This article is about how I first conducted a hackathon for a team. The material pumped to the organizers will surely seem too simple, and the story naive. I focused on those who are just getting acquainted with the format and thinking whether to arrange such an event.
HFLabs does complex things with data: we clean and enrich customer contacts for large companies and build customer bases on hundreds of millions of records. 65 people work in Moscow offices, about a dozen more remotely from other cities.
Any work is sometimes not just annoying, but becoming freshish. At this moment it is useful to change focus, try something new. Therefore, for six months we looked closely at the hackathons.
Hackathon is such a competition for IT people: several teams gather and solve complex problems for two days in a row. Usually competing for a prize awarded by a jury.
We wanted to try out the format and have fun, but the classic hackathon is quite a large-scale, troublesome and expensive undertaking. Therefore, we conducted a light version with almost no budget. But in the end they were satisfied and even did something useful.
Why hackathon companies
Classical hackathons usually do not suit the breadth of the soul. The organizers or solve practical problems, or PR. The hackathon format is also chosen for the purpose.
- Solve a practical problem. The organizer sets goals, and the participants choose the right one and decide. An example of such a task is to create a new customer scoring algorithm for a bank.
- Promote your tools. The organizer gives the participants their own software, programming language or API. The goal is to make something useful with the given tools. For example, the conditional Google opens access to its voice translator and is waiting for interesting applications.
An additional goal of a large hackathon is to present the organizer as an enviable employer, inside and out. Guests from other companies will be imbued with office, organization, breadth of opportunities. His - new tasks, freedom, communication.
For example, VKontakte held a hefty hackathon. It is difficult to attribute it to one type: there are too many directions
Like we have. The main goal of the whole venture for HFLabs is internal HR. We saw the hackathon as another collaborative activity beyond the scope of work. Rallying, invigorating, entertaining - that’s all. Someone goes teams to football, someone to quiz. Hackathon is another format for meetings outside of everyday affairs. Which, of course, does not cancel either quiz or football.
At the same time, the hackathon, even in the light format, is not pure entertainment. For example, one team eventually wrote a text quest, having studied the mechanics of bots in Telegram from scratch. This is wonderful: when a person tries something new and tries to figure it out, he has fresh ideas. For everyday work as well.
Moreover, in the end we got useful tools, although we did not set practical tasks at all. But more about that in the end.
Why hackathon to participants
Participants come to the classic hackathon to get acquainted with technology, try a new experience or earn money. Moreover, people from the latter category seem to be getting larger.
- Try new technologies or methods. On weekdays, each developer sits on his own technology stack, sometimes for years. And at the hackathon you can try something new - either just appeared, or just interesting.
- Walk the grocery path in miniature. IT people are interested in creating a complete product in a matter of days. Having gone through the whole cycle from concept to presentation.
- To earn. Sometimes strong specialists gather in teams of professional hackers - played and trained. They choose events with a rich prize pool and endure everyone through experience and training. Some organizers immediately weed out such dodgers. Others are welcome.
Like we have. For starters, we asked the team whether a hackathon is needed in principle. We do not force anything, so we wanted to measure interest in advance. For surveys, they took Google Forms.
There are 65 people in the team, the survey was 20. Since 75% of them are interested - you need to do it!
The second task is to motivate the hesitant, of whom more than half. The following survey showed: the prize will not help in this matter.
It turned out further that our company was interested in making new products. Let with a tiny application, but go from an idea to a working prototype
We began to collect topics for the hackathon that would be of interest. Again, the strength of the team: they raised a chat on Telegram, where they threw ideas on who was what. No brakes: what comes to mind is good.
We collected 25 topics and launched a vote in confluence. The five most popular projects - they are in the picture - took on a hackathon
How long does it all last
A classic hackathon lasts two days and the night between them. A night is a hello from an old IT school, at the same time a pragmatic and romantic touch.
What to do in the dark, each team or participant decides independently. You can sleep at night, the organizers will not say a word. But you can act: program, design, design, test.
Like we have. We did not even speak of night vigil. Moreover, they cut the format even further and took only one day. Otherwise, you would have to either spend two working days on the experiment, or drag out colleagues for a full summer weekend. Few would agree to the second option: a weekend in summer in price.
There were wishes that it would be nice to get together on weekdays. But during working hours I did not want to arrange all this. No matter how you try, you can’t isolate yourself from work during the week: clients write, colleagues ask about something, something is boiling in the office, and some meetings are scheduled. Everyone will switch to normal business. Therefore, the next survey is whether they are ready to hack on the weekend.
Not everyone is ready to sacrifice a weekend unconditionally. But more than half of the doubters, it remains to seduce them
A little later, in June, they asked the participants about the dates. Slots were allocated right up to the fall - in summer, colleagues on vacations and in summer cottages, but I don’t want to miss the event. Therefore, we decided that we would offer all Saturdays. You can choose several - which ones are free, and mark them.
Not everyone is ready to sacrifice a weekend unconditionally. But more than half of the doubters, it remains to seduce them
As a result, they planned a hackathon on August 17. The alternative on July 27 coincided with my business trip, and the option fell off.
Where is the event held?
Typically, most participants gather in a common space. Communication is an important part of the hackathon, so the organizer selects open space or the whole building.
I once participated in the Google Hackathon. The organizers allocated a two-story building, inside - ottomans, tables and other furniture. The teams themselves were dispersed on the ground and arranged jobs.
