Online, in-person or hybrid hackathon: how to choose the format

What is a hackathon, and which problems can it address?

A hackathon is a focused journey in which teams develop proposals for a challenge, with guidance, criteria and a submission deadline. The outcome may be a prototype, a demonstration, a service model or a process experiment. The deliverable needs to show the reasoning and allow the hypothesis to be evaluated.

Coding can be part of the work, but it is not required for every challenge. Business, operations, design, customer service and technology teams can participate. Before choosing tools, describe the problem, who experiences it and what will be considered a useful proposal.

When to choose an online hackathon

The online format allows participants from different locations to come together and spread the work over days or weeks. It is an option for exploring a challenge with a geographically dispersed audience, provided the schedule accounts for participants' availability and time zones.

Operations need a clear central point for registration, team formation, materials, questions, mentoring and submissions. Publish deadlines and criteria somewhere accessible. Set aside time for guidance and monitor obstacles: a registered team may not yet have understood the challenge or managed to start working.

When to choose the in-person format

An in-person format encourages quick conversations, contact with specialists and direct observation of proposals as they develop. It can make sense when teams need to test an experience, visit an operation or work together on a concentrated schedule.

Space, accessibility, food, connectivity, equipment and mentors' movement between teams all form part of the planning. The schedule should leave enough time for work and review. A sequence of talks that fills almost the entire agenda leaves little room for teams to develop and test ideas.

How to organize a hybrid hackathon

One possibility is to begin with an online challenge and select teams for an in-person stage. The first phase can collect proposals and initial evidence; the second goes deeper into testing, mentoring and presentations. Define selection criteria before opening registration and explain what will be required at each stage.

It is also possible to have remote and in-person participants at the same time. In that case, ensure equivalent access to information, specialists and evaluation. Streaming the stage does not, by itself, solve collaboration between teams and mentors in both environments.

Six areas for defining the scope

• Consulting: objective, audience, challenge, evaluation criteria and journey design. The rules should clarify participation, deliverables and conditions applicable to the projects.
• Facilitation: guiding teams, organizing mentoring, tracking milestones and preparing teams to present their proposals.
• Production: schedule, operations team, venue or streaming, resources and coordination of the suppliers defined in the project.
• Platform: registration, communication, materials, submissions and evaluation. It can combine existing tools, depending on needs and access rules.
• Promotion: message, channels, schedule and mobilization of the right audience for the challenge, with tracking of registrations and participation.
• Developer Relations: documentation, examples, technical support and feedback collection when the objective includes trying APIs, cloud or developer tools.

In the proposal, distribute responsibilities among the organizer, sponsors and contracted team. Confirm awards, logistics, media, technical resources and follow-up separately. This makes it possible to compare scopes without confusing methodological support with full production.

How to evaluate results beyond registrations

Track how many teams started, reached milestones and submitted something that could be evaluated. Record the main difficulties and the criteria the judges used. In an API challenge, for example, account registration and a first working integration are different signals.

For an operational improvement initiative, it may be more useful to assess the clarity of the problem, the feasibility of the test and the involvement of the responsible department. Define the metric according to the objective. An award recognizes a deliverable at that moment; subsequent adoption requires another stage of work.

Plan that continuity before the event closes: owner, hypothesis, resources and next decision. The from prototype to pilot guide explains how to make that transition. NewHack works with hackathons and corporate innovation through modular scopes defined by the challenge, audience and the company's capacity to execute.