The last three companies I have worked for all had Hackathons. There are many benefits that have arisen from these events, including new features, engaged developers and improved dialog between departments. Below are some of my observations and learnings from Hackathons.

What is a Company Hackathon?

A Company Hackathon is simply an event where teams of developers are given a few days to develop new and interesting features based on the general business model of the company. Typically, developers work on new features they think will be useful to customers. Other teams may look at new tooling to make their job easier or simply try to apply new technologies, like ChatGPT, to existing features.

At the end of the Hackathon there is some Presentation forum for teams to display what they have achieved and what they have learned. There are some winners that receive prizes, usually gift cards for some amount. However, the more coveted prize is simply the bragging rights of demo’ing some cool new feature (or process) a team has developed.

Benefit #1: New Customer Features

In every single Hackathon that I have seen, there has been some feature prototype that the Company has decided to develop further and ultimately productize.

These features are typically new ways of looking at an existing problem, e.g., a new way to display information or sometimes a new product feature that simply has not been prioritized.

Benefit #2: Cross-Company Collaboration

Teams within Hackathons are self-selecting, based upon an idea. Many times, these means that individuals who would not typically work together, get to team up and collaborate.

The most effective Hackathon teams often have several different skillsets: developers, product managers, operations, etc., who came together from different parts of the organization.

After the Hackathon is over, these working relationships continue to live on!

Benefit #3: Innovation

Since Hackathons have a defined period, typically 2 or 3 days, this gives developers a real opportunity to learn, or at least get a sense of, how new technologies can be applied to existing problems. For the most part, the win here is that developers have learned new technologies that they may apply to future projects.

However, I have seen cases where the new technology was such a good fit that a team could have working prototypes developed during the Hackathon.

Benefit #4: Morale

In the weeks prior to the event, there are the internal communication channels light up with ideas for potential projects. As a developer, I can attest that it is a lot of fun and excitement coming up with potential projects and forming teams!

As noted above, during the Hackathon, new working relationships are formed. Ultimately, this also helps improve the sense of belonging to the Company.

Finally, during the Hackathon presentations, managers are typically very impressed by some of the creative prototypes and approaches teams have adopted. It is a reminder to the management team that their teams are capable of creative solutions when given a little time and space.

Benefit #5: Recognition and Retention

We have all heard, and some of us have witnessed, an employee leaving the Company and spearhead new innovation in other companies. On occasion, those other companies are competitors!

Giving these creative thinkers the time, space and a platform to demonstrate their capabilities is ultimately beneficial for the organization.

Without a Hackathon, these individuals will ultimately get frustrated and decide to move on.

Running a Hackathon is not easy, but its worthwhile!

Assuming the Company is willing to invest in its development team to sponsor a Hackathon, there is a lot of preparation work. Schedules need to be cleared, the proper internal communication needs to happen and there is a lot of coordination!

However, I encourage every company that does not have a Company Hackathon to try it, at least once. I am almost certain you will be pleasantly surprised!