But there are no strict restrictions more often: if someone pre-warns and connects remotely, they won’t fix any obstacles.
Like we have. Since the hackathon turned out to be chamber, for seven people, the Saturday empty office was enough with a margin. Even if you do not take into account that one participant connected from Volgograd.
We planned that we would all sit in a meeting room
What's with the winners
A classic jury is appointed by a jury that announces the best project. The jury includes someone from the organizers or sponsors - those who pay for the entire banquet.
Demo projects are an important part of the hackathon. The teams show a short presentation, and then demonstrate their decision to the jury. This is something like a diploma defense at a university.
Sometimes the computer evaluates the work: the one that scored the most points in the test wins. To me, this approach seems too formal: evaluating the solutions with "parrots", the organizers kill the food component of the hackathon. It is like a sports programming contest, not creativity.
Like we have. We acted radically: we simply canceled the jury and competition in principle. Because they did not set a goal to create the best solution to the problem or to get a finished product.
Since the task is to have fun, let the participants calmly saw projects without looking at other teams.
Day Ha at HFLabs
The hackathon kicked off on Friday evening, the day before. The participants gathered, each chose a topic. Ready teams took shape.
Gathering and unexpected participants. They came to the office by Saturday 11–12 so as not to get up as usual on weekdays, early in the morning. There were six participants, one more connected from Volgograd.
The announcement of the date did not pass without a trace - the fighters began to actively leave the hackathon chat. But the disaster did not happen and the quorum was preserved
During the day, new members suddenly appeared. Colleagues who were not going to the hackathon cut out three to four hours. They came, chose a project and helped. For the classic format, this is uncharacteristic, but we enjoy it.
Teams and projects. It turned out that three people did their projects alone. This is the main minus of the event, it’s more interesting to work in a team. Feeling for interaction is generally an important thing in the concept of a hackathon.
Text quest on the Telegram engine. There is no practical benefit, but inside - workshop humor and local memes
And a couple of hours after the start, one project was left without developers: the author left the brainchild and went to another team. This is normal even for the classic format: good ideas attract people. At first it seems that you will do your project to the end. And then you plunge and you see - there is no time, there is nothing to try. Or you go to the neighbors, because there it goes, and the product is useful.
Serge - the front-end from Volgograd - got a little bored, so I came up with a project “from the knife”. And immediately proceeded to it.
A cat lives in the corner of one of our products. Previously, the cat simply slept and created comfort, but Seryoga taught the fur man to respond to events
At the end of the day, the number of projects remained the same - five. One fell off, another added.
Space and timetable. Under the hackathon, they planned the largest room in the office - a meeting room. But when it came down to the matter, everyone habitually dispersed into their offices. In this form, and started.
At first it seemed common space was not essential. Since the projects are not connected, there is no competition, you can sit separately. And for discussions, gathering in the lobby is the main thing, not to scatter beyond walking distance.
But after a few hours, the fragmentation itself ceased. Those who worked alone, under the influence of hidden power, one after another moved to the most populated office. And it became more interesting - conversations are more lively, questions are more complicated and more frequent.
They were interrupted once in a couple of hours - they shared their impressions, looked closely at other people's projects. We had lunch in the middle of the day.
At dinner, a fan burst into the canvas of the hackathon, all this time invisibly hanging around: cheesecakes were suddenly brought to the office
They did not limit time: he who sits as much as he wants. They left, usually bringing the project to a more or less finished state. The last participant left at about 22:00.
They did not immediately start the demo - they decided that we would talk about the hackathon on Tuesday for the entire office.
Results and life after
Hackathon Light gave even more profit than I expected.
HR We had a lot of fun: we closed gestalt with a hackathon and talked on smart topics without the hassle of work. All this for a budget equal to the cost of the road to the office and lunch. They raised a plus in the office of evangelists of internal hackathons.
Projects During the day, we did not complete any of the five projects. But this does not matter: usually the purpose of an event is to solve a problem in principle, to find an idea. A good result is a minimally working tool, albeit with crutches and bugs.
Anton Zhiyanov, the main product of DaData.ru , was an email messenger . It looks like a browser editor, to which a CSV file with recipients is hooked. It’s more convenient than in overloaded Mailchimp
But after the hackathon, the projects went live or are preparing for it. A mailer is already sending out emails, and the cat touches customers. The remaining applications are completed by the authors, and already at the request of the outside. While we distribute it to friends for free and in their own way, but someday it can reach commercial use.
Minuses. The main drawback is that few people gathered. As a result, three out of five projects were done one by one, and this is not so interesting. When you hack one alone, you lose the effect of the grocery team. There is no one to establish interaction with.
I also realized that tougher regulations would work as a plus. Need more organization:
- clear timing;
- merch for participants;
- the jury and demo on the same day, while still charged;
- preparation - announcements, project descriptions.
You can still call someone from the outside, but not at all necessary. And to call, most likely, pointwise. Without large-scale advertising.
Future. A half-office gathered for a general demo on Tuesday. And then I already saw an interest in projects, in the format. Not everyone wanted to get involved in the experiment, but after the first test, those who wanted it increased. I think in 2020 we’ll make the event larger.
That's all about hackathon. If you are interested in doing all sorts of complicated things with data, come to us to work. HFLabs has eight vacancies on hh.ru : we are looking for java developers, maintenance and testing engineers, and system analysts.
This article was first published on vc.ru. The version for "Habr" is redesigned and supplemented.