More Fellows, More Solutions — Wrapping de.Hackathon 2021
a Hack.Diversity x IDEO CoLab partnership
Friday, June 4, 2021 — Hack.Diversity’s third annual de.Hackathon was the largest to-date and culminating in the usual public Showcase, though with some updates to continue scaling the program.
Winning teams receive prizes including life lessons with notable community guests and further coaching on their team’s solution project, if the teams are interested in moving forward with a real launch — or in applying to attend the NEVCA 2022 Unpitch Tech.
What is a de.Hackathon, you ask?
In traditional Hackathons, participants are tasked to ideate, prototype, and present solutions to known problems, business opportunities, or technologies, within 24–48 hours.
Launched in 2019, the Hack.Diversity de.Hackathon (read — deconstructed Hackathon) addresses the same design thinking goals, but stretches this experience out over four months to enable a realistic timeframe during which the Fellows, many of whom are attending school and working on top of their Hack.Diversity commitments, may strengthen in-demand technical skills, and gain project life cycle experience, ahead of their summer internships.
de.Hackathon 2021
The 2021 issues related to challenges at the intersection of the future of work, tech, and community development. Led by Shuya Gong of IDEO CoLab, Hack Fellows completed a series of four design thinking workshops — covering ideation, design research, prototyping, user testing, business design, and pitch skills — to propose technology-enabled solutions to the following challenges (listed in order of Showcase appearance):
- How might geographically distributed teams (including gig workers, folks in different time zones, and companies without brick and mortar offices) collaborate, connect, and stay inspired throughout a project?
- How might we empower small businesses to upmarket themselves in a neighborhood where early signs of gentrification are taking place?
- How might we open up participatory budgeting to be truly participatory within a community?
- How might we increase access to foods that contribute to preventative health?
Format Updates
Before the Showcase, the initial 15 teams were divided in to two Expo Nights where they gave short demos to each other, Hack.Alumni, Mentors, friends of Hack.Diversity, and invitees of Fellows. Popular vote for each issue brief determined a Showcase invitation, and the Hack.Diversity Tech Team determined one Wild Card invitation — which filled the line-up for a stellar Winners’ Showcase.
The Winners’ Showcase featured the top 5 team pitches from the 2021 Cohort’s innovative solutions to challenges at the intersection of the future of work, technology, and community development. Along with members from the public, the Hack.Diversity Community came out in full support, including: de.Hackathon Community Partners, Mentors, Host Companies, Hack Alumni, talent partners, Hack Board, NEVCA Board, and friends.
Goals of de.Hackathon Showcase: to provide Fellows with the opportunity to present their work to the public, and to show the communities connected to Hack.Diversity the innovative ideas and inspiring talent of the 2021 Cohort
Five Teams — Prizes and Bragging Rights On The Line
Five de.Hackathon teams presented vied for 3 opportunities to win:
- Judges’ Favorite — team that most successfully demonstrated fulfilled guidelines for: 1) product 2) originality 3) usefulness to end user 4) team effort 5) compelling pitch 6) ease of use/UX and 7) WOW factor!
- Audience Favorite — team that convinced as many attendees as possible to vote for them and their solution.
- Tech Team Favorite — awarded by de.Hackathon Tech Team based on the actual technical product itself and its ability to be made into a real, successful venture.
At stake were a few sweet prizes. Courtesy of our community partners and the Hack.Diversity Alumni Leadership Council, members of all 3 winning teams will receive team life lessons and venture feedback with Hack Board Member of choice, previous Unpitch participants Flavio Andrade (Hack.Diversity ’18) and Chris Armand (Hack.Diversity ‘20), and local VC and startup professionals Bob Mason, Mike Feinstein, and Kerry Bowie. Also, teams will have the opportunity to get personalized assistance with applying for the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA)’s 2022 Unpitch Tech, an invaluable experience in which competitively selected entrepreneurs are able to connect directly with investors for meaningful feedback, without the pressure of pitching.
Highlights Across the Board
Of course, while we could only highlight the top 5 teams in our Winners’ Showcase, we were impressed by the work of all 2021 Fellows. Check out the highlights of each issue brief below.
Same Pace as Face-to-Face
Teams who addressed this brief explored ways to solve the questions: “How might geographically distributed teams (including gig workers, folks in different time zones, and companies without brick and mortar offices) collaborate, connect, and stay inspired throughout a project?”
Highlights included:
- A collaborative bot that encourages users and teams to collaborate, connect, and stay motivated. The goal for Collabo is make interacting with your team more engaging and exciting. Some features that it offers include; having profiles, easily sharing resources with your team through the web platform, and Collabo sends users motivational quotes throughout the day to spark some inspiration.
- A water cooler app that was built to promote inclusivity, belonging, social networking, and to help remote and hybrid workforce stay connected.
DIY Glow-Up
Teams who addressed this brief created solutions to address the question: “How might we empower small businesses to upmarket themselves in a neighborhood where early signs of gentrification are taking place?”
Highlights included:
- A hub/platform for increasing sales and productivity. Its purpose is to distinguish and support small businesses by connecting these small businesses with contractors. Believing there is a demand for the contractors from these small businesses.
Food for Good
2020 saw an increase in new patterns in how people were able to access food due to the pandemic. Restaurants shut down, grocery shopping increasingly went digital, and as many schools closed, many children lost easy access to regular (and even free) meals. Team who addressed this brief looked to answer the question: “How might we increase access to foods that contribute to preventative health?”
Highlights included:
- An interactive online quiz where users can choose their dietary preferences and receive matches based on their flavor palettes, dietary restrictions, and more. Users can explore their matches and recommended recipes, and order the groceries needed right to their door.
Our Block, Our Budget
Team who addressed this brief created ideas around the question: “How might we open up participatory budgeting to be truly participatory within a community?”
Highlights included:
- A forum where users can have a community express the issues most important and impactful to them, where others can vote on those issues. Therefore, the highest ranked issues would receive the funding, emphasizing the idea of “Power to the People”.
Huge Thanks to Our Speakers, Judges, and Sponsors!
The speakers — Matthew Wallach, Stephanie Majoulian, Lucas Turner-Owens Isabel Strobing, Jorge Fanjul, Johnny Charles, Amy Wu, Josh Trautwein and Jeff Bussgang — for bringing expertise, perspective and inspiration to the 2021 de.Hackathon showcase.
The judges — Mike Feinstein, Lily Lyman, Jason Allen, and Oliver Sanchez.
The community partners and prize donors — Amazon Web Services (AWS), IDEO CoLab, SIM Boston, Toyota Research Institute, Dough, Rocketbook, and About Fresh.
Want more info? Check out our de.Hackathon 2021 Showcase event program here.
