathon we conducted was a day-long event with 25 participants split into teams, all trying to create something unique to solve some of our unconquered marketing challenges.

So, what was the outcome of the hackathon?

• 42 new ideas were generated during the hackathon out of which top 10 ideas were picked for implementation.
• Out of 10 hacks, 2 got deployed within one week, 3 more got deployed within 3 weeks.

• Flip side* – Not everything built on the hackathon day sees the light of day. Out of 10 hacks, 2 were not good enough to deploy, 1 hack was thematic and we were late to launch, and 2 more hacks required more bandwidth than we expected. So, we had to leave it incomplete to be picked up in future.

• We experimented with 15 new tools for different projects. The amount of learning and upskilling the team had in a single day was unparalleled.

• The teams attempted a few complex projects which had been in the backburner for over 6 months.

• Team collaboration was at its best. Team members from different sub-teams came together to solve problems together.
• “A good strategy is to know what not to do.” – Peter Drucker. The fact that two projects picked up in the hackathon gave us a sense of huge manpower requirement to get it done, led us to dropping them for now.

In nutshell, we saw 3 tangible outcomes within 2 months of the hackathon.

• Increase in leads by 15%
• 40% improvement in lead to conversion ratio with an improved customer on-boarding process
• User persona survey leading to improved engagement with users

How did the participants feel about the hackathon:

Mistakes I made

• Judging criteria – The hackathon submissions should be judged on the quantum of work done during the Hackathon day. Essentially, this would mean that teams would not only have to share their plans/presentations but take the next step of developing their plan during the Hackathon day. This was a miss.
• The idea phase should have had cross-functional team participation. The realization came later when few sales and ops team members showed interest in sharing their ideas for the hackathon.

Can hackathons become a game-changer for marketing?

There were many wins for my team. Here are a few positives and grey areas.

Big positives

• Impact areas- Potential game-changing hacks can emerge from a hackathon.

• Identifying talent – Some of the best ideas in the hackathon came from unexpected corners. The hackathon can become an outlet for “otherwise not-so-visible” team members to express their creativity and competence.

• Tangible – You can measure the outcome of the hackathon.

• Employee retention – It is potentially one of the best employee retention formats and possibly the easiest to conduct.

• Time to launch – It does not take much to organize a hackathon. And if you are running it on a software, it might only take 2-3 hours to go live.
• Collaboration and learning – The speed, energy and enthusiasm is contagious. Inter-team collaboration and learning improved drastically.

There are a few unanswered questions

• Can the team always come up with such interesting and novel ideas?
• How frequently should we run a hackathon for maximum impact?

Hackathon rules and the process

Hackathons have a few rules or protocols, and it is important to define them in advance to ensure smooth sailing. These rules are typically standard and it covers theme, team formation, phase, duration, judging

Listing down the rules I followed:

• A theme defines an outline for participants to pick their topics for building their hacks. Here are the 4 themes we chose for the Hackathon :
  • Optimize and improve lead-to-conversion ratio or current processes. Show the tangible impact it can offer
  • Improve engagement with users and customers
  • Build the brand Hackerearth
  • Open theme – Work on ideas which have widespread impact on business

• Team formation – A minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 members had to work together to build the hack

• 2-phase hackathon – An “idea phase” and a “submission phase”. Here is how we proceeded: An idea phase is to gather all the ideas around the above themes. These ideas are submitted by individual members, and they get evaluated at the end of idea phase, and only a few good ideas move to next round, which is the submission phase. A submission phase is where the hacks get built. The idea phase is to ensure only the best ideas move to the next round. During the idea phase( 2 days), participants submit their ideas against the themes above. The idea phase can end just before the hackathon starts. During this time, the members share their ideas. After the idea phase is over, the best ideas are shortlisted and the hacks are built only on the ideas shortlisted after the idea phase. Individuals can decide which team to join after checking the shortlisted ideas. We managed this process using our software which allows members to invite others and create teams.

• Team building – Before the hackathon starts, every team member should be part of a shortlisted idea.

• Duration – The hackathon was a 12-hour day-long campaign, starting at 8 a.m. and concluding at 8 p.m. Breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner was on the house!
• Judging – The submission of the hackathon was done by 8 p.m. After 8 p.m. judging started, which concluded by 10 p.m., and it was followed by the announcement of the winners. Each team got precisely 5 minutes to present their hacks to the judges .

Best practices to organize a hackathon

• Announce the hackathon at least a week in advance.

