Hacking the hackathon organizing team, part 2: The “team” part of team management
Growing your dream team, and what you should know about working with individuals
This article is the second of a three part series covering the different aspects of team management as part of a hackathon organizing team. Check out Part 1 to learn about the organizational processes at nwPlus, and stay tuned for 3 where I walk through the not-so-glamorous but inevitable part of working with team members!
In the 2018–2019 nwPlus organizing year, I was honoured to lead 4 members as director of the nwHacks Logistics Team. Using my previous experiences doing projects and being a Coordinator on the team, I laid out a process and routine to hit the ground running for the incoming year. However, it was my first time leading a team of any sort, and I had lots to learn about working with people.
The people aspect of team management is learning about each of your team members and figuring out how you can foster an environment to help them reach their fullest potential. In this second part of my series, I will talk about the different aspects of working with individuals while in the position of team manager, from recruiting your team all the way to running the show on the day of your hackathon.
Recruiting your dream team 👔
A diverse team makes a diverse hackathon
nwPlus is proud to have an extremely diverse team across all years of university, 18 majors, and with a 45/55 gender split. Diversity in hiring is extremely valuable and can come in all shapes and forms:
- Skillsets: Organizing a hackathon involves much more than writing code, so a computer science background is unnecessary for most roles on the team. Skills for roles like marketing, logistics, and sponsorship can be found anywhere so recruitment should not be limited to technical majors!
- Skill levels: School is short. Hiring mostly seniors will cause an annual mass exodus of graduates, while too many beginners creates a tough learning curve with no one to show the reigns. Having varying skill levels on a team allows for more growth overall, as junior members get to learn new skills and senior members have opportunities to grow as mentors or leaders.
- And everything else: It is a fact that diversity on a team inspires innovation and pushes you to consider perspectives that you wouldn’t have otherwise. Not to mention, one of the best ways to build an event for a diverse audience (and prove that you mean it) is to have a diverse team organizing it!
Transparency == No surprises
As you may know, organizing a hackathon is a large commitment and your prospective recruits should be aware of this to avoid surprises later on. This can mean having more comprehensive role descriptions, walking through commitments during the interview, or even holding Q&A sessions about being on the team. Similarly, transparency is a two-way street and you should be aware of what your team member’s commitments and availabilities will look like for the incoming year.
Setting (and maintaining) expectations ✅
Expectations should be documented in writing, made clear in person, and established at the beginning of the year. It is essential to follow all three of these steps because:
- Documenting expectations gives team members something to refer to when they are unclear, want to double check, or don’t quite remember what is expected of them. This will also come in handy if you find that a team member is no longer meeting expectations (Part 3 will go over more on this 👀).
- Clarifying expectations in-person acts as a verbal agreement made between you and your team members, while leaving the floor open for questions or comments before they are set in stone. At nwPlus, team commitments and expectations are gone over at a mandatory Transitions meeting at the beginning of the year.
- Establishing and enforcing expectations from the beginning sets a precedent for how the rest of the year will run and to avoid bad habits from emerging. This is especially true for members who have been on the team before and may have trouble adjusting to newly introduced expectations.
Don’t let things slide!
Following the notion of enforcing expectations from the beginning, you should correct missed expectations as early as possible and not let things slide. For example, all team communications at nwPlus are expected to be done in public Slack channels; It may seem harmless to simply reply when a teammate accidentally DM’s you a quick question, but this hurts the integrity of the expectation and can negatively affect other team members if they discover that someone else was given a free pass.
That being said, you don’t need to penalize your team member for something as small as a DM. Instead of focussing on what they did wrong, it is more beneficial to nudge them in the right direction by saying something like “That’s a good question, but I’ll answer it once you resend it in a public channel!”.
Examples of expectations
Some examples of basic expectations for a hackathon organizing team include attendance to the regularly scheduled meetings, full commitment to the team for the entire organizing year, and day-of help at the team’s events/hackathons.
More granular expectations can include accomplishing role-specific tasks by their deadlines, checking external emails once a day, or etiquette-related expectations: At nwPlus, members are expected to “react” or give a quick response to acknowledge that they’ve read a Slack discussion, rather than leaving the other party on “read”.
Working with people 🤝
Regular sync ups
During the year, one-on-one meetings should be held on a regular basis with each of your team members:
- A meeting should be held at the beginning of the year to learn about your team member’s other commitments, their goals for the position, and what you can do to help achieve them.
- Meetings during the year are check-ins to collect feedback and suggest changes so you can continually improve your team operations and meet your member’s expectations for the role.
- The end of year meeting is a retrospective to go over how the year went and what can be changed for the incoming team. If they are staying for the next year, this is also a good place to discuss what role they would like to take on next.
