4 Takeaways from my First Hackathon 🚀
This weekend, I participated in my first hackathon. There were definitely many ups and downs throughout the day but it was ultimately one of the most developmental experiences.
Take a look at some of my highlights from the hackathon and a quick rundown of what my team and I created. ⬇️
Now for the takeaways:
🔑 Your mindset defines your outcome
Hackathons can teach you a lot. From adaptability to losing that sense of perfectionism, having a good mindset is one of the most important things through a hackathon.
Some of the mindsets that you can expect to exercise are:
1. Done > Perfect
As a perfectionist, I struggled to stop focusing on making everything perfect and rather try to get everything done. Since a hackathon gives little time to produce something, exercising your ability to just put things out it is pivotal.
In order to be successful, you have to unlearn that drive for perfection. Entrepreneurship is not about excellence, it’s about speed- putting things out the door that you are constantly learning about. Internalizing that not everything needs to fall under that unrealistic standard of perfection will account for a lot of your success.
2. Seek understanding
The purpose of a hackathon is to allow innovators to create potential solutions for real-world problems. Curiosity is closely associated with success because it drives you into the undiscovered- you make breakthroughs, make connections, continue to innovate, and grow when you allow yourself to practice curiosity.
It is your responsibility to present an idea at a hackathon, so seeking understanding is critical. Ensure that you are identifying and bridging existing gaps. The only way to effectively do this is by exercising curiosity and seeking understanding.
3. Collaborative
One of the most prevalent issues that happen during a hackathon is ineffective communication. The root problem with that is your lack of a collaborative mindset. Your team in a hackathon is what leads you to success so ensure that everyone is working together towards a common goal.
🔑 Account for setbacks
During your hackathon, you will inevitably face a setback. A challenge might lead to a lack of motivation to continue which is why it’s so important to account for setbacks beforehand.
When you are time-blocking, make sure that you give yourself enough time to work through difficulties. Concentrate on something you can do to rectify, no matter how minor. Divide tasks into manageable chunks and complete them one at a time.
Overall, if you account for setbacks in the beginning then when they happen, you will know exactly how to tackle them.
🔑 There’s more than one way to solve a problem
Brainstorm with your team to produce a list of ideas. Any random idea is allowable; merely write it down and see which one is the most intuitive. In the end, just because there is already a current solution to a problem, you have the capability of finding a better one.
One of the strategies my team used was to do a gap analysis of current solutions. When we were looking into the anticoagulants (blood-thinning medicines) that are currently on the market, we realized that the side effects lead to mortality. From there, we tried brainstorming other solutions until we came up with the one that we presented.
Our ability to implement that strategy came from acknowledging that there are a variety of ways to solve one problem. 🧠
🔑 It all comes down to your pitch
The judges of a hackathon are not judging you based on the number of hours you put in or your resilience. Rather, they are judging the way you executed that solution. You could have the most brilliant idea but in the end, it all comes down to your pitch.
Learning how to properly pitch is one of the skills you can gain through a hackathon — your ability to present your idea in a way that makes your audience tick. If you have an awful delivery, your brilliant idea won’t be reflected.
Making sure there is enough time to practise presenting could be one of the factors that turn that loss into a win.
TL;DR
- Your mindset defines your outcome: Some of the important mindsets that you will exercise through a hackathon are done>perfect, seek understanding and be collaborative.
- Account for setbacks: If you account for setbacks in the beginning then when they happen, you will know exactly how to tackle them.
- There is more than one way to solve a problem: Just because there is already a current solution to a problem, you have the capability of finding a better one.
- It all comes down to your pitch: You could have the most brilliant idea but in the end, it all comes down to your pitch.
