A Hackathon Keeps Your Team Working in Sync

Winners Think Alike

Last time, we had a discussion with one of the members of the winning team of Teravision Technologies’ 2020 Hackathon event, María Fernanda Cordobés, to understand how her and her team felt pre and post the event, and how they managed to become the overall winners of the event. Check that interview out here.

However, they didn’t win in all the categories! This time, we’ll be speaking with Bárbara Muñoz, one of Teravision’s UX/UI designers, and winner of the UI category, to get her insight on the event and how her team kept up the pace with the rest of the winners!

The Interview

Question

What was your experience like in the Hackathon? How do you think everyone felt?

Barbara Muñoz

I felt like the event was very cool, and I think everyone was enjoying themselves, especially considering that I never had the chance to participate in an event like this throughout my time in the company, and that the technology proposed was new and we never used it in any of our projects. It was great for me to learn about this tool and how to design for this technology, as well joining that new found knowledge with the rest of my team, Joaquin as the developer and Omar in quality assurance.

Q

So it sounds like you enjoyed having Flutter as the technology of choice for this event, being that it’s new and it expands your skillset.

BM

Totally, I really enjoyed that challenge, if it weren’t for that, I probably would not have liked the Hackathon as much as I did. It made the event very interesting!

Q

What was your experience like using Flutter? Would you say that the learning curve was difficult, or was it easy to get on board with it?

BM

The good thing about this event was that we were given time to learn and prepare for the event, almost like a month or three weeks. Without that pretense, developing our project would have taken longer. With that knowledge, I would say that using it was pretty quick and easy, really.

Q

What kind of project did your team decide to make? Was it made from scratch, or was it a suggestion by the organizers of the event?

BM

It was something suggested by the organizers. It was a project for the Human Resources Department, specifically for recruitment.

Q

What is it for?

BM

It was for registering the candidates interviewed by Human Resources or any of the Leads from the other departments in a database, as well as their feedback and follow- up on the entire interview process. That way, if you decide to contact that person again, you’ll already have a clear vision of where you’re at as well as any notes you may have on them.

Q

It sounds like a complete project! Also a difficult one to develop within 48 hours. Was that the final version of the product that you envisioned?

BM

Well we had to make an MVP beforehand because we had a lot of ideas, but yes, we managed to complete it.

Q

What were the most essential parts of the project that were included in the MVP?

BM

The core parts of the project were pretty much the ones I mentioned, the ability to register a candidate’s data, as well as their feedback on the interaction. We really could have merged our proposal with the one that Mafe’s team did because it was very similar, and it would have turned out very cool!

Q

Tell me about your team, what was the overall morale of the team? Did you all work together well?

BM

Yes, we did work very well together, it also helped that they were all people that I already knew, so the chemistry was there. Also, everyone was learning something different, like I was learning a little bit about quality assurance, QA learned something from me, it was a very supportive process.

Q

And when you constructed the team, was there any logic made into constructing it? Because you mentioned that your team consisted of a developer, a quality assurance analyst and you in design, so it sounds very balanced! Was there a reason behind it or was it motivated more based on familiarity with the individuals?

BM

Yes, we did think about it like that, to sort of have the best of all worlds!

Q

One interesting thing we found was that most of the participants wished to continue working on the projects started in the Hackathon. Would you continue working on yours in the future?

BM

Of course! In fact I think there were a few apps that could potentially be joined up in order to create bigger and better projects.

Q

What do you mean by that?

BM

Mostly like what I mentioned about the idea Mafe’s team had been very similar to ours, but that they already had the other part of ours ready, so it would be cool work on a merge between the two. But yes, I would definitely like to continue working on the project.

Q

So it also sounds like you would be up for entering another Hackathon event if it comes along.

BM

Of course!

Q

Awesome! What would you be looking for in the next event? Something similar to the past one or something new?

BM

So long as there’s a challenge, I’ll be motivated to participate.

Q

How was your interaction with the client figures in the event? We know it’s something unique to our internal Hackathon and made to impulse that entrepreneurial vein in the company, so how was it for you?

BM

I actually forgot about that point, but it was very important because we were able to test our current prototypes with them, see if it actually solved the issue they were having, and see if any other features needed to be added in the product.

Q

So there was a lot of back and forth between your team and your client, right?

BM

Exactly.

Q

One last thing, part of the intention of the event was, aside from learning about Flutter, was to learn about entrepreneurship and to have the skills necessary to determine the business needs of clients. Do you think that objective was fulfilled in your team?

BM

Completely!

You Work Better When You Are in Sync

Hackathons serve to not only nurture a developer’s potential, but in a closed door environment, it helps bring solutions to the table that’ll serve the company in the long run. These interviews with Bárbara Muñoz and María Fernanda Cordobés help nail this idea. No doubt that this experience will help the members become more in sync with each other, translating to better professional relationships, and results.