5 tips to get the most value out of your UX Designer at a Hackathon

An UX Designer’s perspective

Photo by Natalie Pedigo on Unsplash

Last weekend I was invited to join EY’s innovation hackathon in Amsterdam. The hackathon unites more than 100 consultants and developers to hack problems EY, or their clients, typically face.

Upon arrival I was very curious to find out how an UX Designer would fit in. It seemed I was about the only UX Designer present. It’s a shame because we can potentially add a lot of value to a hackathon. It also became clear that nobody else really had a clear idea of how to get the most out of my presence. Therefore, here are my key tips to product owners, scrum masters or anybody else leading a team at a 24H Hackathon.

1. Understand what a UX Designer can do for you

My assumption beforehand was that most people don’t really know what a UX Designer does (this is what they do). This seemed to be the case for most people I encountered at EY. This is not so strange, as the profession is relatively new, especially outside the Tech sector.

The classic UX Honeycomb by Peter Morville (amended by Katerina Karagianni)

All project leads had done an UX workshop before the hackathon, but besides making stuff ‘look fancy’ or ‘check the UI’, they didn’t have any immediate crystal clear expectations. While the UX Designer should be able to tell you what he or she can do, and figure out where your priorities are (if you are brave enough to give him or her that responsibility) it certainly saves a lot of time if you can do that instead. If you know what your project possibly lacks from an UX perspective, your UX Designer can immediately start focussing on the biggest wins without having to do problem analysis. Which leads me to….

2. Know your problem well

Seems a bit of a no-brainer, but to be able to design well, a designer needs to fully understand the problem. For whom are we solving what problem, how and why.

If you haven’t clearly defined who your users are, nor understood what they need, the designer can’t give informed advice on what the look and feel should be like, which job/user stories are most important, and which other aspect of his or her life are competing for the attention of the user.

UX Designers should be experts in figuring this out. However, within the limited timeframe and resources of a hackathon, an in-depth analysis of the problem is not possible. Therefore invite your Designer to help you do a quick User Journey Map or a User Value Proposition Canvas. You do know the problem well, the designer can make this explicit. This should help you zone in on the most important jobs to be done by your users. Jobs your idea can easily and intuitively help out with. Admittedly our team spend quite some time on this. So challenge your designer to help you get to the core as quickly as possible.

I have become a pro at organizing insights

3. If you want to do testing, do it early

Agile has introduced the idea to ship products quickly and iterate on those. Indeed, for my project at the Hackathon, the tool was already being used by several clients. However, this does not mean consistent effort had been made to collect insights from these users. This is absolutely crucial for a product to work well. Your users know best what works for them and what doesn’t.

Therefore, if you do want to use the hackathon to get some user testing done, tell your UX Designer early, so he or she can prepare some prototypes and formulate testing objectives. Because of the limited time, the goal should be to make small improvements, not a validation of a brand new feature. This takes too much time to iterate within 24 hours. The rest of the team should know when these improvements shall be given to them, so they can incorporate it in the final MVP.

4. Don’t expect things will look fancy

UX Designers don’t make things look fancy. They make things work intuitively. This means that they can structure your app/tool very well. And they will minimize the time and thinking effort that your users have to spend to complete their jobs. They are also able to advise on what the look and feel should be (including fancy or business-like colors), based on who your users are. If your designer does make things look super fancy, he or she should be cherished and it means you have a graphic designer and UX designer for the price of one.

True UX unicorns who can do it all are a rare breed ( Photo by Levi Saunders on Unsplash)

5. Let developers move on without the designer

Any good UX Designer will tell you that a tool that looks and feels great but isn’t functional, does not produce value for the user. This means that your developers should be able to move ahead during the Hackathon, without having to wait for input from the Designer. Good design takes time, and that is something a Hackathon purposefully lacks. Let your designer advice on the UI, draw up a new user flow or do testing, but don’t make their findings necessarily part of the MVP or mandatory inputs for the developers. This will only lead to extra stress. And it’s always better to just run with what you have than to switch to a new poorly tested user flow halfway through. Instead, incorporate the findings that have quick fixes and save the rest for another time.

The MoSCoW method is great for developing an MVP (credit to Visual Paradigm)

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The 24 hours were a blast! It was fun and it was fast! It was my first Hackathon and I would like to thank EY for the opportunity. Hopefully, we will start seeing many more UX Designers participating in Hackathons!

What are your big tips for working with UX Designers at Hackathons?

Paul Middelkoop is an UX Designer based in Amsterdam. He loves ideation and building something testable as soon as possible. Most of all, he loves working together. See some of his work here.