Hackathons are literally the opposite. You are there to deliver something that works, looking pretty is 30 yards down the line of concerns,
Back end developers on hackathons are not needed
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Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed
#12This assumes the "business-y" type hackathons that are popular these days. Back when I was young, we used to organize hackathons where the point was to hack together something cool, and "winning" was not the point. If you are just making a "clickable prototype UI" that's not cool in my books.
I got baited into going to one of those once. I was promised the prospect of spending a dozen hours with friends building something cool, but halfway through I realized we were just doing free labor for one of Latin America's biggest banks and just left.
I'm still longing for events where my friends and I can gather to build something cool, and game jams are the closest I ever got to that.
Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed
#13This is often true in professional settings. "Just build the UI for this, and the API team will catch up". I object-- give me an OpenAPI spec that we agree upon in advance. Front-end today involves building up a lot of in-memory data structures, and I haven't built something useful if the JSON shape I attempt giving you, is not what the backend team is expecting.
Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed
#14Point taken, but jeez, Hackathons are supposed to be participatory/inclusive events. Feels a bit harsh and counter-productive to just tell back end devs to kick rocks. Full disclosure I am running a hackathon at my company this very week and am nervous about participation and this post made me anxious lol.
"Feels a bit harsh and counter-productive to just tell back end devs to kick rocks."
I agree, but business goals supersede our feelings.
Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed
#15"Backend developers on hackathons are not needed"
It's a good thing those horrible old days of "ideas are a dime a dozen; it's the execution that matters" are long, long gone.
Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed
#16This is true, and part of a larger problem where product managers and BAs come in and try to REUSE components conceived in a hackathon. I hope I never have to see that again.
Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed
#17At least for “day job” hackathons this seems counterproductive. A big part of winning support to productionize is proving to the naysayers that an implementation is feasible.
For example, at my current job folks are biased to complex, high-risk AI/ML approaches… Instead of figuring out an imperative solution, senior folks tend to just discard it.
A hackathon is a great way to short-circuit artificial technical road blocks and win support from product and business teams to start with a simple solution.
Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed
#18Actually, you don't need frontend devs as well. Just use UX designer + Figma.
Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed
#19There is a professional form of hackathons, often found in procurement opportunities. Participating teams/companies are evaluated via a technical challenge. While not the best way to evaluate for $X-XXXM efforts, they certainly provide opportunity to showcase.
Ive had multiple successes here.
Platform/infra and backend are the most critical parts to get right, and come automated with.
I can staff any team of junior devs enabled by tools like react to quickly implement user interfaces beyond what competitors showcase; but only due to the backbone.
Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed
#20>If you were able to show the idea, it looks sexy and everybody is nodding — you won.
Is this a "hackathon" or just a "pitchathon"?
I'm ok with the idea of a "pitchathon" but don't call it a Hackathon...