Each 6 months, the Brisbane and Vietnam Product Improvement Groups come collectively to take part in a 3-day Hackathon in Skedulo’s Brisbane workplace. This bi-annual occasion is quick changing into a beloved custom. The workplace was buzzing with power and pleasure because the groups gathered for the third time to current their greatest hacks at this yr’s Hackathon.
This yr we polled the broader firm, not simply the product improvement workforce, for concepts and options that the go-to-market workforce want to see come alive. We have been so thrilled by the keenness and creativity from the broader workforce — greater than 50 totally different concepts from throughout the corporate have been submitted! Sadly this was solely a 3-day occasion, so we couldn’t carry all of those concepts to fruition, however the workforce was in a position to take 22 of them to a state the place they could possibly be demoed and judged.
Our engineers have been excited and motivated to work on these concepts. Over the course of the Hackathon we gave them the choice to work in groups or as people, giving them a break from their regular duties, conferences, and daily tasks. We introduced in yummy catered lunches and dinners to maintain their spirits excessive and gas their our bodies and minds, so they may put all their power into bringing these hacks to life.
The judging committee is pretty laid again, comprising of Jonathan Hodge, COO at Skedulo and Jen Elkow, Director of Product Administration at Skedulo, and naturally, me – the Director of Engineering. Because the judging course of started, we did our greatest to keep up neutral for every of the hacks, however I’ll neither affirm nor deny that bribes have been accepted by the judges at this yr’s Hackathon.
A complete of 6 awards got out on the finish of the Hackathon, however there was a lot that we needed to acknowledge so we created award classes on the fly. Really, the variety of awards was actually primarily based on what number of trophies have been bought for the occasion.
Greatest Hack and Awards
Because the occasion is pretty laid again and enjoyable, we prefer to maintain the trophies and awards that we give out in a similar way. Annually, the Hackathon winners obtain a themed trophy (the extra random and dodgier the higher). For instance, the primary Hackathon winners acquired a fishing themed trophy. The winners of the second yr’s Hackathon acquired a basketball-themed trophy. And this yr’s winners acquired martial arts themed trophies!
In no explicit order, under are the varied awards that we gave out at this yr’s Hackathon!
- The Hacky McHacky Award – “Marv and Jenk the Screaming Bot Males” by Josh Hassum. A bit background historical past on this hack and why it was so well-liked. The workforce has a Slack bot known as Marvin that performs quite a few automated jobs for us. This yr, Josh had the good thought of bringing Marvin into the true world, try the quick video under to look at Marvin in motion. When he completed a job efficiently his eyes would mild up inexperienced, when a job failed his eyes would mild up purple, and he would mutter random feedback below his breath. ** Try the photograph under **
- Scheduler’s Greatest Buddy – “Reschedule Job” by Zoe Stewart – This hack permits a Scheduler to re-schedule a complete day value of jobs simply, which might be particularly useful if a job runs additional time and the entire day’s schedule must be adjusted.
- Shipped It – “App Preferences for Time Codecs and Distance Items” by Drew Taylor – This hack permits customers to make modifications to time codecs and distance items and shops their app preferences within the server. This was probably the most mature hack offered in the course of the Hackathon as Drew raised a pull request throughout his demonstration.
- Greatest Apple Watch App is Greatest – “Apple Watch App & Wealthy notifications” by Matthew Robbins & Clinton Rocksmith. Skedulo will get into wearables by creating the flexibility to simply accept or decline jobs and affords with out having to open the cell app. You possibly can replace a job standing on the Apple Watch too!
- Useful resource’s Greatest Buddy – “Work Swap” by Gustavo Oliveira, Karina Appleby, Ned Mules & Leila Watson. This offers sources the flexibility to swap shifts or jobs with no need a scheduler. Identical to our Work Presents function, we’re at all times searching for methods to empower and have interaction cell employees!
- Oldest Characteristic Request – “Customized Kind Builder” by Hung Le, Son Dieu & Huong Diep. This function has been one which we’ve been discussing since 2015, again when Skedulo was nonetheless in a storage in West Finish in Brisbane. This hack permits non-developers to construct easy customized kinds by way of a person interface. Generally good issues take time!
Subsequent Steps: Placing the Hacks into Motion
This was one of the best Hackathon ever, however I additionally say that about every Hackathon. The workforce at all times continues to enhance and innovate whereas delivering unbelievable new hacks and options.
Previously, the Hackathon has been a time of workforce bonding and innovation, however admittedly we haven’t been one of the best by way of delivery hacks to manufacturing. Our purpose this yr is to vary that! This yr, the workforce set an audacious purpose to ship at the least 5 of the 22 hacks that have been demoed and produce them to manufacturing high quality. And we wish to do that whereas doing the entire different work that we’ve dedicated to delivery!
Up to now, we’re off to an amazing begin! Now we have already shipped our first hack known as ‘Server Metrics’ into manufacturing. This variation introduces extra in-depth metrics on how our backend companies are performing and pushes the knowledge into an open-source dashboarding instrument. Earlier than, we’ve used a proprietary instrument to do that for us, however this instrument has come at a big price monthly. With this new hack now in manufacturing, we’re not reliant on an out of doors instrument and may start utilizing our new hack whereas additionally saving cash for the corporate.
As we look ahead to the following Hackathon, we’ve despatched out a survey to all those that participated to get suggestions on what labored nicely and what might be improved. We’re excited for the following Hackathon occasion that’s positive to be larger and higher than this previous one, and for a brand new set of dodgy trophies to award!
