The Art Of Winning Hackathons
10 August 2020
Three years ago, I joined a computer science institute in Tunisia called ISAMM. I didn’t know much about Hackathons until the 5 May 2018, my first ever participation at hackathons. It was the most rich experience I have ever had in 24 hours. Specifically, I knew what I didn't know, making contact with experts, tough developers and investors. That competition was an eye-opening event and a real starting point in my career as a computer scientist.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the right tools and the right mindset to win my first Hackathon. For these reasons, I dedicate this writing for all those who are starting their career in this field, and those who want to boost their Hackathon experience to get a step ahead and see through opportunities.
I investigated three of the most influential figures I know in the material of Hackathons. First Elyes Manai, an AI researcher and research & development engineer at Instadeep, Maher Matmati and Ahmed Rebai two software engineers at be-softilys. These guys combine almost 20 Wins at hackathons.
If you are unfamiliar with the term Hackathon, it is a competition that lasts for 12H, 24H, or 48 hours and longer sometimes, in which each participant team ought to formulate ideas and prototype them to solve a real-life problem, in the frame of a theme proposed by the beneficiary, being start-ups, enterprises, organizations. Hackathon can be business or technical. The first focuses mostly on how to make profits for the beneficiary, while technical hackathons require more developers and technical teams. Winners at Hackathons get prizes in the form of cash, equipment, internships or coupons for courses etc..
Hackathons are life hacks for students who want to figure out the best way to learn quickly and extend their network and their domain knowledge. This is true because in 24 hours, one should communicate with his teammates, share his knowledge and develop ideas of profitable businesses or cool technologies. And they say, “pressure makes diamonds”.
Practically speaking, the list of benefits of hackathons is long. Starting with job offers, internships, cash, experience and network. But the key “to hack your hackathon” as Elyes Manai says, are a set of standards that everyone should know and work for that we list below:
1. Key Profiles:
As Meher Matmati suggests, each team should have these 3 profiles: The communicator: is the one who communicates the team idea to the jury, having a great aptitude to convince others using different techniques like body language, storytelling and cool visual presentations. The technical: is the one person who can translate the team idea into a working prototype that can amaze the members of the jury and add value to the presentation. The innovator: is a very creative person who can imagine doable ideas “out of the box” and conform with legislation.
2. Team Composition:
Each team should be coherent and complementary, says Ahmed Rebai. To boost your chance to win, your team requires a good developer to develop functionalities, a good designer to make your app look attractive and a good spokesman man to sell your prototype and communicate efficiently with others.
3. Don’t focus on typical functionalities:
Instead of building login from scratch, focus on the core functionalities for your idea, which would differentiate you from other participants, like AI, Blockchain, Deep learning or cool new technologies.
4. Never start coding before fixing the idea:
Many teams start coding before fixing the final idea, and then after, they find a better idea and repeat everything from scratch. The idea is more important than the prototype. If the idea is a hit, you go far in that hackathon. Fixing a good idea is the fruit of personal research and communication with the team. Ahmed suggests that every one should get one hour to brainstorm, compare different enterprises and startups and inspire from what was done and then communicate your research to your team.
5. The perfect triangle:
Each winning project should necessarily be in the frame of the perfect triangle, utters Maher. The perfect triangle is the composition of three components: Money: The project must provide a profitable solution. Reality: The project must be feasible. Innovation: The project must be disruptive.
6. Take good care of your presentation:
The presentation is the fruit of 24 hours of your sweat. So make it as attractive and appealing as possible. Never put paragraphs in your presentation, presentation is just a support of what you are going to say or present to the jury. So instead, put videos, images and gifs on it.
7. Confidence:
If you’re confident enough, everyone will feel your confidence and start to trust you. If you believe in your idea, you will fight for it until the end. Nevertheless, if you don’t believe in what you do, how can others believe in you?
These are the key takeaways of “how to win a hackathon?”. To sum up, participating in hackathons will extend your vision and craft your skills and will provide more opportunities that you have never thought they exist.