Question answered on Quora: http://qr.ae/ROPhDJ
With a few wins under my belt, a lot of people have asked me for tips and tricks and possible “hackathon secrets.” So here it is. I’ll try to keep it short and simple.
To give you a little background about me — I am in no way the best programmer and prior to my journey in hackathons, I actually never really made anything worth mentioning except a horse racing game on Turing (yeah, the oldest language in the book) but even then, that was in grade 11 and my buddy that sat beside me did basically 90% of the work. So you can imagine my confidence level when I made my way to my first hackathon (2 years ago)…
Alright, I am a firm believer that one either LOVES hackathons or absolutely HATES it. I’m assuming you (the homie asking the question) loves it and wants to figure out how to win.
How to win Hackathons: 3 Easy Steps
…Sounds like those Buzzfeed articles eh aha
STEP 1: Know what YOU are GOOD at.
So I knew I wasn’t the best coder/dev around — that was just a fact. I simply did not enjoy deving as much to really dive into it — especially in a hackathon (it’s suppose to be fun). A “hack” basically has 2 parts; frontend and backend. I knew backend was too abstract for my liking and my expertise so I opt out of it and focused on frontend.
I decided that I was pretty good at design and frontend dev so I made that my expertise. A helpful tip would be to stick to ONE framework/language so you will run into less problems during the hack. I know people say hackathons is where you learn — that’s true but you won’t win (we are talking about winning here). I love talking so I also took the role as the “PM dude” and pitched majority of the time to the judges. So now that I have a strong sense of my role on a team, let’s move on to step 2.
STEP 2: Pick your teammates WISELY.
This step is CRUCIAL. Make sure you pick your teammates ahead of time but if you don’t have that luxury, don’t worry — I’ve seen many teams win that formed during the hackathon. Try to test out the knowledge and personality of your potential teammates before settling down to assure the best possible combination.
Remember step 1 — know what you are good at? Well, here is where that helps step 2. When picking your teammates, pick people who don’t have the same skills as you and pick those whom possess skills you DON’T have. I always try to have 2 backend guys to make sure that whatever we are doing, we can promise a database, proper server compatibility, and just an overall strong dev team. The last guy should be someone who is “decent” at everything — fast learner. He can bounce around to me (frontend) when needed and/or slide to the rescue when the backend needs a break.
I always aim to be the “weakest” dev guy on the team because then, I can not only learn from them but overall just have a high caliber team. This is not to say that you just have to find the smartest people — that’s nonsense. I said weakest dev guy on the team but the best at everything else (hackathons derive heavily on code but winning depends on a lot of other things too). This means I have to hold my own when it comes to front end dev, design, and overall creativity.
Basically, do what you are good at and specialize in it. Everything else, “outsource” it to your teammates. Find teammates that are able to take that responsibility and master it.
Personality match is key too. If you don’t like the person or find they are a bit too arrogant, homie don’t commit. It’s not worth it. I was lucky enough to have met amazing friends that have made amazing teammates. And to those people, thanks from the bottom of my heart. And always, always, always remember — a great team derives from great people.
Step 3: Make something YOU will use.
Even though, if you’re a good pitcher — you can sell anything, but having a good idea can make that process a lot easier. Make something you can use.
I have a rule for my hackathon ideas now. I have to hack something that I can leave on my phone (I usually hack android apps) so in other words, something I will use on the regular basis. This might not mean much to a lot of you but since I have only 16GB on my phone, storage is running short. It’s always cool to make something that can potentially change the world.
Keep in mind that this is only coming from my perspective and have worked in my favour but is not guaranteed to work for everyone. The steps are pretty broad on purpose — you can define them anyway you want. Hackathons are really relative.
Hope it helps!
Danny
PS. Don’t forget to send me a portion of your hackathon winnings.