• Build excitement around it (send mails to the team, discuss about it formally and informally).
• Write an introduction with a clear brief (screenshot of the software we used to manage the hackathon).

• The team should feel relaxed and positive about the whole campaign; you can ensure this by keeping the communication slightly casual and creative.

• Offer free food and snacks during the hackathon.

• Align your judges at least 1 week in advance.

• Define your judging rules. A good judging rule should not only measure tangibles like impact on business but also encourage creativity.

• Be prepared for a passive response from the team initially; it might take a day or two for the team to realize why they should be part of a hackathon; encourage people to share their ideas; talk to them; persuade them to fill their ideas; and once the ideas start to trickle in, the momentum builds on itself.

• Allow individuals to choose their team members and discuss their hacks.
• Keep your marketing budget handy for the hackathon; some of the hacks may require experiments with paid campaigns, outreach, and validation of hypotheses.

Do you need software for hackathons?

I would say; you need one provided:

• Your marketing team strength is more than 20. For less than 20 people, the campaign can be managed without software. The only issue could be maintaining a repository of all the ideas and submissions for future tracking and monitoring.

• Your team members work from multiple offices and geos. A team size of more than 20 and also working remotely, or from different locations, call for a hackathon software.

• You want to conduct recurring hackathons, at least once in six months.
• The need is to have cross-functional team participation and collaboration.

With an internal team size of 25, the software helped me immensely in managing the entire process smoothly. It made life easy for the participants as well. They could find everything about the hackathon (rules, judging criteria, timings, team collaboration, prizes.) on the software itself, thereby reducing manual interventions. I recommend you go with specialized software when you are starting off or when you meet any of the criteria above.

* I have used the words hack, prototype, projects as synonyms in the article.

From Pope Francis to the President’s office, hackathons seem to be the flavor of the day. Over 80% of Fortune 100 and 60% of Fortune 500 companies have hosted or sponsored a hackathon. With rising popularity come criticisms and misconceptions. Having closely witnessed 300+ hackathons and multiple formats (public, corporate-sponsored, University, Internal and Non-profit hackathons) over a period of two years, one thing is absolutely clear.

Hackathon is a very powerful tool for innovation, IF DONE RIGHT.

However, there are some misbeliefs and unrealistic expectations.

Corporates exploit developers

The most common criticism is that the corporates outsource their work—the participant being unpaid labor and hackathons being exploitative in nature.

Hackathons are purely driven by passionate developers/ participants. The spirit in which people participate in hackathons is no different from voluntary contributions to open source. It originates from the desire to learn, experiment, solve complex problems, contribute, and build cool stuff.

For such developers, hackathons provide the best platform to showcase their skills, connect with their peers, seek mentorship from the industry experts and get recognized.

Case in point: The recent Tesla hackathon, which aims to solve the two major problematic bottlenecks in the robots. Tesla’s aim here is not to outsource work to unpaid labor. It is to crowdsource innovative solutions for its pressing problems.

What about the developers? Are they being exploited?

If you have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge technology for one of the world’s leading firms transforming the face of the automobile industry and take a shot at solving its most pressing issue in 48 hours, it’s more upside than downside for you. A participant has a lot to gain for the time and effort he or she invests.

Apart from the monetary rewards which only goes to a small percentage of the participants, the real benefit for these developers is often intangible. As one of the participants of the recent International Women’s Hackathon 2018 puts it:

We tried to develop an app that helps answer Google forms through voice ‘Hear me Out’. Although we were not able to build a webapp which was what we had initially thought, just a prototype of a desktop app but the process of sitting together with coming up with an idea and coding was fun. In between the fun we learnt through errors and via helping each other and taking help of seniors and peers. Coding together with chips, maggi, coffee and friends in my room from evening to night and night to morning before the submission was enlightening and enjoyable.

– Disha Agarwal, Participant, Internation Women’s Hackathon

Stack Overflow surveyed 25,000+ developers worldwide to find out why they participated in hackathons.

Source: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018/

Who owns the hackathon IPs?

In over 95% of the hackathons, the IPs belong to the participants. Although a majority of the companies still do not claim IP rights for the products created at a hackathon, there are still a few companies that do.

**But we advise participants to carefully read the T&C before signing up. Companies should ensure they communicate anything that is likely to be different from the usual T&C for such events.

Here is the T&C of a recent hackathon hosted by Intel.

