How to Effectively Facilitate a Hackathon.

Discover practical tips and real-world insights from an actual Hackathon.

Ever seen participants dive straight into brainstorming at a hackathon? Happens all the time, right?

Spoiler: it's a big mistake.

A month ago, I facilitated a hackathon on sustainability with 40 participants, all ready to tackle a complex challenge. I was specifically brought in to lead the brainstorming session, with just 3 hours to work with.

Can you guess how much time we spent connecting with, understanding, and exploring the problem?

More than half the session. Yes, you read that right ! Less than 90 minutes were dedicated to brainstorming solutions, even though that was what I was called in to do.

And guess what? The results were far better than if we had rushed straight to solutions.

The biggest mistake I see in hackathons and brainstorming sessions is people jumping too quickly to solutions. They don’t give themselves enough time to truly explore the problem.

But taking that time is critical, this is how participants connect the dots and find solutions that matter. Otherwise, it's like trying to solve a puzzle without all the pieces.

This is why I’m not a huge fan of the typical hackathon format.

Surprising, right?

Especially coming from someone who loves facilitating collaborative sessions. But here’s the issue: hackathons tend to focus too much on quickly generating solutions, often tech-driven ones, that need to be functional by the event’s end.

As a result, teams dive into solutions too soon, without spending enough time understanding the challenge in depth.

The outcome? Superficial or half-baked solutions.

Alright, it’s easy to criticize how things are typically done without offering an alternative. So, let me share how I approach it by illustrating the case study from this workshop.

Context : What was the brief ?

As part of a collaboration between Capgemini and Hack Your Future, a group of people was chosen to take part in a multi-week hackathon. I had the chance to join in and lead the brainstorming session, which was the third one.

The first two sessions introduced sustainability and innovation, giving participants the key background needed for the challenge.

• Challenge : How can technology & innovation reduce climate change impacts on local communities, focusing on biodiversity or climate adaptation ?

• Time : 3 hours

• Participants : 32 people

• Goals : Come up with solutions.

1. Setting up the stage - ⏱️: 35 min

I kicked off the session by setting the stage: explaining the agenda, outlining the session's goals, sharing the purpose of our gathering, and clarifying how I would support the participants throughout.

I highlighted that we would focus on three type of activities during the session:

1. Understanding the problem more deeply

2. Exploring sources of inspiration

3. Collaboratively brainstorming solutions

After that, we moved to the warm-up.

2. Warm-up : Zombie Apocalypse - ⏱️: 20 min

This warm-up is a fun, effective way to get large groups warmed up without taking too much time. It creates meaningful connection moments and, as a bonus, smoothly transitions into the workshop principles by highlighting the typical challenges and limitations of group work.

How do you facilitate this activity ?

1. Introduce the activity :

• Explain to the group that we'll be starting with an icebreaker and, if needed, provide a brief explanation of why we're taking the time to do so.

• Divide participants into groups of 3 to 6.

• Announce that in 20 minutes, a zombie apocalypse will strike!

• Give each group 7 minutes to choose 3 items they can grab from a shopping mall to help them survive.

2. Go around the table

• Allocate 2 to 3 minutes for each group to present their items and explain their survival strategy, experience, and discuss the lessons learned from it.

Smal tip here: Feel free to set the scene with more details, like saying we’re in Los Angeles and they have access to a Walmart.

This gives them a broader range of items to choose from and helps avoid common questions like "Where are we?" or "Can we pick weapons?" It makes the activity smoother and more immersive from the start.

3. Transition to the workshop principles - ⏱️ 10 min

This warm-up is an excellent way to introduce the principles of the workshop. I find it serves as the perfect transition into the main activities because it highlights the challenges of collaboration.

For example, in some groups, participants were debating who was right about the correct item, while in others, people were very quiet or struggled to meet the deadline. It effectively illustrates how group dynamics can impact outcomes.

The Slide I used to present the principles.

4. Time to explore the problem - ⏱️ : 20 min

Alright, when I first read this challenge, it gave me a headache : there were so many points to consider. To tackle it, I started by breaking it down and sharing my understanding with the group.

At its core, the issue is about reducing the climate impacts on local communities. However, the solution must be technology-driven and have a measurable impact on either biodiversity or climate adaptation.

After explaining the challenge a couple of times, I realized it was essential to ensure everyone had a clear understanding of key terms like biodiversity and climate adaptation.

Even though the team had some training on these topics a few weeks ago, it’s good to give them a quick refresher to make sure they have all the knowledge needed to tackle the challenge effectively. (Let’s be honest, that feels like ages ago already! 😅)

Example of slides designed to explore and understand the problem space.

Another example

The goal was to make sure everyone clearly understood the terms and concepts, so nothing would block their ability to connect ideas and come up with solutions.

5. Break down the problem - ⏱️ : 10 min

Once the challenge was clear, I asked the participants to break it down into smaller, more specific problems. The more focused the problem, the better the chances of finding the right solution.

Each group started by silently brainstorming ideas on specific challenges to tackle, using their laptops for additional research if needed. Once the brainstorming was complete, they prioritized the challenges by voting on the ones they felt were most important.

