5 Lessons From Joining Hackathons

I never thought hackathons were for me, until I joined one

I have always believed that hackathons were not to my taste, including the fact that most of them are heavily gravitated towards tech and long nights glued to a computer screen. Previously, I have worked with hackathon-inspired format business cases, still I believe it is time to challenge myself for something new. In a free semester after exchange in Hong Kong, I decided to sign up for pure time pressure and did not expect much, but this definitely altered my brain cells and unleashed my potentials.

Team spirits and burning ideas carry you through the sleepless night

I found a diverse team of enthusiastic people, some first-timers, few were hackathon masters. We all share a passion for finding innovative solutions that maximize both business opportunities and community values. In this hackathon, we tackled a challenge proposed by Sweco, a design, engineering, and consulting company in urban infrastructure and societal resilience transformation. Their challenge revolves around building a community-driven urban resilience tool, addressing SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

Our approach was to conduct extensive market research, understand the pain points, build a simple UI, and pitch through each feature thoroughly.

When the hard work paid off

As anticipated, I stayed up the night to complement the interface and build a pitching video while my teammates revised the solution and its contribution to the community based on the current situation. Eventually, we were selected as the challenge company as the winner!!

Visit our pitch on YouTube HERE

Key learning lessons to make the most out of 36-48 hours

1. Hackathons are not purely coding: The app is the final brick that showcases the hard work. Behind the scenes, researching, framing the problem, and designing the solution are equally important. I am glad that I could contribute using my previous studies and work experiences, which I thought were not relevant, such as video editing and designing.

2. Understand the gaps: it feels good to build what you’re passionate about, but it all started with understanding what people are actually struggling with. That was the reason why we spent more than half of the time researching the materials and asking “Why” to bridge our knowledge of the case and catch the bottleneck.

3. Stay perseverant: 48 hours fly quickly, and a long night is unavoidable. We all got tired and doubted the directions, but we have to collect ourselves and keep pushing forward.

4. Embrace diversity: joining the first hackathon can be intimidating, and other participants might feel the same way, with a new industry, a new environment, and new people. However, that is just perfect as we combined our perspectives to craft a solution catering to different users while balancing creativity and realism.

5. Say “Yes”: Being new also means I would see the problem from a different perspective. I was not afraid to ask and raise discussions, which helped fortify the solution, and we can get ourselves back on track. Sometimes fresh eyes act as a superpower!

From participant to team lead

After this experience, I realized I wanted to contribute beyond just the participant role, which led me to apply for the organization team. Being hype team lead at Junction 2024, I worked with the team to build a welcoming environment for participants and ensure the event flow is running smoothly and energetically.