7 Steps to a Corporate Hackathon Your Team Will Love (and Learn From)

I've experienced corporate hackathons from every angle—as a participant and winner, an organizer, a sponsor, and a strategic planner shaping innovation programs at major organizations including Microsoft, Accenture, and high-growth startups. After dozens of corporate hackathons, I know exactly what separates hackathons that spark real breakthroughs from those that waste everyone's energy.

Corporate hackathons can transform your team’s creativity—but only if planned correctly. A well-run hackathon establishes a stream of valuable ideas and drives lasting cultural change—awakening an experimentation mindset across your organization. A poorly executed one can actually damage the innovation culture. Here are the 7 steps that separate breakthrough hackathons from forgettable ones.

What is a Hackathon, anyway?

Here is my definition:

An intensive, software-centric ideation, prototyping and presentation competition on known or unknown problems or opportunities.

Intensive in the above definition implies a time-boxed process asking participants for the ‘impossible’ — to come up with novel solutions to particular problems or innovative ideas and prototypes regarding new business opportunities. Hackathons are technology-driven and primarily about software — hence the software-centric element in the definition. A Hackathon is very demanding on participants — it requires not only great technical and coding skills but also business and product sense along with great presentation skills.

Participants are asked to come up with great ideas, formulate a prototype and prioritize wisely; then self-organize and execute — do quick research, prepare resources, write code, reuse existing components and systems and finally prepare a presentation — all in a time-boxed scenario. A Hackathon may be focusing on known problems or business opportunities or technologies (stated upfront) or it could be open to any ideas with no particular constraints.

→ Check also: Building an MVP: How to define the first instance of your product

Running Hackathons in the post-covid era of remote work

The shift to remote work has made virtual hackathons increasingly common. While the core principles of hackathon planning remain the same, virtual formats require additional considerations. Most importantly:

• Platform Selection. Choose collaboration tools that support real-time coding, video calls, and asynchronous communication. Popular options include Slack or Discord for communication, GitHub for code collaboration, and Miro or Figma for ideation and design.

• Time Zone Management. For global teams organizing an internal hackathon, consider asynchronous formats where teams work during their local hours, with synchronous touchpoints for kickoff and final presentations.

• Engagement Tactics. Virtual hackathons risk lower energy and participation. Combat this with regular check-ins and "office hours" with mentors, live leaderboards or progress updates, virtual social events during breaks, and clear, frequent communication in a central channel.

• Judging Adaptations. Video pitches often work better than live presentations in virtual settings, allowing judges to review submissions asynchronously and reducing technical difficulties during the assessment phase.

Corporate Hackathon Planning at a Glance

1. Define clear objectives and success metrics before anything else

2. Allow 4-6 weeks lead time for participants to form teams

3. Specify deliverables upfront (prototype, pitch, concept)

4. Use expert panels, not popularity votes, for judging

5. Plan post-hackathon follow-through for winning ideas

6. Budget for the real prize: resources to build the product

Defining Your Hackathon

Start with a clear definition of your hackathon event (style, processes, objectives, awards) - this is key for its success. Clear definition enables effective hackathon planning, communication and execution. The major attributes and decision points defining a hackathon are:

1. Date, duration, lead time, and venues. Especially the lead-time is important in order to allow participants to get prepared by discussing ideas, teams, and collaboration scenarios. Depending on the case and the size of the corporation/ involved team, there should be a lead time of a few weeks.

2. Participation rules: the logic defining who is eligible to participate (for instance full-time employees from particular teams, venues, etc.)

3. Minimum Deliverable: the type of deliverable required for a successful submission — for example, is it a functional prototype + source code? a predictive model? a pitch video? this is key information that can have a significant impact on the participation rates

4. Context: the focus of the event in terms of technologies, particular business problems to be solved. For instance, it could be a Data hackathon or Robotics or AR/VR; or any technology, with a focus on a particular class of problems.

5. Scope: is it an internal, company-wide, or public event? A private hackathon could target particular teams or the entire corporation. A public hackathon accepts participants outside the corporation.

6. Assessment criteria and process: the rules, priorities, and processes in order to evaluate submissions (is there a voting process, a panel of experts? what are the dimensions to use when evaluating an idea?)

7. Award: number of winners and type of award

→ Check also: our unique Innovation Toolkit - a collection of seven innovation templates including hackathon definition and hackathon project assessment.

Step 1 – Set Hackathon’s Objectives and Expectations

Typically, a Hackathon event is expected to deliver at least a set of interesting, novel ideas. Ideally, there should be a few promising concepts, possibly with a prototype and quick proof of the concept/technology involved.

