The document outlines the concept of Whole Brain® hackathons, which are collaborative events designed to accelerate innovation by leveraging diverse thinking preferences among team members. The process involves multiple workstreams focused on business, user experience, and development, culminating in a testable prototype within a week. Key deliverables include a quantified business case, user journey assessments, and refinement of the product based on user feedback.

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© Herrmann Global LLC
Whole Brain® Hackathons
A Rapid, Co-Creative Approach to Innovation

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What is a Hackathon?
A Hackathon is typically a gathering of engineers
to collaboratively hack a product or service to
innovate for new value.
This is done in an intensive format, over a
compressed period of time, in order to accelerate
speed to market.
The goal: Create a testable product or service in
as little as 3 days…and have fun doing it!

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What’s unique about a
Whole Brain® Hackathon?
Stronger focus placed on identifying and leveraging diverse and complementary
thinking preferences across your team – so you bring your Whole Brain® to
bear.
Leveraging a wider network of thinkers to catalyze your innovation – not just
engineers, but also designers, marketers and strategists (internal and external).
Using our tried-and-true team workshop facilitation approaches and tools to
most effectively engage and tap into the Whole Brain ® of each participant and
the group.
As a result, delivering Whole Brain ® innovation – an engineering breakthrough
plus the user experience, business model, and development plan it needs to
succeed.
Our distinctive Whole Brain® approach enables maximum
co-creative productivity from the team, resulting in a more
successful innovation outcome.

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The “secret sauce” is in harmonizing 4
teams & workstreams to create something
amazing!
Business
Design
User
Ops

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Working
prototype
User journey &
feedback
Feasibility &
development
Business
case
Whole Brain® Hackathon deliverables
Quantified business
case and ROI, value
proposition & business
model canvas
Initial feasibility
assessment &
development plan
Minimally viable product
(or service) demonstrator
Empathy mapping, feedback
from initial demo testing & user
experience journey

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Discover Explore Develop Refine Consolidate & Test
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
• Introducing our
team’s Whole Brain®
(getting to know
each other and our
thinking preferences)
• Defining a shared,
interdependent
Hackathon goal
• Aligning on inputs:
business / user
stories, ingoing ideas
and hypotheses
• Kicking off
workstreams, teams
(Design, User,
Business, Ops) and
and roles
• Product requirement
identification /
prioritization
• Initial prototype
development
• Prototype testing
and refinement
• Prototype
Demonstration
• User need
assessment & initial
marketing strategy
• User experience
journey and UI/UX
design
• UX/UI testing &
refinement
• Prepare for user
testing
• User testing &
feedback capture
• Marketing strategy
refinements
• Value proposition
and business model
ideation
• Business case
development and
calculations
• Business case
refinement and ROI
estimates
• Present business
case and ROI
estimates
• Capture initial
feasibility
considerations and
requirements
• Further develop
requirements and
feasibility
considerations
• Refine feasibility
assessment and
development plan
recommendations
• Present feasibility
assessment,
development plan
and next steps
• Facilitate & share progress
• Evaluate and prepare for next day
Typical Whole Brain® Hackathon Process
Workshop &
team prep
(2-4 weeks)
Development Iterations / Sprints
(5-8 weeks)
Start product
development
Further User
Tests
(3-5 weeks)
Refinement &
selection
(2-4 weeks)
Start product
development
Initial
Ideation
Sessions
Full Product
Development Cycles
Hackathon
(1 week)

7. Better Thinking. Better Performance. Better Results.Better Thinking. Better Performance. Better Results.© Herrmann Global LLC© Herrmann Global LLC Better Thinking. Better Performance. Better Results.
New capabilities, same promise…

8. Better Thinking. Better Performance. Better Results.Better Thinking. Better Performance. Better Results.© Herrmann Global LLC