Ask Us Anything: INTERNAL HACKATHONS--from ShipIt to evolving the practice for the future

[Christine P. Dela Rosa]

Drop your questions between now and Tuesday, 28 September EST, when our experts respond to the questions on this page.

Featured Atlassian responders:

• Philip Braddock -  Global ShipIt Lead & Chief of Staff to the CFO, Atlassian
• Karen Holst - Global ShipIt Lead & Principal Innovation Lead, Internal Innovation

As heard on the "Work Check" podcast, a hackathon is a problem-solving competition. Whichever staff member or team comes up with the best solution, wins.

Listen to the podcast episode (on Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your podcasts) to learn more, and when you're done, come back and ask follow-up questions on this page. Or, ask us anything about Atlassian's internal hackathon--ShipIt. All questions are welcome!

Then on 28 September EST, join our guest experts (and Teamwork Lab members) to answer questions submitted or upvote the questions you want to see answered. 

[Brittany Joiner · Accepted solution]

Have you ever tried Hackathons for non-dev/code related projects? Can they work for less structured problems relating to other departments, like marketing challenges?

[Philip Braddock]

Hey @Brittany Joiner , yes, absolutely! At Atlassian, ShipIt is for all Atlassians, meaning technical and non-technical alike. In fact, to encourage non-technical participation, we always award the Unplugged Prize, which is explicitly for projects that have no coding whatsoever (not even low- or pseudo-code).

[Brittany Joiner]

@Philip Braddock that's super cool! Love to hear that.

[Karen Holst]

Great question, @Brittany Joiner To add to @Philip Braddock's note, I've seen hackathons with strong problem statements as the theme, allowing for different teams and projects to surface. 

[Jenny Kim · Accepted solution]

How do you motivate people who aren't engineers to participate in hackathons? It takes me a long time to do anything. How do people like me participate in a "burst of innovation" when our skillsets take time to grow dividends?

[Philip Braddock]

Hey @Jenny Kim , thanks for reaching out. At Atlassian, ShipIt is for all Atlassians, meaning technical and non-technical alike. In fact, to encourage non-technical participation, we always award the Unplugged Prize, which is explicitly for projects that have no coding whatsoever (not even low- or pseudo-code).

[Karen Holst]

I think the word hackathon has a tech-exclusive connotation that has evolved in meaning over the years. Even teams that are solely focused on tech-heavy solutions require other innovation skills to succeed.

Perhaps your skill is in driving initiatives forward? Your persistence and ambition can help lead teams.

Or maybe you are skilled in creative problem-solving and making new, unrelated connections? Your growth mindset could help teams evolve the idea into new, more disruptive spaces.

Your opportunity in a hackathon is to identify the skills you want to share and grow, and raise your hand to do that work.

Just as a developer shows up ready to code, you come ready to flex your innovation muscles as well!

[Fadoua · Accepted solution]

One of the most memorable challenge that you faced in your previous Hackathons? What did you learn from it?

Thank you!

Fadoua

[Philip Braddock]

Hi @Fadoua , thank you for asking. When COVID forced our global TEAM to shift to WFH in mid-March 2020, we had to pivot quickly because we had a pre-planned ShipIt coming up in mid-April. At first, we had to make a fundamental “root” decision: to proceed or cancel. We debated both sides and outlined as many pros/cons as we could imagine. In the end, we decided to proceed but to pivot to a remote-only event (because, of course, all of our offices were hard-closed). Going from an atmosphere that was primarily office-based to one that was exclusively remote was absolutely the right call but we certainly experienced some “speed bumps” along the way. We have continued to improve over the past 18+ months, which is a good thing because, in retrospect, the biggest lesson I learned was that culture is your heart, not in your hallways. Put differently, in my opinion, ShipIt is core to Atlassian’s culture. And in the end, it was more important to preserve the event and pivot to virtual / remote rather than discontinue it on account of COVID.

[Karen Holst]

Outside of Atlassian, I have participated in dozens of hackathons as a participant or later, as a judge. All have been fun and an incredible growth opportunity for me!

I remember early in my career, when I was new to the San Francisco area, I tried to join a big tech company’s external hackathon as a participant. They advertised they were seeking more non-technical participants so I showed up, excited and ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work.

While in theory the company may have wanted more diversity in roles and functions in the teams, I was the only non-technical participant to show up. I was also one of 5 women in a room of about 100 participants.

