Taking an Idea into the Wild
CoCreate Hackathon
I recently watched a video that inspired me to find a way to save our planet from the polluted state that it’s in right now. We put greed and our own personal gains over Earth and the future of the human race. We do this because in our lifetime we won’t see, or don’t want to see, the effects our actions have on this planet.
How can I use design to make an incredible improvement to our planet and our lives?
I had been contemplating an idea and had done some research to see what was possible. I then learned that Common Creatives was hosting a Hackathon at DevMountain, the bootcamp where I learned UX Design. This was my opportunity to take the initial research I had done and turn it into a working prototype. This was exciting yet slightly terrifying. Taking your idea, convincing people to help you build it, and then presenting it to a board of judges all within 16 hours is a feat to say the least. The hackathon started at 7PM and ended at 11AM and was fueled by endless coffee, JDawgs, and an assortment of snacks all provided by CoCreate in hourly giveaways.
Now, let me give you a sneak peek into the idea that helped me take home first place and, best of all, a few amazing introductions and interested parties. I’m not going to give away too much information just yet, but follow me on LinkedIn and I’ll release more updates as this product progresses.
The Idea
When you think of the main causes of pollution, where does your mind go?
Chances are your first thought is the burning of fossil fuels, while that may not be far off from true, one of the largest contributors of methane gas in our atmosphere is food waste. In America we waste about 40% of the food we manufacture. Let me repeat that… WE WASTE ABOUT 40% OF THE FOOD WE MANUFACTURE. And for some reason we have people starving in every country in the world. Not to mention the amount of resources that we consume to create that food just compounds the problem. As the human race, we need to change for the good of everyone.
My idea is to create a platform that helps businesses effortlessly donate excess food and to get that food into hungry mouths. This idea would kill 2 birds with 1 stone: cut down on greenhouse gases and feed the hungry. This is going to be a huge task but it’s doable and if more people start to realize the need for ideas like this, we can really make a difference.
The Execution
The first hour of the event was for team building. I met a developer, Eli Smith, who seemed to know what he was doing. I explained my vision and he knew exactly what to do. We started bouncing ideas around and I knew it was going to be a productive night. Since I had already done some research into the problem I had an idea the direction I wanted to take the project. At 8PM, we started whiteboarding and brainstorming possible features and what each feature we would look like. Due to the nature of a hackathon, I made a lot of assumptions based on my research and what I thought would be useful to my customers.
Again this was just overnight, we had 16 hours to make something functional. So we took this short timeframe to create one aspect of the platform and that was from the donors perspective. Once we had finished deciding on our features, Eli started creating the API’s that we needed while I broke down the features to determine what components we would need to create.
It was probably around 10PM when I finally started sketching our solution. After sketching a few ideas I checked in with Eli to make sure my ideas would be doable in our timeframe. After reflecting on my experience, I think this was one of the main factors that allowed us to build a functional, well designed product in just 16 hours.
Next, I started creating low fidelity wireframes so Eli could start developing the layout. This is when I realized how little time we had. It seemed like every hour only lasted 15–20 minutes. More Coffee…
Let’s jump forward now because I don’t want to spend another all-nighter, this weekend, writing this article. Around 7AM we had a functional product that allowed us to demonstrate how businesses could make donations and track the donations they have already made. The site was live and was populating real data (for now). Now it was time to tweak the product and get the visual aspects correct.
At this point we were both hitting a wall, we had been working for 11–12 hours and knew we had another 4 hours to go.. Eli went to take a power nap while I decided to stay up and make notes on all the visual aspects that needed to be updated. Luckily we still had coffee and endless snacks.
Finally, after a few more hours, we made our last changes and called it a night (or morning). Neither of us had seen what other teams were working on and had no idea how our product compared.
How to win a Hackathon
Our panel of judges were amongst the best in their respective field. Our first judge was the Design Director of a local agency called Underbelly. The second judge was the Technical Director for Rally Interactive, another local agency. And our final judge had started multiple companies and was currently the Director of Corporate Strategy and Marketing for eLearning Brothers. To win this thing, I knew I had to create a product that would touch on all these areas.
For the Design aspect, I used a card style dashboard to keep it clean and easy to understand. Dashboards are great to use to get a quick overview of your entire account. Since this project is pretty complex, I found this method would help me organize all the content.
During the hackathon we didn’t use any complicated tech, but in the long run I’ve had some ideas about how I can make this product better. So, I made sure to mention my ideas on how I would integrate new technology into the product.
Lastly, I went into details on how I was going to make money and my go forward strategy. As well as touching on possible paths I could take once the product has gained some traffic.
I think the number one thing that helped us win was how well rounded our idea was. First, I had an idea that solved a very complicated problem that everyone can relate to and participate in solving. Then I understood the business side of the solution. How we were going to make money, get people involved, etc. I presented the problem I was trying to solve, the business requirements, and my idea before showing the actual product. I believe this helped show my understanding of the problem and my passion in solving it. So, if you’re deciding to participate in a hackathon, make sure to choose an interesting problem to solve and understand all aspects of the solution.
Last tip, stay in good communication with your developer. You have such a small window to build a product, you just can’t afford to waste any time. Make sure what you’re designing will be doable and figure out what the plan is before anyone starts designing or writing code.
I almost forgot, so for first place we took home $500… in $1 bills 😆. This was amazing, but the best part of it all was the opportunities this hackathon presented. After it was all finished I had multiple people approach me to learn more about the project and see how they can contribute. I’m so excited to see where this product goes and I’m slightly terrified with how fast it’s happening. But that’s all part of the fun right!
I had so much fun at this event and I can’t wait until next year! Maybe I can build something with one of you. Thanks for reading! If you like it, clap away! If you want to talk further, connect with me on LinkedIn or go visit my portfolio page at nathanmaus.co.
