Joining a Hackathon as a Designer this New Year? 5 Benefits to Know
”Hackathon” might sound scary, but fret not, it’s not about a group of hackers coming together to hack and steal others’ passwords and credit card details unethically. Hackathon is a social coding event where a group of programmers, designers, entrepreneurs, and subject matter expert in the field come together to build and design prototypes in a short 24 or 48-hours period.
So why does this matter to me as a designer?
- Build something cool
Do you want to break out of the industry you are currently in and take a look at what else is exciting out there? Hackathons can be theme-specific, such as healthcare, eCommerce, and consumer products, and they are a great opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and work on real problems in a new industry. There are mentors who will help you and provide feedback if the problems and solutions proposed are realistic. Furthermore, without any constraints in building an actual product, such as defining a timeline with realistic milestones or ensuring the product is compliant with legal and regulatory requirements, the team is free to come up with something entirely new and groundbreaking, and get their creative juices flowing!
2. Make friends, collaborate, and network
During hackathons, there is a shared goal that all participants are working towards, filled with an adrenaline rush as it is stressful to build the prototype to meet the timeline. Teams may even pull an all-nighter to reach their goal. But by collaborating with other developers and entrepreneurs, you can leverage each other’s strengths to hit the goal. Friendships and bonds are formed, and you get to meet and collaborate with talents outside the design circle. Who knows, you may even hang out and form new ventures to continue working on business ideas from the hackathon after the event has ended.
3. Work fast
Since hackathons are concluded in 24 or 48 hours, it requires the team to quickly design and build things. Therefore, as one of the main pillars to contribute to shaping the prototype, the designer has to learn how to work rapidly and take advantage of shortcuts. The design process can be accelerated by using existing design templates, reusing design systems or leveraging on design automation tools to quickly generate visuals and content to save time. Designers need to prioritize tasks that showcase the key screens that will be presented, and focus on getting them done so the team can successfully present at the end of the hackathon. High productivity throughout the hackathon is also important, thus designers need to stay focused to do deep work, take regular breaks, stay energized, and keep the team’s spirit high.
4. Get hired
It is a classic “chicken and egg” problem that junior design professionals who are making a career transition have similar projects in their portfolio after attending design bootcamps, and suffer from feedback from interviews that their projects do not have sufficient real-world experience. Joining a hackathon closes that gap, because you work with problem statements that are backed by real-world data, work through design iterations after mapping the user journey, and have a working prototype to showcase. All of these are recipes that make up a great portfolio piece. The organizers of hackathons are usually tech companies or organizations, which has a high chance of requesting to collect your resume as they are hunting for talent. After the preliminary round, if your project is selected to be presented for demo, this will have high visibility for sponsors, panel judges, and entrepreneurs who might reach out to you for either interest in hiring you to their team, or collaboration on future projects.
5. Win prizes
Hackathons are held as competitions and often as a great way for organizers to thank participants for their hard work. Winners are rewarded with prizes such as cash or other great benefit perks. There is an interesting case where some participants join hackathons as “serial hackers” in order to potentially obtain financial gain. It can be argued that even without prizes, the title of being a winner is still noteworthy. However, it is a “good-to-have” to win in a hackathon, as nothing beats the friendships made and the sense of accomplishment of building something cool in a short amount of time, helping for a good cause.
