Often groups of 2-5 individuals form around a project, such as building a new data visualization, writing a document, or collaboratively investigating a problem. Participants take out their laptops, connect to power and wifi, and get working.
Hacking begins with project introductions. Participants that bring projects to the event have an opportunity to briefly (1 minute max) explain what they are working on at the very start of the event so that other participants can join that project. At the end of the event, a wrap-up session gives each project a chance to demonstrate some accomplishments.
Cultivating Good Projects
Not every project makes a good hackathon project. It is extremely important to maximize the following qualities in the projects at your event:
Clearly articulated. Projects should have a clear question or problem they are trying to solve plus a reasonably specific proposed solution. Attainable. Most projects will accomplish about 25% of what they think they can accomplish in the limited time they have. Manage each project’s goals so participants are able to feel accomplished at the end of the session, not interrupted. Easy to onboard newcomers. Projects should have ready-to-go tasks for newcomers with a variety of skills and at a variety of skill levels. For coding projects, these tasks can’t require an intimate understanding of the code base, and make sure the build environment can be spun up in less than 20 minutes. Make a list of tasks or create github issues ahead of time! Led by a stakeholder. A stakeholder (or “subject matter expert”) guides a project to real-world relevance. Projects without a stakeholder can “solve” a problem that doesn’t exist. Ideally the leader (or one of the leaders) is a stakeholder, or a good proxy for a stakeholder. I strongly recommend reviewing Laurenellen McCann’s Build With, Not For series on involving stakeholders in all civic tech work. Additionally, it is never enough for a project leader to just be an ideas person. Beware when the leader is a stakeholder but can’t foresee how he or she might be implementing along with the rest of the team. Organized. For projects with four or more members, especially newcomers, the project leader’s role should be to coordinate, ensuring each team member has something to work on and helping to welcome new team members. Treat these bullets like a checklist. Projects that think about themselves in terms of these qualities tend to be happier and more productive.
If you know what projects are going to be worked on at the event, the earlier you can get those projects thinking about this the better. Meet with project leads and talk about these components of their project ahead of time if possible. As an organizer, having this information about projects can also help you route participants to projects they may want to work on.
At Themed Hackathons
A themed hackathon is one in which the projects are confined to a particular problem: such as food sustainability or returning citizens. Themed hackathons are able to attract subject matter experts (something that open-ended hackathons like Open Data Day DC are not good at), and projects typically revolve around problems that the subject matter experts bring to the table.
When themed hackathons are also technology hackathons, there is a common problem: Subject matter experts can readily identify problems in their field but cannot always turn those problems into workable technology projects. Other participants may be ready to apply their skills but not know anything about the hackathon’s theme. Bridging that gap requires careful planning ahead of time.
What often results is a division of the room into three groups:
Subject matter experts and other participants successfully working together. Subject matter experts working with other subject matter experts on problem investigation but not implementation. Other participants struggling to find something relevant to work on / implementing a solution of minimal value to solving the theme’s actual problems. #1 is great. #2 is fine if the group is happy. But #3 is bad: participants without subject matter guidance will feel lost. To avoid this, make sure you have enough workable projects for everyone ahead of the event. Work with the subject matter experts before the event to turn their problems into projects. See the section Cultivating Good Projects above to ensure there is a coherent question, that the necessary resources exist (e.g. datasets), and that the skills needed for the project match the skills expected to be brought by other participants (and in sufficient quantity).
Additionally, a subject matter expert may propose many ideas but he or she can only effectively participate in a single project during the event, so ensure that there is at least one subject matter expert + workable project for about every four non-expert participants.
Placing Newcomers into New Projects
Onboarding participants onto existing projects can be very difficult. It is one of the hardest parts of hacking. So have ideas for new projects that are especially easy for participants to get started with if they can’t join an existing project. Having project ideas ready is especially important if you do not expect many participants to bring projects! And always be open to project ideas from participants. A project of one, meaning someone working alone, is okay too!
Other Tips
Do not allow anyone to pitch an idea that they will not be working on at the event, unless there really are not enough ideas to go around. Otherwise, this is a waste of everyone’s valuable time.
Once hacking has begun, do not interrupt the hackers except to ensure that the hacking is going smoothly, to check that everyone has something to do, and to keep people on the overall schedule. Mid-day activities such as lunch-time speakers and video calls with people off-site are incredibly distracting for participants who are now eager to get working on a problem.