Participants owning the ideas/IPs created at the hackathons and companies opting to buy the best ones is, however, a practice that is mutually beneficial and welcomed.

Here is another variation of the T&C for a hackathon hosted by Procter & Gamble.

Employees are obligated to participate in internal hackathons

Companies try to squeeze out innovation out of employees by conducting hackathons and employees are often obligated to participate.

Companies often struggle to come up with ways to engage with their employees in a more meaningful way. Ask any HR Manager or People Director; it is impossible to come up with an activity that pleases every employee.

A hackathon is one particular engagement that hits the sweet spot and many use internal hackathons as a tool for driving employee engagement and fostering a culture of innovation.

Hackathon is one of the very few activities that combine the four essential components of employee engagement. An employee engagement initiative should allow the employees to tap into their passion, enable them to make meaningful contributions to the company, offer recognition, and be engaging.

There could be instances where employees participate out of peer pressure and obligation. But this is not a hackathon-specific issue. Peer pressure at the workplace is common across companies. It is important that companies ensure hackathon participation is voluntary. Constraints might help innovation but not peer pressure and feeling obliged.

Innovations rarely come out of hackathons

The innovations hardly last beyond the hackathon. GroupMe and Skype are rare occurrences and exemptions.

The aim of the hackathon is not to create a blockbuster product, conjure groundbreaking innovations, or build a multi-million company in 48 hours. If that is the expectation, then it is clearly wrong.

The objective of a hackathon is to provide an avenue for experimenting ideas, exploring opportunities, and attempting to solve problems. If a company can spot interesting concepts, promising ideas, and creative solutions, it will further go through an extensive and rigorous process of evaluation, testing, and development before it can be rolled out.

A hackathon is a tool to seed the culture of innovation and meritocracy. It abides by the principle that good ideas can come from anywhere. It is just the starting process of the long and lengthy process of innovation filled with uncertainty. This infographic will give you an idea about the role of hackathons in the process of innovation.

Not an effective recruiting tool

Unlike hiring challenges, a hackathon is not a recruitment tool and should not be used as one. Yes, sometimes companies do spot extraordinary talent and end up absorbing them. But it is just a byproduct and not a regular occurrence.

Neither feasible nor inventive

Hackathon projects are neither feasible nor inventive.

This is a common problem faced by hackathon hosts. The quality of the output does not always meet the expectation. However, over time, we found out that a few common factors affect the success of the hackathons.

1. Defining problem/goal
2. Providing the right contextual knowledge
3. Marketing to the right audience
4. Guidance and mentorship
5. Setting the expectations right

Conclusion

There is no perfect tool for innovation. Every process, activity, and framework has its own merits and demerits. It is important to address the drawbacks. Without participants, a hackathon is futile. Hence, it is important to ensure the participants enjoy and gain value out of hackathons.

Overall, a hackathon is a very powerful tool for innovation, IF DONE RIGHT.

Hackathon Beginner: A term used in this blog to define someone who is new to the world of hackathons and is thinking of participating in one.

Are you a hackathon beginner? Does that make you feel worried or anxious? To be frank I was very nervous thinking that amidst all these experienced hackers, a beginner like me would not stand a chance.

I will talk about what worked for me and what didn’t at both online and offline hackathons.

However, I am not going to tell you, if as a beginner, hackathons are for you, but I will share my story. You can decide later if you still want to attend a hackathon.

On-site hackathons are usually hosted over the weekends and they last over 24–48 hours. This is a place where you meet a lot of like-minded people, learn and discuss new things and create a project per the themes or problem statements provided during the hackathon. Honestly, being an introvert and not being some sort of a genius or coding pro, I was not too excited by it.

I’ve participated in tons of hackathons now, and I believe everyone should attend at least one hackathon in their lifetime! Here’s why it’s awesome to go to these events, and why you shouldn’t be scared of taking part as a hackathon beginner.

What happens when you arrive at a hackathon

When you arrive at a hackathon, you will be greeted at the registration desk by a cheerful and friendly organizing team. The team can be university students or company professionals who are as passionate about learning and sharing amazing experiences like you are. The welcoming crowd at the registration desk may vary according to the size of the hackathon. There is a big chance that your welcome kit would include cool t-shirts, stickers, and other swags which are provided by the hackathon team and the sponsors.

You will then have to head to the venue where they will begin with the inaugural talks and the organising team will explain the rules of the hackathon. Then, you will have the sponsors talking about their products and API; they will tell you if the company is going to provide any special prize for teams that build apps using their products or APIs. Sometimes, somebody famous might come to talk to you!

