Hey! I'm Jacklyn! 👋 I'm an MLH Coach, lead organised Hack Quarantine, and have attended an absolute ton of hackathons over the last few years.
With hackathons moving to be digital during the current apocalypse, Devpost submissions have changed from a requirement that you can rush out to an absolutely key part of any hackathon submission. They've become an integral part of judging - with most hackathons no longer offering live demos, they're sometimes your only chance to show off your project to the hackathon's judges.
I've judged at around 20 digital hackathons so far, and I keep seeing the same mistakes pop up over and over again, so I thought I'd make a post (and video!) about how to avoid the biggest mistakes I see hackers make.
🕒 Start your submission early
One of the most frustrating things to see as a judge is a project that looks amazing, but that doesn't give you a complete enough submission to judge properly. Most of the time, this is caused by hackers trying to rush out their submission on Sunday morning, just before hacking ends.
My advice is to get started on your submission early - back when I was a hacker, I always tried to start my submission by Saturday evening at the absolute latest. That way, when Sunday morning hits and I'm tired and stressed, all I have to do is to make sure everything is up to date, pop in some screenshots, and relax.
📝 Use Devpost's template
Devpost provides some headings to help you write about your project. I'd really recommend sticking to them if you possibly can. They're a great starting point, and hackers which delete them tend to miss out key details about their project, which is really frustrating to see when the project is amazing!
👩⚖️ Make the Judges' lives easy
At most hackathons, judges only have around five minutes to judge each project. This isn't a lot of time, and if they can't find key information about your project, they're going to have to move onto the next one.
If you're entering a sponsor category such as Best Use of Google Cloud, make sure you're telling judges which Google Cloud products you used, why you used them, what they're used for in your hack, and so on. The same applies if you're entering Best Domain Registered with Domain.com (which awards a prize to whichever team registers the best .space, .tech or .online domain name). If I'm judging, CMD F for .space, .tech and .online and don't get any results, I'm probably not going to have time to search for it.
In short, make sure the info the judges need is put front and center - and if you're unsure what this info is, just ask them!
❓ Check the judging criteria
This somewhat links to what I talked about above, but most hackathons have a public judging criteria. This is often posted on their Devpost (here's an example on Hack the North's), but sometimes hackathons also provide a more in-depth version on their website. It's really important that you tailor your Devpost submission to this criteria - there's nothing more disappointing as a judge to see an incredible project that just didn't write about what was required.
At some hackathons the winner is entirely decided based on scores from this criteria, so make sure you're ticking all the boxes it asks for!
📺 Start editing your demo video ASAP
Many digital hackathons require you to submit a short demo video in addition to your Devpost write-up. If you've never created a video before, you might be surprised at how long it takes to record and edit a great one.
Start as early as you can, and work as a team to record it. One person could write out a script/plan, another could record the screen capture, and another could record the voice over. The "best" way to manage this will vary from team-to-team, but don't leave this responsibility up to a single team member!
I plan on doing a more in-depth post about demo videos in the future since they're a whole other topic, but know that time spent on them isn't wasted.
✅ Check you actually submitted what was required
Submission requirements vary from hackathon-to-hackathon. Some require a 2-3 minute demo video, others require you to link to your GitHub repo, and some even require you to link to all your sources. If you don't include all of these basic requirements in your submission before the deadline, it's likely that the judges will never even see your project.
If you're ever unsure about what a hackathon requires to be submitted, just ask an organiser! They want you to be successful so will be happy to help!
Those are my tips, but I'd love to hear yours! If you're a long-time judge, experienced hacker, or just have some interesting insight, share your tips on how to create a great hackathon submission in the comments below!
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