Hack Week 2020: What We Learned

Once a yr, Spotify modifications its tune. We take our normal initiatives, processes, and routines, and we pile them into the closest freezer. “See you in a week!” we merrily shout, slamming the freezer door. And then, with our regular work on ice, now we have the chance to spend 5 days exploring different subjects that curiosity us. This is named Hack Week.

Hack Week is an opportunity for everybody at Spotify to experiment, create, take a look at, and be taught. And do all of it actually, actually quick. Some Hack Week concepts are enhancements on present Spotify options. Some are new merchandise or enterprise fashions. And some are inside instruments that might conceivably make our working lives simpler. Everyone approaches Hack Week a bit in another way, which makes it thrilling. And regardless of its chaotic nature, Hack Week results in real innovation. Did you realize that Discover Weekly began as a Hack Week undertaking?

It started with engineers 

Back within the day, corporations like Spotify would put aside time in engineers’ schedules so they may pursue new concepts and be inventive with their code — therefore the time period “hack.” But over time, hack days and weeks have grow to be a well-liked means for groups of all sorts to search out options to issues. 

As extra folks skilled the advantages of hacking, we made Hack Week an official occasion for everybody at Spotify in 2013. And yr after yr, Hack Week has confirmed its worth by serving to workers collaborate, decompress, and spark creativity. Spotifiers look ahead to Hack Week as a chance to let their brains run free. 

Designers do it, too

Spotify designers have sometimes performed an enormous position in how Hack Week initiatives end up. They have a knack for turning concepts into issues that look actual. And the week’s compressed timeline can really feel like a design dash, which is when designers go from idea to person testing in just some days.

For the 2020 version of Hack Week, designers company-wide jammed with engineers, writers, researchers, and different Spotifiers to ship dozens of concepts through the first week of February. We adopted 4 Spotify designers in numerous places of work to get their tackle the occasion, and to see if there’s something the design group at massive can take from it. Our designers all had completely different experiences, in addition to a typical takeaway: Hacking is a type of happiness. And it ought to occur as usually as potential.

Hello hackers

Say hej to the 4 designers we adopted throughout Hack Week:

Daniela Fernandez 

Product designer on the Premium crew in London

Diego Martins 

Product designer on the Core Experience crew in Stockholm

Lee Ward 

UX author on the Core Experience crew in London 

Wii Yatani 

Product designer on the Creator crew in New York

None of the designers we adopted have been first-time Hack Week individuals. But all felt an ample dose of anticipatory glee — that primary want to have enjoyable and meet folks whereas constructing one thing new. And some even had sensible plans and aspirations for the week.

Diego and Wii already knew what they wished to hack on. Daniela, alternatively, was hacking on one thing that had but to take form. “It’s been just a few months since I had the chance to design one thing with out many constraints,” she stated. “This week I’d like to forget about what we can and can’t deliver, roadmaps, missions, tribes, OKRs, etc. and think outside the box for a bit.”

When requested about his expectations, Lee went straight to the purpose: “I’m anticipating to win!” 

Teamwork makes the hack dream work

Beyond chasing the joys of victory, Lee was additionally motivated to collaborate with disparate teams. “I’m a UX author, I can work as a advisor throughout plenty of initiatives,” Lee stated. “In my first year of Hack Week, I worked on one project. In the second year, I realized I could profitably work on two (and won twice!). This year: three.” Meeting new people is one of Hack Week’s best outcomes, and this time around Lee collaborated with what he called a “smorgasbord” of product managers, person researchers, knowledge scientists, designers, and engineers. “Each of my three teams has about 8-10 members.” 

Wii collaborated with two different designers, two engineers, one product advertising and marketing supervisor, and one product insights supervisor. Diego had a designer, two product managers, and 7 engineers on board. Daniela took a radical strategy, embarking on her Hack Week journey with a crew composed fully of designers.

While a few of the designers got here up with the Hack Week thought their crew was engaged on, others had been recruited. By eavesdropping on some elevator dialog we realized that, for many individuals, Hack Week is a good alternative to have simpler entry to folks on different groups.

