With a free weekend in the program for Asia Foundation Development Fellows in California, I decided to look for something quintessentially SF to do. This led me to sign up for the Hack for Social Impact Hackathon, held at WeFunder HQ in Mission Street. This was my 2nd hackathon, but the first one in SF and focusing on social organisations/NPOs.
5 problem owners, 200 builders, 2 days. I formed a team with 4 other ladies - 2 UI/UX design grads, 1 serial founder, 1 tech engineer. We worked on scaling up the "Design for Social Good" philosophy, mindset and program of BridgeGood - a non-profit which provides tuition-free development in UIUX and AI & tech to historically under-represented talent, with opportunities in jobs and projects.
Here are 9 things I learned in this Hackathon:
Problem scoping is 70% of the hack. Define the problem well and the build will be much easier.
Front-load the admin. Setting up project norms, deciding on the platform and tool/tech stack, divving up roles and work packages upfront could make working in parallel easier. It also means people can go back to their homes to continue working before reconvening.
Gathering the team. Having domain knowledge in the problem statement helps. Else, being able to iterate with problem owners or even a brief interview with users would be super helpful.
Problem definition. What you think is a good idea/most logical pathway to work on may not be what the problem owner wants to solve. (e.g. UI/UX jobs being disrupted by AI).
User-centricity. The difference between an impact-driven and normal hackathon is the consideration we give to the audience served, especially if they are non-mainstream. This is why the winning entry is not necessarily the most tech heavy/complicated.
Accessibility is important. While invisible, accessibility in design such as compliance with wcag and axe are super important in the usability and legibility of a digital product.
Check the sponsors. The model and platforms you use matter in the judging criteria. We used what we were most comfortable with (ClaudeCode) when the sponsor was Lovable and Gemini.
The Pitch. Embedding a video spotlight of the product demo in a pitch deck makes more sense than a live product walkthrough given a short timeframe.
Dig into best practices from your country. Being the only international participant (the rest being either San Francisco residents or Americans), I brought case studies of programs which have been successful in Singapore (e.g. AISG Apprenticeships) and was able to incorporate ideas on how to work with companies for placements into our product.
Enjoy the process. I came to hack but went away with friends, stories and reflections about the design, education and non profit industry.