Avoid These Five Pitfalls at Your Next Hackathon

Hackathons are a valuable tool for spurring innovative solutions to challenging problems, but they can fail badly. This can be particularly disheartening considering the substantial time, money, and other resources invested in preparation, organization, and execution. So, what causes them to go wrong?

According to the author he has observed 48 distinct hackathons from five different perspectives: participant, mentor, organizer, observer, and adviser. The most significant overarching problem is that organizers don’t establish well-defined goals from the start. Among hackathons I studied, only a minority had well-defined objectives, capabilities, and methodologies for assessing the event’s success, along with a concrete execution plan.  The lessons that follow can help organizers of future hackathons steer clear of common mistakes.

1. Define a challenge that meets the needs of both organizers and participants. Incorrectly prepared, unclear, uninteresting, or impossible-to-solve challenges are among the most common reasons that hackathons fail.  Challenges are the core around which everything else is later built, so they should be clearly defined before any other planning takes place. In the process, check that time constraints are realistic via a test run within the organization or by seeking advice from more experienced organizers.
2. Mentoring is poorly managed, inadequate, or absent. Participants usually need mentoring for issues that stall their progress with the challenge.  Manage the mentoring process closely to ensure that mentors have and follow good guidance on engaging with participants and that they are available as needed.
3. The hackathon has unclear or inadequate judging criteria. Participants should fully understand how their work will be evaluated at the start of the event.  Clear judging criteria communicated in the simplest possible manner are crucial for participants to embrace and understand the challenge.
4. There are too many tools in the toolbox. Many hackathons require participants to use too many disparate and unconnected tools. Those may include registration tools, various data access platforms, a separate submission repository, and diverse communication tools.  People can make mistakes, often causing them to lose hackathons despite a potentially winning project.  Larger hackathons usually require more complex solutions and are therefore harder to manage when it comes to multi-tool disease.  Simplify, simplify, simplify, and consider the time-pressured user experience.
5. Participants’ health and well-being during the event are not considered. The average participant will spend more than 30 hours (24 hours of work and some time for arrival, judging, and award ceremony) with little or no sleep.  Organizers should certainly issue a notice about participants’ responsibility for their own health. But for in-person or hybrid events, organizers should plan for quick medical care or have trained medical professionals on standby. They also should limit energy drinks and provide plenty of water and healthy foods. Some hackathons incorporate physical activities like yoga, stretching, or relaxation sessions. Increasingly, some include tasks, workshops, or seminars on maintaining health and well-being throughout the hackathon.

The key to addressing these challenges is to establish a comprehensive plan and hackathon strategy early on. Careful design, efficient management, establishment of clear objectives, and strategic planning can significantly contribute to mitigating these challenges for hosting a hackathon — and increase the likelihood that the event will yield the solutions and innovations the organizer is seeking.