During Hack Week, all of the designers we adopted labored on initiatives a minimum of tangentially associated to Spotify’s fundamental merchandise. In different phrases, nobody was attempting to design a Spotify jetpack with built-in audio system that also sound nice at 50,000 ft. So in the event that they’re Spotify designers engaged on current-ish Spotify initiatives, how is Hack Week completely different from every other extraordinary week?

According to them, the principle distinction lies within the dynamics of the week. Even although Wii hacked on one thing associated to his crew’s present work, he thought-about the Hack Week model to have a way more formidable imaginative and prescient. “We hope the hack undertaking acts as a means for us to align, rally, get impressed, and reference usually—to make one thing really feel tangible and actual and set the tone for a really perfect future state,” he stated. 

Diego highlighted the flexibleness Hack Week brings. To him, the week is all about working in an natural means: “For this undertaking, I did not construct an entire design specs file, as an illustration. […] I knew that the design must adapt alongside the best way as we have been discovering constraints of recent prospects.” Designers at Spotify always encounter enterprise and know-how challenges that affect their work, so Hack Week is an effective reminder of how you can keep versatile.

Winning isn’t the whole lot

As Lee made abundantly clear, Hack Week can also be a contest. At the top of the week, groups show their hacks at a science-fair-esque showcase, the place they will pitch their concepts, get votes from different Spotifiers, and attempt to persuade Spotify’s management to pursue their undertaking. Just taking part brings a couple of sure satisfaction. You’ve made the factor, and now you get to elucidate the factor to folks.

Daniela stated she’d been involved about what different groups and judges would consider her undertaking, however the whole lot went nice. “We began to do our demo and present it to folks and everybody’s response was tremendous optimistic and inspiring. We completed the week feeling tremendous impressed and instantly began to speak about how you can proceed engaged on it.”

Wii was additionally completely happy and impressed by how a lot everybody had achieved in such a brief interval. “The week was productive, inspiring, and informative—not solely from what we have been in a position to accomplish in these 5 days as a brand new crew, however to see all of the superb hacks that got here from everyone else. It’s per week that actually brings the corporate collectively and celebrates the amazingly gifted Spotifiers throughout every workplace.” 

Note: Lee’s crew didn’t win. But that didn’t cease him from discovering an alliterative upside:

Post-hack bliss

As Hack Week ended, the designers have been confronted with a query: So, like, now what? Some designers would return to the initiatives they’d paused for Hack Week. Others have been buoyed by the week’s pleasure and felt dedicated to protecting their hacks entering into some kind. But they’d all taken one thing from Hack Week with them.

Daniela stated designers can hack anytime they need — it’s all concerning the mindset: “Don’t wait to have a totally working prototype and three fleshed-out journeys to place issues in entrance of customers. For Hack Week, we solely had two half-baked screens and 45 minutes [for user testing], and we obtained an insane quantity of insights and validation!”

Make each week a hack week 

Even if the sensible variations between a daily work week and a Hack Week are clear, hacking should not be a once-a-year train. The alternative to analyze issues, collaborate with new folks, and freely experiment must be a daily occurence. But how? Here are just a few tricks to make any week extra like a hack week:

Set your self a seemingly unimaginable deadline

The much less time you’ve, the extra rapidly and infrequently you’ll need to make choices and transfer ahead, even in case you’re not assured.

Prioritize conceptual delight over concrete particulars

Instead of leaping to construct an answer that matches your present restrictions, take time to consider what one of the best answer is perhaps. It’ll be the north-star design objective to try for, even in case you can’t carry it to life immediately.

And lastly: 

Put these recurrently scheduled initiatives within the freezer

Lee careworn that Hack Week reinforces the significance of focus. After Hack Week, he’ll take with him:

So let’s get it executed. Let’s all hack collectively.

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A shout out to all of the folks inside Spotify Design who jumped on board with us to carry this story to life. You are superb! A particular and big due to Daniela Fernandez, Diego Martins, Lee Ward, and Wii Yatani for letting us shadow you throughout Hack Week.