hack·a·thon
an event in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming.

The Rules:

The conference was held over two working days, when we would normally be fixing bugs and pushing out our platform releases. Each team had a few 🛠 Developers to every 📋 Product Manager, ✏️ Designer, and 🕹QA person — selected at random.

We were asked to come up with a new product related to our company’s general mission and values. Our team quickly selected on a ‘Suggestion Box’, a digital feedback and internal communication tool. We had 48 hours flesh out our idea.

The Results:

My Take:

The ‘Hackathon’ I participated in was a great conductor of new energy during a time when a lot of employees were losing steam from an exhausting year online. We were able to speak to different coworkers than we had since our work-from-home stint began. In 2020 we lost a lot of opportunities for conversation: ideas or exchanges that used to happen by running into someone at the water cooler.. didn’t happen anymore.

With our new teammates, new opportunity, and fresh slate we worked late into the night.. in what seemed like ‘together’ for the first time in a long time.

Favorite Moments:

📟 Online collaboration: sharing our screen’s work and chatting about our life while doing it.

🎙 Making a company-wide presentation after not seeing those faces in awhile.. The pressure was on.

📇 Each person had a unique skillset to bring to the table and was able to share their expertise.

📮 Thinking about our company’s goals in a different light. How could we make our workforce stronger?

💡 Multiple teams had the same idea as us, which ended up being pretty funny (and competitive!)