Clarity AI 2019 Hackathon
While flexible work environments are great, remote-work policies can mean you don’t spend much quality time with your colleagues. At Clarity AI, that means we aim to make the most of any time that we all spend together.
With our company Christmas party scheduled for Dec 13th, we decided to organize an internal hackathon. Starting last Thursday the 12th, 6 teams had 24 hours (about 10 hours of real work), to carry out a project proposed and voted-on by someone in the company.
Here are some of our takeaways:
- It was a magnificent experience that helped us get to know each other better, and gave us all the opportunity to work with people with whom we do not interact with regularly.
- It was an incredible opportunity to raise new problems and try innovative solutions.
- It was a great occasion to work shoulder to shoulder with our colleagues, especially those who usually work remotely.
- We had the chance to try new technologies, generally different from the ones we are used to: Backenders worked on frontend and mobile applications, Javascript and Java developers learning Go, developers designing….we change our roles and got out of our comfort zone.
Overall it was a tremendously positive journey that does not further reinforce the belief that anything we set out to do is possible if we work together.
Hackathon Projects
This is the list of projects that won the voting
- Clarity Tutorial Gamification
- Mobile Application to Inform Consumers About Product Impact
- Make some nice designs of t-shirts
- Generate insights based on the data we have
- Score meaning
- Performance Competition
Hackaton Winners
While everyone did a great job, I want to draw particular attention to the winners of Clarity AI’s Winter-2019 Hackathon.
The Most Innovative Project!
The award for the most innovative project goes to… Clarity Tutorial Gamification
The Most Clarity Project!
The award for the project that is most reflective of Clarity AI’s mission and values was: the Mobile Application to Inform Consumers About Product Impact
The Most Diverse Team!
And finally, the award for the most diverse team was awarded to… the team that made some nice designs of t-shirts! In fact, the team was soooo diverse and impressive that we didn’t get a photo of them… (oops!)
How did we dit it?
The idea came from the Technology team and was embraced and supported by the whole company from the very first moment it was raised, that was noticeable. We felt that holding the Hackathon in the 24 hours leading up to our Christmas dinner was a great opportunity to break from the usual routine, and to have a special day in which we could give free rein to our creativity.
Deadlines
- 3 weeks prior to the Hackathon, we sent out a request for project proposals, receiving 30 proposals in all! These included all kinds of projects, including technological solutions, mobile applications, games, data analysis, and T-shirt design.
- A week before the Hackathon, the proposals were put to a vote and we select the 6 most-voted-for. After that, we opened registration for the 6 projects.
- Finally, the day before the Hackathon, we sent the rules and agenda to everyone. For anyone interested in running their own hackathon, here are the rules we put in place:
Clarity Hackathon 2019 Rules
========================Who can participate?
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -Only people related to clarity can participate, everybody is welcome so you can still join us, it doesn’t matter if you are present or not. Unfortunately your neighbour’s nanny is not related to Clarity, I’m sure she’s lovely and cooks delicious meals but she is not part of the crew.
When will we do it?
— — — — — — — — — — — — — —The time has come when a great evil will raise and ( *cof, *cof) … Sorry wrong speech. You can see the schedule here:
2019–12–12 17:00–2019–12–12 17:30 => Kick off speech.
2019–12–12 17:30–2019–12–13 16:45 => Time to hack your project
2019–12–13 16:45–2019–12–13 17:15 => Present your project
2019–12–13 17:15–2019–12–13 17:30 => Get your prizes -you can bribe organisers as much as you want ;)-Gotcha, but do I need to work 24h wit no sleep or food?
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -No, we aren’t asking for a ramson to your family or anything similar (yet). You can either use WeWork Offices or work remotely, FYI: we are a remote friendly company, WeWork building will be available until 2019–12–12 23:00. You are free to work the hours that you prefer but share your plans with your team 😉.
We will have food (The food of gods: Pizzas, yay!!) on 2019–12–13, please in case you have allergies or similar talk to me or Álvaro Tanarro.
Present your project!
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —The part that everybody likes, the public speech.
Dramatic_Chipmunk.png
You need to nominate a team representative responsible to publicly present the project on 13th @ 16:45 and she will have 5 min to convince everybody that your project is the best one in the world.
IMPORTANT: you can present only once, so if you are 5 in the team please be sure that you present only 1 project and not 5 different ones. Teamwork guys!
What about the prizes?
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -Good news! we will still have some prizes by the end of the hackathon to the most diverse, innovative or collaborative teams among others so do your best ;)
Disclaimer: Don’t expect big bags of gold!!
What tools can I use?
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -You can use whatever tool you want (and you are able to use), in case you need data ask the data-engineeering team what to use and (for a modest price $$$$) they will guide you.
For everything else…
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —Mastercard! or you can talk to us (anyone @ tech).
Final Thoughts
This was a great event. It was productive, enjoyable, and really helped us get to know each other. If there’s one takeaway, it’s that we need to do it again!
