HackDay at SveaSolar - Where your moonshoot idea gets realized
One of the many wonderful things that we at SveaSolar pride ourselves with is our drive to be innovative and flexible on how to improve upon the product and the chance to stretch beyond comfort zones. We are at a high pace of growing the engineering team so the need increases regarding collaborating outside of one’s everyday team. Therefore our first Hackday was live on June 14.
Malin and Maria, our amazing engineer managers, organized the first SveaSolar HackDay. Lets sit down and learn more about it.
HackDay - What is it?
Malin: "HackDay is an event that allows everyone at Svea Solar Engineering to come up with an idea that they feel would improve our service, related to both software and hardware. Engineers are encouraged to come up with projects themselves and find a group with the right skills needed to develop the idea, be it iOS developers, UX designers, salesforce developers, project managers or others."
Maria: "The event is kicked off with a session with general info and also where everyone finds a projects and team up. When the 6 hours are up, the project groups should have developed a prototype or mockup that explains and makes the idea easy to understand, as well as making the project’s impact tangible. The ideas are demonstrated in front of the organisation at the "Finale" at the end of the day where two prizes are voted: "Almost success" and "Most ambitious failure"."
Why is HackDay important at Svea Solar?
Malin: "For many reasons of course but to mention a few:
1. Improve teamwork and break boundaries
2. Be inclusive and build trust
3. Keep the innovative and inspiring spirit
4. Step out of your comfort zone "
What do we do during HackDay?
Maria: "We start the day with an opening to share the general info and then engineers form groups freely and start discussing. Drinks and snacks are there to make sure the energy level is on top. At the end of the day we host a "Finale" where every team demonstrates what they have worked on. This time we have quite different projects spreaded over a production improvement, a chatGPT based support agent, a globe map for solar, customized app widgets, a live dashboard of smart meter, etc. The day is finished by AW pizzas and drinks."
Ending Notes
Malin: "We will keep improving and this is just the beginning so stay tuned. If you think this sounds interesting and would like to join the Engineering team, take a look at our open roles."