The hackathon has gone mainstream.
Once a method used primarily by coders, the hackathon has moved beyond the boundaries of software development. From government agencies and universities to start-ups and Fortune 500 companies, organizations are embracing collaboration hackathons or what we might call collabathons to spark innovation, develop products and services, and improve processes for everything from quality control to recognition and reward.
Collaboration hackathons inspire team members to step away from their day-to-day roles and solve a big problem or brainstorm a new direction with a tangible take-away. The structure of a successful collaboration hackathon mirrors that of a collaborative organization. We’re talking about an ad hoc team that forms for a specific purpose, collaborates, and then disbands. The 7 Success Factors for Collaboration Hackathons mirror the 7 steps in my book The Bounty Effect: 7 Steps to The Culture of Collaboration. These are:
1) Plan
2) People
3) Principles
4) Practices
5) Processes
6) Planet
7) Payoff
In the context of collaboration hackathons:
Plan is a problem to be solved, product/service to be developed, process to be created or improved or key question to be answered
People means broad participation in cross-functional collaboration hackathons regardless of level, role or region
Principles are the collaboration hackathon’s value system, the guidelines in solving the problem
Practices put principles into action through everything from a physical environment that fosters brainstorming to tools for capturing and refining ideas and putting them into action. Practices ensure that the hackathon is a collaborative group session (CGS) rather than a meeting.
Processes let hackers rapidly prototype and test ideas.
Planet puts communities in the center of the hackathons and inspires hackers to address how their ideas impact the communities in which the organization does business. The Planet step may consider everything from carbon footprint to privacy.
Payoff is the work product of the hackathon which must create value
These 7 steps prevent collaboration hackathons or collabathons from degenerating into meandering “bull sessions” at one extreme or turning into formal meetings at the opposite extreme. With The Bounty Effect’s 7 Steps, collaboration hackathons or collabathons succeed in solving big problems, answering key questions, developing products and services, improving processes, refining ideas and putting concepts into action.
Collabathons can help shift the structure of the entire organization from competitive, command-and-control to collaborative. The possibilities are endless.
