From Idea to Impact: Maximizing Your Hackathon Performance
- 1. From Idea to Impact: Maximizing Your Hackathon Performance When the goal is to finish, not to win. Nuno Reis OutSystems Mentor and MVP
- 2. 2 What you’ll learn here 1. About Me 2. What is an Hackathon 3. How this Hackathon works 4. How to prepare a. Calendar b. Team c. Topic 5. Real Experience 6. Common Issues 7. Tips 8. Q&A
- 3. About Me 3
- 4. 4 20 years in IT 14 years of OutSystems 10th year as an MVP Two hackathons: -4th place at BFTF 2023 -1st place at Forgeathon 2024 Mentored 4 teams at BFTF 2024 (including 5th place and AWS Winners) My name is Nuno, nice to meet you
- 6. Generic Definition 6 A sprint-like event where teams create a functional project in a short time. Focused on rapid prototyping and learning. A collaborative environment for developers, designers, and innovators. A competition.
- 7. Give Every Organization the Power to Innovate Through Software You can do it with OutSystems, a Modern Application Platform
- 8. 8 In hackathons you compete for a prize. In the OutSystems community we focus in the collaborative aspect. We push our limits and the limits of the platform, testing the new functionalities. You participate to evolve as a professional, but also as a person by helping noble causes. We are all winners. The OutSystems way
- 10. 10 Dates: September 15th - 22nd Place: Online Teams: up to 5 members Stack: ODC with Agentic AI Purpose: create an application web and/or mobile for a nonprofit association. How This Hackathon Works Registration: until September 8th. Taikai Middle point: by September 17th send: ● Problem statement ● Use case description ● Integration and AI services planned for use Final submission: until September 22, 2025 11:59 PM CET.
- 11. 11 Each member of the three winning teams will receive a $250 USD purchase voucher (available in their country). Each participant in the hackathon will receive a community badge, certification voucher, and a lot of good karma! The prizes The three winning nonprofits get: 🥇 1st Prize - $10,000 USD 🥈2nd Prize - $5000 USD 🥉3rd Prize - $ 2500 USD All 3: 12 months of OutSystems ODC license
- 13. Spend a full month alone at high altitude 13
- 14. Preparing for a marathon To be great: Where are the inclinations? How steep? Where are the water posts? What is the type of road? Where and when will you have the sun on your face? Coordinate with your team. 14 Basics: You have to run 42km. Below 3h is good. 2h would be the world record. But there's more.
- 15. Preparing for a hackathon To be great: Who can we help? How can we help? How to showcase ODC abilities? How to integrate with Agentic AI? How to convince the jury? 15 Basics: You have a deadline. You need a project. You need a team.
- 16. Calendar August Study ODC if you are not familiar. Practice Agentic AI in OS. Write User Stories and do sprint planning. September Drag and drop widgets. 16 June Get your team. Five people. Different skills. Register them. July Find a cause/organization to help. Talk with them and see how to help them. Submit your project idea and if AWS/MS.
- 17. 17 User Experience UX Dev Team User Interface UI Product Owner PO Front-End FE Tech Lead TL Back-End BE Architect Arc Tester TS 8 roles, 5 people
- 18. 18 User Experience UX Dev Team User Interface UI Product Owner PO Front-End FE Tech Lead TL Back-End BE Architect Arc Tester TS Front-End will be the UX/UI expert Tech Lead needs to step up and validate architecture
- 19. 19 Team - nice to have Scrum Master - is probably not needed if the team works well together Demonstrator - to record a demo of the app Video Editor - to create the submission video English Voice over - to explain the demo Find who will do it.
- 20. Topic ● Local or global? ● What social issues do you care about? ● Do you have personal experience or contacts related to that challenge? ● Are you passionate about a certain domain (e.g., education, healthcare, climate, inequality)? ● Any needs or ideas? ● What can we do with OutSystems to fix it? ● Repeat until you are comfortable or time is running out. 20
- 21. Topic Consider this: 💡 How innovative is this? 💥 How big could the impact be? 🧠 Do we have the skills/resources to build something quickly? ❤️Are we excited to work on this? 21
- 23. Code4Change 23 ● How we found a Team ● How we found a Cause ● How we worked as a team ● Challenges we faced https://vimeo.com/1015109307 Filipe Caldeira OutSystems Developer Isaac Wangombe Software Developer Raquel Serra UX/UI Designer Anjali Dange Senior Software Developer
- 24. Common Issues 24
- 25. What happens every year 25 Practice! No experience in ODC Problems understanding Users SMTP Configuration AI integration Practice! Read the Forum / Ask on Slack Read the Forum / Ask on Slack
- 26. This year 26 Many team members will not show up. Many projects will not be submitted. Many submitted projects will not be Agentic AI. You have very good odds!
- 27. What gives points 27 Technical Application of the ODC features presented during the kick-off of the hackathon UX/UI quality User experience/user interface is an important aspect of each app.
- 28. What gives points 28 Use of AI and innovation Any innovative features you bring to your app will earn you extra points. Take time to figure out what will make your solution unique and modern. Demo quality The final video provides the opportunity to present all the app features in an engaging and interesting way. The submission has a firm time limit of five minutes.
- 29. zzzzzzz Keep this in your mind Tips
- 30. It sounds great in job interviews 30 "I did that in only 7 days" "I did it to challenge myself" "I did that before having my first job" "I did it after hours and over the weekend" "I did it for free" "I did it because it was needed"
- 31. What sounds even better 31 And I won.
- 32. Q&A 32
- 33. Thank you! 33