Why voting is crucial to your private hackathon's success

Hackathons are a fantastic way to spark creativity and collaboration within your company or a specific group. But once the projects are built, how do you decide which ones stand out? That’s where voting comes in.

What is voting in a hackathon?

Simply put, voting is a key part of how hackathon projects are evaluated. Instead of relying solely on a small panel of judges, voting allows a wider audience to have a say in which projects are most impactful or innovative.

Why is voting important for your hackathon?

Voting isn’t just about picking a winner. It also brings several important benefits to your hackathon:

• Boosts engagement: Voting allows more people to participate, even if they aren’t actively building a project. Employees or customers who aren't participants can still feel involved by casting their votes.
• Fairer evaluation: It helps democratize the judging process. By including more voices, you get a broader perspective on the significance of different projects.
• Highlights impactful projects: Employee voting can provide valuable internal feedback on which projects resonate most or could have the greatest positive impact on your organization.
• Celebrates others’ projects: Getting votes from peers is another way to celebrate hackathon projects and let them shine. Even if someone doesn’t win, collecting votes shows that someone else liked the idea.

Related: Learn how to use surveys to get deeper insights about your hackathon

Examples of hackathon voting categories

The key to success with hackathon voting is making it flexible and tailored to your hackathon's needs. With Devpost for Teams (DFT), you can effortlessly align voting with your hackathon's specific goals. 

You can set up any voting categories you’d like, but here are some examples for inspiration:

• Overall Popular Vote: Let everyone vote for their favorite project.
• Specific Categories: You might have categories like "Best Presentation," "Most Creative Project," “Best Use of a Certain Technology,” or "Greatest Business Impact."
• Voting by Team or Location: If your hackathon is global or involves multiple teams, you can allow voting within specific groups or locations.
• Voting by Department/Role: Get input from specific departments on projects relevant to their areas.‍
• "Most Likely to Be Implemented" Vote: Encourage voters to consider the practicality and potential for future development.

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How to conduct voting with Devpost for Teams

Devpost for Teams (DFT) makes setting up and managing hackathon voting straightforward. Here's how it works:

Enable voting during hackathon set up

When you’re setting up your hackathon, you’ll need to enable voting: 

1. Go to your hackathon page and switch to Edit mode
2. Click the Judging icon in the Admin bar
3. Select how you’ll evaluate projects: judging and voting, judging only, voting only, or no evaluation

Create voting groups

Voting groups allow you to create different voting categories. To set up voting groups, navigate to the Results section in your DFT hackathon and click on the Voting screen. From there, you'll create a voting group.

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You have the flexibility to create multiple voting groups, each with its own unique link. These links can be easily shared with your participants, giving them direct access to the projects they need to vote on.

Set voting options

When creating a new voting group, you’ll need to decide who can vote and how projects are displayed.

Who Can Vote? (Voting Permission Settings):

• Sign-in required: Voters must be signed into Devpost for Teams to cast their votes. This is ideal for ensuring only registered participants or employees can vote.
• Public: Anyone with the voting link can access the ballot and vote, no sign-in needed. This is useful for broader engagement, perhaps with a specific customer group.
• Email only required: Users will need to confirm their email address to vote, but signing in or having a DFT account isn't necessary. This strikes a balance between ease of access and some level of identification.

How Projects Appear (Project Order):

You can control the order in which projects are displayed on the voting ballot:

• Alphabetical A-Z or Z-A: For straightforward organization.
• Custom: Allows you to manually set the order of projects.
• Randomized: Each voter sees projects in a different random order, which can help prevent bias.

After setting these preferences, you'll select the specific projects you want to include in that voting group. If you choose a "Custom" project order, you'll be prompted to arrange the projects before saving your group.

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After the votes are in

Once your voting period is over, organizers can:

• Export voting results
• Assign awards based on the results (if you’re awarding prizes based on votes)

Using DFT simplifies the voting process, allowing you to easily create voting groups, decide how voting happens, and tally results, making your private hackathons more engaging and insightful.

Unlock the full potential of your hackathon

Voting is an indispensable element for any successful private hackathon, driving engagement, ensuring fair evaluation, and highlighting truly impactful projects. By leveraging Devpost for Teams, you can effortlessly implement flexible voting mechanisms that resonate with your organization's unique needs, ultimately enhancing the overall experience and outcomes of your internal events.

Ready to see how Devpost for Teams can transform your next private hackathon? Book a demo today and discover how easy it is to unlock the full potential of your team's innovation.