In addition to not attracting more diversity to the event, they didn’t create a way for people to engage and connect, so I had to really hustle and shop around my value to get a team to “allow” me to join their work.

That experience made me reflect on how I would build better, more inclusive experiences in the future!

[Ajay _view26_ · Accepted solution]

How do you pair Designers & Engineers into a hackathon..? I mean ensuring a diverse team.. Usually its a bunch of Engineers participating in a hackathon..

[Philip Braddock]

Hi @Ajay _view26_ , this is a really good question, mate! At Atlassian, we are completely non-prescriptive about team formation during ShipIt. In other words, Atlassians can choose to work with anyone, from any team, anywhere in the world. But given our normal practice of working in triads – Product, Design, Engineering – most Atlassians instinctually understand that the best way to achieve the best outcome is to have a diverse team with diverse skills and backgrounds.

[Karen Holst]

Creating opportunities for cross-team collaboration is definitely a challenge!

For new Atlassians or people with smaller networks outside of their core team, we see how difficult it might be to ensure diversity in their ShipIt team and collaborate across the organization.

One place to move the needle is to do the connecting for the teams. Before an event, have a group of designers ready to roll up their sleeves and join a team. When teams start forming, listen to the ideas and plug in a designer that could help a group along. Perhaps they need more help in thinking about the UI? Or in creating the pitch for the demo? Many teams just need the introduction.

This high-touch approach is a first step forward to teach you where the connections added value and how you might consider creating new mechanisms in the future.

[Christine P. Dela Rosa · Accepted solution]

From the organizer side, what're some of the challenges in trying to evolve or even coordinate internal hackathons that perhaps hackathon participants don't see?

[Philip Braddock]

Hey @Christine P. Dela Rosa , great question! Like with any (semi-)mature event, there are lots of “invisible” details that go into planning ShipIt. As a global company, one of the challenges we face at Atlassian is ensuring that there is a local sponsor / champion in each of our geos / time zones. And since that is a volunteer role, it’s natural that after a few cycles, the local sponsor / champion is ready to pass the baton to someone else. When that happens, there’s usually a little bit of scrambling but we always try to give ourselves enough lead-time to minimize the number of “fire drills” we have during each ShipIt. Additionally, we ask the entire company of 8,000+ Atlassians (incl. contractors) for feedback after each ShipIt, and separating the signal from the noise, especially in free-form feedback, can sometimes be a daunting task that is largely invisible to participants. If you happen to be a sports fan, then this will probably resonate with you: in the way that they say the best referees / officials are the ones who go unnoticed by the fans, the best internal hackathons are the ones where the “mechanics” go unnoticed by the participants.

[Karen Holst]

I hear two parts of this question and I think they both show the challenge of running programs like a hackathon.

The first is the challenge of evolving an event. To this point, for any event that is meant to spur innovation, it requires constant innovating.

Evaluating the purpose of the event and reflecting on the impact it has is an important part of the organizer’s work

Is the event to empower more collaboration, more innovation skill building, more innovative solutions into the hands of customers? Perhaps it does some or all of this, but what is the primary purpose?

Consider the purpose of the event for today and into the future, rather than solely reflecting on the purpose it served previously.

For a hackathon to evolve with intention, answer these questions and get alignment to ensure you are building the right activity.

The second part of the challenge is around coordination. Organizers want to create the space for disruptive ideas, allowing for freedom and creativity to flow but with a balance of ensuring it doesn’t feel too constrained or too unstructured.

To @Philip Braddock's response, the feedback post-event is a great point of inspiration for improving things on the side of coordination.

Every hackathon event is a new opportunity to experiment and evolve. You will want to be deliberate in the changes you implement, but not allow fear of failure to keep from taking on challenges.

Every failure presents an opportunity for action in the next hackathon!

[G subramanyam · Accepted solution]

Hackathon is a one stop place for talented pool. And the person with a clear idea and prototype wins. So, I'm just wondering is Hackathon a place for non-developers or non-coding professionals? If yes, please name few either in Atlassian or world wide? I'm more interested to listen on this topic.

[Philip Braddock]

Hi @G subramanyam , thanks for taking the time to post the question.

As I mentioned in my reply to @Jenny Kim , at Atlassian, ShipIt is for all Atlassians, meaning technical and non-technical alike. In fact, to encourage non-technical participation, we always award the Unplugged Prize, which is explicitly for projects that have no coding whatsoever (not even low- or pseudo-code).

