Last week, along with summer solstice, we celebrated ThousandEyes Hackday: an internal event that brings cross-functional teams together to build something creative, while keeping it fun and exciting. In true ThousandEyes style, the event was innovative, witty and packed with high energy. The talent and dedication showcased by the different teams was truly inspiring.
So, this is how Hackday works. A week before the main event, anyone with an idea does a Hackday pitch to the entire company. The pre-event pitch serves as a forum to recruit team members and get the project in motion. Teams are then given one day to work on their projects before presenting it to a panel comprised of the ThousandEyes executive team. Finally, the panel picks a winner in five different categories (Most Innovative Idea, Most Flashiest Idea, Most Nerdiest Idea, Super Star and Founder’s Choice). We also have a sixth category, called the People’s Choice, where the entire company votes for their favorite Hackday project.
What Did Hackday 2018 Look Like?
We saw 16 unique presentations on the day of the event, spanning a wide variety of areas. From future product ideas to practical solutions for day-to-day challenges, Hackday was a blend of creativity, collaboration, and bouts of laughter. For instance, the winner of the “Most Flashiest Idea” (the team from London) devised a simple yet practical solution for dealing with the challenges of occupied restrooms. Yup, you read that right! If you don’t believe me, take a look at the video below.
At ThousandEyes, we believe in executing fast and executing effectively. So the very next day, our VP of Engineering, Murtaza Doctor, carried the trophy to London and our SVP of sales, Paul Kizakevich presented it to the Poolice team!
The “Founders Award” was bagged by team “Traffic Mappers.” I can’t reveal all the details of this project (as it has the potential to be a future product offering ;-) ), but the utilization of existing data sets and innovative visualizations made it stand out. It also reminded our founders of their early days, thereby making it worthy of the Founder’s Award!
The “Most Innovative Idea” award went to team “ThousandEars” who decided to combine our vast dataset with the world of sound. They repurposed the data on our application’s historical product timeline and converted it into musical notes!
I could go on and on about all the various ideas and presentations, but we would run out of space. If you are interested in seeing the other ideas from Hackday, follow our twitter updates.
In essence, events like Hackday serve as a platform for folks from different functional verticals to come together and build something they are passionate about. It fosters creativity and collaboration, two of the cornerstones of our culture.
At ThousandEyes, we are all about solving the tough challenges of the Internet. But, we are also about having fun along the way. We believe in working hard and playing harder and if that resonates with you, come join us. We are growing our team of superheroes globally, and we are looking for you!