Beyond the obvious objective — to generate high-value actionable business ideas and product concepts— there is another aspect related to the team dynamics and the innovation mentality: a great hackathon boosts the innovation culture and further establishes the idea-sharing, effective collaboration, and creativeness, driven by the enthusiasm towards a shared goal.

Employees have a great opportunity to discover technologies, teams and demonstrate their skills and talents outside their typical job description; Corporations have the opportunity to identify talent, experience powerful teams being set up, and capture valuable feedback.

Step 2 – Define Hackathon Success Metrics

Success criteria depend on the particular context — business, industry, size of the corporation, timing, etc. In all cases, KPIs can be defined on some or all of the following:

1. Participation rate: this is an obvious indicator of one aspect of the success of the event — how employees responded to the ‘call to innovate’. The percentage over the total number of employees depends of course on the nature of the hackathon, the timing, the focus, etc. The target should be set after analyzing similar events within the same corporation.

2. The volume of Ideas: the volume of ideas generated is also significant, especially when analyzed against additional metadata (check also: principles of a great ideation platform)

3. Percentage of Actionable Ideas: the percentage of actionable ideas (those that are promising or worth further investment from a business point of view) is a good indicator of success.

4. Percentage of Business opportunities: those promising ideas which — after post-processing — proved to be valuable business opportunities worth further investment.

5. Percentage of IP-generating projects: those projects who are eligible and valuable for patent protection.

6. Conversion rates: the whole batch of ideas/concepts/projects generated should be monitored as a ‘cohort’ against time. This way ideas originated from a particular hackathon event but delivering value only after a period of time, will be also measured as a successful outcome.

7. Opportunities for publicity: measures of ‘media attention’ as the result of the hackathon event

8. Team impact: as captured from formal feedback processes — a great source of insights is the opinions of the participants and stakeholders. This could allow quantitative and qualitative analysis from many different angles including the effect on team dynamics and morale.

Preparing Your Hackathon

Definition is only the beginning. The real work—and where most hackathons fail—is execution: communicating the event, running it smoothly, selecting winners fairly, and turning the best ideas into actual business opportunities.

Step 3: Communicate & Prepare Participants

This phase is about communicating the upcoming hackathon to the employees, attracting attention, and enabling formal registration of interest. As soon as the Hackathon is announced, employees should have a sufficient lead time — typically a few weeks- to explore ideas, technologies, teams, and resources. This is an informal preparation phase that should be supported by proper tools (systems to enable employees to structure their ideas, projects, teams; communicate their effort, ask for advice or help). In all cases you should:

1. Announce the hackathon with clear messages and strong sponsorship from the leadership

2. Frequently and consistently communicate updates on the timeline of the event, the number of participants, the availability of the resources

3. Provide self-service tools for employees to register, create projects, explore projects, form teams, explore technologies, etc.

4. Assign a small team to support the process

Step 4: Operate the Hackathon and Enable Teams to Build

This is where the magic happens — teams working intensively to align their ideas, define the ‘product’, execute, review, iterate; the most exciting and creative part of the hackathon where employees forget their formal roles and titles and self-organize focusing on their mission: to create something novel and impactful. Depending on the definition of each event, there might be a video pitch requirement, live pitching of the idea, or a live demo of the product/ prototype. In all cases the importance of effectively presenting the work done is critical. You should also:

1. Make sure that participants have dedicated time to work on their projects

2. Ensure that suitable physical space and equipment is available to all teams

Step 5 – Evaluate Projects and Select the Winners

Valid deliverables submitted by the teams are being assessed based on the protocol of the particular event. This could involve a voting process across the corporation, a panel of experts analyzing certain aspects of each project, or a combination of both. In certain cases, actual customers could also be involved and provide feedback on projects. Be mindful of the following:

1. Selecting winners based on popularity within the corporation is typically biased and probably misleading

2. The panel of experts should use predefined dimensions like, for example, feasibility, level of innovation, expected business impact, the opportunity for intellectual property, and potential for differentiation.

Step 6 – Announce the Winners and Reward Excellence

Depending on the structure of the particular event, there could be a single winning team or multiple winners across different categories. Selecting the award for each case is also a very significant aspect of the Hackathon — typically awards are monetary (for example a bonus), symbolic (plaques, cubes, title), or a piece of technology/device.

