How do you win a Hackathon? (2/4)

Last post we discussed the importance of adopting the "in it to win it" mindset as your first step towards winning a hackathon. First with yourself, and then, once you have a team, with them. But how do you find the right team?

The most important characteristic to look for in your teammates is the same as for yourself - they have to really want to win, or you believe they will quickly adopt the winning spirit. Hackathons are hard and demanding ordeals with tight schedules, and you are usually not freed from existing responsibilities. If your team members are not the sort of people who can dive into a challenge and give it their all despite all of the hardships, you won't be able to rely on them when the going gets hard (and it will).

So that's the primary thing to look for - people who can step up to a challenge and be motivated to put in the effort.

Other than that, what type of qualities should the team members have? Different hackathons will be on different topics, so the specific technical expertise needed depends on the subject itself, but you need to make sure your team has at least these four roles:

A Visionary

Someone who can come up with, articulate and keep the team on path towards a vision of the world where this solution exists. They don't have to build the solution or describe its technical makeup; they just need to be able to take the domain of the hackathon, and find the right problem and solution for it. I'll talk more about finding the right problem to solve in the next post, but this person needs to make sure the team stays on vision.

A Manager

Hackathons are hard. You will need someone to coordinate everyone's schedule, settle arguments and keep things moving at the right pace. There's not enough time to hold lengthy meetings or to argue endlessly over small details; someone needs to cut the argument and make a decision. Someone also needs to split up the work and keep track of how things are progressing. You need a captain to run this ship smoothly.

A UI Expert

Your demo needs to look stunning, regardless of what it does. Even if it's only a backend service, you need to find a way to make the demo pop. For this you need a top-notch UI expert; make sure you have one.

A Presenter

The presenter is the person who ties everything together in front of the judges. They need to weave together the vision and demo into a story that sticks in the judge's mind, and elevates your solution above all others. You need someone who's an experienced and polished presenter, an excellent communicator who can radiate both confidence and excitement.

You could be any of these, multiple of them, or none of them; so long as _someone_ on your team has them. Otherwise, you'll be hard-pressed to meet your goal: winning.

The team is ready, the winning mindset in place. Now you just need the right idea, which we'll cover in the next post.





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