Realtor.com® celebrated its culture of innovation, collaboration and invention with our bi-annual hackathon June 14-16. The three-day event encourages colleagues to devote time toward working on an idea of their own choosing.
The theme for this hackathon was “Home Sweet Home” and featured around 60 teams with more than 250 participants throughout the company, across the United States and Canada.
The “Home Sweet Home” theme follows our promise to make all things home simple, enjoyable and efficient. Here at realtor.com®, our North Star is to help people find their dream home.
What is a hackathon?
A combination of the word “hack” and “marathon,” hackathons were started to explore different areas of programming by gathering developers, engineers, programmers, and others to collaborate on new software projects.
Many companies have started holding regular hackathons, to encourage collaboration between teams and promote new, innovative ideas.
At realtor.com® our hackathons typically run from Wednesday to Friday. The first two days are spent working on ideas, and Friday is the deadline day, or Demo Day. Teams need to have a complete idea and presentation ready for judging by Demo Day.
These hackathons are a great avenue for great ideas and projects to make their way onto our product roadmap and ultimately, make it to production. Just last month, a new consumer feature that allows signed in users to add notes to a property went live on our site, a successful project from the previous hackathon.
Employees involved in the hackathon planning each year get to help design T-shirts for the event, with the winning design printed on shirts for everyone involved. The T-shirts are worn throughout the event.
Day one: The brainstorming begins
We started the brainstorming bright and early on Wednesday morning, June 14, led by realtor.com® Chief Executive Officer Ryan O’Hara and Chief Technology Officer Suhail Ansari.
Suhail and Ryan connected with our locations in Santa Clara, Calif., Morgantown, W.Va., Scottsdale, Ariz., Westlake Village, Calif., and Vancouver, B.C. via video conference to get everyone excited and get the creative juices flowing.
A delicious and healthy breakfast was on hand to ensure all hackers could sustain their energy for the next 72 hours, because this type of brain power takes a lot of work!
Although some hackathon teams are already formed, the kick-off gets people talking and some teams form organically as they fervently try to recruit people for certain skills, like a web designer or an engineer.
All teams found a space around offices, like a quiet nook or office space with their laptops and ample supplies of snacks and energy drinks and started hacking.
As it’s a race to the finish for most of these hackers, much of the conventional approaches to software design and delivery go out the window through a card wall or a written ideation session on a whiteboard.
Day two: Ideas are finalized
After a quick bite for lunch and a hearty dinner, Wednesday quickly dissolved before their eyes as teams ramped up their efforts to close out day one. Some hackers worked into the night, but most opted for the tried and true strategy of conserving energy ahead of the all-important Thursday night.
Hacking continued into Thursday buoyed by another healthy breakfast and luscious lunch. Coffee and Red Bull flowed freely with teams designing and developing their concepts and prototypes, and preparing for the Friday deadline.
There was a last minute flurry of activity as teams hacked until midnight to finalize their wares. For others, it was time to relax.
But, for our amazing organizers, it was only almost time to relax as they get ready for Demo Day.
Day three: Demo day
With our hackers scattered across North America and Canada, the demos were scheduled to kick off at 9 a.m., PST. All teams were to submit a two and a half minute video of their idea for presentation to the entire company via video conference, with an executive judging panel evaluating each hack across a number of categories.
Friday’s video showcase culminated with a new addition to the realtor.com® hackathon, the Hackathon Marketplace. Modeled after a farmer’s market or science fair, teams were given a space to set up shop and show off their achievements from the past 48 hours.
The energy in each office was electric as people from across the business interacted with the hacks and discussed the endless possibilities with their creators.
The marketplace allowed every team an opportunity to present their hacks. It encouraged direct conversations, a lot of interactivity with prototypes and concepts, and really high engagement between colleagues. New bonds were formed between employees who previously may not have worked together.
Everyone attending the marketplace was afforded a single gold chip – their venture capital – which they could use to vote for their favorite idea.
Another exciting development during this hackathon was the continued participation of non-engineers, a trend realtor.com® encourages, as anyone can hack and ideas from all areas of the company are welcome.
A Hackathon Marketplace was held at three of our locations and garnered positive feedback and sentiments from non-engineers.
The following week the votes were tallied and the winners announced.
The judging panel awarded a number of prizes across multiple categories, all following the “Home Sweet Home” theme. In addition, hackers and non-hackers helped decide a few of the categories like “Best House on the Block” and the “Neighborhood Association Award.”
We continue to innovate every day here at realtor.com®. Our next hackathon will be Oct. 25-27 where more amazing ideas are sure to be born.