The EY hackathon blueprint to inspire yours
We’ve mentioned the term “hackathon” quite a few times in this article to refer to the immersive, collaborative exercise which empowered us to reimagine work. The good news is that our hackathon blueprint can serve as an inspiration in your ideation process in building a hybrid work future.
At EY Nordics, we split our hackathon exercise across two distinctive sessions to build the hybrid workplace idea that aligns with EY stakeholder interests. Here is a quick overview of what each session entails:
Session 1: Inspiration and exploration
The first session focuses on gathering inspiration from recent experiences and conducting research on how workplaces can become fit for diverse needs and work styles. Well-being and performance improvement are key focus areas for research.
This part of the exercise encourages thought-provoking questions that help participants think beyond the current way of working. For example, “What are common demands related to Bricks, Bytes and Behaviors and how has the COVID-19 experience changed them?”
The session helps enable the exploration of hybrid work challenges in a collaborative atmosphere with colleagues. It also involves digging deep to understand the root cause of challenges and develop a “How might we…” problem statement to take forward.
Session 2: Co-creation and prototyping
While the first session lays fertile ground for the incubation of fresh, innovative ideas, the second session gives space for these ideas to develop and form a prototype.
This session involves gathering stakeholders from different parts of the business. The select set of individuals must collectively represent the Bricks, Bytes and Behaviors components of your business and also other key functions. Together, all the parties involved continue the exploration and ideation journey – now with more focus on the right stakeholders.
At this stage, you can validate the “How might we…” problem statement that was developed in session 1. This should ideally result in the co-creation of a solution prototype that can be built on.
The strongest threads that connect the exercise across sessions are the facilitators who possess design thinking experience and are clearly aligned with the Brick, Byte and Behavior pillars.
In line with the overall ambition for the EY Nordic Hybrid Model, the hackathon approach is designed to provide guidance and inspiration and to invite individual and team reflections and dialogue. One size does not fit all and finding the hybrid-working rhythm can only happen in a dialogue between individuals and teams.