Often times when a group of teammates get together, ideas are brought up on how to make Source Allies a better place. During a company-wide retrospective, where all teammates were invited, we were brainstorming possible things that could be done to bring teammates closer together. One particular table focused on an internal Hackathon and thought it would be a great way to incorporate our core values and allow teammates to work on projects, tech stacks, and roles that they wouldn’t normally get to work on.

Part of the group decided to investigate further and see if there might be any interest in teammates participating in a Hackathon. Source Allies saw the value in bringing teammates together, sharing knowledge across teams, and working on projects that directly impact teammates and Source Allies and that’s when the Hackathon was born!

The 2018 Source Allies Hackathon

In October of 2018 Source Allies had their first Hackathon where 18 teammates participated in 4 projects. Over the course of a weekend, we not only grew closer as teammates but got to put Jimmy John’s in the pneumatic tubes! The following projects were worked on during the Hackathon:

Source Allies Tech Radar Improvements

Made enhancements to our internal Tech Radar UI to make it appealing, interactive, and FUN to play with.

Source Allies Culture Video

Wrote, directed and shot a video showcasing what working at Source Allies is all about. It highlights our core values, which distill down to one concept - freedom! We create this freedom by holding ourselves accountable to our teammates and our partners. Each and every teammate strives to embody our core values & ownership mindset, which sets us apart as a technology services company.

Peer-to-Peer Scheduler

Developed a web-based automated scheduler to use when new teammates start in order to streamline and automate the scheduling of their quarterly Peer-to-Peer meetings.

Extensible Serverless Form Handler

Worked towards creating a serverless backend ‘Contact Us’ form that sends a confirmation email to the submitter and a notification email to a configured address.

Looking ahead

We expect the 2019 Hackathon coming up in September to be bigger and better than ever. We’ve opened up five additional spots and made room for another project. After hearing all the ideas from our recent project brainstorming session, I cannot wait to see what projects get selected!

The Hackathon provides opportunities for teammates to learn new skills and accomplish goals.We have a flat organization, which means that your path within the company is what you want to make of it. Our self-directed culture gives us the freedom to create our own path to reach our goals. It has been the perfect environment to spitball ideas and work together to create something that is truly making Source Allies a better place for current and future consultants and partners. Organizing the Hackathon has given me the freedom in my career to champion this event for the last two years.