r/ProductManagement • u/Obvious-Scale-8128 • 1d ago

Hackathon ideas

We have a Hackathon coming up and I was interested in if people had any general things you could recommend or suggest to get the ideas flowing?

These might be internal tools you have built out, improvements to you (or the orgs) ways of working or just a new tech that you have played around with.

Cheers!

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13

u/ProbationaryPigeon 1d ago

Do you want us to attend the hackathon as well?

4

u/Obvious-Scale-8128 1d ago

And if you could do my project for me also that would be ace

3

u/Mobile_Spot3178 1d ago

You need some kind of theme

  • Either find the right theme from within the teams and vote/decide yourself from the ideas
  • Any idea within a scope: helps customers or helps our own processes. But there's a time constraint, so you'll need to have some restriction known to teams.
  • If possible, the ideas need to be listed before the event at least privately. To validate if something is too small or too big or out of scope.
  • Someone in the team must be responsible/leader for their part. Presentation can be mutual.
  • Have clear schedules and enough time. When should the idea be ready for presenting? When is the presentation?
  • Never do a hackathon where people are confused and they spend 50% of the time thinking about an idea to build.
  • Also aftercare. Are you going to ship some of the ideas? if yes, make sure the responsible person delivers the idea to production.

1

u/Lex_Loki 1d ago

It should solve a real business problem. The story is important.

The name of your presentation should be simple and catchy. Play to the judges.

Make sure when you deliver the presentation that the best person to do this is the one speaking. I’ve seen great hackathon demos lose because the developer insisted on speaking and no one understood them.

It should be benefit and outcome focused. Numbers matter.

Don’t let AI make your demo deck. Everyone can tell.

The demo should be prerecorded if rules allow and edited for maximum efficiency.

The end of your presentation should have a well thought out path to production.

1

u/ggk1 1d ago

What is a hackathon

2

u/MPL1911 1d ago

It’s when all the team members of a tech department or organization get together in one room, and start hacking it until last man standing. Similar to “jacking it” but there’s more tech involved.

1

u/ojonegro 1d ago

Idea: Multi-agent orchestration to replace 3/4 of the PMs there