During this time, you would probably want to put aside your gear and start talking to a few people. When I started talking to people at my first hackathon, I realised that for a lot of people it was their first hackathon as well. So, you do not want to miss an opportunity to talk to people and find out a bit more about them. You can discuss what they are planning to build over the next couple of days and what kind of technology stack they are going to use.

The hacking begins with the countdown timer. You will either have your own team or you can form a team on the spot (Which is why talking to people is important). You will find people working on similar ideas and technology stacks. You can build whatever you want as long as it is aligned to the hackathon problem statement. Remember that the best part of hackathons isn’t winning prizes. It’s about playing with awesome tech and meeting people who believe in crazy ideas like you do.

You will be able to work on your idea for the next 24–48 hrs. I have noticed some crazy people who work non-stop for almost the entire duration. You can always choose to take a break and eat some of the free food they have at the venue or take a power nap. My first hackathon venue had provisions for fun activities like foosball and table tennis. You can have a nice break from working and check on other teams and what they have built. People take turns at night to get some sleep.

Don’t rush to finish your hackathon project. Plan your project per the duration of the hackathon. Proper product planning and listing features that you and your team are going to work on are critical to your doing well in the hackathon and winning. If you rush it, you might just end up with a buggy product which will leave you frustrated with a lot of last-minute debugging.

Hacking is over and now it’s time for you to demo whatever you have crafted. At smaller hackathons where there is less participation, all teams demo their projects in front of everybody else. It really does not matter if you could not build a polished product or if you think whatever you build was stupid. It’s all about sharing how you built what you have built so far, what unique insights, ideas or approach you had towards solving the problem, and what you learned overall during the time you spent at the hackathon.

If you are at a bigger hackathon, then as it would take too much time for the demo, the judges usually split and walk around to cover more ground. Remember the science fairs we used to have in schools? That is exactly what happens. Then, the best teams are shortlisted by the judges to demo in front of everyone. It’s amazing to know how people took so many different approaches to solve the same problems.

This brings us to the closing ceremony where winners are announced and prizes are distributed. You will be thanked for coming and invited to come again if there is a next time.

Common myths most hackathon beginners harbour

You have to be a super coder

This used to be my biggest nightmare about hackathons. It is also the most common hackathon beginner myth. I used to believe I would be crushed like a cockroach by all these amazing super-coders. But after attending the first hackathon itself I realised, the super-coders don’t necessarily win hackathons. The teams with decent programmers and the best-laid plans always have better chances. It’s not just about programming in a hackathon, but it’s also about your idea and approach to solving the problem, the product planning, the pitch deck/presentation, and so much more. Every team has an equal chance of winning.

It’s expensive

Ninety-nine percent of the hackathons are free of cost. The only expense you might have are the travel expenses to go to the hackathon venue. Focus on the “might” because sometimes the organising team reimburses the travel expense for you. And if you are taking part in an online hackathon, you can work on your idea from the beach if you like.

I am such a fan of online hackathons now because of the flexibility and freedom this format offers.

It’s all about winning

That’s what I used to think in the start. As time passed and I attended more and more hackathons, I started caring more about meeting people with similar ideas, having fun, discussing creative ways to solve the problem, and, most importantly, learning and growing personally. Don’t believe me? Try it out yourself. Sometimes you do win and get amazing prizes in the process and sometimes you don’t. But the experience you gain is priceless. You don’t have to take my word for it.

Here is the StackOverflow developer survey 2018

Discovering the world of Online Hackathons

A whole new dimension of possibilities opened up after I discovered the world of online hackathons. Online hackathons give you certain degree of flexibility in terms of duration and people you can collaborate with; the very fact that I didn’t have to miss my university lectures was great. I started participating in more hackathons than ever before. I could code from my bed late at night, at university, near the pool, on the terrace, and just about anywhere I could carry my laptop with access to the internet. Initially, I had my fair share of initial doubts about connecting with people and discussing like we used to do in on-site hackathons and have fun. But who am I kidding in this generation of internet and connectivity? This never became an issue, and I could talk with fellow hackathon participants over dedicated hackathon slack channels and other similar mediums.

Over the course of time, the hackathon experience became so much better because the geographies and borders meant nothing. I could sit in San Francisco collaborate with hackers from Chicago and Montreal and participate in a food waste hackathon hosted by a New York based organisation.

