What I learned from my first UX Hackathon
This past weekend I participated in the UXResult hackathon and spent several hours building a new product from the ground up. The hackathon brought in participates from across the globe, 30+ teams, and challenge sponsors from varying industries. As avid dog lovers, our team developed a strong attachment to Leverage’s (an IoT device company) challenge which asked participants to design an app for a smart collar device. We all loved the idea and immediately began wireframing and researching potential solutions.
Since I have not worked on a team in a while, this hackathon was a great time to reconnect and work on a super fun project. Although we did not win the challenge, there were several learnings and takeaways that I wanted to share.
Research, ask questions, and move quickly!
Time constraints are the core elements of a hackathon and any project for that matter. Given a limited time frame, it’s so important to make smart decisions quickly and fast. Hackathon’s are so much like design challenges it's so important to read the brief and reread it again. Ask questions and understand what the judges are looking for.
With so little time to conduct research, it's critical that the team is scrappy and works smartly to condense processes that typically takes a few days into a few hours. User research, competitive analysis, personas, and other processes need to be condensed. That’s where being able to prioritize effectively becomes especially important. The team should all come together and determine what your goals are and what research artifacts would add the most value. Through prioritizing the team can focus on high impact work that produces the most compelling research findings
Importance of planning
So much in terms of a successful hackathon depends on planning in an effective and timely manner. Your team needs to be able to prioritize effectively and truly be aligned in whatever you hope to take out of the experience. Plan what design tools you will use, plan how you will communicate, and doing so will allow your team to move quickly and fast.
Although our team didn’t win the hackathon, it was a great experience for me to gain insight into the format of a hackathon and what judges look for in a “winner”. It’s competitive, its fun, and really let me exercise my creativity within a team in a way that I really haven't done in a few months. I highly urge anyone from any background really to find a hackathon and give it a shot!
