Business impact
Driving AI innovation with internal hackathons [Webinar]
Learn how to build your AI strategy with hackathons.
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Get key insights and best practices from leading hackathon organizers for your next event.
What makes an internal or corporate hackathon truly successful? We compiled tips and advice from experienced internal hackathon organizers at leading companies who have mastered the art of running these events at scale. Their insights reveal how successful hackathons can generate new ideas, drive innovation, and enable cross-team collaboration.
Internal hackathons offer companies a ton of great benefits like getting hands on keyboards and generating prototypes in just a few days. Beyond the winning projects, internal hackathons foster a culture of innovation and make space for new ideas to emerge. From breaking down silos between departments to injecting energy into day-to-day work, these events create lasting cultural impact in ways that few other initiatives can match.
Here's what experienced organizers have identified as crucial elements for success in internal hackathons.
Innovation is about creating an environment where talented people want to stay and contribute explains Neta Retter, Director of Innovation Programs at Okta.
"You really want to make sure that the most innovative people want to work for your company because, in my opinion, you have two choices. Either they have these opportunities to unleash that innovation here, or they're going to do it nights and weekends—probably for someone else—or maybe they'll leave."
Trey Spyropoulos, Manager of Communications and Organizational Effectiveness at Toyota North America, highlighted how hackathons create an opportunity for team members to build on their ideas.
"Previously from an innovation perspective, we focused a lot on ideation sessions, which resulted in patents, but it wasn't resulting in building actual products and services," said Trey. "So we wanted to take that a step further and begin building real prototypes of our next-gen products and services—hence the evolution to hackathons."
Janet Carmody, Head of Culture at Motorola Solution shed light on the cultural impact hackathons have in a remote work era.
"One of the biggest reasons for running our all-hands hackathon is to try and bridge startup culture in a Fortune 500 company. It really started to take shape during lockdown and remote work. We didn't have a mandate to go back to the office. So a lot of our creators and developers are still working remotely. We wanted to create a sense of what hackathons used to be and enable sharing skills across the globe."
Related: Watch our webinar with Okta, Estée Lauder Companies, and SAP to learn about driving AI innovation with internal hackathons.
Successful internal hackathons extend far beyond engineering teams. Tony Hernandez, Chief Architect at JLL Technologies, describes how hackathons connect global teams and help upskill team members in all departments.
"Our hackathons drive collaboration between teams that are global in nature,” said Tony Hernandez, JLL Technologies. “Most recently, we've been trying to bring in more of our business partners into this hackathon world and drive collaboration across more than just engineering teams."
"Last year's hackathon was all focused on AI, specifically GenAI,” he added. “So that was new for a lot of folks and a great way for people to get first-hand experience playing with this new technology and seeing the art of the possible."
Successful hackathons inject energy and playfulness into corporate culture. Trey shared how leaning into this helps get teams at Toyota excited to participate.
"The event has been more of that startup type culture—that playfulness in terms of the theme and the tone—that people don't want to miss it," said Trey.
This playful spirit extends to leadership participation. Janet shared how some executives tapped into the playful energy by changing their names on Slack to match the hackathon’s deep-sea theme. For example, she shared that Motorola Solutions’ CTO Mahesh Saptharishi changed his name to ‘Shark-tharishi’ during the hackathon.
The most successful corporate hackathons reach far beyond the engineering department. Leading organizers have developed specific strategies to create truly inclusive events that engage employees across the organization. Here's their expert advice on making hackathons accessible and appealing to everyone.
Executive support is key to hackathon success. To help secure their buy-in, Janet advises presenting leadership with a comprehensive plan.
"It's about presenting leadership with a fully formed idea that includes how it's going to go and what could potentially happen. Also, put the expectation of what time is required from them because they are very busy and in demand."
Trey shared that it’s also important to clearly highlight the various ways hackathons will benefit the organization.
“When executives feel like we're not just checking the box, we're not just hosting something to try and innovate because we have to. When you make it about the company culture, there's more buy-in,” said Trey.
Once execs are on board, it’ll make it easier to show people that they can participate. Tony shared how his team does this at JLL.
