what i learned as a hackathon mentor
what i learned as a hackathon mentor
2020 turned into a blur of weekend hackathons and wome weekends i built, others i mentored, and occasionally i helped facilitate. showing up for other people’s projects sharpened my own: my questions got better, my triage got faster, and my feedback got calmer.
events where i was a mentor:
- nasa - space apps challenge 2020
- un and sebrae - social hack 2020
- ufscar - innovation and entrepreneurship challenge - 2020
- polinize hackathon 2020
- hacka das manas 2021
1. mentoring is a two-way street
mentoring isn’t a broadcast. i arrive to help and leave with a notebook of things i learned—new tools to try, sharper prompts, and patterns you only spot when multiples teams attack the same brief. the trade is fair: i bring perspective and structure and teams give me angles i wouldn’t have found alone.
2. listening is key
hearing isn’t the same as listening. my small checklist is: restate what i heard, ask one clarifying question, then offer a suggestion. that rhythm avoids “mentor karaoke,” where advice gets projected onto a problem that isn’t there. when a team feels understood, the next steps become obvious, docs get clearer, and the prototype makes sense to people who weren’t in the room.
3. avoid the dungeon master syndrome
jargon can feel like armor. i’ve reached for dense language or elaborate frameworks when a plain sentence would do. real expertise should make things simpler for other people, not heavier. as james clear has argued elsewhere:
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“simplifying before understanding the details is ignorance.
simplifying after understanding the details is genius.”
moreover, being present is important to follow the team’s development.
4. sometimes the team just needs a hint
plenty of blockers are navigational, not deep. a pointer to a starter repo, the right api doc, or a better search query can unlock an hour of progress. as an ambassador for some hackathons i collected a small repo of recurring links and prompts/practical breadcrumbs people asked for when the clock was loud. it’s not about handing out answers, but it’s about lowering the cost of the next step so momentum doesn’t die.
to access it, click here
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