Hackathon: what's in it for your company?
Find out how hackathons are much more than just a fashionable trend; they represent a concrete opportunity to stimulate innovation within your company. Explore the real benefits of these collaborative events and learn how to organize them successfully to accelerate new product development, strengthen corporate culture and foster creativity in your teams.
Understanding the fundamental ambitions of a hackathon
I started skiing at the age of 40.
It's late... And yet, it's never too late. In my younger years, due to a lack of resources, I thought that the older I got, the harder it would be to learn. I used this to justify my lack of willpower, thinking that there was no point anymore.
When I finally got motivated, I did what I always do: I scoured the internet for articles, YouTube tutorials and masterclasses on how to learn to ski. Of course, on the first day, as Tyson says, "we all have a plan until we get our first punch": it was a disaster. I can't count the number of falls I had and my general lack of understanding.
Then, little by little, I learned pretty quickly, thanks in particular to my "online courses", my background in other sports and the advice of my group as well as that of the instructor. I had a clear objective: to do the blue/red run in front of the course before the end of the week.
Through this discovery, I was reminded of the fundamentals of why a Hackathon exists and what it seeks to achieve: to take action, to do and stop just thinking, to transform oneself into a maker whatever the moment of one's life to sublimate one's experience and reveal all one's entrepreneurial potential for oneself first of all, and on the rebound for the company.
Definition: what is a Hackathon and why is it more than just a buzzword?
As I write this article, in 2024, it's almost old-fashioned to still be talking about Hackathons, as the word has been used, reused, adapted (Idéathon, Innovathon, etc.) and even overused. But that's not doing it any favors, and it's still enjoying growing popularity. Of course, the frenzy of the early days has passed. But the important thing is that the substance remains, the essential is timeless, immortal.
Hackathons originated in the 90s in the USA, notably in Silicon Valley, to enable all software "hackers" to compete in a 24 to 48-hour tournament ("Hack" + "Marathon"). They were organized in teams of 2 to 5, no more, and during the allotted time had to break all the digital barriers of a program, with the end result being its destruction.
In other words, we were dealing with people who were very talented in their fields, with a wide range of experience and expertise, and who were working together to achieve something concrete.
These hackers have learned, mostly on the job, with methods, tools and mentors, how to defeat various computer systems, from small flash games (R.I.P.) to multinational protection barriers, while using their own experiences to stimulate their creativity and adaptability.
This is what a Hackathon is all about!
A collaborative event, often of short duration, where participants come together to work intensively on the emergence and selection of innovative projects.
If I go back to my analogy of the (very) amateur skier: after two days, I managed to feel pretty comfortable on skis, not because I was naturally gifted, but because when I was younger, I'd done five years of inline skating (Street) which enabled me to understand the movements easily because I'd created a muscle memory. I learned the hard way that muscle memory is awakened by pain - it's not innate!
We all have five years of rollerblading somewhere, to give us the means to get started.
What's a hackathon today?
Hackathons have come a long way in their key stages: from a pure event for hackers and computer developers, we've moved on to a more complete scheme, with the addition of other disciplines to go from a simple hack to a complete structured project:
- A design aspect has been added to transform a hacking mission into a creative process.
- Then business, like TechStars' Startup Weekends, where, over the same period of time, you can try your hand at setting up a company.
- And finally, the use of this type of event to create a culture of internal collaboration and an entrepreneurial state of mind within companies, while seeking to break down silos and enhance the employee experience.
It's no longer reserved for developers at all, and is now used to stimulate internal innovation and try to produce new services or products using ingenuity under time pressure.
Hackathon: who really benefits and how? (SPOILER: it's not all happening in Paris!)
Many hackathons take place in different places: in associations, in towns or cities, in schools and finally in companies. I'm going to focus on the latter in this article.
Who can take part in a hackathon?
Anyone who wants to can join in. I mean it. At no point is this demagoguery. But we do need to be aware of one thing: just because anyone can get involved doesn't mean everyone will succeed. This is a crucial point to understand for both the company and the participants: playing isn't winning, but unlike Loto, the more you play, the more likely you are to win.
However, there are conditions for all those who wish to participate:
1. Getting ready
The earlier you learn about Design and Business creativity methods, the more you make or experience other things beforehand, the more you maximize your chances of performance during a Hackathon: it's an illusion to believe that the moment is enough to get the most out of your abilities.
2. Open up to others
A hackathon is a team effort, not a solitary ordeal: curiosity, observation and inspiration are key to understanding how to make the most of what you want to do, combined with what already exists, while calling on the collective intelligence.
