Hackathons are an integral part of JustAnswer’s innovation engine. Having recently met with enough smart and driven industry peers who have never experienced hackathons, I thought I’d summarize our what, why, how, and so what.
For those well-versed in hackathons, please share your own formula. For those trying to leverage generative AI, quantum, robotics, or flux capacitors, perhaps this can help. For those not trying to innovate, you may skip as your fate is already sealed.
What they are
For two days once per quarter, anyone at the company can work on a personal project solo or with anyone they can attract to their idea. The restrictions are deliberately few: customer support must not be interrupted, projects should pass a work-alignment sniff test, and we ask for a 4 min presentation of the learnings, no matter what they are. That’s it.
Why we invest in hackatons
Because they are part of our innovation culture. Because they are good for the business and energizing for participants and audience members.
Disruptive change expert Scott D. Anthony said that “innovation is a discipline” leading to “something different that has impact”.
We agree. We hack to bring new ideas to life and learn which ones make an impact. We know that many ideas won’t make an impact, but we’re frequently surprised about which is which.
How we run them
Here’s the abbreviated framing and support provided by a half-dozen organizers, with Gavin Funabiki as the current band leader. I’ll spare you how we evolved our process over the last dozen years of hacking.
- Brainstorming - creation of the idea board
- Team formation - matchmaking between birds of a feather
- Hack days - two contiguous days marked on the corporate calendar
- Presentations - opportunity, demo, learnings, next steps, in 4 min or less.
- Prizes - people’s choice and execs’ awards (much glory, little money)
- Prioritization - grassroots convos about productization
Results we get
Here are the numbers from the 47th quarterly hackathon we held last week.
🔥 120 participants
🔥 60 projects
🔥 40 of which have a short path to productization
🔥 37 have AI at the center, one of our current priorities
This is an absolute firehose of de-risked opportunities championed by passionate people! A true embarrassment of options for the business.
How I’d get started
I’d start with the simplest thing that could possibly work. The hard part may be the leap of faith and withholding from applying all manners of rules to ensure the time is not wasted. Emphasize the learning value. Do and learn.
Encouragement
Building a discipline such as innovation requires doing. Go ahead and start hacking away. We got better at it over time, and so will you.