This year our all-Hands Meeting took a different turn, as Marcus surprised us beforehand with the announcement that this time we will do not the regular “sit together & workshop” kind of team-meeting but rather a weekend full of conceptual thinking, coding & designing a whole product from scratch. And the best part: since our team member Simon is living in Mallorca, the whole team went to meet on this charming island to work in this magnificent scenery (actually, most of the time we were enjoying the screens in front of us 😉).
No one had an idea what the Hackathon would be all about. That part was a well kept secret so that we wouldn't start to overthink the whole process and get a fresh start. A real challenge... which was in the end kind of fitting.
We all arrived on a Tuesday evening not knowing what would expect us.
First surprise: the amazing location.
Second surprise: awesome Hackathon T-shirts designed by our designer Michaela.
And, of course, the last and most important surprise was the assignment from Marcus for the next 48 hours.
“Ok, here is the deal. Everybody wants to learn new skills. But it is often hard to put the time in while managing a day job, the family or relationship you have, your social life and numerous other things. Well, what if you could learn something new and be better than 99% of the rest with only a few minutes of learning per day?”
To understand how Marcus got this idea, you have to understand, that Marcus has what we call his “Wahn” (“Obsession”) where he will find a new skill, craft or sport which he will take a really deep dive into for the next weeks or months. Some stick, some don't...
So it was as much a product for him as for – hopefully – all the others out there with such “obsessions”.
So, this is the basic idea behind codename “Mission42”. Different studies suggest that you can learn a new skill if you:
A) Are consistent in your routine and try to learn your skill daily to build a habit to enforce your new skills.
B) Make it meaningful, so choose something that really interests you .
C) Learn your skill by actually doing something. Ideally by trial and error and start applying what you've learned.
D) Reflect on yourself and your progress towards your goal
With those premises in mind, the brainstorming for how to turn this idea into a product started and went on deep into the night. The results of that session can be found in Part 2 of this three part series.
