How to win “HACKATHONS”
Top 10 golden tips to win any Hackathon !!!
Hackathon is an ultimate test of skills and endurance.
Who doesn't want to win, whether its life or hackathon, but unlike life hackathons can have only 1 winner, so the one who solve problem most accurately and submit Prototype within limited time wins.
And I have participated in many hackathons and have won more than 10 of them till now and over the time I have accumulated some golden tips to win them, so here are my Top 10 tips to win any Hackathon:
1. The A-Team
The A-Team does not always have all the PRO’s in it, you can have teammates from different background and tech stack. Actually it is important to have diversity in your team, one can be good at coding and developing, one at presenting, one at research and ideating.
The main point is that all of you must be comfortable and should have fun while working with each other.
Cuz you might have to work rigorously and under pressure in the last few hours !!!
An “ A-Team” should also have a great name so be humorous with your team name, literally we used to name our teams like : “ Dumbledore’s Army ”, “ 3-idiots ” and what not 😅😆!!!
2. We are here to WIN mindset
Always be clear with your motive for attending the hackathon. Networking with other contestants and mentors is good and you should do it too, but remember you are here to WIN.
Always be hungry to win, plan forward for the event, preinstall all the softwares, make Github repository in advance keep your website or app templates handy for all use cases.
3. Select Problem Statement wisely
Most of the time it’s upto you that which problem statement you want to pick to work on, So select wisely.
Select the problem on which you can relate to the most or have experinced in real life. Usually this is the most important decision, Cuz you will be working on this idea for the next 36–48 hrs.
Pro tip:
If you are confused between few problem statements always choose the one which can be used for following topics, these always hold an upper hand in implementation :
- Women Safety
- Green Energy
- Ideas related to specially abled people (Disabled people)
- Hardware based ideas (only if you have some expertise with hardware and you can make a prototype in hackathon)
- Ideas related to Environment and Pollution
- Farming or Farmers related ideas
- Food management / Water management
- Education
- any other idea that can impact the society or environment.
4. Ideation and Brainstorming
Again a little time consuming step, since you have already selected what you will be working on now you have to brainstorm on the different solutions, ways and approaches which can solve the problem statement, be careful with how much time you spend on this step as this may cost you later.
What you want to do here is go through all the ideas and approaches.
Do SWOT analysis of them all, also save the SWOT points of selected idea it will be helpful in future steps while making presentations.
You have to try all ideas with minimum time it can take ( just PoC will be enough ) and choose the one which can be done within 24 hrs and is feasible in real life.
5. Build
OK! Now since, we have decided our approach to the problem it’s time to build it up.
What we need here is an MVP (minimum viable product) by which you can verify your idea and approach to the judges. Be sure to make it UI/UX rich and have proper null checks in it.
Use version control like Git/Github to work together and faster.
It’s not something which can be used only by programmers everyone can use it
6. Revise/Improve
Building part is not over yet, normally there are several rounds of judging in hackathon and in every round judges or mentor will guide you to some revision and improvement so be ready to work on it and always put more on table than asked for, it shows how enthusiast you and your team are to solve the problem.
7. Have some fun
Go play, dance, yoga, exercise …
Remember you are a human and not a robot, so do have fun at hackathons, even if you don’t win you will always remember the fun times you had at hackathons with your team.
Many times small exercise or games are organised in between the event so join them, have some Off-Screen time.
8. Build a Prototype or something that anyone can use
One of the best ways to showcase your work is to make a complete prototype of your solution. It can be an app or a website, if your solution is hardware based make sure to make something the judges can use.
I have seen its always a +ve point to have something that judges can use while you are explaining your idea to them.
9. Make Presentation
Invest some time in making a very good presentation that explains your approach, solution and business plan. Yes you read it right, business plan too add them to your presentation.
Remember you know your idea and solution are worthy enough to win but the judges don't, so make sure to prepare a presentation in such a way that they can also know the worthiness of your solution.
With time I learned that sometimes your idea might not be that great enough to win but it can win if it is presented well.
Have some look at some of the presentations that i used to make.
See this hackathon was organised in the tough time of Covid-19 pandemic, so we have to participate in an online manner through video calls, and it is difficult to present your idea over a video call so we made a video presentation and we included the working of the bot that we made in the video in a step by step manner.
Also see how we describe the problem statement in the first part of the video.
10. Present + QnA
The best speaker in your team should be chosen to present in front of judges, the presenter should have deep understanding of the idea.
Always before the actual presentation have a demo presentation in front of your teammates and prepare the answers of the questions that can be asked to you.
If you have prepared a Website or an App make sure to install it in around 2–3 devices and hand over the devices to the judges while you are giving the presentation and idea walkthrough.
This way they can feel the idea in there hand, they can run it, test it, play with it.
Also if at anytime the presenter can't answer the question in QnA round make sure to let the other teammates answer, this will also show that you are not alone in the team and whole team have worked on the idea.
11. (Bonus) Time to Celebrate 🎉 🎊
So after 36- 48 hours of rigorous working, even if you win or lose. It’s time to celebrate 🎉 🎊 that you have successfully completed the hackathon you have made a whole new product/idea/solution in such short timespan.
Go Celebrate, go to a fancy restaurant or cafe with your team, visit tourist attractions in the city where the hackathon is conducted, have fun !!!
You can also continue to work on this idea forward if you want, and maybe it can be your Billion Dollar idea 💡.
This was my 1st medium blog, so not sure how it will turn out to be.
If you like this blog and want more tips on winning at hackathon than go like this blog and share it on all your social media handle and don’t forget to tag me there too @akshitostwal
Also if you have some more tips on winning hackathons share them in comments ..
