How this team is using a ‘hybrid approach’ to make hackathons more effective

Photo credit: Andrew Neel.

Startups and larger companies do a lot to foster a spirit of innovation and teamwork—open floor plans, flexible work hours, flat reporting structures, perks, compensation, and more. The threat of disruption around every bend and a highly competitive talent landscape demands even more from organizations.

Some companies try offsites—often to exotic locations—to reward teams and encourage discussion. Others, particularly product-oriented companies, conduct hackathons to spark new business ideas and rekindle creativity.

Sadly, offsites and hackathons are both great ideas that rarely work in practice. However, there is another option: “launchathons,” a hybrid approach that brings offsites and hackathons together. In my company, Rocketium, quarterly launchathons have created new features, products, go-to-market plans, analytics tools, and more.

Why offsites?

In offsites, teams spend a few days in a relaxed environment outside the office to find ways to benefit the business. These events are great ways to be with teammates in a different setting, get new ideas in a new place, and mix work with fun. The ideal offsite renews team focus, increases understanding and respect, and creates real business impact.

But the reality is that offsites are usually just a good diversion. If work happens, it is a list of action items and projects that are promptly forgotten. This is because no one expects concrete results from such events. Concrete results come in more ways than just product features: identifying and resolving team conflicts, finding new market segments, and improving the office environment. Every team can contribute meaningfully as long as the focus is on creating something.

Why hackathons?

Though not as common as offsites, quite a few companies conduct hackathons. These events are held over two to three days and involve the engineering, product, and design teams to brainstorm new ideas and bring them to life. Like offsites, they are a great way to improve the bond between teams, come up with new ideas that can move the business forward, and create a fun environment for the participants.

Though hackathons are more result-oriented than offsites, the result is similar—projects are forgotten and we go back to the “real world” on Monday. This is because there is no explicit business goal associated with a hackathon. In the attempt to free teams from doing regular work during hackathons, most companies have people building toy projects that never see the light of day.

Launchathons: the best of both worlds

Launchathons are two- to three-day offsites where teams work on projects of their choice which they demo on the last day. The projects are chosen in the office a few days before heading out, depending on their potential impact, the team’s interest level, and the likelihood of completion. The entire team participates and ensures that the final result is fully functional with design, engineering, marketing, and other aspects figured out. With a little more work after coming back to the office, the projects are ready for the rest of the world.

We do launchathons every quarter and have found them to be very effective. This is the process:

1. Brainstorm and choose a few projects
2. Organize everyone into project teams
3. Split the time into projects, discussions, and fun activities
4. End the event with a demo and some feedback from the team

This approach will work for companies like ours (early-stage, software- and product-oriented, and engineering-heavy teams). I am sure parts of this can be adapted to later-stage companies too.

Here are more details on the individual steps of the process.

Brainstorm and choose a few projects