⏱️ Length
1-3 days with set presentation deadlines + prep work
🔁 Frequency
1–2 times per year
Often aligned with quieter delivery periods or company-wide events/offsites
🧑🤝🧑 Who Attends
Open to everyone, often driven by Engineering and/or Product and Design, but ultimately a format any function stands to gain from doing.
Typically cross-functional, with voluntary participation encouraged
Some orgs offer light coordination or team prompts to help first-timers join
🎯 Purpose
To foster creativity, learning and cross-functional collaboration.
Also a great way to surface bottom-up ideas, test prototypes and energize teams outside of roadmap delivery.
📋 Agenda
- Kickoff with theme or challenge (e.g. “internal tools,” “delight,” “efficiency”)
- Team formation or idea pitching
- Hacking period (with async check-ins or optional office hours)
- Demos / presentations
- Voting or judging (optional)
- Closing ceremony with shoutouts, prizes or reflections
- Post work: backlog strong ideas, commit code if ready or archive ideas and code separate from production
📍Format
Hybrid or in-person
Office energy can enhance team formation and energy
Remote-friendly if supported with shared tools, async updates, and a clear demo deadline
📎 Tool Stack
- Docs & Guides: Notion, Google Docs
- Comms: Slack channels (#hachatonH2)
- Demoing: Loom, Google Slides
- Scheduling: Slumpbeat
💡 Tips
- Encourage wild ideas (not everything needs to ship)
- Make it accessible (e.g. pre-populate project board with suggested ideas)
- Provide food, swag or creative themes to spark energy
- Give clear expectations on judging (if any)
- Record demo day for async visibility and future inspiration
- Leadership participation (as judges or hackers) signals strong cultural buy-in
Contributor: Team Slumpbeat