After framing the problem clearly, it was time to move on to the concept ideation phase.

6. Spark their creativity - ⏱️ : 30 min

The easiest way to boost participants' creativity is by organizing an inspiration session. This helps them look for interesting examples of how other companies have solved similar challenges.

From my experience, this can be hard for participants because they often don’t know how to search or find the right examples. That’s why I always prepare a few good references in advance to help them get started.

Over time, I built a solid database of examples, but with the latest version of ChatGPT, I don’t need it as much anymore. A simple prompt can bring up lots of great use cases!

Here’s the prompt I used : Could you share some lightning demos that answer this challenge: How can technology and innovation reduce climate change impacts on local communities, with a focus on biodiversity or climate adaptation?

ChatGPT suggested a few use cases, and I selected the ones I found most relevant for the hackathon.

I showed the participants a video of one of these examples. There were two reasons for this:

1. To change the format and keep them engaged : it wasn’t just me talking again.

2. To make the concept more tangible and relatable, rather than just presenting bullet points on slides.

One slide summarizing why it’s an interesting reference.

Another example focusing more on the local communities aspect of the challenge.

Now that they clearly understood what they needed to look for, it was time to let them search for inspiration on their own. After my explanation, they had 12 minutes to find examples and 8 minutes to quickly present their findings to the group.

Following this, they took a 15-minute break before returning to start the ideation phase.

See what happened here? We spent 90 minutes just preparing for ideation, setting a solid foundation for the next step.

And that, kids, is how you make things easier for your participants as a facilitator. - Ted Mosby Mehdi En-Naizi

Time to come-up with ideas - ⏱️ : 90 min

When it comes to ideation, the key is guiding workshop participants through a series of small, structured steps to unlock their creative potential.

Instead of giving them a a large block of time to come up with an entire concept, which is often what happens in hackathons, you can lead them through simple, focused activities that help them connect the dots and build their ideas step by step.

Here’s the series of small exercises I used to guide the group. (For the design sprint lovers, you’ll probably notice where I drew some inspiration from! )

1. Note-Taking (Individual) - 5 min: This step is about asking the group to write down all the important information shared during the workshop. It’s funny how the first reaction is often, “Why do we need to take notes? It’s already there!” But trust me, this simple exercise works better than you’d think.

   It’s an easy and low-pressure way to get participants started. More importantly, it helps them focus, retain key points, connect more deeply with the challenge, and prepare their minds to generate ideas effectively later on.

   

2. Idea storm ( Individual ) - 15 min : A simple, classic brainstorming session where the group focuses on generating as many ideas as possible.

   

3. Crazy-four ( Individual ) - 15 min : It’s similar to the Crazy Eights exercise, but instead of sketching 8 ideas in 8 minutes, I gave them 2 minutes per square.

   The goal here is to spark creativity in a different way by having them quickly sketch their ideas, using the short time frame to bring their thoughts to life. I also gave the participants time to share some of the ideas they came up with.

   

4. Concept Design ( Collective ) - 50 min: Final ideation exercise, the goal is to put all your ideas together in this final step of the ideation.
   

Concept Design

This is the moment of truth: everything we’ve done so far has been to prepare for this exercise and help the group develop a concept to solve the challenge. They’ll have time later to refine their ideas, but this is where it all begins.

To make it easier for them,I provided a clear structure to help them focus on the key questions and guide their thinking in the right direction.

This is what was asked to them :

• What’s the big idea ? Asking the participants to describe the core concept. It can be one or two sentences, a sketch, a graph, anything that clearly explains the challenge you chose to tackle, focusing on how you plan to address it.

• Which audience would you like to serve? (In this challenge, we are referring to local communities, e.g., rural farmers, urban low-income households, coastal towns, etc.)

• Why would it be interesting for this audience? What specific benefits or value will this solution provide ? Which pain points do you solve ?

• How does it address biodiversity or climate adaptation?

• What technology or innovation will you use?

The information I’m asking them to provide makes sure they address the key questions of the challenge and align their concept with the right goals.

To keep it clear, I showed them how the Concept Design Template works using one of the inspiration examples : better to show than tell!

Then it was time for action. I went around to each group to provide support, offer guidance, and challenge their ideas.

Before wrapping up the session, I wanted to end the day with a quick activity. Since participants will be returning to their regular routines, it was crucial to make the next steps clear and manageable.

I asked them to define the three best next steps to move their concept forward. We closed the workshop with a brief recap, a reminder that the concept is just the starting point and there’s still work to be done, and, of course, some well-deserved high-fives!

It’s been a while since I last wrote a workshop case study. I know it’s detailed and a bit long, but if you find it interesting, consider it my Christmas gift to you—and if not, well, it’s still my Christmas gift!

If you enjoyed it, let me know : I’d be happy to explore this format for future newsletter posts!

For more content on facilitation, feel free to subscribe ! I regularly write about workshop facilitation and how it can help your team solve big problems, generate new ideas and make the right decision faster.