We’re celebrating another successful hackathon

We’ve got another Name.com hackathon under our belts! Last week we took a break from our typical workweek to focus on innovative projects of our choice over a three-day span. Employees in every department had the opportunity to collaborate on a project to make Name.com better.

The theme of this year’s hackathon was Back to Basics. Employees were challenged to look at our products, services, and processes with fresh eyes and come up with solutions and ideas for a better business. After throwing around some project ideas on Wednesday morning, the Name.com crew chose the top five ideas and spent the remainder of the week turning those concepts into a reality.

With ideas that ranged from better security tools to automated customer support, the teams spent two whirlwind days prototyping ideas and creating presentations. Then, on Friday afternoon, we presented our ideas to the rest of the company and celebrated the end of a successful week.

Why hackathons are pretty sweet

Taking a three-day break from the daily minutiae of office tasks is not exactly easy to accomplish, but it is well worth the effort. Hackathons are an amazing experience for a variety of reasons.

You get to create something you’re passionate about. Being able to turn a long-envisioned project into a reality is an amazing opportunity. And having the time, tools, and talent to do so is not to be underestimated. Hackathon projects are also great for the company as a whole because they address problems and create solutions that higher level employees may not know about.

You interact with people you normally don’t work with. Combine a group of programers, product managers, marketers, and customer support, and you access a slew of skills and expertise. Every employee is welcome to take part in whatever project interests them most, and it often brings together people who normally don’t have the chance to interact.

There’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition. Despite the goodnatured rivalry and trash talking, we’re all rooting for one another. When we push ourselves—and those around us—it’s incredible to see how much we can accomplished in such a short period of time.

This happened. ‘Nuff said.

Interested in participating in a hackathon yourself? You can! Join us for our next Hack the Dot event and see what you can innovate.