Why go to a Hackathon?

Hackathons have been around for years but this was my very first. Random Hacks of Kindness Sydney’s summer hack was intense but fun.

It was all hands to the keyboard as we hacked our solutions for charities and changemakers.

Three teams of tech volunteers, most of whom had never met before, worked with changemakers from vibrant social enterprises over the weekend of 24-25 November. The hacking itself was anything but random. And there were some unexpected benefits. Here are my top 5.

1. Tech for a purpose

Random Hacks of Kindness, RHoK Australia, ‘strives to make the world a better place, one social hack at a time’. It’s part of a global community of tech volunteers. RHoK Sydney holds hacks twice a year but there are RHoK hackathons in other Australian cities too.

All aim to take on a challenge that can be addressed in a weekend, set by changemakers from startup charities and social enterprises. Our team's challenge was to help I4C (Investing for Charity) . My contribution was in the UX and content space.

It was fun seeking out solutions, brainstorming ideas and building an email template that pulled in data from a donor database via an API. The template would automatically create donor emails in a fraction of the time taken by manually-created emails. Plus we created a donor admin dashboard and UX artefacts to help the business develop.

Working with changemakers is so inspiring. Some years back, through a mentoring program, I met some social and environmental entrepreneurs - people that were purpose-driven, resourceful and dedicated. The RHoK changemakers were equally passionate about their causes.

2. Free food and coffee

Lunch was provided courtesy of sponsors

Thanks to generous RHoK sponsors, free Thai, gozleme, pizza and drinks fuelled our progress. Not having to go out and get lunch allowed our teams to focus on working on the challenges.

Regular coffee runs kept the caffeine levels up. General Assembly Sydney kindly hosted and their coffee supplies were hacked into over the weekend.

Our team of devs, UXers, BAs – students, amateurs and professionals – appreciated the sustenance.

3. Learning from others

A diverse bunch of people bring a diverse bunch of skills.

Working with people of different backgrounds and skillsets is a bit like doing a jigsaw with everyone bringing their own pieces. None of us knows everything and there is always something new to learn, some new way to put the pieces together.

“What’s a lambda file?” I asked one of the devs on our team. I’d heard the term mentioned and sketched on the whiteboard. He explained, then confessed he didn’t know the answer either before the weekend. His honesty made me feel better about not having all the answers myself.

Just like doing a jigsaw can be trial and error, we took a few wrong turns before we settled on our solution, then it all came together. But there was no time to do endless experiments. Our scrum master cracked the whip, which we certainly needed with only 2 days to double-diamond!

4. Trying out something new

Mocking up a content canvas helped put our work in perspective

Hackathons are a great way to have a go at something you’ve not had a chance to before. Bring along an idea you want to get some skill in and invite others to participate. Learn and refine.

I’d wanted to have a go workshopping a content canvas to plan out a piece of content. As it turned out, our hackathon project was the perfect opportunity. With two content artefacts to work on, a donor email and a dashboard, we got to workshop 2 content canvases. We worked with the business owners to get the answers we needed. And I got to see how to workshop it into a useful UX artefact for the business.

“We’ve never captured this stuff before,” the business lead said.

5. A gleaming trophy

Our team with judges, changemakers and . . . the RHoK Sydney trophy

Woohoo, we won! Our team of 10 scored a very impressive trophy. The volunteer judges from CSIRO and OE Strategy had a difficult job assessing the projects that had been achieved in just 2 days.

It was a proud moment for our team. But all the teams did a great job, with the bonus that we’d helped a social enterprise make the world just that bit kinder. Thanks to the organisers, judges, sponsors and hosts for a great hackathon.

To check out Hackathons near you, see Hackathons Australia and Meetup. Or become a RHoK star and hack for humanity in 2019.