This phase made us stop assuming and start building.

RUCHITASETTI — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 08:29:17 +0000

DEVTrails2026 #Hackathon #Learning #BuildInPublic

In Phase 1, everything was mostly about understanding — the problem, the people, and what actually makes sense to build.

Now in Phase 2, it’s different.

We’re not just thinking anymore.
We’re building.

But honestly, building wasn’t as smooth as we expected.

At first, we thought - “okay, now we know what to do, let’s just implement it.”

But once we started, things got confusing again.

Some parts worked.
Some didn’t.
And some things that looked simple on paper became complicated when we tried to build them.

That’s when we realized something again —
understanding the idea is one thing, but making it work in real life is a completely different challenge.

So we slowed down (again).

Instead of rushing to complete everything, we focused on getting the basics right.

We worked on:
– building the core flow
– connecting different parts of the system
– figuring out what actually works and what doesn’t

There were a lot of small problems.

Things breaking.
Logic not behaving the way we expected.
And sometimes just staring at the screen trying to figure out what went wrong.

But slowly, things started coming together.

Not perfectly.
But enough to see that what we imagined is actually possible.

One thing that really stood out in this phase —
building features is not the hard part.

Making everything work together properly is.

Also, we had to make a lot of decisions.

What to keep.
What to remove.
What is actually important right now.

Because again — we can’t build everything.

Now we’re close to the next deadline, and things feel a bit more serious.

There’s still work left — fixing, improving, connecting pieces.

But compared to where we started, this already feels like real progress.

It doesn’t feel like just an idea anymore.

It feels like something we’re actually building.

Still learning.
Still figuring things out.
But definitely moving forward.

Ruchita

Team DevTrio

Guidewire DEVTrails 2026

This hackathon made us stop coding and start thinking.

RUCHITASETTI — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 08:17:03 +0000

We thought this hackathon would be about coding.

Turns out… it’s really about thinking.

DEVTrails2026 #Hackathon #Learning #BuildInPublic

I’m a CSE student, and recently our team — DevTrio — got a problem statement that didn’t feel like a usual assignment.

It wasn’t like “build a website” or “create an app.”

It was more like… understand a real problem and figure out what actually makes sense to build around it.

The first few days were honestly a bit messy.

We kept reading the problem again and again, thinking “okay, now we get it”… and then 10 minutes later, we’d realize we actually didn’t.

That’s when it hit us — there’s a big difference between reading a problem and actually understanding the people behind it.

So we stopped rushing.

Instead of jumping straight into coding, we slowed things down and just started talking it through.

Who are we even building this for?

What does a normal day look like for them?

And more importantly — what does a bad day look like?

No code, no tools. Just discussions, confusion, and a lot of rethinking.

At that time it felt like we were wasting time, but now it feels like that was the most important part.

Once things became a little clearer, everything else started moving faster. Not perfectly, but at least we had some direction.

One thing we realized pretty quickly — you really can’t build everything.

There are way too many ideas, and not enough time to chase all of them.

So we had to cut things down to:
what actually matters

what we can realistically build

and what genuinely makes sense

And honestly, that part is harder than coding.

Now we’re just 2 days away from submission, and things are starting to feel a bit real.

Deadlines are close, and explaining what we’re building sometimes feels harder than actually building it.

But this whole experience already feels very different from anything we’ve done before.

It doesn’t feel like we’re just building another project.

It actually feels like we’re learning how to think.

Still a long way to go, but this already feels like one of the most meaningful things we’ve worked on.

Ruchita

Team DevTrio

Guidewire DEVTrails 2026

DEV Community: RUCHITASETTI

This phase made us stop assuming and start building.

DEVTrails2026 #Hackathon #Learning #BuildInPublic

This hackathon made us stop coding and start thinking.

DEVTrails2026 #Hackathon #Learning #BuildInPublic