What is a Hackathon Canvas?
A Hackathon Canvas is a visual and strategic planning tool designed to help organise a successful hackathon event.
Hackathons are a popular way for people to network, learn new skills, and collaborate on innovative projects. They have been used to create new products, solve real-world problems, and even launch new companies.
They require careful planning to ensure that the event runs smoothly and achieves its goals.
Why Use a Hackathon Canvas?
A Hackathon Canvas can help take the effort out of organising a hackathon by helping to –
- Break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable ones.
- Provide a visual representation of the key components.
- Provide a common language that can be used by all stakeholders.
- Define the goals and objectives of the hackathon and ensure that everyone is working towards a common goal.
- Identify the resources required to run the hackathon.
Who Needs a Hackathon Canvas?
- Hackathon Event organizers
- Innovation Managers
- Start Up Consultants
- Accelerators and Incubators
- Internal think tanks
- Judges, Sponsors and Mentors
- Start by defining the goals of the hackathon.
- Engage a diverse group to help plan the hackathon. This will offer a range of skills and perspectives.
- Use technology to involve critical people in different locations rather than miss their contribution.
- Minimize groupthink by brainstorming ideas individually then combining issues to get the overall picture.
- Provide adequate time in the session to discuss and clarify ideas.
- Ensure all actions are assigned to someone with an agreed deadline.
- Communicate outcomes to stakeholders and regularly update progress on actions.
How to Use a Hackathon Canvas
Ensure all stakeholders involved in the planning process have access to the Canvas. Using an online collaborative tool such as GroupMap allows those stakeholders to engage both in person and remotely. It can also allow for the group to share their input either synchronously or asynchronously depending on their availability.
It is best to start by defining the Hackathon Goals then moving to the section the group agrees to be the next most important.
Once all ideas are captured, actions can be defined that shape the agreed steps to the delivery of the hackathon itself.
Brainstorm
Add ideas to each section of the Canvas.
Action
Add action items to deliver the plan.
Share
Share and communicate the plan.
Ask participants to list all of their ideas, and activities they think need to be done to deliver each of the dimensions included in the template.
Try to include everything, even if it may seem insignificant at the time.
Brainstorm ideas individually or as a group.
Assign activities to individuals or teams with clear time frames.
Agree on how and when the activities will be managed.
With your completed Hackathon Canvas, you can now use it as a communication tool. Use it to collect and get feedback to improve your event. Capture comments and make improvements to help make your event a success.
Save effort, time and money with GroupMap
Whether you have your best minds together in the same room, or distributed around the world, GroupMap’s unique technology allows groups of up to 2000 to submit ideas independently at separate times, from different places, in different timezones. Prevent dominant personalities swaying the group, drowning out the opinions of others – GroupMap allows everyone to brainstorm independently then effortlessly combines that information to reveal the full spectrum of ideas. GroupMap templates keep the objective front and center throughout the session, keeping everyone on task. This ensures the activity identifies actionable issues rather than becoming just a discussion on ideas. GroupMap gives you all the group decision making tools you need to prioritize, decide and take action.
Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts right NOW. Experience the power of GroupMap with our 14-day, no risk, FREE trial. You don’t even need to provide your credit card details to access to all of our features, including the entire suite of templates, for a full 14 days.
