Innovation Hackathon
Facilitation, G-Star
The project.
When: September 2022
Where: G-Star
My role: Initiator, organizer, & facilitation
In order to further encourage an innovative mindset and drive towards shared goals, I pitched the idea of running an organization wide 1.5 day Hackathon event. After receiving approval from the CFO and CHRO, I was asked to own and drive the entire event along with defining an innovation framework in order to make it a part of our usual process and not just a one off.
Within the span of just under 6 months, I brought in the necessary experts, planned and coordinated the event.
Goals:
Participants
Teams
Pizzas!
1. Pitch the idea.
Upper management buy-in on the initiative
In order to gain buy-in to the idea, I prepared a presentation outlining the key benefits of such an event with a high level idea of effort involved. After the initial pitch, I approached one of our suppliers to partner with us to help plan and facilitate the event.
2. Innovation framework & preparation.
Set up for continued success
In order to ensure the event could be more than just a one-off success. I defined a full innovation framework for how we would prepare for the Hackathon, take action from the results, and then continue towards the next.
The following was all then defined within just a few months:
Innovation framework – with the defined destination received from upper management: two mission statements for the Hackathon!
Mission research – gathering everything we knew already about the opportunity space around each mission.
Coordination – Timelines defined and began coordinating all of the alignment leading up to the event.
3. Event planning & coordination.
Building internal excitement
In order to ensure success, we spent the months leading up the event gathering insights from various departments, announcing the event with mini kick off sessions, and building an ambassador group that helped spread the word further within their teams.
I led the creation of posters, event agenda, awards definition and more. All in preparation to make the event fun and memorable!
4. Event structure & facilitation.
Activities defined and materials prepared
In order to help teams that were new to design thinking, I defined and set up an activity structure for the day so that each team could work quickly towards a solution together.
Using a Design Sprint structure for inspiration, I defined the following activities:
- Decide & Focus
- Ideate & Decide
- Design Studio
- Business Case
These activities were then shared within a Google Slide and Miro board allowing teams to choose an option fitting their needs.
What a success!
Not only was it an absolute blast, but the effect of the day was tangible and led to increased collaboration across departments.