The Lean Hackathon — how to create an efficient MVP.

PREREQUISITES:

I would really suggest playing in Hackathons without this guide initially to see what it’s like to really network and connect with people in the industry, and see how you can get involved in creating a socially beneficial project, there honestly isn’t a one size fits all system to creating MVPs, however, Frank and I have found that just understanding a general system like this can really help narrow your focus and direction as a team to really hit one key goal.

After attending a few hackathons, you should have realized that no matter your skill level, you can still provide value to the team if you’re willing to put sweat equity. But, for us, we think team members should at least have a solid base understanding of 3 of 4 subjects in the following list. By having a seasoned team who can do more than they initially need, will ensure that each section will have been well thought out and thoroughly designed for a potentially winning project and demo.

Project members should come in already with the desire to work harder than the rest of the team, having internal competition work on achieving end goal will lead to a healthy team startup where sweat and desire to succeed are the main motivators to success in the project.

REQUIREMENTS:

In order for a team to win consistently, you need a team that you can immediately understand roles and what is expected from each other. Coming in without a team is expected, however, Frank and I would suggest maybe having a partner you can rely on just in case, in some Hackathons this isn’t allowed, and honestly in your first few events, you should really consider joining in, so you can learn what to expect and how to perceive these events with open eyes, the goal while attending these is to really just build cool technology and have a great time connecting with similarly motivated people.

IDEOLOGY:

This is just an untested initial theory for participants in Hackathons to try and optimize in order for a lean and non fatty MVP, that can ensure a top 5 position.

Our goals with this is to inform and educate individuals just getting started in Hackathons, and to potentially guide others to success with a proven method for a lean MVP.

Since this is untested however, summarized from a collection of previous experience, we’d suggest you creating a personal note of the events and sending them to us for us to have an open discussion about, we’d love to see what is different and what other key pieces of information we’re missing. This is just an open ended theory which we hope can help make a more enjoyable experience.

STRUCTURE:

1. DESIGN SYSTEM — The first step for 2 people in the team is to create the front end design model of the MVP, used by everyone in the team, it should be the first priority for a few people to work on. The design system team should consider gathering as much information about what code is being used from the Backend team and the people creating documentation. This information should be displayed on the website and application, this can just be quickly copied, pasted and formatted for a better user experience. The front end design shouldn’t be a waste of time and focused primarily on core content and visually sexy appearance.

Designers in the team don’t need to have much experience overall, however being able to properly understand Figma and how to use easy CSS libraries like Tailwind CSS / Material UI / Chakra UI and a base understanding of React and front end development will make the overall presentation much smoother. Generally speaking, coming in with this sort of UI experience will also help you find a team you can better connect with. If you don’t have experience, we’d highly recommend you watching Figma tutorials and really focus on learning HTML / CSS / JavaScript / React (Or Typescript, if you’re open to learning), this is a several month long learning process, however the experience you get from Hackathons will motivate you to want to learn to do this anyways.

This is a start to a fun project I’m working on, I created the house style first and then started building the components on Figma, it’s nothing perfect, but it’s honest work:

2. BACKEND SYSTEM — The second step is for the backend developers to choose what programming language is needed to effectively make the MVP, also will choose what type of blockchain coding language should be used, this will be relevant depending on the Hackathon sponsors.

We’d really recommend you finding a partner or two who can really understand the backend systems well enough to create a functional MVP, ideally looking for someone who has spent the last two years or more designing and developing systems. This isn’t purely essential for winning these Hackathon contests, however having a well seasoned team definitely does help you with the odds of success. Frank and I found the best success with finding people who are developers under the Hackathons ecosystem anyways — for instance, if Avalanche is funding the event, having people with Go / TypeScript / JavaScript / Python or Vue is your best bet, because they can also communicate with mentors clearly and get the proper assistance needed for your MVP. Or if it’s an Ethereum Global Conference, consider finding a team member proficient in Solidity, with a good understanding of ERC20 tokens and can understand the standards in the Ethereum foundation.

3. BUSINESS MODEL — This step is for an individual of the team to create a repeat business model that can be used throughout the entire MVP, this should be a simple part of the project that isn’t spent too long on, this is separate to token distribution, but whoever makes the business model and token distribution should communicate together to ensure it’s most feasible without taking too much of a cut from coin holders (The goal is sustainability and long term engevity). This section should also contain ethnographic research and best point of success, finding the idea section where individuals can use this project most efficiently and with the least cost and risk for the project to succeed in, this should be based off gut feeling then long research, the more time giving for the Accelerator/Hackathon, the more time can be given to this section.

The person designing the business model should also consider spending time conducting surveys and sharing it with the team and others to share the project with, they should consider ‘The Mom Test’ questionnaire rather than asking straight yes or no questions, and they should consider finding people who are willing to beta test the application if you get further than the MVP goals, this team member will also share its conclusions and analysis with the documentation, presentation and front end designer people to ensure that they are all given relevant information needing to make the project win!