[G subramanyam]

Thank you @Philip Braddock for that detail. So, I will be confident enough to know their is a "ShipIt" for non-coder's like me and that's really a big boost to my aspirations.

[Christine P. Dela Rosa · Accepted solution]

It's easy to see quick wins from internal hackathons. But, how do you push that energy forward so that there's long-term momentum behind some of the innovation that comes from point-in-time hackathons?

[Karen Holst]

Love this and thinking about how short bursts of activity in events like a hackathon can get pulled into the longer game of innovation.

One important layer to this is ensuring you close the loop for participants. Non-winning teams (which typically make up the largest portion of a hackathon) are often left without a clear understanding of what they can do next. But the ideas don't have to end with the event!

First, push teams to reflect on lessons learned. At Atlassian, we have a culture of sharing our learning. So after a ShipIt, many teams blog about their experience and reflect on what they learned. This shareout helps the team to evaluate what did and didn’t work, and helps future teams to avoid the same pitfalls and learn as well.

Second, help teams to see potential next steps to their project. Maybe as part of voting, you ask judges to share ideas for what the team might do to further their idea and continue the work after the hackathon has ended. At Atlassian, many ShipIt projects move into other activities like an innovation week, 20% time, or get roadmapped for future work.

These two steps will help move teams from the “make” part innovation into reflecting on the “impact” of their work. Encouraging reflection and helping to connect the dots for participants will strengthen their innovation capabilities and the projects themselves!

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Good podcast! But I found the arguments against internal hackathons to be fairly weak. We do internal hackathons periodically, but it is done off site from our offices typically, and involve the entire product engineering team (more than 200 developers) as well as product managers, project manager, marketers, etc.  It is done during normal office hours and can cover 2-3 days. 

For me, it's not just about the product that is designed and produced, it's about the sharing of ideas and techniques and how participants learn from each other. More often than not, members pick up pointers and tips to apply to their own coding ability and through processes. Or they learn about other tools, blogs, podcasts, etc. that influence other participants.

It's an opportunity for growth. If a cool new product or widget or app or process or whatever comes out of it, great! But otherwise, it's almost always going to be a success in my eyes.

So, after all of the rambling, the question!

Phillip and Karen - What criteria do each of you use to determine if a hackathon was a success? And can you share an example of a hackathon that was not a success? 

[Philip Braddock]

Hi @John Funk , thanks for the question. For the longest time, we looked at participation as the default measure to gauge whether a given instance of ShipIt was successful (or not). Then, around 2.5 years ago when our TEAM crossed 3,000 Atlassians or so, we realized that we were over-emphasizing participation stats because, simply put, there were too many Atlassians to expect that “everyone” would / could participate. Of course, that “problem” has only grown as our TEAM continues to grow. And don’t get me wrong, we still look at participation stats after each event, and break it down by geo, department, leader, etc. Today, however, we take a more hybrid approach between quantitative and qualitative metrics. For example, instead of focussing exclusively on how to increase participation each time (i.e., our legacy approach), we now also focus on how to host an ever-better event for those who choose to participate. In other words, we look at qualitative CSAT-like measurements from those that participate and value those “scores” as much as we do global participation.

[Karen Holst]

Great question, @John Funk! I think focusing in on the purpose of the hackathon for your company will give great insight into what to track for success.

One area you touched on is the opportunity for participants across the organization to connect and learn from each other - more of that, please! Because at its core, we know innovation requires collaboration.

For innovative ideas to be born, it requires diversity in thinking and conversations across functions and roles, teams, and geographies.

A great success metric might be understanding the breakdown of team size. If you value the collaboration, track to see how many people made up the teams' size.

I think 1- to 2-person teams may have flexibility in moving quickly, but likely won’t have diversity in thinking or stronger cross-team collaboration. Additionally, some teams can get too large and it’s harder to manage the collaboration.

Then, moving deeper, you can track the teams based on the diversity they had in their makeup. Which teams had a variety of roles, functions, and tenure? How did they perform?

Going deeper than the number of participants, we think it’s valuable to evaluate the engagement and the event’s success in sparking cross-team collaboration.

A non-successful event to me would be one that had a slew of 1-person teams with little cross-team collaboration. That points to an opportunity to spark new connections in the event!

[John Funk]

Agreed - definitely needs to be a team of more than 1!