Is it time to run a customer hackathon?

You’ve closed the deal and the implementation is complete. Sounds great, right?

It is, until you look at your dashboard and see that usage numbers are... quiet. They’re using your AI for basic tasks, but they haven't yet woven it into the fabric of their business.

When customers only skim the surface of your AI’s capabilities, they lack the momentum needed for a seamless renewal or expansion. A customer hackathon is the most direct way to bridge this gap, moving your users from basic tasks to building functional, high-value prototypes.

To help you identify which accounts are ready for this level of engagement, we’ve outlined three primary indicators that a hackathon is the right move for your customer.

#1 They’re only using the basics of your AI product

Is your customer using only a small fraction of what they’re paying for? If they have access to a robust suite of AI tools but are only using a few, there’s a massive amount of unrealized value.

A hackathon provides a dedicated space for users to experiment outside of their daily work. It’s a tool to help them discover high-impact use cases—like custom automated workflows—that they simply haven't had the time to build during a standard work week. 

By showing them new AI capabilities in a hands-on environment, you’ll help them get more value from your product, naturally increasing its operational integration and long-term stickiness.

Related reading: See what happens in a customer hackathon.

#2 They’re interested, but stuck

This indicator usually shows up during a check-in call when a customer says one of two things:

• "What are others building?" They like your tool, but they haven't figured out how to make it work for their specific business yet.
• "We have a list of ideas, but no time to test them." They have a backlog of potential use cases, but their day-to-day work keeps getting in the way.

In both cases, a hackathon solves the problem by providing a finish line. It helps their team dedicate the time to start building solutions—sometimes in as little as 24 hours.

In our case study with SAP, Nico Wyss, Solutions Advisor and customer hackathon organizer, shared how these events help quickly move prototypes into production. He described how a team leveraged a new generative AI technology that was published just weeks before the hackathon. 

“Now it’s in production and running on a system with that customer... It gave them the time back to focus on the high-value tasks in their specific line of work.”

{{callout-1}}

#3 You need more insight into how they’re building

Hackathons are an excellent tool for collecting product and customer insights.

When you set up your event in Devpost for Teams, you can customize registration questions and project submission questions to capture specific data. This allows you to see information like which departments are participating, their prior experience level with the tools, and the specific business problems they’re trying to solve.

In one recent customer hackathon on our platform:

• 80% of participants started with mid-to-low experience with AI agents.
• 24 hours later, 26 working AI agents (autonomous programs designed to perform specific tasks) had been built.
• Half of the builders had never touched the AI agent tools before the event.

This data gives your sales and CS teams a clear map of where to focus expansion efforts based on real-world usage rather than guesswork.

When to hold off (The non-fit scenarios)

While customer hackathons are powerful, they're most effective when the timing is right. Consider a different approach if:

• The relationship is struggling: If the customer is actively upset about pricing or a recent outage, a hackathon can feel out of sync. It’s better to resolve those foundational issues first to ensure the event is received as a genuine value-add.
• The goal is broad reach: If you want to reach a vast public audience for general brand awareness, an open public hackathon is a better fit. Customer hackathons are about depth, not breadth. They are designed to strengthen specific relationships and drive product adoption within a key account.

Related reading: See the difference between public, internal, and customer hackathons.

Moving from engagement to adoption

A successful customer hackathon helps your product become integrated into your customer’s core workflows. At Devpost, we support this process through two pillars.

Strategic expertise: Running a hackathon shouldn't feel like a logistical burden. We can provide the strategic guidance and best practices needed to align your hackathon’s themes with your customer’s business goals. This ensures the prototypes built are not just experiments, but solutions to the actual problems that ultimately drive renewals and expansion.

The Devpost for Teams platform: Our platform removes the logistical friction of managing an event, allowing your team to focus on the customer relationship. It provides a private environment where you can manage everything in one place—from registration and participant communication to project submissions and judging. You can also customize submission questions to learn which business problems participants prioritized or which parts of your tech stack they found most useful.

{{callout-2}}

Bridging the gap to your revenue goals

At the root of it, a customer hackathon drives measurable adoption by embedding your technology into your customer's daily workflows. By helping your customers build, learn, and win with your AI, you provide a fresh way for your sales and CS teams to hit revenue goals and re-activate accounts.

The best way to turn engagement into measurable adoption is to get your customers building. See how Devpost for Teams can help you plan, manage, and report on your next customer hackathon.