Hackathons are a great way to promote innovation, prototype new ideas and develop new technologies in a pressure cooker environment.
Hackathons are a great way to promote innovation, prototype new ideas and develop new technologies in a pressure cooker environment.
So how does a hackathon benefit our customers?
There are a couple of ways. One is validating ideas to make sure that they can work. Some projects might fail and others will thrive but it’s not until we can see how they will work in real life by prototyping them. Later we can refine the successful solutions going forward and apply them to existing applications and future projects.
“So we thought the hackathon would be a great way for us to package new components, new ideas and infuse in our teams that mindset of prototyping… in a way that can address some of our customers business problems in a very short amount of time.”
– Pedro Carrilho. CEO & Founder, PhoenixDX
When we decided to organise an internal Hackathon, we chose projects that were in line with the challenges our customers are facing. So, the new solutions the teams developed will improve the way we implement and build apps. This way, the solutions developed during the Hackathon will directly benefit our existing and new customers.
Another benefit is that our team had an opportunity to stretch themselves by working with different team members from different parts of the company. They also got to practice design thinking, the value proposition canvas and explored User Experience theories. They can bring these new skills and ways of thinking into their daily development.
We plan on hosting more Hackathons in the future to continue innovating and connecting as a team.
