Zonky’s hackathon

This week we went to the first Zonky hackathon to break out of our daily routine and try a few unusual ideas we never find time for. I’d come to like hackathons as a way to innovate at GoodData, so I took on organizing it.

The Zonky development team is about a tenth the size of GoodData DevOps, so there wasn’t as much to organize. The main logistical goal was to get out of the office, where our colleagues could easily draw us back into the daily routine. Part of our team is in Brno and we’d promised to get together, so it was clear where we were going. We booked a loft on Airbnb that looked suitable for hacking in the photos, bought train tickets and set off.

We’d been filling a backlog with interesting ideas in advance. On the train, somewhere between a EuroCity breakfast of warm beer and a cold sausage and Pardubice, the first round of team bonding began with coffee and Budvar. Then came pitching, pronounced like Czech slang for bitching. We introduced the projects and discussed who wanted to join which. I picked a solo project, though there were team projects too.

After settling into our hacking den, we bought piles of junk food and drinks and got to work. The apartment was beautiful and the photos made everything look amazing, but reality was less amazing. For one thing, there was a long narrow hallway that seemed the best place to hack as a group, or cowork, as they say. Next time we need to make sure there’s one big room and enough chairs, sofas and other furniture for the team to gather.

It was cold too. Even though I was raised on the tundra, my fingers were uncomfortably close to freezing to the keyboard. The apartment was great in one respect, though. Tired developers could camp out in bed and give their bodies and minds a rest.

Shopping for food and drink together turned out well. We didn’t waste time going out for supplies or get distracted from hacking. When lethargy was at its worst around four in the morning, a round of Quake Arena, with ample help from vodka and Red Bull, perked everyone up. One side effect was how much closer the team became, which I might rank even higher than the innovations we came up with.

In the end we implemented at least ten ideas from the backlog. I call that a success given that travel, accommodation and food together cost no more than ten thousand. Apart from the imperfect accommodation, the hackathon taught me a few things or confirmed what I already suspected.

• Turning prototypes into production code will be hard because there’s still a lot to do. Only very small projects are likely to come out ready for production.
• An apartment works well in that you can rest or retreat to a room where you can work in peace.
• Keep an activity up your sleeve to lift spirits when the team gets sluggish. We played Quake.
• Keep rules that limit anyone to a minimum. I can think of only two.
• I want to do something I think will be useful to the company.
• Give a demo, as in the next item.
• Make demos of the results mandatory for the rest of the company. That shows the rest of the company what the team can do and puts some pressure on participants. At GoodData we also announced the best projects. I’m less keen on that, since it’s subjective and influences which projects people choose.
• Take preparation seriously and write down ideas in a document everyone can work on. A shared Google Doc worked very well for us. Don’t agonize over which ideas are good or bad. That’ll shake out during pitching.
• People can’t live by coding alone. Include some sort of diversion.

We’re still growing the team, by the way. If you’d like to join future hackathons or other shenanigans, let me know. We’re looking for open minds and people who enjoy learning and trying things in a stack that includes Java, JavaScript and Node.js.

• Photos by Standa Bejkovec
• CZ Podcast episode 118 on company hackathons