A room for Hackathon teams

Hackathon Team Garage

Pick a sharp idea, divide the work, and keep the fun while time runs fast.

Why this might help

A hackathon moves fast. Like, really fast. Your team has hours, not weeks, to go from a blank whiteboard to something you can actually show people. That's exciting — and a little terrifying. This room helps your team pick one sharp idea instead of five fuzzy ones, split the work so nobody's stepping on each other, and keep the energy up when the clock starts feeling loud. You'll use a one-day build map to stay pointed in the same direction the whole time.

Does this feel familiar?

  • Your team has three great ideas and nobody can agree which one to build.
  • Two people are coding the same thing because nobody said who owned what.
  • It's hour six and the mood has gone quiet — not focused-quiet, more like lost-quiet.
  • You reach the demo and realize the pieces don't connect into one clear story.

Try this together

  1. Spend the first fifteen minutes letting everyone say their idea out loud — then vote with dots on a sticky note or whiteboard. One idea wins, and you move.
  2. Write each person's name next to one job, not three. If someone's doing the demo, they're not also building the backend.
  3. Set a 'show and tell' moment every two hours where each person says one sentence about what they just finished. It keeps everyone in the loop without a long meeting.
  4. Pick the smallest version of your idea that still makes sense to a stranger. Build that first, then add one extra thing if time allows.
  5. Before the final hour, do a 'story walk' — one teammate pretends to be a judge and the rest walk them through the project like it's the first time they've seen it.

One-Day Build Map

  1. Write your chosen idea at the top of the map as one plain sentence — something like 'an app that helps neighbors share tools.'
  2. Break the day into four time blocks: morning build, midday check-in, afternoon polish, and final prep. Put them on the map as columns.
  3. List every task your team needs to do, then drag each one into the block where it needs to happen.
  4. Put one person's name on each task. If a task has no name, it probably won't get done — so decide now.
  5. Check the map together at each block boundary. Move tasks that slipped, drop tasks that don't matter anymore, and keep going.

Questions worth talking about

If we could only show one thing in our demo, what would it be?

Who's the person most likely to get stuck waiting on someone else — and how do we fix that now?

What's the part of our idea that we're not totally sure about yet, and can we cut it without losing the point?

A few common questions

What if our idea changes halfway through the day?

That happens more than you'd think. Stop for five minutes, update the top of your map with the new direction, and check which tasks still make sense. Don't just keep building on the old plan — a quick reset saves you from a messy demo at the end.

How do we stop one person from doing everything while others feel lost?

Name the owner of each task before you start building, not after. If someone finishes early, they pick up an unowned task from the map — they don't just wander over and take someone else's work. Clear ownership keeps the energy balanced and the work moving.

Can Tindlo help with this kind of fast team work?

Yes, in a practical way. Tindlo lets your team put work items — with notes, files, and links attached — on a shared Day view so everyone sees what's happening and when. It connects with Google Calendar too, so your existing schedule stays in the picture alongside your build tasks.

Keep the story close to the schedule

A date makes more sense when you can also see the reason, the owner, and the work around it. Tindlo brings those pieces together when a calendar alone isn't enough.

See how Tindlo works →

Where would you like to go next?

Engineering Leadership ExchangeEngineering leadersProduct Operations CircleProduct operations teamsProject Managers' WorkshopProject managers