3. Get over the idea
Most hackathons ask you to come up with new ideas. That's good, but not essential: what counts is the end result. The best idea at the outset is to have found a problem to solve that's big enough to fit in with the company's strategy and customers' needs, and specific enough that it's easy to come up with a draft solution in 48 hours.
On the very first afternoon of skiing, I had a revelation: I announced, stupidly for a skilled skier, but I had a flash on one of the dozens of YouTube videos I had watched: the weight on the right supporting leg! The video came back to me like a flash, and I was able to print out the movement, supported by one of my group mates who was explaining to me how he initiated his turn. If I hadn't prepared myself and listened, I'd still be there.
Who should launch it?
All companies are beginning to segment their functions and integrate a variety of profiles into their ranks. These same companies are also asking themselves the following questions:
- Where is their historic market headed?
- What other markets might be accessible?
- With what we have and what we know how to do, could we apply it to another industry?
- How do you find an attractive growth driver in the current difficult economic climate?
And companies of this type are legion, whatever their location - it doesn't stop at big cities or head offices!
So, 90% of companies, right?
But here again, it's not a question of going about things any old way: if you're using a Hackathon just to please your staff, or if you want to do it in a way that's totally orthogonal to the company's standard way of operating, you're on the wrong track in both cases.
A company must also meet certain conditions:
1. Set a course
Why this hackathon? What do we want to do with what comes out of it? Which themes and issues should be tackled first? How can we involve management (top, middle and local), and ensure that the various departments or Business Units can take ownership of the results? Which entity or department is designated as the internal organizer?
2. Open to maximum
A hackathon is not for "champions", or those famous "high potentials". It's the right mix for success. From the field to support functions, from managers to technical experts.
3. There's no magic bullet
Just because you put Yassine from HR together with Julie from Dev, Guillaume from Accounting and Yves from Marketing, and get them to work on a well-prepared idea from a strategic BU or the Information Systems Department, doesn't mean you'll come away with the company's future "moon shot" project! You have to imagine the key stages in the success of the whole event, and trust in serendipity.
Why hold a Hackathon, and what benefits can you expect for your company even after 2023 in France?
The reasons are many, and yes, it's always worth the cost, perhaps more than ever, to do it!
1. Stop telling, DO!
The number of corporate innovation challenges and calls for ideas is immense, with many a disappointment on the part of top management, who have the impression that they've flopped. The reason for this? Most of the time, these challenges are looking for THE good idea on paper, which will best fill a written file focused on what should be done and how, without asking the question of why.
In other words: the paper or digital file doesn't give you the opportunity to create something concrete in relation to a key business issue, to confront a market or users. Hackathons enable you to take action, using methods and tools to talk to people, develop a real value proposition, build a viable prototype that allows you to project yourself (whatever the IT skills of non-developer participants) and get constructive feedback to deduce a future business model and deployment plan!
The Hackathon enables us to move from thinking full of hidden hypotheses to taking action to formulate and test them.
2. See rare gems emerge by stopping looking for them
A hackathon is a great tool for spotting talent in several categories:
- In innovation, through the means that teams will use to accomplish their project,
- In management, through the emergence of team leaderships in line with corporate values,
- In expertise, by looking at the execution capacity of certain profiles that reveal themselves during this kind of event and are under-exploited, without realizing it, in their traditional profession.
3. Creating real cross-functionality, online or in real life
By bringing teams together around a common mission and vision, indissoluble bonds are created. A community is born, whatever the outcome of the project. A connection that can only be felt during an intense 48-hour event creates virtuous breaches in the company's notorious silos, promoting powerful future cross-functional collaboration based on trust. And this cross-functionality goes beyond departmental boundaries: it's also generational cross-functionality, gender cross-functionality, life story cross-functionality. And this is true whether the Hackathon is live (with greater impact, let's be honest) or online, thanks to today's animation tools.
4. Touching real desires through customer-driven design
The aim of a Hackathon is to get as close as possible to the field, to show something to the customer quickly, to get quick feedback, and to do it again. Of course, the Hackathon is just the beginning, but the best way to create a new product or service that people want is still to go through the methodology of a Hackathon, whose design is conceived for this purpose.
5. Set up an innovation training program
Beyond the projects, it's a real live training session for all participants: learning these new methods and tools through concrete projects means that they can then be reapplied to more traditional product or service lines. It's rare to succeed in applying what the trainer teaches us in standard training courses: the Hackathon makes it possible.
