We all aim for the perfect balance of productivity and creativity and search for new methods to achieve both at the same time. Although Hackathons are not new, they experience an enormous revival. But, how can we really make the best out of 48 hours without destroying the creativity? We did the self test, two Hackathons with two different methods and the goal to create a technical solution in 2 days: the Multiversum Hackathons
The term “Hackathon” combines the words “Hack” and “Marathon”, whereat “hacking” is not referring to intruding computer systems, but to develop a functioning software solution during the Marathon-like event. In our office live, we often experience the same: we have tons of ideas, but simply do not find the time to try them out. With the Multiversum Hackathons, we aimed for creative and innovative solutions for exactly those ideas.
Freedom and Agility motivating us to strive for more
When you plan a Hackathon you do not know what will happen. Will we really code the whole night or not even find a topic, to start with? The key is to just try it out and give the team the freedom to fail. The first Hackathon was completely free in the topic, we wanted to gain hands-on experience on agility methods and new technologies. The team directly picked 2 very relevant topics for Multiversum. The second Hackathon came with a specific topic: “Sustainability”.
The result was enormous. Not only enabling us to share knowledge between each other, but to also build an actual solution, which we kept working on until today. It was not easy to allow for creativity especially with a remote event in the second Hackathon. For us, the main essence of success was the freedom for the team to organize themselves, but to give guidance on agile methods and tools if needed.
Our summary: we will repeat – code – ship – repeat!
