Lessons learned from my first Hackathon experience

On May 11th and 12th, 2022, I participated in a Hackathon organised by Go1 with the challenge "Go-Gamify". This was my first Hackathon since I entered the world of software development, so I was very proud to be a part of it. When I joined my team, our primary goal was to have fun and learn as much as possible. It was a total surprise when we won first prize 🏆 (you can read more about our Hackathon on the Go1 blog). This was a massive win because I learned so much along the way.

Our dream team has five members: Peter Skalkos and Jasneet Kaur as project managers, Tara Hickman as a product designer, Isabel Cheung as a developer, and myself as a developer. Our team built a project based on Peter's idea of a mentoring marketplace. On this platform, experts from various professions (mentors) can mentor learners or mentees seeking guidance and career advice (I wish this were available when I was a fresh graduate!).

<From left to right: Isabel, Peter and myself>

I am incredibly grateful for this experience because it has opened up many opportunities to improve myself. Here are some of the things I have learned.

1. Hackathons are not only about coding. They are also about teamwork and problem-solving.

Hackathons are competitions where teams build products that solve specific problems. So, it's essential first to identify the pain point and figure out the direction for your team to move forward. One of the factors that helped our team win was that we spent a reasonable amount of time identifying the problems and our target audience to determine the solution we would offer and set boundaries for the scope of work.

On the first day, our team spent half the day in a workshop, brainstorming, analysing, and shaping ideas into requirements, workflows, initial designs, etc. With that preparation, everyone in the team understood the product we were going to build and knew what each of us needed to do to achieve the final goal.

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe" - Abraham Lincoln.

We communicated mainly through Slack channels and Zoom calls. On the first day, I appreciated how our product manager and product designer kept a Zoom call running so other team members could join them anytime for questions and answers.

So, it's teamwork that makes the dream work. Coding is a crucial part, but it's not everything.

<From top, left to right: Jasneet, Tara Peter, Isabel and myself>

2. Investing well in the pitch/presentation is essential.

The final product is crucial because you must present it to judges and other teams. However, the critical factor that made us the winners was how well our team delivered the pitch. Thanks to our two managers' brilliant minds and presentation skills, they impressed the judges and other teams within the 4 minutes allocated.

3. There will be a lot of front-end work involved.

I believe every Hackathon is different and has different technical requirements. From my experience in Go1's Hackathon this time, there was a lot of front-end work involved because the audience tends to pay more attention to the visualised products they see in the final presentation. For this Hackathon, each team only had 4 minutes to present, so there was no time to dive into the back-end part of the project. It's great if you have a set of APIs running smoothly. However, remember that non-technical audiences and judges might only be able to understand some of the concepts introduced in a limited time. Also, if your project is accepted, your team will likely be invested in it, and that's the best time to show off your back-end magic. Sometimes, a minimum viable product (MVP) works wonders in a Hackathon!

4. You'll see opportunities for self-improvement.

Along with my fellow developer and the team, my main task was writing code and delivering the product as quickly as possible. It was amazing how I could see the gaps in my knowledge and skill set over two days. I always look for opportunities to improve, so this was an excellent chance for me to recognise the areas in which I need to spend more time developing myself, both from a technical and non-technical perspective.

Although it was sometimes frustrating not knowing everything and not having all the answers, it was a great source of inspiration for me to keep learning and becoming a better version of myself. I'm thankful for my experience over those two days, especially to my team for being so awesome and bringing so much fun.

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These are the things I learned during the Hackathon, and I'm proud of what we achieved. It was two days of not eating and sleeping properly, but it was great to go through different emotions. There were ups and downs, hope and prayer (when we redeployed because of the last failed deployment - or two). There was excitement, and there were moments of self-doubt. Above all, the surprise and happiness at the end when our team name was called the winners made the two-day journey so rewarding.

Fun fact: our team had two names - Voodoo Gurus and Expert Marketplace - but most of us only noticed the "Voodoo Gurus" one. So when the judges announced the winner with the "Expert Marketplace" name, it took us a "lagging time" to realise we had won. For me, it was hilarious because I thought we were celebrating another team!

So, this wraps up my first Hackathon ever, and I can tick another box off my bucket list. Now, I'll enjoy some sleep tonight and have a nice, slow-paced weekend. I hope everyone reading this blog has a wonderful day ahead. 🌸

P.S. Noodle is very impressed with the prize for the winners. Woohooooo!!!