An inside look at Coda's Hackathon 21
Non-engineers hack, too.
Andrea Connelly
SEO Lead at Coda
An inside look at Coda's Hackathon 21
By Andrea Connelly
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Hackathon is my favorite ritual at Coda. One week every quarter, I get to step outside of my typical role and choose a project to work on with colleagues that I may not normally interact with. It’s my chance to share my ideas, get inspired by my colleague's ideas, and push pause on my regular work to spend three days on something completely new to me. Hackathons at Coda are not about coding, despite what the word “hack” may suggest. Hackathon projects are for innovation and exploration — not to build new features — so they are a low-pressure way to try your hand at something different. Everyone participates across all roles in the company. This week, we held Hackathon 21, our twenty-first time coming together to explore new ideas and hack together a prototype, document, presentation, or video.
Quick stats about Hackathon 21
- 80 ideas were considered
- 49 ideas were pitched
- 26 teams were formed
- 163 Codans participated
Coda’s process for running quarterly Hackathons.
Coda is a remote-first company, with Codans working from around the country (and world), which means there is always an option to join remotely, even for Hackathon. But Hackathon is also a time to get together in-person, for whomever wants to travel, and a quarterly opportunity to see the smiling faces from your screen in real life. Our process for running Hackathons typically looks something like this:- 💡 Gathering ideas. Ideation begins about a week before Hackathon kicks off. Everyone is encouraged to add their ideas to a company-wide doc. We use a doc just like this one to run our Hackathons every quarter.
- 💚 Choosing the ideas that inspire you. Browsing through the list of ideas to find ones that are interesting or inspiring is easy. You’re encouraged to add your ideas, too — they can be about anything. My idea was to blog about Hackathon 21. And here we are.
- 🎙️ Pitches. Every idea is pitched during a company-wide Hackathon meeting. Each pitch is 60 seconds long, and the pitcher explains the idea, what skills are needed, and why you should choose to work on the team.
- 🏉 Team formation. Once you’ve decided which team to work on, you can get started. We like to use Coda AI to help break the ice and unify the team, such as coming up with nicknames, team names, or helping create the lie for the Two Truths and a Lie game.
- 💻 Hacking begins. Teams have three days to work on projects. It’s time enough to explore a specific solution for the idea, but not a lot of time to collect insights. So many teams use Coda AI to dig through customer feedback and ask questions about any current data we have related to the project. At the end of three days, the goal is to have a prototype, video, document, or presentation.
- 🎯 Internal presentations. We schedule 1.5 hours for teams to present their project. Some teams have recorded video demos, others present their project in a live skit, and others perform songs. All formats are encouraged and celebrated. Sharing internally is a nice way to wrap up Hackathon and applaud the work we accomplished.
- 📣 External presentations. The week after Hackathon, we invite members of our Board, makers from our community, customers, and other folks that are interested in seeing what’s cooking at Coda to a virtual meeting where we share the highest-voted presentations. We gather helpful feedback on our ideas and often hear an encouraging “ship it!”
A peek at Hackathon 21.
These are some of my favorite ideas submitted at Hackathon 21. 1. Coda is taking notes. Tired of taking notes in meetings? Paste a link to your meeting in your Coda doc, click the “Take notes” button, and Coda AI will join the meeting and take notes for you.
A Hackathon 21 idea - Coda AI joins calls to take meeting notes.
A Hackathon 21 idea - new page layouts for connected information.
A Hackathon 21 idea - easily see how your data is connected.
A Hackathon 21 idea - a holiday jingle by The Coda Band.
Have any Hackathon projects become Coda features?
Because Hackathon projects are for innovation and exploration, we don’t intend for them to become ship-able product improvements. But there have been a few ideas so brilliant that we couldn’t help ourselves. These are a couple Hackathon projects used as inspiration for features in Coda today.Coda AI
In last December’s Hackathon, a team formed to start experimenting with AI. They wanted to make our OpenAI Pack native to Coda. The team prototyped concepts and was the highest-voted project during internal presentations. The team shared with the board during external presentations, and the board encouraged Coda to assemble a more dedicated AI team. For more details, check out the unexpected story of Coda AI.Coda AI chat
During Hackathon 20, a team formed to explore building AI chat. Because chat had become a popular interface for AI (thanks to ChatGPT), they wanted to build a chat feature into Coda. The team put together a demo that was so compelling that after Hackathon wrapped up, a team got to work. Six weeks later, we shipped Coda’s most-used AI feature.100 Packs in one day
In September of 2021, we decided to try something different and used Hackathon to test a thesis. We wanted to learn whether anyone (especially anyone who is not an engineer) could build a Pack —an extension that lets you customize how your doc looks, works, and integrates. We encouraged everyone to participate and held a 90-minute training session to get started. It was a huge success! Engineers and non-engineers alike successfully built Packs. Read more details about how we built 100 Packs in a day here.Hackathons are for innovation and exploration.
I look forward to our Hackathons every quarter. They are a great way to stretch my skills, explore projects outside of my role, connect with my colleagues, and have a little fun. Hackathons encourage innovation and because the entire company is participating, they also provide the space and time to do so. If you’d like follow along with future Hackathons, or learn more about any other ritual here at Coda, I encourage you to join the Coda Community.Related posts
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