It meant I get to work with people from all over the world and learn about them and their ways, and this has made me learn and grow multiple folds as an individual.

Now, what are your thoughts on hackathons? Would you like to give it a shot?

Yes, I understand that you might still have your reservations as a hackathon beginner, so here is beginner-level hackathon you can get started with. Once you are confident enough, you can go ahead and take part in other hackathons listed here.

All the best.

#DidYouKnow: 92% of recruiters use social media for hiring, and there are more than 100 portals serving as job boards.

#DidYouKnow: Over 87% of non-management and salaried employees were recruited through social media.

#DidYouKnow: Over 82% of management employees came from social media.

The above survey by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) gives some deep insights into the rising importance of social media in recruitment.

What is Social HR?

Social media has seen an unparalleled rise in the last few years and has redefined the way we use the internet.

It won’t be wrong if we say it has created a parallel ecosystem for individuals and businesses alike.

Now organizations, and even the government can no longer survive on bi-monthly newspaper advertisements or get away with mere yearly employee brochures.

They need to be active on social media to cater to employees, customers, and, sometimes, even business partners.

The challenge lies in not just finding the right talent through social media but also in nurturing it while ensuring enough privacy.

Often while dealing with talent challenges, HR is unable to draw the line between maintaining the traditions of the organization while doing away with the legacy model.

Especially, when it comes to tools like social media and individual freedom of speech for employees on online platforms.

Most of the concerns about being around the privacy or freedom of the candidates.

In an age where one negative feedback on an online portal can impact your prospects of getting the best candidates, it’s extremely important for Human Resource personnel to be conscious of the choices they make.

Here’s how you can use social media for your talent management purposes and how you can improve on Social HR.

How should human resource uses social media?

Source: Social talent

The best way to screen the finest talent

Check out this detailed video on social media for the Human resource by Kristy Bryant.

While social media is credited to be one of the reliable sources for garnering information about prospective employees, it’s also accused of revealing information like religion, caste, color, political affiliation, gender, marital status, etc.

These are the usual parameters of discrimination that work against diversity initiatives. Hence, it’s important for HR personnel to devise methods to screen talent smartly.

As Allyson Willoughby, former General Counsel and SVP of People (HR) Glassdoor, say on the use of social media in the screening process,

“Don’t do anything different with social media than you would do with a face-to-face interview.”

According to experts, the best way to deploy social media accounts in hiring processes is to involve a third party who does the screening for you.

People who do the screening need to be educated about the exact requirements for the designation they are shortlisting the candidates for.

This serves as a firewall between the employer and the candidate and ensures an unbiased approach.

When they (HR) do the background check of the candidate through social media as part of the screening process, it’s important for them to keep a check on the legal implications of the process.

Use of pre-assessment tools, like Hackerearth Recruit, can also be a great idea for HR managers looking for zero human interference in their recruitment processes.

Like the US, India also has laws against discrimination against minoritiesin recruitment, so it’s important for the organization to adhere to the terms and conditions of these policies.

How should Social Human Resource use online properties wisely

One of the key challenges that have surfaced with the deployment of social media channels for recruitment purposes is that they don’t represent the global candidate pool.

According to a recent survey, LinkedIn and Facebook have shown a smaller user base of minority communities in comparison to the general population.

Hence, diversity initiatives take a hit in situations like these.

Thus, the HR person needs to resort to traditional recruitment routes of job boards, advertisements in dailies, and mention it clearly on their website that they believe in equal opportunity.

You can even encourage your current employees to recommend their friends from minority communities and attach a greater referral bonus to such initiatives to boost your diversity efforts.

How can Social HR ensure positive image on social media

Recently, a few incidences surfaced where organizations faced the brunt of negative feedback from estranged employees.

Situations like these put the HR personnel in a tight spot as they don’t have much control over employees who have left the job and even if they do have, through some legal clauses, it’s not financially feasible for them to pursue the case against a single or a bunch of employees.

Moreover, it dampens the morale of current employees.

The bigger issue with sites such as Glassdoor or other job portals is that they don’t really delete the comments sent by the reviewers.

The question is, how does HR counter the negativity against the brand?

The wiser thing to do here would be to involve your social media managers or Online Reputation Management experts at the right time as larger organizations receive dozens of such negative comments on a monthly basis and that too on multiple portals.

Usually, digital marketing teams are equipped with tools that help you track down multiple websites in the shortest time.