6. Drastically increase public speaking skills
It's a challenge for any company, small, medium-sized or large. Most employees, with the exception of sales people, are never trained to express themselves, to "pitch" or to tell stories (storytelling). However, in a Hackathon, at the end of the allotted time, a pitch is required in front of the jury. It's a crash course in how to express yourself in front of a customer, but not only: also in front of management, team members and partners. Everything you learn on this subject in a Hackathon is a key to mastering this skill and increasing your leadership to engage those around you.
7. Create a culture of initiative
This is surely the most important thing. This implies that this first Hackathon is the first brick towards something bigger, or at least repeated, but this dynamic is only beneficial for the company. Innovation in general, of which the Hackathon is one of the tools, is based on the long term: the more the exercise is repeated, the more the participants will absorb the energy, the methods and the Test & Learn, the more the company will benefit, particularly in terms of collaboration between different departments. It's an investment with compound interest: maybe the first meeting won't result in a profound transformation, but the more these meetings are multiplied, the greater the chance of creating a huge success.
How to run a successful hackathon and achieve concrete results: program examples
Before asking "How much does a Hackathon cost?", it's essential to know how to organize it.
At Dynergie, we have several key steps to achieve this, which go far beyond the event itself:
1. Projection - Engage and project COMEX members in your organization's long-term innovation through this challenge and existing data.
We need to identify the themes, the customer issues, and the areas of focus based on the data collected within the company, which could be used as starting points for the Hackathon. Next, define precise objectives that everyone can understand. Then, select potential future sponsors in advance, based on the most relevant projects that emerge. It's also important to take stock of the innovative solutions already being developed within the company, to avoid duplication.
2. Inspiration - Inspire your employees about innovation, themes and the organization of the hackathon.
Themed conferences, workshops on methods and tools, testimonials from other organizations or former participants: generate interest while already providing knowledge before the event, to maximize the impact of the 48 hours right from the start.
3. Hackathon - Generate innovative ideas during the hackathon and create emulation around the challenge.
Propose a clear agenda, involving expert company resources and internal and external coach-trainers who can contribute creativity techniques. Prepare a relevant jury - here too, an external/internal mix can be beneficial. And above all, vary the intensity of support: it should be a subtle blend of coaching and autonomy to enable teams to take ownership of the subject and make decisions, while facilitating their collaboration.
4. Acceleration - Turning winning ideas into concrete projects:
The Hackathon is just the beginning, not the end result. It is the first stone of the cathedral. The projects with the greatest value for the company and its participants must be accompanied, supervised, measured and progressed in an agile way. All this in a process that regularly allows us to ask ourselves the Go/NoGo question, depending on the stages we've reached. This is one of the keys to reproducing this kind of event.
And skiing in all this...
I've been through all these stages.
I asked myself why I wanted to learn to ski: to spend time in nature, do sports, go away with friends or family, and enjoy the unique serenity that the mountains offer in winter.
I drew on videos, testimonials from friends and clear tutorials to arrive prepared on the first day, so as to optimize my on-the-spot training.
I took action, alternating coaching from my trainer and the members of my group, then playing alone to master the sport.
Then I began my acceleration, which will surely last several months or years, by setting myself measurable, precise and fast objectives, like this famous blue/red track.
My roller-skating experience fed into my learning to ski. The fact that I was "old" at learning helped me to get motivated and get back on track, while keeping my determination.
All in all, nothing out of the ordinary, what I'm writing here will speak to anyone who's learned to ski - it's common sense!
That's why a Hackathon, whatever its "buzzword" name, cuts across the ages and fashions: its principles are common sense, because they imply a logical learning process and collaboration that we tend to forget with the growing complexity of our organizations, from SMEs to large corporations.
It's counter-intuitive, but innovation is often found in a simple process that makes sense... Or the tip of a spatula.
In a nutshell
Hackathons offer a host of advantages for companies:
- Stimulating innovation and creativity
- Strengthen your corporate culture
- Identifying and developing talent
- Accelerate the development of new products and services
- Promoting learning and professional development
- Increase employee commitment
- Improve decision-making and problem-solving skills
- Develop a competitive edge
If you'd like to know more about organizing a hackathon for your company, you can contact me on LinkedIn or on our contact page.
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Raphaël Thobie
I began my career as a software development engineer before moving on to become a telecoms department manager. My passion for innovation led me to become an intrapreneur, then to launch my own company to help other organizations innovate. At the same time, I explored various fields on a freelance basis, eventually immersing myself in the fascinating world of fintech, NFT and web3.