4. PRESENTATION — One or two people should be working on the presentation towards the first or second night of the Accelerator/Hackathon, there should be a few revisions in this that can help make as much information as clear as possible, these two people should consider what the crowd will be, if it should be funny or informative, this gives the entire pitch a personal feeling which determines how the crowd will appreciate it, this is important for getting people emotionally invested into the project.

If the pitch is several minutes long with more time for a Q&A, make sure the team studies up on the business model, documentation, token distribution and overall social impact, if you’re designing the presentation, it’s up to you who speaks where, how it speech is conveyed and how you’re making the presentation genuinely interesting for the audience. Frank would highly recommend making it with charisma, and I would agree, make it feel like your heart is truly pouring out the love for this project, if it’s an online Hackathon where you can only record your voice, I would highly suggest focusing on visually enticing content with a comedic approach, its your time to truly present yourself, these Hackathons often give you a platform to speak and preach on, so use that to really create a voice for your passions.

5. DOCUMENTATION — This includes the Whitepaper, which is a one person’s job, the point of this documentation section is to create an abstract for people to individually read if they are interested in the presentation, it’s an additional piece of information that informs users more about the social impact, research and surveying that was concluded, as well as road maps or ideas for long term sustainability and people involved in making the MVP possible. The developers of this project should create a group repository as well as a Netlify for the Hackathon, an open source project where people can view the information can be an excellent piece of content for each individual in the Hackathon to learn more about.

For instance:

6. MANAGEMENT — There should just be a clear leader in the project and clear roles for each individual, in a small team it should not matter as much, this person needs to orchestrate what information is displayed where, how everyone is working smoothly, it should be an immediate person, the sooner there is a leader in the project, it removes hierarchical argument, you’re not someone’s bitch by letting them be leader, if they believe they can represent the project proudly throughout the Accelerator/Hackathon, then let them, get rid of the dominance effect and focus primarily on the success of the project. The leader should clearly also give each individual the roles they desire and be willing to fill in the gaps that are made through the project, the goal is to have the strong suited person in their ideal position, and having a clear role separation initially and be willing to ask mentors and for guidance before it’s a problem, having ‘first grabs’ for mentorship often leads the best team to have the best solutions for problems, and helps with the odds of success.

7. TOKEN DISTRIBUTION — This section should be given to the business model individuals, and should be focused as much on how tokens will be distributed fairly, how tokens will be used for the platform, and where tokens should be given, their focus is to create a model that reduces rug pulls, that follow crypto regulations, and that leads to token circulation and fair token distribution in a DAO rather than limiting to a few holders.

From my experience working on Pigeon DAO, I would highly recommend doing independent learning about token distribution and how to build trust in a decentralized world, it’s the wild west out here, and often that gives the scammers an excuse to get off the hook, if you’re trying to develop an authentic project where your team can put passion into the project, then focus on making it based on your desired outcome, and not what the growing industry is pressuring you to do. If you’re wanting to create a regulated platform and business model with decentralized applications, I would suggest considering using a ‘Class A’ and ‘Class B’ coin distribution, for instance only giving out Class A coins to those who you want to have a say in the project, and Class B coins for those who you want to benefit from the project with less vote than A, maybe having a Class B coin worth 1500th of a coin of A (Similarly to $BRK.A/$BRK.B) and worth a 1500th the voting power, it allows for your project to be in control and choose what the outcome will be.

8. MVP — After doing all of this at a Web3 hackathon, forming it all together and letting everyone openly discuss final problems and benefits of this project should help iron out the final project, making sure everyone discusses the presentation, videos, GitHub and documentation, you are ready for success! Finally, leave time for debugging, sharing your project and fixing presentations and front end designs! The quicker you make it, the quicker you can revise it!

Final Notes — This was from several years of attending Hackathons and connecting with like minded individuals around the world, but this is only the beginning, this is open to you to learn from, however please take it with a grain of salt, I want you to really succeed and perceive coding and developing startups like an artform, at the end of the day, you’re creative in what you build and as long as you’re fulfilled in your work, that’s all that matters, I only care about how happy you feel at the end of this, don’t attend Hackathons if it’s a chore for you, this is an exciting new opportunity for most people and they’re a great launchpad towards starting your career, I would really suggest you learn from the outcome of your Hackathon and implement these skills into your main projects and ideas! Thanks for reading.

Final, Final Note! — The best projects are those with social impact and those who do good for others, I would highly recommend you starting your first time Hackathon looking for ways to improve the lives of others around you, maybe start with an open discussion in the event with peoples specific problems and widen the opportunity for a scalable solution there, make sure that you’re able to truly help people, otherwise what’s the point of technology!?