Our version of the renowned hackathon concept provides a unique venue for being both open-minded and co-operative while realizing new ideas and transforming them into valuable takeaways. In practice, we employ it as a marathon brainstorming session that occurs throughout a short period of time, to get ideas flowing outside the typically constrained box of day-to-day tasks.
Mathias, Engineer in our Data team, was one of the initiators of our recent hackathon. He explains the concept in the following:
“A hackathon in Lind Capital involves devoting a whole workday for unlimited opportunities, as we focus on projects that we haven’t explored yet. In our team, this typically involves testing a new technology, application, or specific solution. During a hackathon, we disregard the normal time-consuming processes that would follow if we were to develop a new technology from start to end. In this way, we can, within a relatively short period, determine whether unexplored ideas can create value for our business. Relevant projects that could be on the next hackathon-agenda are continuously pitched among us colleagues in our idea bank. At some point, we select the most interesting ideas to explore, set the date for our next hackathon, and establish the working groups based on motivation and passion for the idea in question.”
Cross-team hacking
The latest edition of a hackathon in Lind Capital, was a cross-team collaboration between the Data team and team Quantitative Research (QR). A great way for colleagues who might not work together on a regular basis, to gather and inspire each other to new ways of thinking. In this way, our skills become decentralized in favour of greater internal knowledge sharing. This edition was different than the traditional hackathon, as it involved participants without a software or engineering background, which is where hackathon spring from.
Morten Birkmose, Senior Quant. Analyst in our Quantitative Research team, shares his thoughts on the day:
“The great thing about a hackathon is that you get the time to profoundly dig into a given topic of interest with your colleagues. Our main motivation for arranging a cross-team hackathon was to test various database management systems. The goal was twofold, as we wanted to identify a fast enough database to read data from and simultaneously identify one that is manageable for our Data team to maintain. Therefore, we ended up arranging the hackathon based on a unified goal between the two teams.
A cross-team hackathon generates value for Lind Capital since we share our knowledge both in the team and across teams. Besides the benefits of getting a more in-depth knowledge on the topic of interest, we also gained more insight into how each other work, and subsequently the collaboration between the two teams improved. This enhanced both our cross-team knowledge sharing and strengthened our social relations.”
Bringing hacks to the finish line
Our success criterion for a hackathon is not reflected in the number of solved challenges or explored ideas, rather we emphasize to employ the takeaways in the future. Since team Technology first introduced the concept in 2020, numerous projects, originated from a hackathon, have been implemented. After the recent hackathon between QR and Data, both teams have continued to collaborate on the project and we are excited to see the future outcome of it..
To sum up, we see a lot of great outcomes from facilitating hackathons here in Lind Capital – both within teams and across teams. We have found that detaching us from the daily routine, forces new perspectives and exponentially accelerate the development of initiatives, creating value for our business and supporting our growth journey. However, the benefits of our internal hackathons are not limited to discovering new ways of thinking. It also strengthens our internal engagement and cooperation, breaking down barriers across the organisation and enhancing our one-team feeling.
