What is Hackday at Kindred all about? It’s more than just a tradition – now it’s an integral part of our business! You find a problem that you want to solve. You find teammates to solve the problem with. Then you work together with your team for 24 hours and present your solution to the business. This 10th Hackday, participants were able to enter hybrid mode and choose whether they wanted to work from home or the office.
Coding, ideas and challenges
At Kindred, we always try to extend our competence, push ourselves to new limits and stretch our knowledge boundaries. Hackday is an internal event, which involves coding completely separate ideas and challenges that our tech employees have come up with. Participants from our offices in Madrid, Gibraltar, London and Stockholm come together internationally and work collectively.
The winners
The 10th edition of Hackday was won by “The MAD Team.” The team consisted of five iOS Developers: Misael Cuevas, Libranner Santos, Sebastian Fernandez, Emmanuele Corporente from our Madrid office and Vignesh Narayanasamy, who’s based in Stockholm. We had the opportunity to sit down with The MAD Team leader Emmanuele and ask him about his Hackday experience.
Hi Emmanuele, our first question must be - what made you participate in Hackday?
The main reason was to collaborate within the Madrid and Stockholm team but also to have the opportunity to try new frameworks.
What is the meaning behind your team name?
The MAD Team was based on the idea we came up with, but there is actually a meaning behind it! The inspiration was the MADrid team, if you see what I mean 😉.
Have you participated in Hackday before?
No, this was the first time for the entire team. Truth be told, we didn’t know what to expect but it was a lot of fun – and then we went and won it all!
What was your idea and how did Hybrid Hackday work for you?
We developed a bet assistance program to improve user experience, which allowed people to use the Unibet app with Siri, handsfree. Those of us based in Madrid worked in the office and connected to Stockholm through MS Teams. It worked out really well.
Why do you think your team won?
I do believe it was because we managed to complete a complex task in a short amount of time. Also, through our solution, we made the app easier to use which improved the engagement.
What was the hardest and the easiest part of participating in Hackday?
The hardest thing was to develop the idea in less than a day and investigate what hasn’t been done before. The easiest was to split the responsibility! Each of us was in charge of our own part of the task, working towards the same goal.
Would you consider participating again?
Definitely. It was a great experience that let us dabble in frameworks we don’t normally use, enhancing our creativity. Which is really useful and challenging at the same time!
Any tips and tricks for future participants of Hackday?
Absolutely! Constant communication, take a break when problems come up, share the new knowledge between all the members of the team and have fun!
