Thoughts on hackathons?

I do this to pay for my hobbies. Coding isn't my hobby. YMMV.

Burning out. Tiredness.
And many times disappointment as the team with the best presentation won, not the best product.

In one of our internal hackathons, a PM team with a PPT presentation beat out Dev teams with a working applications. That's an innovation killer. :)

Make sure you pick a balanced team and play to each other's strengths. Hackathons are not the best place to dive into the deep-end of a pool way outside your wheelhouse. (It's okay to dabble and explore, just don't get carried away.)

Approach a Hackathon with the perspective that at the end, it is a presentation.
- Spend time on the presentation as much as time on development.
- Focus on the idea, the pitch, the solution and then code to that.
- Treat the presentation as TDD and try to fill in the fluff with a working application, then adjust the message to play up the "readiness".

In the end, if you have a great team with a diverse skill set, you'll likely end up with an idea, presentation and working prototype if talents are used effectively.

Regardless of the outcome of the judging, the real winner of any Hackathon is an idea that moves forward.