1. Research and no Development

• Research the hackathon sponsors
• Read any sponsor API docs
• Create accounts for any systems you may want to use
• And get API keys

During the Hackacthon

During the Hackathon

• Engage the sponsors at the event
• Ask questions about their APIs
• Ask questions on the problem they are trying to solve
• Let them in on your idea
• Solicit feedback from them

5. Remember it’s an MVP

• Narrow the focus and do one thing great instead of trying to build every feature
• Create a vote list, put all features on a list that each member can vote up or down
• Estimate the time needed to create that feature
• Relate the features to the problem statement and determine the importance

5. It's an MVP (2)

• Create business goals, product hypothesis and a mission or theory statement
• These will also help determining importance
• You’ll have a solid feature set to showcase your Minimum Viable Product
• One or two sprinkles as feature bling and wow factor is also key to the preso
• So up vote at least one of these features

6. Delegate Tasks

• Create a team like creating a startup
• Find 3-4 people with diverse strengths
• Front end dev, back end dev, designer, sales/biz and or charismatic presenter
• Dedicate one person to keep track of all the requirements/deadlines and docs
• Usually it’s stuff like submitting a team name, team members and github repo

6. Delegate Tasks (2)

• Decide on frameworks and collaboration tools
• Then assign tasks, create clear goals for each member, get commitments
• Check up on progress every hour, remind each other of the end goal
• Get everyone’s email and github username
• Create a project on slack or trello or old school with a whiteboard
• Create a tasks list, ask members to check off tasks as they are completed
• Add dependencies on the board of your choice and split the work

7. Leave time to develop and practice the presentation

• Create a slide deck, tell a story and delegate tasks for the presentation
• If one person is presenting, then someone else should be clicking on the preso
• Don’t make one person do everything, have another person watch the time
• Practice the presentation until everyone is comfortable and knows their role

7. Leave time to develop and practice the presentation (2)

• Most presentations are between 3 and 5 minutes
• If you have an extra minute, it's a good time for audience interaction or questions
• Or to just expand on a powerful feature of the hack
• Feel free to present the evolution and future roadmap of your hack

7. Leave time to develop and practice the presentation (3)

• Reflector is a great tool for presenting an iOS or Android app
• Have all tabs open with the screens in sync with the preso
• Don’t spend time logging in, everyone knows how to login
• End on a high note, that sprinkle, that wow feature

That’s my wrap...

have lots of fun hacking!

➕

These tips were given by Andrew Van Tassel.

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