Under the Dome Logo

Let’s Ideate! Hack Week Thrives at ServiceRocket

We innovate year-round at ServiceRocket.  

And twice a year we double down for hack week. First held in 2016, these energetic events have evolved and matured with our company and people.

New ideas and product prototypes spring forth during hack week. Concepts are quickly picked up by our product team and incorporated into new and existing offerings. Prototypes and beta versions are often made available on our ServiceRocket Labs page in the Atlassian Marketplace.  

Beyond the exciting ideation they generate, hack weeks are an expression of our company values (Think Team. Share the Knowledge.) They’re a chance for Rocketeers to break out, think big, take risks, all while collaborating across teams, departments and countries. How great is that?

For more intel, Under the Dome checked in with Jonathan Appel, Engineering Manager, ServiceRocket. Jono, as he’s known to insiders, does an amazing job organizing the complexities of hack week. His team also won top prize in 2017. Go Sydney!

#hack week2102 (Jan ‘21)
“We had 63 participants, including representatives from Engineering, IT, Product and Support. Teams were located in Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Santiago. A highlight for me was the group video call where all the participants hung out socially and made fun of each other's videos.”

#hackweek2102 in action

Hack week afterglow
“Having some downtime to explore other ideas before returning to day to day work helps our engineers generate new creative ways to approach tasks. I see this as a form of slow multitasking.”  

“We also see a big jump in our engineering happiness scores after hack week.”

Hack week evolution
“We once alternated hack weeks between two themes: "Invent" and "Re" (rebuild, rewrite, refactor, reship). We’ve evolved this model to offering prize categories, such as Best New Atlassian Cloud App and Best New Learndot Feature. This gives the business some input on the focus of hacks and their potential impact.”

“Another notable change: rather than live presentations, hack week projects are now presented as pre-prepared videos that are submitted at the end of hack week. These range from straightforward product demos to more epic productions.”

Sixty participants, four continents. It's Hack Week!

The XST Blog

Subscribe

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
<-- Facebook Share Button Code --> <-- Facebook Share Button Code --> <-- Twitter Share Button Code --> <-- Twitter Share Button Code --> <-- Linkedin Share Button Code --> <-- Linkedin Share Button Code -->