An insight from CIO Ian Campbell of why to run a hackathon and the benefits and insights to be gained.

Run a hackathon . . . an accelerated way to finding out what is possible!

Choose a topic or skill set to gain an understanding of individuals or organisations capabilities and find great skills and knowledge.

But what is a hackathon?

Broadly a hackathon is:

• Creative problem solving involving specific tools, software or subject matter
• A hackathon is any event of any duration where people come together to solve real problems, or innovate on their ideas and potential
• Participants typically form groups of about 2-5 individuals, take out their laptops and dive into problems. Training workshops are a great parallel track especially for newcomers but also for all participants.

Having run a couple of hackathons now, I’ve learned a lot about the organisational challenges and who to partner with to create the right hospitality and technical environment. Often working with local technology workplace/workspace providers who are keen for the promotional activity and have a more engaging image and create a more relaxed atmosphere for participants.

How to set up a hackathon, some of the key things to consider when planning and aiming for useable outcomes:

• Who do you want to attract (individuals and/or organisations); skills sets, development experience, product or sector background
• Theme the event and put a strong emphasis on participants arrival and first impressions, the ‘welcome to our event’ experience must be right
• Prepare a fun but thorough briefing
• Pre-determine what outcomes you want from the event, don’t make it too competitive, get the participants involved in mutual collaboration to review and provide feedback on the most innovative and useable products of the event
• Partner with local organisations who will benefit from the PR and networking
• Involve sponsors who help with the main elements of infrastructure and venue

Fundamental to a successful hackathon is cultivating good projects. Not every project makes a good hackathon project. It is extremely important to maximize the following qualities in the projects at your event:

• Clearly articulated. Projects should have a clear question or problem they are trying to solve plus a reasonably specific proposed solution
• Attainable. Most projects will accomplish about 25% of what they think they can accomplish in the limited time they have. Manage each project’s goals so participants are able to feel accomplished at the end of the session, not interrupted
• Easy to on-board newcomers. Projects should have ready-to-go tasks for newcomers with a variety of skills and at a variety of skill levels. For coding projects, these tasks can’t require an intimate understanding of the code base, and make sure the build environment can be spun up in less than 20 minutes. Make a list of tasks or create predetermined issues ahead of time
• Led by a stakeholder. A stakeholder (or “subject matter expert”) guides a project to real-world relevance. Projects without a stakeholder can “solve” a problem that doesn’t exist. Ideally the leader (or one of the leaders) is a stakeholder, or a good proxy for a stakeholder. Additionally, it is never enough for a project leader to just be an idea person. Beware when the leader is a stakeholder but can’t foresee how he or she might be implementing along with the rest of the team
• Organised. For projects with four or more members, especially newcomers, the project leader’s role should be to coordinate, ensuring each team member has something to work on and helping to welcome new team members

In my experience of running these events there have been significant benefits for the organisation, our technology team and a real return on investment for myself as a CIO:

• Organisation: A hackathon event raises employer branding across all functions/disciplines in the local community and raises awareness of some of the organisations challenges, encouraging interest in the business. Highlighting what the organisation is doing helps attract potential talent to hire, especially a broad mix of those actively looking candidates as well as those with the right capabilities who are not actively looking, making a hackathon an excellent vehicle for obtaining quality talent directly without the usual recruitment costs.
• Team: As a team event for a technology function it is a great way to encourage the team to get involved in the wider business, what is happening in the sector and community. It’s also a good way to develop team building skills and inclusion/awareness of the type of talent and capability/skill sets in the hackathons target market, skills or topical area.
• As a CIO: Encouraging team and individuals to be creative and expand their problem-solving skills. A quick and easy way to identify potential employees and acquiring unique skills and filling specific gaps in the technology capability of your organisation. It’s also a more inclusive way to involve your management team in finding talent with the right attitude, culture fit and capability, rather than purely hiring on a technical skills match.

There is much more insight to be gained and simple processes to follow to ensure a successful event raises awareness and produces the outcomes you are after. For more information Ian Campbell can be contacted directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

If you’d like to know more about the wider benefits of running a hackathon or have questions around the subject of resourcing more effectively, reducing or eliminating recruitment costs please get in touch. We are always looking for advice and insight from business leaders, please email me directly if you’d like to contribute to our blog or feel you can help our wider ‘C’ suite exec community. Regards – Simon @ TAaaS Limited