The most important reward though - from a participant’s point of view - is resources and sponsorship to drive the product/idea to the next stage. This could be the most inspiring award of all — the ability for the winning team to use specialized resources (developers, equipment, software, services) — according to a suitable plan — and get prepared for a formal presentation of the outcome to the senior stakeholders, leaders and decision makers. This type of award can drive impressive success stories of ‘hackathon projects moving to production’ and attach additional purpose to the event.

Assessing Your Hackathon

Step 7 – Assess Hackathon Impact and Overall Success

Hackathons are expected to generate actionable ideas (for example features for an existing product), strategic product concepts (a new product to consider and further experiment with), and process improvements (novel, more efficient ways to do things).

At the team level, Hackathons provide a great way to inspire teams and promote creativity, collaboration, and innovative thinking. Programmed in the right way, hackathons can drive an important cultural shift within the team: the experimentation & innovation mindset.

A gamification layer on top of hackathons can further motivate and reward employees for being innovative while staying aligned with the strategy of the corporation.

Common Corporate Hackathon Mistakes

Even well-intentioned hackathon organizers fall into predictable traps. Here are the most common mistakes I've seen across dozens of corporate hackathons:

1. Unclear objectives. "Generate innovative ideas" is not a goal. Define what success looks like before you begin: number of viable concepts, specific problems to solve, or technologies to explore. Vague objectives lead to scattered results.

2. Insufficient lead time. Announcing a hackathon one week before the event guarantees poor participation and half-formed ideas. Allow 4-6 weeks minimum for team formation, idea exploration, and proper hackathon preparation.

3. Popularity-based judging. Letting the whole company vote sounds democratic but favors well-networked teams over truly innovative ideas. Use expert panels with predefined evaluation criteria instead.

4. No post-hackathon plan. The hackathon ends, winners are announced, and... nothing happens. The best ideas die in a shared drive. Plan how winning concepts move to the next stage before the hackathon begins.

5. Ignoring the "losers." Teams that don't win still generated ideas, learned new skills, and invested effort. Acknowledge all participants and capture their concepts for future reference — some "losing" ideas become valuable later.

6. Mandatory participation. Forcing employees to participate breeds resentment, not innovation. Keep participation voluntary but make it attractive through meaningful prizes, leadership visibility, and genuine follow-through on winning ideas.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a corporate hackathon last? Most corporate hackathons run 24-48 hours, though some organizations prefer a "hackathon week" format with normal working hours. The compressed timeframe forces rapid decision-making, but longer formats reduce burnout and accommodate diverse schedules.

What budget do I need for a corporate hackathon? Budgets vary widely based on scope. A minimal internal hackathon might cost only catering and prizes ($2,000-5,000). A large-scale event with external participants, venues, and significant prizes can exceed $50,000. The most impactful budget item is often post-hackathon resources to develop winning ideas.

Should we allow pre-formed ideas or start from scratch? Both approaches work. Pre-formed ideas save time and often yield more polished results. Starting from scratch emphasizes collaboration and creativity. Many organizations allow pre-formed concepts but require new team formations to encourage cross-functional collaboration.

How do we handle intellectual property from hackathon projects? Clarify IP ownership before the event. Most corporate hackathons specify that all ideas belong to the company. For public hackathons with external participants, IP terms must be explicitly agreed upon during registration.

What makes a good hackathon theme? Effective themes are specific enough to focus creativity but broad enough to allow diverse approaches. "Improve customer onboarding" works better than "innovate" or "build something with AI." Themes tied to real business challenges generate more actionable outcomes. Typically set in collaboration with the Chief Innovation Officer and in alignment with their Innovation Agenda.

How do we measure hackathon ROI? Track both immediate metrics (participation rate, ideas generated, employee satisfaction) and long-term outcomes (ideas that reached production, patents filed, revenue generated). The cultural impact — increased collaboration, innovation mindset — is harder to quantify but often the most valuable outcome.

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Need Expert Help With Your Hackathon?

Designing an effective corporate hackathon requires balancing participation, innovation outcomes, and organizational culture. As someone who has organized series of hackathons at various companies including Microsoft and Accenture, I can help you:

→ Define hackathon objectives aligned with business strategy and according to hackathon best practices

→ Design judging criteria that surface truly innovative ideas

→ Create post-hackathon processes that turn concepts into products

→ Train internal teams to run hackathons independently Request More info

→ Check also: our unique Innovation Toolkit - a collection of seven innovation templates - including a hackathon manifest implementing global hackathon best practices - that empower teams to frame problems, shape ideas, run hackathons, and more.