To win an online Hackathon requires the proper formulation of a strategy and implementing various tips and tricks so that one can perform better and win the overall Hackathon very easily. The following are some of the consolidated things which can be utilized by the people who are involved in the participation of the Online Hackathon. This overall experience is invaluable and helps to provide great motivation for further learning as well as advancement.
It is a competition that usually lasts for more than 24 hours where several teams are comprising of 3 to 5 members and solve the given problem which is related to a specific kind of topic. These kinds of problems have to be solved by creating a software-related product and at the end of the whole thing, there is a full-fledged presentation in which the team members have to explain their software products and solutions selected by them.
Following are the tips and tricks which are quite useful in winning this kind of competitions:
1. The team selection element:
The team which consists of people with different skills and several types of knowledge is considered to be the most ideal one. So, the individuals must focus on formulating a team which comprises of mobile developers, front end developer and the back end developer. The particular team cannot succeed in case all the members are equally good in terms of skills and knowledge.
So there must be ready in a team and one of the members should be in the leading position. The leader will be making various kinds of decisions about implementing the particular features and dividing the opinions in terms of validity. The leader should even decide which feature they should continue with and which has to be dismissed.
2. The planning phase:
In case the team has been pre-built then they must go with the option of organizing an experimental Hackathon so that they can have real exposure of the original Hackathon event. The team members should in a collaborative way try to solve these kinds of problems which they encounter in daily life.
They should have good ways to independently repair things which are basic and are quite helpful in creating the best possible solutions. Preparation for planning is a very good concept and it should be implemented very well so that overall goals can be achieved. In some of the cases, the topic is being published so one must sit with the whole team and generate various kinds of possible ideas so that best quality solutions can be developed.
3. The brainstorming phase:
In this, the event has been started and the team has been formed about the problems which they have to solve. Then everybody becomes excited so that they can solve the given task. The most common mistake which a lot of teams make is that they immediately start with the ideas and hastily distribute the assignments to each of the members.
No, it is impossible to find a good idea and find the entire task in the first half-hour. So, the process of brainstorming should be done very properly and the task definition should be well informed. In the initial phase, one should generate various kinds of ideas.
At the time of idea’s generation, the people should never worry about the presentation and incorporation of the idea should be done so that presentation can be highly effective at the end. Then the task of filtering the ideas comes.
In this, the team members should also think of the killer feature of their solution so that they can have a competitive advantage over all the teams. Along with the killer feature, the basic features also are provided so that the overall product is creative and feasible in terms of implementation.
Then all the features have to be prioritized so that the critical path can be defined. The most important feature will be given the highest priority and the least important will be given as least priority. So, the critical path has to be defined so that a minimum set of features can be implemented at the presentation. A proper prototype on paper has to be developed after the determination of the critical path. Each of the detail has to be discussed with the team so that all queries of the jury members can be answered very well.
4. Then comes the coding phase
Each member of the team should have a specific amount of tasks. There should be a proper break after approximately three hours of a short meeting. This meeting should be arranged and should be used as an opportunity to inform each other about the things which they have implemented and the upcoming plans.
In case any of the team members gets stuck then the team leader should decide about the continuation of the implementation or rejection. The time of creating the prototype the product should be architecture is perfect and it should be ready in terms of production. In case all these criteria are fulfilled then implementation will be highly simplified.
5. Then there should be a killer presentation:
The team members should go with the option of creating a story that would involve a proper beginning as well as a proper end. In the very beginning all the problems have to be explained and how the team was able to solve that particular problem should be explained very well.
The team members should not go with too much theory otherwise the president can become a boring one. In case the team has a killer feature then they should introduce it at the right point of time so that they can grab the attention of everybody. Approximately two minutes for the introduction and clarification of the solutions and seven minutes should be devoted to the things which the team has done. Then at the very end, one minute has to be left for the conclusion and finishing part.
The few hours of online Hackathon will help in giving a life-changing experience for several people participating in it and it will help in giving proper enhancement to their capabilities and the whole experience is priceless.
