Hackathon planning
7 Tips to make your next virtual hackathon a success
Find out how to organize your event, stand out to developers, and drive AI tool adoption through your hackathon.
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Your step-by-step guide to organizing a company hackathon that drives real results.
To run a company hackathon, follow four steps: define your goals, plan the logistics (duration, rules, judging, and registration), get the right teams involved early, and promote the event internally. Using a hackathon platform lets you manage registrations, submissions, and judging in one place.
This guide focuses on internal hackathons for employees. If you’re running a hackathon for an external developer competition, check out our how-to guide on running a public hackathon.
Companies that run internal hackathons see outcomes including new ideas that make it onto product roadmaps, stronger cross-functional relationships, and a signal to employees that creative thinking is valued. For many companies right now, internal hackathons are also one of the most effective ways to get teams building with AI, rather than just hearing about it in a training.
An internal hackathon (sometimes called a company hackathon or private hackathon) is a time-boxed event where employees come together to solve a defined problem or build something new. It typically involves building software, prototyping a product idea, or generating structured solutions to a challenge specific to your organization.
Unlike public hackathons, internal events are only open to employees, which means participants are working on problems related to their area of expertise, and the outputs tend to be immediately relevant to the business.
Internal hackathons come in many formats, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. For a breakdown of the options, see our guide to 8 types of internal hackathons to drive innovation within your organization.
The purpose of an internal hackathon is to give employees dedicated time to experiment, collaborate across teams, and solve problems specific to their organization, such as implementing new ideas or AI tools.
Most employees don't have bandwidth for exploratory projects. A well-run hackathon carves out that space deliberately, and gives people a reason to experiment, collaborate outside their usual teams, and surface ideas that might otherwise never get raised.
What you're specifically trying to accomplish will shape every other planning decision, which is why it's the first thing to get clear on before you start organizing.
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Here are the four steps to plan an internal hackathon:
Before touching logistics, get clear on what you're trying to accomplish. An internal hackathon can serve many different purposes: generating product ideas, building cross-functional relationships, giving teams hands-on time to experiment with and integrate AI into their workflows, or solving a specific technical problem. But no hackathon serves all of them equally well at once, which is why defining your primary goal early makes every other planning decision easier.
To help with planning, ask yourself three questions:
The answers will drive your theme, your judging criteria, your event duration, and how you communicate the hackathon internally.
Once you’ve determined the goal of your hackathon, you’ll need to plan the logistics of the event. (For company-wide events, see our guide to planning internal hackathons for your entire company.) Consider the duration, rules, judging criteria, and registration process for participants.
Internal company hackathons usually run 1-5 days, depending on your goal and the number of people you’d like to participate. A smaller hackathon focused on polished, well-developed projects might use the full 5 days, while a company-wide hackathon might last only 1-2 days to avoid business disruption. The event duration will depend on factors like your overall goal for the event and the number of people you’d like to participate.
You might also want to extend your hackathon's submission window if you're hosting training workshops or office hours. This gives participants the chance to ask questions about the hackathon, meet with other departments, or learn how to use a new internal technology relevant to their projects.
Set these based on your goals and share them with participants well before the event. Vague rules create confusion on the day. Be specific about what counts as a valid submission, how teams can form, and what resources participants are allowed to use.
Sharing your judging criteria before the hackathon is good practice. When participants know what they'll be evaluated on (business impact, technical execution, originality, feasibility), they can focus their energy accordingly. If you're thinking through how to structure judging efficiently, Devpost for Teams streamlines the hackathon judging process so criteria are visible to participants and scoring is easy to manage across a panel of judges.
Think early about what will motivate people to sign up, and communicate the purpose clearly so employees understand why their time is being asked for. On the logistics side, tracking who's registered, which teams they've joined, and any last-minute changes can get unwieldy fast if you're managing it manually. A hackathon platform handles this automatically, keeping registration data organized and cutting down on the back-and-forth that tends to pile up in the lead-up to the event.
For a deeper dive into planning specifics, including event format (in-person, virtual, or hybrid), selecting judges, structuring prizes, and managing the event day itself, download our free guide to planning internal hackathons for your entire company.
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Hackathon organization runs more smoothly when stakeholders are brought in before the plan is finished, not after. Along with getting stakeholder buy-in, you’ll likely want to engage the following teams:
It’s also worth giving a heads-up to employees who aren't participating. That way, other teams can plan it into their workflow if a lot of software developers will be busy with the hackathon.
Fostering a positive team spirit throughout the company, even among non-participants, can help everyone understand the value of these events.
If employees don’t understand what the hackathon is, why it exists, or how to get involved, sign-ups will be low, regardless of how well the rest of the event is planned.
Effective internal promotion usually includes a clear kickoff announcement (event date, theme, and how to register), a follow-up communication with judging criteria and event details, and reminders as the deadline approaches. Executive support is one of the most effective ways to drive registrations.
A hackathon platform lets you plan the event, communicate with participants, and track results in one place.
The right platform depends on your priorities. If this is your first time running an internal hackathon, look for a platform with strong customer support to help you through every step of the way.
In general, a hackathon platform should:
Some platforms, like Devpost for Teams, include pre-built templates for both the overall event setup and participant project submissions, which can meaningfully cut down configuration time and help participants spend more time building.
The internal hackathons with the most useful outcomes are the ones where participants know what they’re working toward, have support throughout, and see what happens to their ideas afterward. A short post-event survey helps you improve the next hackathon and build the case internally for running more of them. For more ways to turn hackathon projects into results, see our 6 tips to boost post-hackathon results.
