Hackathon structure: take-home assignment

It started with a simple idea from James Tyack: “What if we hosted a hackathon at ELC Annual?” The result was a unique experiment where 14 senior engineering leaders stepped away from strategy to build and ship functioning apps in one weekend, unlocking new insights on AI-native workflows, "vibe coding," and the future of engineering. In this episode, we deconstruct the entire hackathon operational playbook, sharing lessons on everything from “best failure awards” and async collaboration structures to structuring ideation periods for maximum business alignment. Beyond the logistics, we explore how getting hands-on helped these leaders overcome imposter syndrome and why "rolling up your sleeves" is now a prerequisite for leading effective engineering teams. Plus, James shares how he plans to evolve the hackathon format at ELC and beyond. If you’ve been curious about leveraging hackathons to drive innovation, expose your team to new tools, or evolve how your org builds, this episode provides the blueprint for successful implementation.

ABOUT JAMES TYACK

James Tyack leads the Learner Success and Visual Experience teams at Coursera, creating engaging and personalized learning experiences for millions of learners worldwide. An avid user of Coursera and a lifelong learner himself, James is passionate about leveraging technology, including AI, to transform lives through education. Prior to Coursera, he led integration and growth teams at PagerDuty, driving innovation and adoption of incident response tools and best practices.

Beyond his professional work, James is the chapter lead for the South Bay Engineering Leadership Community (ELC) group, fostering collaboration among tech leaders. He is also a proud dad to a one-year-old, balancing his career and personal life with a deep commitment to growth and connection.

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SHOW NOTES:

• The results of ELC’s first-ever hackathon: 14 leaders shipping fully functional apps (2:21)
• The “Scrappy” beginning: Extending the invitation and early community engagement (4:50)
• The most surprising insights: Problem solving for “life outside of work” and micromanaging AI agents (5:42)
• Navigating the shifting boundaries between product, engineering, and management roles (8:43)
• James’ personal journey: Building 5 apps in 5 hours to stay relevant and relatable (10:05)
• Deconstructing the Hackathon structure: The “Take-Home Assignment” approach (16:16)
• The Hall of Fame: Creating artifacts to recognize contribution (18:00)
• Iterating on the format: Pivots made for the next hackathon iteration at Coursera (18:47)
• The importance of a 2-week ideation period for alignment (20:59)
• A recap of the playbook: Seeding ideas, easy tooling, and safe deployment (22:15)
• The future of hackathons: Cross-functional participation beyond engineering (26:46)
• Rapid Fire Questions (28:15)

This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

Jerry Li - Co-Host

Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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