At nwPlus, the majority of one-on-ones are held between Coordinators (subteam members) and their Director (subteam lead) for all role or subteam-specific topics. The Co-Presidents then run another 1–2 rounds of one-on-ones with the entire organization for overall-club feedback or concerns that members might not be comfortable bringing up to their Director.
Navigating different working styles
When running a team, it is evident that what works for you may not work for everyone, and you will need to spend time learning about each member of your team. At nwPlus, all members filled out a Team Canvas at the beginning of the year so their leads can be aware of their motivations and help them achieve their personal goals. The Canvas also helps individuals understand themselves as team players, and encourages them to actively think about where and how they want to improve during their time on the team.
It is a good practice to read about the 4 working types (that tie closely to personality types), which roughly translate into the process, action, people, and idea-oriented workers. Each type has its own strengths and weaknesses, some examples:
- An action-oriented worker may proactively get all of their tasks done on time, but may not be as good at communicating with other team members.
- An idea-oriented worker may come up with great ideas for the team, but may not have a clear plan on how to go about doing them.
- A people-oriented worker may be great at fostering a positive team dynamic, but may need an extra nudge to get their tasks done on time.
- A process-oriented worker may be great at structuring projects and documentation, but may get stressed out if they need to improvise on the spot.
All working styles are valuable for the team, but it is up to you to figure out how and when to nudge your team members, and to assign tasks that each person will excel and grow the most from!
Understanding your own leadership style
Likewise, you should spend time learning your own leadership style to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. At the beginning of the year, a Leadership Meeting was held for all subteam leads to discuss and ask each other questions about leadership and how to handle certain situations. More often than not, our subteam leads are going into this position for the first time, and this session helps them learn and gain inspiration from each other.
In a position of leadership, there will be many members who look up to you — any action you take, word you say, or attitude you give can have an amplifying effect on your team. Criticism can give a very different dynamic when said by a manager compared to a friend, and it is important to be cognizant of that when interacting with the team you manage. Be cautious of accidentally being a “boss” instead of a “leader”. For me, being a leader means trusting the team, encouraging decisions to be made together, and not giving out menial work that I wouldn’t do myself.
On the flip side, you can positively affect your team members by doing things like demonstrating good work ethic or promoting a positive team culture. For example, when a team member has finished their assigned task, a quick shoutout or “Thanks for doing that!” goes a long way and shows your appreciation for their efforts, regardless of how big or small the task was.
Staying engaged 🙌
Owning “projects” rather than tasks
Building a hackathon feels much more special when you know that you created an impact on the event’s outcome, and this can be easily done by assigning “projects” or areas to team members rather than individual tasks. Letting team members own the end-to-end delivery of their own component allows them to practice accountability and hone their leadership skills, while helping other external team members know who they should direct their questions at.
Although members are leading their own projects, they should not feel alone as they can always partner/group up for larger projects or consult the team about any decisions. I mentioned in my previous article that projects can still be broken down into smaller tasks to optimize visibility and assign people to subtasks if there are multiple people working on the project.
Making the work fun!
Doing your job is much easier when working alongside a great group of friends and having fun in the process! At nwPlus, we highly value the importance of a positive team culture and I‘ve written another article that goes over how we went about doing this. Just like how hackathons run mini events to help attendees have fun and destress from hacking, fun aspects like team socials are a way to help organizers take their mind off work and have a better organizing experience overall. This past year, our team held 10+ socials of all shapes and sizes, including watching the Celebration of Light at the beach, making breakfast for dinner (paired with a “formal pajamas” dress code), and attending Hackcon VII in Pennsylvania.
Sometimes, a break is needed
For most hackathon organizing teams, every member is a full time student/intern who volunteers to bring these hackathons to life, and it is important to recognize that. People may need to catch up in school after spending many late nights leading up to the hackathon, go offline for a few days during a round of midterm exams, or deal with issues happening in their personal lives.
During times like these, burnout is inevitable but it is okay as long as your team members are ready to spring back into action after their much-needed break. What matters is that these circumstances are communicated so all of you are on the same page and nobody is left hanging. That being said, it is extremely easy to put yourself on the back burner when working for the team and hackathon you love—don’t forget to take care of yourself and don’t be afraid to take a break.
Let’s go team! 💪
Given the nature of everybody working differently, learning how to operate your team is a never-ending puzzle that you must work towards solving. Most things aren’t set in stone, so don’t be afraid to change and try new methods until you find what works best for your team. My biggest piece of advice is to remember why each of your members joined the team, what unique things they bring to the table, and then using that to tailor their experience to achieve that or even more.
Keep your eyes peeled for part 3 where I will go into the less-glamorous but crucial part of handling difficult situations while leading a team! 👋
Words by Anita Tse, Outgoing nwPlus Co-President 2019/2020
