Heartbreak hackers
In January 2019 a group of BHF-ers went over to the Amazon offices to meet a group of incredibly talented people from Amazon and their partner organisations, like BJSS, Rackspace, Accenture and JustGiving.
The 60+ group of software developers, data scientists and various other experts graciously gave their time to tackle some of the biggest challenges (and opportunities) the BHF were facing as part of a hackathon.
From retail price optimisation to volunteer recruitment and CVD rehabilitation, the BHF presentations were incredibly varied and offered the attendees the chance to apply their knowledge in ways drastically different to their day jobs.
We’re a special organisation – we’re a retailer, we’re a research funder, we’re a healthcare innovator – plus much more. And the hackers loved finding out more about our work and the wealth of scenarios our diverse activity offered them to apply their wizardry to.
And boy did they get stuck in!
The hackers had the chance to ask the BHF experts about their different propositions and then had the freedom to self-organise into teams and select a topic(s) to work on, before presenting their ideas in two weeks’ time.
Excitement buzzed throughout the first day as the teams quickly got to work – mapping, drawing, and prototyping – before going away to refine their ideas over the next fortnight.
The whole event had been so positive and continued to feel promising, with regular correspondence in the two week interval between the teams and the BHF contingent.
When day two of the hackathon arrived and it was time to present, the BHF-ers and hackers simply couldn’t wait to reveal what they had produced.
Quite simply, everyone was blown away. The solutions were not only innovative, but they were achievable for the BHF to implement. Every team took a different angle and no two solutions were the same; some teams even tackled multiple problems! But they were universally impressive and the mutual respect in the room – among all the different disciplines and companies – was testament to how fruitful collaboration can be.
We can’t reveal too much in regards to the details of what was produced but what we can say is you should watch this space! We’re not only striving for organisational excellence in terms of our operations and business solutions, but we’re also aspiring to bring our customers and supporters better products and experiences, as well as ones they haven’t had before.
We also provided the hackers with the opportunity to learn CPR during the course of day two. This taught them crucial skills as well as showcasing another aspect of the BHF’s large portfolio of life-saving work.