Before you read this article, have a really good look at the picture above – it really does tell a thousand words. This photo was taken at the end of the day at “Hack4Good” – a charity Power Platform hackathon run by community group TDG on the pre-day at the Microsoft Business Applications Summit in Atlanta.
What you see in this photo is a diverse group of people who came together with something in common – the desire and enthusiasm to build solutions on the Power Platform, to help non-profit organisations use this technology, to learn and grow, and to work with others in the community. We represent 15 different countries, and countless nationalities. We cover a range of ages and backgrounds. We don’t all speak English. Our experience with the Power Platform ranges from beginner to MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional). We are students, business analysts, consultants, developers, and directors. We are 45% women. None of this was contrived – this is simply what happens when a community group opens an invitation to everyone and genuinely welcomes and encourages everyone to participate, with the kind of contagious energy and momentum that is the hallmark of TDG.
Being pat of this hackathon was one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my career. I was the team leader for the Yellow Team, in a rainbow of friendly competition between 9 teams. We started the day with introductions from TDG founders Chris Huntingford, Will Dorrington and Kyle Hill who welcomed us and outlined the rules, Erik Arnold (Global CTO – Tech for Social Impact, Microsoft Philanthropies), Keith Whatling (the legend behind #templatesforhumanity), and Sarah Critchley (@dynamiccrmcat) who talked about the power that comes from the partnership between those of us who know the tech, and organisations with the willingness, innovation and resilience to failure to make it happen.
In the room we also had representatives from the American Red Cross and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), who had provided real use cases for the teams to work with. At the end of the day, the participating nonprofits get all the solutions we build, to help them get apps into production, so we were not just playing for fun and trophies – this was a chance to make a difference by building real solutions for real organisations.
We had 5 hours to “hack”, which sounds like a lot, but really isn’t. The trick is to keep it simple – from the use case we chose, we need to solve one or two things really well. As a team leader, this is the challenge – faced with interesting discussions and fantastic ideas – all of which are possible to build, I had to help my team narrow it down to something achievable within the timeframe. When the Masterchef-style countdown clock appeared in the last hour, the pressure was real, but when the time was up, we had a solid solution and a great story to tell.
Each team had 5 minutes (strictly enforced) to present and demonstrate their solutions to judges Erik Arnold, Carissa Allen (WW Enterprise Account Engagement Lead at Microsoft), Mats Necker (previous Hack4Good winner) and Keith Whatling. With 9 solutions presented in under an hour, I was absolutely blown away by what we had achieved and what is possible to build on this platform in such a short space of time. We were joined by a who’s who of colleagues from Microsoft and the broader community who came to lend their support and watch the presentations. The most interesting thing for me was seeing the way groups approached the same use cases – there is no single right answer, and we came up with different designs, solutions and approaches – a perfect demonstration of the outcome and benefit of diversity if ever there was one. Congratulations to the Brown Team led by legend Scott LeFante, who took out first prize.
For me, leading and teaching is always an opportunity for me to learn too, and leading a team was a challenging and exceptionally rewarding experience. I was fortunate to have Aliza Lailari from EGPAF on my team, which meant I got to understand first hand the work this organisation does in preventing pediatric AIDS, the challenges they face, and the kinds of technology solutions that could really make a difference. We built a solution to help them collect data in the field (particularly challenging in areas with poor internet access) and automate their reporting – currently a tedious manual process.
The most rewarding part of all – Hack4Good is only the beginning. The organisataions involved have access to all the solutions and assets all teams built on the day. We raised (so far) £1400 (US$1760) for charity (you can still donate at our GoFundMe page). And best of all, there are people continuing to work on the solutions in order to bring them to production, donating their time and expertise to make a difference.
Follow us at TDG Your Microsoft Community (#WeAreTDG) for all the good news stories that I know will continue to come out of this event, and look out for a hackathon coming to a location near you!