IBDA 2022
A design hackathon is a short competitive session in which participants formulate solutions to a problem statement. Hackathons can be hosted by any organisation and can tackle a wide gamut of pain points, with participants from both within and outside the organisation. The most viable solution is selected as the winner by a panel of experts.
A hackathon is centred around a problem statement or “How might we?” question. Participants use all their resources to find the most well-equipped solution.
Hackathon teams follow the HCD process. They build products and services based on a solid understanding of the user’s wants and needs, and ask for feedback and validation directly from them.
Participants from diverse departments are grouped into teams. Multiple perspectives and varied backgrounds thus come together to form solutions.
Participants must quickly find working solutions for the challenge. This pushes them to experiment, work on weak points, evolve and execute their ideas effectively.
Teams unearth multiple ways of tackling the same issue. Depending on the number of participants, a hackathon can amass a wide range of solutions for the challenge.
Hackathons are time-bound competitions. Teams are ambitious and inspired, and the energy is explosive. Participants compete against one another to come up with the winning resolution.
Members from different departments join heads to actively find solutions, thus dynamics within the organisation evolve and the collective consciousness grows.
Organisations that host hackathons are perceived as innovation drivers and game changers. They are viewed as exciting places to work by young recruits as well as growth seekers.
It’s absolutely normal for teams to plateaux, it happens to the best of us. A hackathon will take them out of their daily work and challenge them to explore their critiquing problem-solving side.
The hackathon process enables participants to think out of the box and come up with solutions to seemingly unsolvable tough problems.
Hackathons condense the ideation, production and testing processes into a session. In a short span of time you will have compelling evidence to gauge whether you’re on the right path.
Hackathons are just that - teams can have a great time working towards a common goal. The competitive nature also makes it very exciting.
A hackathon is the right event to put your team’s thinking caps on and align everyone’s energies. With different departments coming together, you will have a variety of diverse solutions to test out.
NOCT facilitators and the hack owner define the problem statement and prepare a schedule of events for the session.
NOCT facilitator briefs participants on the problem statement as well as the schedule for the session. Participants are grouped into diverse teams comprising of members from different departments.
Teams carry out extensive analysis of the audience. User research is critical and helps teams understand the needs of the target group.
Teams zero in on the area they want to work on and redefine the problem statement based on audience research.
The NOCT facilitator engages participants in brainstorming activities and exercises, helping teams come up with as many solutions as they can. By the end of this day, teams will select the most workable solution.
Teams create a storyboard of a quick and dirty prototype of their solution, without expending too much time, energy or resources. This is taken to users for testing and is refined for pitching.
Teams pitch their ideas and resolutions to a jury, who will then select the winning resolution.
The NOCT facilitator documents the entire session and gathers all the ideas teams came up with into a comprehensive document, which is then handed over to the hack owner.
We facilitated a Noct-a-thon for the Panchgani Municipality to find solutions to develop alternative tourism in the hill station. Members of the public as well as NOCT’s team participated in the 2 day session that ended with a very unique festival idea winning the competition. Case study coming soon.
