How to Win a Hackathon: 10 First-Hand Tips
So, you’re participating in a hackathon? You recruited all the top guns around you and all that’s left to do is build a product that will take your team to first place.
How will you do it though? Consider these tips below, which I’ve gathered from my first-hand experience as a finalist in the annual Wix Hackathon.
The Wix Hackathon is an internal event for all Wix employees — from developers to marketers and more — enabling them to create and improve Wix products and come up with innovative ideas of their own.
So, are you ready to get started? I can only guarantee that you will enjoy the ride if you follow these guidelines.
01. Be original and take it to the edge
Don’t go for the obvious product most people will make. This is your time to go crazy and push the limits.
02. Surround yourself with people you enjoy working with
Hackathons can be stressful sometimes, so it’s important that you have people you enjoy working with and have good communication with in order to ease the process.
03. Travel to the past
If it’s not the first time you’re participating in a hackathon, then it might be a good idea to learn the operations of past hackathons like this one and research the winning products.
04. Start working immediately
Brainstorm while you work, even if you haven’t finalized the product. Hackathons have a time limit and I truly believe that the winning product is determined from the first hour of the event.
05. Make decisions happen
Lead the team to make decisions fast. In hackathons, decisions are made as a team, but make it your mission to be certain that an agreement is put in place ahead of time in case any issues come up later.
06. Have a professional presentation
Sometimes, it’s all about how you present it. I’ve seen cases where products that weren’t delivered in hackathons hit success because there was a good presentation of the idea behind it.
07. If you fail, don’t stop
Sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way you want it. Even so, you should present your idea or your failure to the judges. I’m sure that they will value your team effort and give you some points.
08. Consider user experience
The best way to present your hackathon product is to let your judges and audience experience the product you created first-hand so that they can get an actual feel for the way it works.
09. Offer giveaways
People like freebies. If you can give away something that will make your product memorable, do it. (But don’t give money, that’s called bribery.)
10. Last but not least, have fun!
Hackathons are meant to be fun. If you’re not having fun, you are doing something wrong.
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Originally published at www.taleaboutproduct.com.
