During a national pandemic is as good a time as any to launch our first-ever hackathon. And on the 25th – 26th November, the Coyote team will pull together and prove (not for the first time), that working remotely isn’t a barrier to creativity or innovation.
What is a hackathon?
‘hackathon’
Noun INFORMAL
- An event in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming.
- Ex: “A series of 48-hour hackathons to build new web and mobile services.”
That’s the dictionary definition. Although, we see this hackathon as an opportunity for the team to pool resources and flex their technical skills.
It’s about giving developers, engineers, designers and product specialists, the freedom to venture outside of their comfort zone and work collaboratively to solve challenges different to those which they tackle every day.
How does it work?
Under normal circumstances, there’d be an “in-person” session where participants pitch ideas and form their teams, ready to create interesting use-cases based on a new technology, product or problem – and all within a 48-hour time limit.
To kick things off, the whole team was invited to an initial pitch session over Zoom.
The brief was simple: no rules, anything goes, 90 seconds pitches – bring your ideas!
Pitches aplenty
With the brief open to everybody in the company, it was no surprise that we had lots of great ideas come through from every corner of the business.
In total, we received 21 pitches from teams in sales, client services, product, engineering, marketing and even operations. The variety of pitches covered many subjects too – with many looking at charities, sustainability issues, social impact, as well as challenging existing internal processes, and a couple of ideas relating to improving the user-experience of Coyote itself.
Where do we take it from here?
The goal of the hackathon is to create a proof of concept for the chosen ideas, such as a workable software or an app, by the end of the event.
After talking through some of the more interesting pitches, everyone will regroup in smaller teams to decide which challenges they’re going to get stuck into over the next 48 hours. Watch this space for updates!
This might be our first hackathon at Coyote Software, but based on the energy and passion we’ve witnessed so far, it certainly won’t be our last!
