evangelizing your "thing" at hardware hackathons

Evangelizing Your “Thing”At Hardware Hackathons

by Rex St. John (@rexstjohn)

Rex St. John (@rexstjohn)Internet of Things Evangelist, Intel

I take Intel IoT tech to hackathons and help developers build hardware projects

Why do “things” need evangelizing?

Developers engage like this(taken at MoDevHack)

No one reads at a hackathonFace-to-Face matters more than ever

Evangelists engage developersWe are your ambassadors in the developer community

Why do hackathons matter?

Hackathons are now a college sport(and students are in charge)

“1,500 hackathons planned in 2014”–Vivek Ravisankar (@rvivek)

*a non-complete list of sponsors for HackGT, in it’s first year!

Competition for developer attention is intense

Attendence Total Prize Value

MHacks ~1,300 ~$31,000

PennApps X ~1,300 ~$30,000

CalHacks ~1,200 ???

HackGT ~700 ~$60,000+

HackRU ~700 ~$10,000+

DubHacks ~500 (capped) ~$10,000+

HackTX ~500 ???

Attendance is taking off(a few events we attended this year)

Hardware + wearables stand outBe the first device students learn to hack on

Developers cross-pollinate + talkStudents may attend dozens of events before graduating (travel

reimbursements)

Knowlege transfer

Intel® Edison College RoadshowWe took Edison to more than 30 events in the last 6 months

Developer Success Is The Only Metric

Developer Success Is The Only MetricDeveloper Success Is The Only Metric

Developer Success Is The Only Metric

Developer Success Is The Only MetricDeveloper Success Is The Only Metric

Developer Success Is The Only Metric

Developer Success Is The Only MetricDeveloper Success Is The Only Metric

Developer Success Is The Only Metric

Developer Success Is The Only MetricDeveloper Success Is The Only Metric

Developer Success Is The Only Metric

Lesson #1: Developer Success Is The Only Thing That Matters

Not impressions, conversions, devices distributed etc

Lesson #2: “Hackathon ready” is a higher standard of ready

If your product is “hackathon ready,” then it is ready.

Lesson #3: Hackathons are not a branding exercise

Looks like marketing, smells like marketing, sounds like marketing…not marketing

“We traveled 2,000 miles to be here and spent 72 hours for nothing because of you”

Lesson #4: Your device can ruin a team’s entire event

DXDeveloper Experience

Introducing HDXHardware Developer Experience

HDX is synonymous with strong performance at hackathons

How do you achieve HDX?

Work backwards from “hackathon conditions” to your product

8-36 hours to get build a wearable project with your hardware

Power on, Wi-Fi, BLE in less than 10 minutes

Expect HTML based login screens, isolation mode to be turned on

Your “thing” must handle bad Wi-Fi gracefully, be useful regardless

BLE is the “hackathon protocol”BLE goes where Wi-Fi won’t, strongly consider iOS and Android SDKs

Start developers 30-50% of the way to their goal

Sample code and prefabs for common use cases

Finished Projects = Happy Developers

This is the only marketing you need to worry about

Tactics and Strategies

Ration hardware (conditional loans)Hardware is for teams who are building, not stuffing in backpacks

Set up a supply tableExpect people to show up with nothing

Document, share relentlesslyDon’t let your success disappear down the “memory hole”

Tell stories about your productBe prepared to inspire developers with ideas

Final thought

Developer Success = Your SuccessDeveloper success is the only metric

More Reading

•So Many Platforms, So Few Developers• http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/06/so-many-platforms-so-few-developers/

•Corporate America, Your Future Engineers Aren’t Attending Career Fairs Anymore• http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/11/corporate-america-your-future-engineers-arent-attending-career-fairs-anymore/

•Venture money flows into hardware startups• http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/

SB10001424052702303546204579438273392338520