"We send out a calendar hold from the CEO or the CTO,” said Tony. “So it almost gives the participants permission to push back on their day-to-day work because they're like, 'Hey, well, the CTO just sent me an invite blocking my calendar out for the entire week. So I definitely have time for this.’ It's something we know is top of mind for a lot of the participants."
Successful hackathons welcome participants of all backgrounds. Trey emphasizes that including team members with diverse skill sets improves the overall quality of the hackathon because participants can offer a more well-rounded perspective in their submitted projects.
"You need both technical and non-technical talent to be able to really make the hackathon effective and make it something that leadership's like, 'You know what? We absolutely must do this.' To do that, we need people from all backgrounds," said Trey.
Motorola Solutions demonstrated this inclusive approach at scale.
"Between the hackers, the participants, the judges, and the voting, we had 11,000 people participate in our hackathon," said Janet Carmody, Motorola Solutions.
"It was key to find a way to have everybody participate at our company. That included two days if you wanted to hack, two hours if you wanted to be a volunteer judge, or 20 minutes if you wanted to vote for audience favorite. We made sure that everybody had a chance to be a part of it, regardless of what their job or skillset was," said Janet.
Janet also shared how the hackathon prize structure can help demonstrate that the event is open to participants across the organization.
“Of course, we were going for best in tech, but there were a lot of opportunities for people to win in smaller capacities because we had a bunch of smaller awards that were also available for most out-of-the-box thinking or the most creative,” she said.
Related: Watch our webinar with Motorola Solutions, Toyota North America, and JLL Technologies to learn about leveling up your all-hands hackathons.
For long-term hackathon success, participants need to see their contributions making a difference.
"If you don't take the things that people build seriously and you treat it in the same way you might treat an intramural basketball team at lunch, people see that and they'll stop investing," said Neta.
To reinforce impact, Neta shared how her team at Okta shows hackathon participants the value of their contributions.
“We send a message to thank people for participating that goes to their manager and talks about their specific project. Often, we give them feedback about the actual projects," said Neta Retter, Okta.
“There's an entire pathway for legal review for patentable projects," Neta added.
Trey shared how getting senior leaders on board with Toyota’s hackathons helps get projects onto the product roadmap, which reinforces the hackathon value to both executives and participants.
“Post-hackathon, we don't want it to stop there. Executives are instrumental in terms of finding pathways to productionalizing these things, and that's critical,” he said.
The event logistics shouldn’t get in the way of running a great hackathon. Hackathon organizers shared how they use Devpost for Teams to help streamline event management and inspire more people to participate. Christopher Aidan, VP of Innovation and Emerging Technologies at Estée Lauder Companies, shared how Devpost for Teams drastically improved his experience as a hackathon organizer.
"The thing that I used to dread around hackathons was actually all of the logistics and the judging,” he said.
“Devpost for Teams has done such an amazing job simplifying that, that it's hard to imagine doing a hackathon without it. Now that we've used it, it's so intuitive and it makes everything so much faster, and much more streamlined," said Christopher Aidan, Estée Lauder Companies.
Tony explained how his team at JLL uses Devpost to encourage non-technical participation.
"When teams formed around a project or idea in Devpost, we added in different roles that were non-tech roles,” said Tony. “In the communication when we talk about the hackathon, registering, and trying to make it more inclusive, we highlight those other non-tech roles so that folks understand that there's definitely a role for them to play. So that's something that we've done and where Devpost has helped us allow it to be more inclusive."
The team-building features particularly stand out for creating cross-functional teams.
"I love the team-building aspect of Devpost for Teams,” said Christopher. “It makes that process easier. Frankly, it's better when teams have more diversity in their backgrounds—at work we tend to surround ourselves with people that we're working with day-in and day-out, and that diversity of thought doesn't necessarily bubble up."
Successful internal hackathons don't happen by accident. They require thoughtful planning, a desire to innovate, executive support, and the right tools to execute effectively. By following the expert advice shared here—from securing executive buy-in to maximizing cross-team participation—you can create hackathons that deliver lasting value for your organization.
