Philanthropy
STAYING ON TRACK
I want to use my dev skills for a good cause
but I’m worried about overcommitting.
Any advice on avoiding ‘mission creep’?Neel Schwartz, Norwich, UK
AS: This is a really great question!
Mission creep and balancing
commitments is something I struggle
with a lot.Any advice on running a hackathon?
Falak Gonzalez, New Hampshire, USQUESTION OF THE MONTHSend your questions to [email protected]
Practical
advice from
industry experts
JON YABLONSKI
Yablonski is a product
designer who’s currently
working on design
systems at General
Motors. He’s also director
of digital experiences for AIGA Detroit.
w: jonyablonski.com
t: @JonYablonskiAASHNI SHAH
Based in Toronto, Shah is
a CEO at Elixir Labs, a
nonprofit that builds
websites for other
nonprofits. She’s also a
software engineer at Square.
w: http://www.aashni.me
t: @aashnisshahTHIS MONTH FEATURING...
AS: Running a hackathon is exhilarating! You definitely need a lot of energy and very
good project management. I found it best to mentally compartmentalise the different
parts of the event going on, for example catering, sponsors, volunteers and venue This
helped with focus and keeping things on track. I also assigned a lead to each of those
roles, so that there was always a go-to person for that role.
My best piece of advice: even if things go wrong on the day – and they inevitably do- hack yourself a solution. We had so many issues at every single one of our events but
while our team was freaking out, the hackers were busy hacking away and never knew!
I think the thing I didn’t anticipate is how draining it would be. You definitely need
to take breaks throughout the event, have shifts so that people can get that break and
make sure you’re eating well!
Some of the designers and developers putting their skills to good use through the nonprofit Elixir Labs