What does the perfect hackathon team consist of? For the Hackathon for Good, this is a team of three to five people. When creating your team it is not enough to only look at a person’s skillset, you also have to keep their personality in mind. Good communication is a crucial aspect in any successful and balanced team and don’t forget to adapt to each other’s working styles in order to benefit the most from everyone’s knowledge and experience.

Here are the three main types of personalities you want in your team to have a smooth work flow and a good balance.

“The Hustler”

First the hustler, this is the business savvy person who makes sure that the company makes money; this is usually the manager of the group. The hustler ignites passion, manages projects, updates the business model, forms partnerships, and guides the team along the journey. The hustler has a keen eye for numbers, such as financials, cost structure and user metrics, can speak to the long and short-term vision of the company, and can make investor pitches and tough decisions. They usually have these kind of personality traits:

• Go-getter
• Disciplined
• Extroverted
• Growth mindset
• Networker

“The Hacker”

Secondly, the hacker who eats, sleeps and breathes technology. This is the person who builds the actual product. The hacker is the one who creates the algorithms, intellectual property and resulting technology that forms the building blocks of your business. The hacker is instrumental in choosing the coding environment and platform. As an added bonus, if he or she can hustle — that is, get out and talk with customers — you’ve got it made. They usually have these kind of personality traits:

• Analytical
• Structured
• Reliable
• Focussed

“The Hipster”

The hipster eats, sleeps and breathes design. This is the designer that makes sure the product is delivering the best customer experience. The designer sets best practices in marketing, brand identity building, user experience, and the look and feel of the product. In most cases, the hipster is the copywriter as well. They usually have these kind of personality traits:

• Creative
• Good taste
• Empathetic
• Thoughtful
• Minimalist

But that’s only three people Hackathon for Good. Depending on your challenge of preference we would advise to either find another “Hacker” or “Hipster”. If you are not sure in which category you are, try the personality test.

Advice from a former winner

We asked Shravan Shah, last year’s Hackathon for Good winner, for his experiences and advice when creating a winning team. Shravan was “The Hustler”, he managed the project, did the business strategy and led the scrum sessions.

How was the distribution of the roles in your team?

We had four people. I had the lead on business strategy and managed the project. We had a product manager, a designer and a coder.

The product manager and I did the pitch at the end.

What was positive about this distribution of roles and what would you do differently?

This distribution worked really well, because everyone understood their own strengths and could focus on those parts of the project without losing time on the small things.

I wouldn’t do anything different because it was the perfect combination, we had great time management, a clean schedule and we slept well (which is more important than you might think).

Do you have any advice for the candidates this year?

Find a well balanced team, if you miss one personality it’s not the end of the world but someone has to take over that role.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you are stuck with the software or certain data sets. The support team is there for a reason.

Work on your time management, you don’t have an infinite amount of time for this challenge. Part of your time management is also getting enough sleep during the hackathon.

Communication is key. Be short, direct and clear so you don’t get stuck on issues for a long time during a session.

Aim for 90% completion. That way you focus on the most important criteria of the project and you get a higher score at the end.

Simplify your product. So it is easy to grasp during the pitch. You should be able to explain it to someone that has no knowledge on the subject, try pitching your family or friends first.

Good luck with your challenge and see you on the 19th of November!

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