Hacking a hackathon

Tell people that you’re taking part in a work hackathon and you’ll get all sorts of responses.

• “Amazing! Love a hackathon.”
• “Lol, I didn’t know anyone still did hackathons. Super old school.”
• “I bet you’re building some really cool stuff.”
• “Corporates run hackathons because they think it will make them look cooler.”

I know, because these are just a handful of the responses that I received when I told people that I was taking part in a three day OVO Energy hackathon (and they were sending me to Bristol to do so — don’t mind if I do!).

I have to say, it was with a mix of intrigue, uncertainty and apprehension that I turned up on day one. Not only was I just two weeks into my role as Product Manager at OVO, but I still feel like a fairly green Product Manager (after around 18 months in the role in total). I was very aware that, compared to a number of other roles, a Product Manager is expected to guide, lead and keep the team on track. Not to mention, they didn’t have a Product Manager taking part in the hackathon in Bristol, which is why they shipped me in last minute!

I definitely felt a bit of pressure, justified or not, before we’d even started.

Hackathons are intense, there’s no denying that. At least, I find them so. I’ve written in a previous post about the toll that a meeting-heavy day takes on my energy levels, as an introvert (albeit an extroverted introvert). A hackathon, it turns out, is a day-long meeting, with the odd ten minute break, working as a whole team or splitting up into break-out groups to work on different elements of your proposition. Everything is done together; ideating is done through group post-it note brainstorming sessions; design and customer journey planning is done through group collaborating on process flows and wire frames on flipcharts; pitch preparation and practice is done on the fly, also together, with everyone chipping in (no going away and learning your lines). In short, there’s a lot of person exposure!

That’s fine; it’s something I’m getting used to. As a Product Manager at OVO, I’m working on building those people exposure muscles daily through days of back-to-back meetings. The hackathon has been tiring, and there are times I’ve longed for a few stolen minutes alone, but I’ve got better at pushing through (whether or not this is good for me, and creating a sustainable week, is another question).

So my second, question: how would I work as a (new) Product Manager in a team of brand new people?

The first thing to note is just how diverse our team (hackathon-persona-2!) was. The hackathon organisers had done a brilliant job of pulling in people from all over the business: designers, marketeers, user research experts, customer service experts, data analysts, business analysts, software engineers and product managers. We were a beautifully diverse bunch of people.

You could assume, therefore, that this meant there was even more pressure for each of us to own our respective business areas or functions. However, be it the format of the hackathon, or be it the brilliant attitudes of the people in the room, the lines between the roles felt blurred from the very offset.

I made a joke to the group on day two that “I’ve only been a PM for eighteen months and I made it all up on the job, it’s not that hard, so any of you could take on the PM responsibilities.” Our facilitator suggested that that was undervaluing myself and my experience. While he was probably right (Product Management is complicated and while there are no rules and no one can tell you exactly how to do it, product sense comes from living it daily, sifting through the ambiguity and fighting the fires), I felt we all worked together to cover a number of responsibilities that sit within the PM remit.

We ideated, we made sure those ideas tied closely to our goals, we considered our customer persona and their needs, we created a backlog (without using that terminology), we prioritised and we tested our prototype. You could say that I was completely redundant (not that I really was)!

There was one point where some of the anxieties I had about being the sole Product Manager, and a newish one at that, surfaced. Our team facilitator, an Agile Coach, came up to me in the break and said “right, as Product Manager, do you think it’s time for you to step in and take the lead?” DID HE SAY THE WORDS ‘TAKE’ AND ‘LEAD’?! He felt he needed someone to take the reigns and push us with a little more urgency towards making a decision on some of the conversations that had probably run their course.

Embarrassingly, short of standing up and making an executive decision (that no one had asked me make), I didn’t have any ideas. I say ‘embarrassingly’ because I felt embarrassed (whether it should have been or not). I felt a “real Product Manager” (whatever that is) would have had a well-practised plan on how to bring people in a room quickly and efficiently to a decision. Surely I should have a framework? Every PM loves a framework.

Except I didn’t. I told our facilitator that I didn’t feel especially comfortable taking the lead in a big group like this (small groups are more my forte). I didn’t want to stand up and coral people. Furthermore, I was framework-less! I know, sack me now.

To my surprise though, the next group conversation after the break, I found myself behaving quite differently. For one particular idea we were going back and forth on, I remembered a sort of framework to apply to work out if an idea should be worked on at all: is the product or service desirable, viable and feasible? I couldn’t believe it, I’d found a mini framework! It felt good.

Then, when we broke up into smaller teams to work on individual elements, I found myself as the natural leader — I guided the group and they were looking to me for direction. I still don’t have the foggiest how that happened. But I don’t know if it would have if our facilitator hadn’t had a quiet word with me. I don’t know if I was being more of a Product Manager, but I was being more of a leader, and the latter is never far removed from the former.

I’m not sure quite of the overarching point I’m trying to make in this post. Part of me just wanted to document the first proper hackathon I’ve ever taken part in (despite the fact that I used to organise them for girls and young women, to encourage them into STEM study and careers!). It’s been great; tiring, a test of my natural tendencies (not being the naughty kid in the class!), but great. I’ve met some brilliant people, made some new friends, and felt inspired and motivated by the intelligence, passion and commitment to their work and OVO’s mission to cut carbon consumption.

But, if I were to bring it back round to what I’m learning as a Product Manager, I suppose I could conclude that a) being a Product Manager is a journey; every day’s a school day; b) it’s always collaborative; you’re never solving anything on your own as a PM, and nor should you; and c) perhaps I should back myself a little and lean into the experience and knowledge I have, when often I might doubt myself.

To conclude, would I do a hackathon again? Yes, I think so. But give me a few months to recover!