How to Organize a Great Hackathon with the Hackathon Canvas

How to Organize a Great Hackathon with the Hackathon Canvas

Michel Duchateau Innovation Coach Startup Weekend Facilitator Hackathon Animator

www.hackathoncanvas.co

2 Definition of a Hackathon

A typical hackathon is a two-day workshop where attendees form teams to build solutions together. In a mindset of positive competition, teams go as far as possible to design, prototype and deliver concrete results in a time-boxed marathon. At the end of the event, teams present their results to others or a panel of judges. This definition includes non-IT events, innovation-related and business oriented events, and differs from the original definition of the term “hackathon”.

More on Wikipedia

3 Organizing a Hackathon Is Not Simple

A lot of people are facing difficulties and obstacles when organizing their own hackathons. This is what I learned after organizing and animating 50 hackathons. Whatever the type, goal, and size of the event, typical pitfalls could have been avoided with a better preparation. Here are the top 10 most common pitfalls.

Top 10 Pitfalls 4

When organizing a hackathon

Reasons Examples 1 No clear purpose. ‘Let’s plan a hackathon because it’s hype.’

2 No preparation about what happens after the event. ‘Thank you for your demo. Goodbye!’

3 No communication strategy. ‘Just set up a registration page and wait for attendees to come.’

4 No clue regarding participants’ profiles. ‘We target everyone.’

5 Poor results (slide decks instead of prototypes). ‘Attendees will present something cool.’

6 Bad estimation of the resources needed. ‘Preparation is a 2 hours meeting.’

7 Confusing objectives for organizers and attendees. Attendees will validate business models for us!

8 Partners are involved but not committed. ‘Venue’s guys changed their minds the week before the event.’

9 No clear event goal. ‘We want everyone to create stuff.’

10 Egocentric. No empathy for attendees. A public hackathon where attendees work for a for-profit company for free.

5 The Hackathon Canvas Your visual tool to organize a hackathon easily

A visual and strategic tool

The 7 blocks help you to cover the main

topics to organize your hackathon and

avoid typical pitfalls.

Each block contains the right questions

and real examples to guide you.

It’s free and open for everyone. http://hackathoncanvas.co

When to Use the Hackathon Canvas 6

Organizing a hackathon like a project

Design Elaborate the vision, strategy and goals

Prepare Involve partners, suppliers, stakeholders

Communicate Recruit and prepare attendees

Start Set up your organizing team

Run Execute the hackathon, capture feedbacks

Debrief Review results and collect lessons learned

The Hackathon Canvas can be used as a dashboard during the organization

process to start, design, prepare, communicate and debrief easily.

7 How to Use the Hackathon Canvas Using this visual tool as a dashboard

Print it and use it with sticky notes.

In 30 minutes, you structure the concept

of your hackathon, define your action

plan and prepare a fantastic event.

Challenge your event with your team,

maximize the experience for attendees

and create value for stakeholders.

8

Key Resources Key Results

Key Partners Attendees Attendees’ Value Propositions

Hackathon Goals Hackathon Type

9 Hackathon Goals

Hackathon Goals 10

v  What are the objectives of our hackathon?

v  What is the context?

v  What is the purpose?

Examples for organizers - Source an incubation program - Contribute to the ecosystem - Create new startups - Boost visibility and credibility - Solve problems in a field

Examples for attendees - Improve collaboration - Have fun - Create real stuffs - Learn tools, methods, best practices - Kick off innovative projects

Questions

11 Hackathon Goals Hackathon Type

Hackathon Type 12

v  What are the characteristics of our hackathon? What is the theme?

v  Is it a public, private, or semi-private event?

v  Is it a business or technical oriented event? Is it a for-profit or non-profit event?

v  What is the expected duration?

v  How many participants are expected (10, 50, 100)?

Examples - A private for-profit event gathering 50 participants to develop solid business cases during 2 days - A public non-profit event gathering 100 participants to develop business and technical innovative solutions in the FinTech industry during 54 hours - An event where organizers are volunteers and results are open-source

Questions

13

Key Results


Key Results 14

v  What are the results expected from participants?

v  What kind of deliverable is required from participants at the end of our hackathon?

v  What are success criteria for the jury?

v  What is the quality level expected from participants?

Examples - Prototype, Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - Brief presentation of team results - Validated business model or business case - Implementation plan or go-to-market strategy - Bootstrapped projects

Questions

15

Key Results

Attendees


Attendees 16

v  Who are the participants?

v  Which skills and expertise are needed to provide results?

v  Do the attendees have to pay to attend the event?

v  Are the attendees invited or paid to come?

Examples - Collaborators of the same organization - End-users, business partners - Entrepreneurs, designers, developers - Experts from a specific industry

Questions

17

Key Results

Attendees Attendees Attendees’ Value Propositions


Pre-hackathon Post-hackathon During hackathon

Attendees’ Value Proposition 18

Pre-hackathon

v  How to recruit the best participants, coaches, experts and jury?

v  How to prepare participants (knowledge, skills, experience)?

v  How to prepare the working environment?

Examples - Organize information sessions for potential attendees - Organize workshops about tools and best practices - Set up a process to select the best attendees and projects - Prepare tools, data sets, contact lists and authorizations

Questions for pre-hackathon


During hackathon

v  How to maximize participants’ experience?

v  How to support and energize participants?

v  How to monitor their working environment?

Examples - Organize relevant coaching sessions - Deliver valuable prizes for winners - Organize ad hoc workshops to support participants - Develop networking opportunities

Questions for during hackathon


post-hackathon

v  What are the next steps for projects and participants?

v  Who owns each project?

v  What is planned next with the organizers?

Examples - Prepare incentives to continue - Organize a Demo Day - Support projects within an incubation program - Communicate on success stories

Questions for post-hackathon

21

Key Results



Key Partners 22

v  Who are the sponsors?

v  Who are the stakeholders?

v  Who are the suppliers?

v  Who are the partners?

Examples - Sponsors : public organizations, customers - Suppliers : venue, catering, facilitator, experts - Partners : businesses, communities, press, media

Questions

23

Key Resources Key Results



Key Resources 24

v  What are the most important key resources in our hackathon?

v  Who do we need to involve in our hackathon?

v  What are the roles needed to organize our hackathon?

Examples - Financial resources to cover costs from venue and catering - Time resources from organizers, coaches, experts and jury - Experience in animation from a hackathon facilitator - Time resources to recruit and prepare participants

Questions

26 The Hackathon Canvas Your visual tool to organize a hackathon easily

It’s free and open for everyone.

This canvas is under Creative Common license. Any organizing team can use it for any kind of event like company, private or public events.

http://hackathonCanvas.co

Contact 27

[email protected] +32 491 50 70 90 @miduchateau mduchateau

www.hackathoncanvas.co

Michel Duchateau

How to Organize a Great Hackathon with the Hackathon Canvas

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