Hackathons: What’s All The Fuss?
Hackathons are events during which software developers, designers, product managers, and subject-matter-experts, spend a fixed amount of time (typically 24 hours) collaborating intensively on software projects. The goal of the hackathon is to create a functioning prototype by the end of the event that solves a specific problem people would care about. Hosting regular hackathons has become common practice by Technology companies. In this post, I’ll discuss the benefits of hosting such events.
Innovation
Hackathons are typically unrestricted environments with little to no guidelines on what processes or technologies to use for the participants. This enables participants to push the envelope, break the rules, and bend technology to their will. The participants have the opportunity to pursue ambitious ideas that have been burning in the back of their minds in a highly collaborative environment. The root of many technological innovations can be traced back to a hackathon. Twitter was once a tiny side project created by podcasting platform Odeo during a company hackathon. Facebook is also widely known to leverage hackathons to sustain its product innovation; The LIKE button, Timeline, and Chat were all created at Facebook’s internal hackathons.
Networking
Hackathons are great opportunities to collaborate with people from various backgrounds and skillsets. If hosted within an organization, employees have the opportunity to recruit team members from other departments and have a chance to spend time with people they wouldn’t typically interact with on a day to day. For larger, public hackathons such as the Disrupt Hackathon hosted by TechCrunch every year, you can meet new people, connect with possible future business partners, identify tech talent, and crowdsource business ideas to potentially invest in.
Engagement
Hackathons are a good way to foster employee engagement and cross-departmental collaboration. There are also one of the best ways to reach out and engage with the developer community and position yourself as a company that embraces technology.
