What we learned from Punchkick’s inaugural developer hackathon
One of Punchkick’s values is to never stop learning. We try to embody this spirit with lunch-and-learn sessions from our designers and developers, a curated library of online and offline learning resources, and a dedicated portion of every Punchkicker’s workweek devoted to exploring something new. This weekend, Punchkick developers organized an all-day hackathon open to the entire company, and more than two dozen developers, designers, and strategists gathered for a Saturday full of pizza, energy drinks, and building new things. We figured the day would be an opportunity to hang out and collaborate on creative projects—but we discovered that hackathons have the potential to become a whole lot more.
A Creative Outlet
The idea of a hackathon is simple: a dedicated time to hack something together, the only limitations being defined by a common theme. Typically, teams of developers compete with one another to build the most impressive or impactful project in a short timeframe, and present their ideas to the larger group.
The idea to throw a hackathon originally emerged from Punchkick Growth Team (PGT), a group of volunteer Punchkickers who work on extracurricular tasks designed to improve our processes and help our company grow. A few developers and I were working on a task related to taking our developer culture to the next level, and hackthons were a natural extension of that. “The day-to-day life of a developer usually involves solving problems from the lens of a specific project,” said Ali Sadiq, Punchkick iOS developer and fellow hackathon organizer. “The technologies you use are defined by the client’s business needs, but sometimes there are new technologies that are completely outside your project that you want to investigate.”
Hackathons provide an outlet for that technology curiosity. “We had an opportunity to work with technologies that are completely new to us, and to try new things we might also be passionate about,” said Sadiq. “This is an opportunity to expand your skill set and push yourself on new challenges.”
A Learning Opportunity
This inaugural hackthon followed the theme of “making Punchkick Interactive more interactive ,” a prompt designed to be broad enough to welcome a range of interpretations. “The theme was nice because it didn’t have an obvious outcome,” said Daniel Cortes, Punchkick strategist. “Sometimes these things can seem to have one possible answer, but we had three teams that tried three really different things.”
One team designed a new interactive web platform for crowd-sourcing questions, integrating web sockets and a Redis database. Another team outlined an ambitious plan that integrated RFID tags in Punchkick meeting rooms with the Google Calendar API, with the intention of shedding some light on employees’ locations throughout our new office. Yet another team revisited how we forecast project sprints, and sought to simplify some internal processes with interactive native apps.
“Personally, there were a few specific APIs that I was really excited to use,” said Sadiq, referring to his work on the RFID project. “The other groups explored things that were completely new to them. They built products that don’t exist in the market today, and these are ideas that could really make a difference within organizations. In the end, we all were able to broaden our horizons and I think everyone learned a ton.”
These events provide an opportunity for developers to try technologies outside of our discipline, or explore cutting-edge platforms too untested for enterprise projects in an environment with zero stakes. “Sometimes, these extracurricular projects allow developers to explore technologies with a ton of potential,” said Sadiq, “We can think about ways to apply that technology to current or future clients.”
Channeling Developers’ Passion
Beyond helping developers learn new things or experiment with new ideas, hackathons have a business imperative underlying the fun. “The primary benefit of holding a hackathon,” read the event’s announcement document, “is to cultivate Punchkickers thinking outside the box. It’s to encourage them to stay up to speed on the latest technologies. And, as an added benefit, the innovative ideas that emerge from hackathons can be shared with our clients.”
Developers are creative and inventive people, and capturing that passion in a format that simultaneously enhances our skills is a win-win for the entire team. “I learned a ton,” said Cortes. “I designed and helped implement an entire web application in 12 hours. And now we have a product that could continue evolving into other things for our clients.”
On the other hand, a big part of the hackathon is purely about fun. “In less than 12 hours, these teams took an idea from conception to reality, through design, development, and deployment,” said Sadiq. “Some of us got to see perspectives of the project we’re typically not exposed to, and we got to see the entire lifecycle of the project.”
This new perspective also helped team members grow in admiration for one another. “I was blown away by the talent of my coworkers,” said Android developer JC Gibson. “There are some developers who I’ve only rarely interacted with because we’re on different projects or work in different disciplines, and this gave me an opportunity to see how amazing and talented they all are.”
Punchkick’s first hackathon attracted the attention of a few dozen developers and strategists, but the project only promises to grow in size and scope. “Personally, I can’t wait for the next one,” said Daniel Cortes. “As more and more people get involved, the ideas can get bigger and bigger. I’m really excited to see what kinds of things we build next.”