9 reasons for producters fall in love with Hackathons
I must confess, I LOVE Hackathons, it’s a very interesting chance for us producters to be able to live a complete life cycle of a startup in a marathon time.
I’ve participated in some and I can guarantee that it helps us as producters to:
1. Been good under pressure, as time is very limited to deliver a nice solution to the evaluative panel.
2. Interpersonal relationships, as you will need to collaborate with an often strange team, with people and experiences you didn’t know.
3. Networking, you end up meeting incredible professionals who have becoming friends and partners for a long time (for us, networking is everything).
4. Leadership, because you will need (if it is agreed that you will be the leader, of course) to be able to guide the solution that the group will defined, so leadership allied to management 3.0 will be extremely necessary.
5. Conflict resolution, believe me, in a short time there will be many and it will require a lot of resilience and detachment from you.
6. Detachment, I mentioned above, but it is worth mentioning. Collaboration does not suit Ego. You have to know how to identify if you are attached to an idea or how do you deal with a person who is also attached to something discarded by the group.
7. Ability to listen to the customer, because in a very short time, you need to dive into the pain that is being presented, analyze the numbers, analyze competitions and validate if the solution you are giving actually solves this pain.
8. Ability to innovate, because you will need to either think or extract from the group what would be the best solution that would kill that pain and put you ahead of the market.
9. Achieve a tangent MVP, because the solution you are going to propose must already be validated, so the evaluative panel will demand something working from you (not everytime, but most of them do) and your planning of how to evolve this MVP to the definitive solution.
For you who are arriving now, what is a Hackathon?
Hackathons are events, created by companies to provoke innovation, select potential talents among others, that bring together professionals to participate in a competition to think, create, debate and develop a solution to a problem faced by that company. Several teams are formed and these compete by presenting their cases to an evaluative panel that will decide which champions will be.
This idea emerged in Silicon Valley in the 90s, as companies noticed that at a given moment, a solution to internal problems with people who live this reality is not possible. At a certain point, people are biased by routine and become unable to imagine the perfect solution, according to Rodrigo Terron, a founding partner at Shawee. “But the intellectual property in a hackathon always belongs to whoever comes up with the idea. If the company that organized the activity wants access to it, it will have to hire whoever developed the solution or buy the technology” (PENHA, 2018).
Tips for a champion Hacka:
Tips from champion Ian Oliveira, in the Época Negócios magazine who until the publication of the article, had already won 1st place in at least 8 participations of the 16 total that faced the Campus Party challenge, a technology event held in São Paulo and another places of the world. Even winning sponsorships to participate in other editions.
1. Have you read the terms of use? In hackathon the consequences can be very severe if you break a rule, including disqualification.
2. Prepare yourself beforehand: knowing the market of the participating Hacka company already helps a lot, and will make you more prepared to deal with possible problems that will be presented at the Hackathon and you will be able to think more about the solution.
3. Who is the customer you are going to serve? Can you understand who the company that is proposing the challenge wants to target? Do you know your consumption habits? Do you know what this client thinks, feels and interprets?
4. Synergy always: remember what I said about the soft skills you’re going to develop? Here they will be tested. What are your skills to participate in creating a group that plays together and stays focused?
5. Diversity is the key to success: work with people with multiple skills, developers, UXers, CXers, people with good public speaking, with the ability to make graphic materials
6. Ask… ask… and ask…: Every Hacka will have people available for any questions, data collection, sharing the history of the company that is asking for help so use and abuse as much as you need.
7. Humility to listen and willingness to seek feedback: Don’t think your solution is the most recommended alone, share it with whoever you can, with the group, with friends who are outside (obviously, if the Hachathon rules allows it) and even with the event owners.
8. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel: It’s no use your idea being a disruptive technology if it’s not possible to be replicated, in these events less is more, sometimes even technologies that already exist, but is not used for that niche and that already are more accessible can make your idea pop.
9. Customer First: Remember what I mentioned above about the ability to listen to the customer? There is nonsense creating an extremely robust solution that is not intuitive or pleasant for the customer that you needs to attend.
10. Pitch is the key to success: this whole discovery process is not very clear to the board, but the pitch is, so be careful with storytelling, be prepared for any doubts from the judges.
References
PENHA, Anselm. Champion of 8 hackathons, 19-year-old gives tips on how to win the dispute. Época Negócios Magazine — Careers Notebook. February 03, 2018. São Paulo. Available at <https://epocanegocios.globo.com/Carreira/noticia/2018/02/campeao-de-8-hackathons-jovem-de-19-anos-da-dicas-de-como-vencer-disputa.html > Accessed on 09/05/22 at 23:30;
BARBOSA, Marcelo Henrique. A hackathon journey: tips for marathons. NIDUS — Innovation Laboratory of the Government of Santa Catarina. January 21, 2021. Florianópolis. Available at <https://nidus.sea.sc.gov.br/uma-jornada-hackatonesca-dicas-para-maratonas/> Accessed on 09/05/22 at 23:35;
SOUSA, Amanda. Why participate in a hackathon?. Shawee. Available at <https://shawee.io/pt/blog/por-que-participar-de-um-hackathon-2-2/> Accessed on 09/05/22 at 23:40;
