The trouble with hackathons is they don’t solve the other blockers to innovation, such as resource constraints, internal politics, and poor incentives. I’ve don

The trouble with hackathons is they don’t solve the other blockers to innovation, such as resource constraints, internal politics, and poor incentives. I’ve done dozens of hackathons and hundreds of innovation challenges. Earned my university tuition in prize money from them kind of thing. Even the supposedly guaranteed interviews didn’t materialize though. The outcomes were purely cash and resume material. As far as I know, none went anywhere. Not a single idea went beyond my presentation. People see them as a magical way to unlock new ideas, but the problem was not really a lack of ideas in the first place. Rather, the new ideas people already had got stuck and all the hackathon was doing was adding more stuck stuff. > that we haven't had the time to work on due to other commitments This problem doesn’t go away by hosting a hackathon. At the end of the hackathon, resources would need to be allocated. Don’t get me wrong, I love hackathons. I spend a lot of money every year flying to attend hackathons. But they don’t produce much for the sponsors it seems.