Hackathons when you don't code

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My work is doing a Hackathon at the moment. My team is introducing AI into our existing product and I’m at a bit of a loose end most of the time. Aside from a bit of prompt engineering early days, I haven’t been able to contribute much other than some coordination (I’m lead on the team).

I’m curious, have other people here been involved in hackathons and if so, how do you contribute?

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And yes I’m kicking myself for not completing 30 days in AI!

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I’d normally help the team organize areas of the software each person can focus on to test. Additionally some sort of strategy to note issues with some scheduled discussions.

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If you’re a team lead then be a team lead at a Hackathon :sweat_smile: I believe there will be some areas where your leadership, management, and organizational skills will be useful, you can do something non-technical, share your thoughts, give feedback, come up with some ideas, etc (of course this is quite general stuff, it depends on your particular Hackathon). From my point of view, sometimes it’s better to stay out of it :sweat_smile: if you don’t see how you can be valuable because your attempts to contribute may lead to opposite results :sweat_smile: as a QA engineer I participated in a CTF (internal) and most of the participants were programmers/DevOps but still with my level of tech knowledge I was useful and get some flags and some hints for devs in my team so they could the coding/engineering part. In the worst-case scenarios when I have to participate but my skill is irrelevant I just suggest testing some solutions and providing some fresh feedback on ideas/concepts, in a friendly environment such stuff is usually quite welcoming, and people who do the coding would like to have someone like that (it might be a tester, BA, product manager, etc)

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Hey @oxygenaddict,

I love a Hackathon and have been fortunate to have been involved in a good number in my career.

As a non-coder I’ve always found it an excellent way to explore my creativity and flex my role as a tester/team lead.

Some things I’ve done in the past that have had various degrees of success:

  • Worked on the sales pitch/presentation and led the pitch at the end
  • Become the whiteboard person i.e. the person who tracks tasks and keeps people in the loop
  • Doing the rounds, spotting what other hackathon teams are up to and reporting back to my hackathon team 🕵🏻‍♂️
  • Copywriter and copy reviewer
  • Mockup enthusiast
  • Logo and tagline designer
  • Helped my team stay on target and get clear on scope. Stopping them from getting distracted or attempting to solve problems that don’t matter right now.
  • Chit-chats with senior management to find out what they value and how they’ll be judging the Hackathon results. Feeding that back to the team to help steer our direction.
  • Interviewer. Have conversations with stakeholders who would get value from whatever we’re developing
  • Snack provider!
  • Promo video creator.
  • Update sender. Building buzz and a sense of FOMO by sharing cheeky updates about progress.
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