As a remote-first company, nurturing intrapreneurship, collaboration, and a spirit of innovation is particularly important at Didomi.
One of the ways we foster this culture is by organizing a yearly hackathon, a 2-day event where Didomians from around the world gather around innovative ideas they try to bring to life together.
In this article, we take a closer look at what a hackathon looks like at Didomi, what it has brought to the company, and how you can join us for the next one.
Summary
What does a hackathon look like at Didomi?
Once a year, spearheaded by product leaders in the company, the hackathon is a friendly competition where Didomi employees (we call each other Didomians) are invited to work on an idea for the company (process, product, feature, marketing campaign, organization, etc), that could benefit Didomi.
The event can be broken down into three separate phases:
1. Idea submissions and team building
A month ahead of the hackathon, all Didomians are invited to submit ideas on an online platform about projects or initiatives they’d like to see develop at Didomi, either by building it themselves or by suggesting that others do so during the hackathon. There are no limits to ideas, as long as it’s related to Didomi in some shape or form.
In turn, other Didomians can express interest by joining these projects, essentially signing up to work on them during the hackathon. Group sizes are limited, and diversity within the group is encouraged to represent several teams from the company: Product, tech, design, marketing, customer service, etc.
2. Work and demo day
After an inaugural meeting takes place to remind everyone of the rules and timeline of the event, teams can start working on their project.
For two days, Didomians are free from their daily tasks and can dedicate 100% of their time to working with their team on their idea.
At the end of the hackathon, each team has to demo its idea and showcase a proof of concept, which can be anything from a live application to a prototype, a slide deck, or anything that resembles a presentation.
3. Jury and vote
A diverse jury from all corners of the company is set up to decide on the winner of the hackathon, based on a set of predetermined criteria:
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Potential business impact: Can the idea have an actual, tangible impact on Didomi as a business?
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Ease of implementation: Is the idea viable and realistically achievable?
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Ambition and originality: How bold is the idea?
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Presentation and proof of concept: How complete, professional, and ready was the demo?
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Diversity of the team: Has the idea leveraged cross-team collaboration?
One additional vote is attributed to the entire company, as all Didomians are also able to vote for their favorite project collectively.
After a few days, the winning team is announced, and the participants receive prizes according to their ranking.
Organizing and running hackathons at Didomi
The team at Didomi organizes hackathons every year, with upward of 50 participants taking part and dozens of projects created so far. While the main objective is to create a fun, collaboration-filled event for everyone to have fun and be creative, the benefits have proved to be much larger:
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Improving team spirit and cross-team collaboration: Inviting Didomians to mix and match among teams and work together is very stimulating, particularly for a remote-first company where spontaneous chit-chats at the coffee machine are harder to come by.
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Generating valuable, out-of-the-box ideas: Some concepts from previous hackathons have been added to our roadmap, or are in consideration for future implementation.
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Encouraging an innovative mindset internally: Getting caught up in day-to-day tasks is easy, and events like these help us step out of our comfort zone to develop new ideas.
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Developing employee skills: From problem-solving to collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and more, hackathons are a great way to hone new skills and work our creative muscles as a team.
It’s important also to note that our hackathon is an employee-led initiative suggested, planned, and launched by Didomians who saw the potential benefits and wanted to put something together for their colleagues and the organization.
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"Running our yearly Hackathon has been very stimulating and a highlight of the year for me. The event creates a real buzz internally, and some of the ideas that have come out of such a short timeframe have been really inspiring and, at times, have actually transpired to our product roadmap down the line.” - Hernan O., Engineering Manager at Didomi and hackathon organizer |
The event has been a great opportunity for Didomians to spend a day together brainstorming ideas, digging valuable concepts, solving problems, working with people they normally do not, and most importantly, having fun.
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"While the hackathon is intense and challenging, it provides an opportunity for individuals to work on diverse topics with different people, creating a dynamic atmosphere. Mixing cooperation and competition in a fun and creative environment often leads to the development of interesting projects and memorable stories.” - Maxime Plancke, PMP Engineering Manager at Didomi and member of the 2023 Hackathon winning team |
Join us in building the future of privacy
Hackathons are only one of the ways we support Didomians in their professional development and foster innovation at Didomi.
From internal mobility to training programs, offsite events, and more, our team is dedicated to building a positive and stimulating work environment.
Interested in joining us? To learn more about Didomi and our opportunities, check out our Welcome to The Jungle profile, where you’ll find stats, testimonies, and our current job openings:
