Optimize Teamwork Tools for Qualitative Research Agencies
At our 2022 company offsite, the KNow Research team participated in an all-hands-on-deck brainstorming and workshopping session—also known a Hack Day—to amp up our podcast deliverables.
The experience was a great way for our team to come together and collaborate on proactive product development, and we want to help other teams to try executing an effective Hack Day!
4 Tips to Make You Hack Day a Success
1. Assign pre-work to get the team invested
Make sure team members arrive at the Hack Day with the gears already turning. Once the team has aligned on a problem to “hack,” assign a pre-work assignment and start your Hack Day with a share-out of everyone’s contributions. At our Hack Day, for example, we asked team members to bring in examples of their favorite podcasts and be ready to talk about what they like about them.
2. Use collaborate virtual whiteboards for brainstorming
Even if your team is working in-person together, keep everything together in one place so your team can pull together images, links, and notes and build seamlessly on one another’s contributions. Check out this video clip for more on the benefits of virtual whiteboards for team collaboration.
3. Leverage small groups
Include breakout sessions with groups of three or four team members to encourage active participation. It also helps ensure each team member can add his or her contributions in the final product.
4. Create clear next steps
Even after a dedicated day’s work, there will be next steps and to-do list items. Make sure your team has the tools they need to follow through on the objectives by setting deadlines and assigning clear roles in the post-Hack Day production.
We had a blast at our Hack Day, relishing the opportunity to think outside-the-box and collaborate. And as a result, each member of our team got to see their contributions to the updated deliverable product.
Does your team have a problem that would best be solved by “hacking it out” together? Put a Hack Day on the calendar and keep in mind these 4 tips to make it the best it can be!
