What happens when you give several hundred engineers free reign to build anything they want? Something amazing. Check out this video to get the inside scoop on the magic of LinkedIn Hackdays and the great teamwork, competition, and products that have come out of them.
LinkedIn has a tradition of dedicating one Friday per month to a Hackday competition. Engineers in the company are encouraged to form teams, work on any project they can dream up, and put it together in one day. Just about anything is fair game, from build tools, to trying out new technologies, to entirely new products and business lines. The engineers then get the chance to present these projects to the entire company, including the executive staff, with the best projects winning prizes and getting turned into real products.
More hackday resources:
- LinkedIn Labs: a directory of previous Hackday winners
- 10 Ways to Make Hackdays Work
- Hackday posts on the LinkedIn Blog