{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-blogpost-tsx","path":"/blog/react-london-2017","result":{"pageContext":{"isCreatedByStatefulCreatePages":false,"id":"ea9066d2-207b-5896-90e7-22e83216d575","title":"React London 2017","slug":"react-london-2017","published":"2017-04-04T00:00:00.000Z","author":"Joel Picup","content":"\nAt Paybase, we're fond users of [React](https://facebook.github.io/react/) and [React Native](https://facebook.github.io/react-native/), so naturally we were excited for London's first React focused conference in March. Joel, Michael and Sam joined some 500 other people at the QEII centre in Westminster for a day of talks surrounding developments in the React community.\n\nThe day took the form of a large scale meet-up - and as such hosted many talks about new libraries that members in the community had built and how they were using them to improve user and developer experience in React applications.\n\n## Formatting\n\nThe day began with a talk from Christopher Chedau ([@vjeux](https://twitter.com/vjeux)) on his recent work on his JavaScript pretty printer [`prettier`](https://github.com/prettier/prettier), a project born out of the conclusion that none of the existing styling tools 'really work'. Few code styling tools put line length at the forefront of their thinking - you could set up a warning on ESLint - but `prettier` puts it as its primary focus.\n\n> “We spend most of our time as developers writing code to help automate repetitive tasks, why wouldn’t we extend that to our actual writing of code? Who wants to spend time sorting out indentation?”\n>\n> - Simon, Paybase\n\nBy enforcing a maximum line length to code, and a set of rules about how to break the line when that limit is reached, the package produces clean, readable code without enforcing granular syntax rules pushed by other style guides (such as [Airbnb's style guide](https://github.com/airbnb/javascript)). `prettier` works by converting the parsed JavaScript into an abstract syntax tree (AST), and converting that AST back into JavaScript with the styling rules applied - ensuring consistent formatting. \n\nChristopher discussed the problems he faced when developing `prettier`. In order to create a functioning printer, he needed to decide upon a set of rules for line length, as well as where and how to break those lines. Settling on one choice proved difficult, as the majority of styling comes down to (strongly held) personal views. Perhaps even more difficult was deciding on options where there was little feeling about which was ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ - a problem he solved by running a `grep` for both styles on the Facebook codebase, and democratically picking the most popular.\n\nAt Paybase, we believe that if code is concise and readable, personal quirks shouldn’t come in the way of that. However, the introduction of a tool that could help standardise the code base, while imposing minimal restrictions on the developer would be a great addition to our toolchain.\n\nAs Simon at Paybase says “We spend most of our time as developers writing code to help automate repetitive tasks, why wouldn’t we extend that to our actual writing of code? Who wants to spend time sorting out indentation?”. Indeed, Christopher Chedau felt similarly when he was prompted to open vim and “press 5 different key bindings” to fix some indentation issues. He wanted something simple, a one-click solution - and so `prettier` was born.\n\n## Styling\n\nMax Stoiber ([@mxstbr](https://twitter.com/mxstbr)) gave a talk about his library [`styled-components`](https://github.com/styled-components/styled-components) – a rethink on how we should approach style management in React web applications.\n\nColocating styles and components is a pattern that has emerged from the React ecosystem to solve CSS's inherent problems with global name-spacing and increasingly large codebases. He argues that following this development, the mapping between styles and class names becomes a redundant abstraction, and instead proposes a fundamental link between DOM elements and their styles – 'Visual primitives for the component age'.\n\nThis removal of the class / style mapping also eases another of CSS's scale issues – dead code elimination. The two existing problems are identifying which classes are unused, and fear of deletion because of its unknown consequences elsewhere in the codebase. Unused components are far more apparent, and with `styled-components`, any mistaken deletion would cause a fatal error during development – meaning no risk of un-styled markup making it to production.\n\nThe library's API uses ES6 Tagged Template Literals which allows the use of JavaScript functions to dynamically generate styles based on the props of a component. Furthermore, tagged literals also remove two common tradeoffs most CSS-in-JS solutions exhibit. Firstly, use of full traditional CSS syntax and units, as the rules are now just strings; and secondly, global themes and variables provided by a top-level wrapper are accessible in the aforementioned functions.\n\n## Offline-First\n\nTwo of the talks at the conference centred around the same topic: offline-first applications. Both Andrey Sitnik ([@andreysitnik](https://twitter.com/andreysitnik)) and Jani Evakallio ([@jevakallio](https://twitter.com/jevakallio)) gave talks about packages they have been working on to easily add this functionality to applications.\n\nBuilding applications with offline-first can have major benefits in user experience. As Jani Evakaliosays in his talk about his package `redux-offline`, your users really don’t care that your React Native app is really a JavaScript app and might not function properly without a solid connection - they “just want to see [their] photos”. Not only does storing data offline help with initial load times, but it enables you to update the UI optimistically.\n\nOptimistic UI is a paradigm we're fond of at Paybase, and one that we've employed heavily in earlier products. It boils down to building your interfaces to assume that the requested operation has succeeded, whilst providing simple paths for error fallbacks - allowing you to eliminate unnecessary blocking of the UI. \n\n### redux-offline\n\n[`redux-offline`](https://github.com/jevakallio/redux-offline), as the name suggests, implements an offline first approach alongside the very commonly used redux state management package. It is designed as a middleware for redux, allowing full configuration through the common redux API.\n\nWhen writing your action creators, you simply pass a metadata object to the action which describes both whether the action should be persisted (or is purely local), and how the client should react when the side effect succeeds or fail (i.e. which further actions should be dispatched in either case). Similar to redux, the power here really lies in the ease with which you can reason about your state and logic.\n\n### logux\n\nWhereas `redux-offline` is designed to work with any backend (and as a consequence requires you to write more code to interface with your server), [`logux`](https://github.com/logux) takes a more opinionated, holistic approach - providing a full client/server implementation of its own peer-to-peer protocol. It supports not only synchronisation of actions between a client and server, but also between two clients.\n\nAn interesting feature of `logux` is the notion of leader and follower tabs in your browser. When opening two or more tabs of a `logux` client in the same browser, in order to maintain consistent state between them - a single leader tab is elected which connects to the server, with the follower tabs synchronising with their leader. This also has the added benefit of minimizing client connections to the server. \n\n## Wrap up\n\nAll things considered, React London was a great day hearing from some top developers in the community that are not only writing packages that provide large developer experience wins, but also empowering developers to write robust applications in a simple way.\n\nAt Paybase, we’re excited to contribute to this effort and look forward to open-sourcing some of our own utilities in the future.\n\nFollow us on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/paybase/).\n","excerpt":"\nAt Paybase, we're fond users of React and React Native, so naturally we were excited for London's first React focused conference in March. Joel, Michael and Sam joined some 500 other people at the QEII centre in Westminster for a day of talks surrou...","cover":{"src":"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/react-london-2017-hero.jpg","alt":"need one"},"link":{"to":"/blog/react-london-2017","copy":"Read more"},"tags":["Tech","JavaScript","React"],"related":[{"id":"ac5fecc1-14b1-592b-9068-039b7c29a771","title":"Paybase Profiles – Joel","slug":"paybase-profiles-joel","published":"2018-04-05T00:00:00.000Z","author":"Dan Whale","content":"\nJoel will soon be celebrating his three year anniversary with Paybase - a very big cake is in order! After being here for so long, we know Joel pretty well, but sat down with him to get to know him even better.\n\n**Joel, you’re in the engineering team. What are you currently working on?**\n\nAt the moment I’m predominantly working on the Logic Engine, which is really interesting due to the dynamic functionality that we can add to our rules. For example, I recently wrote a rule which prevents users of a certain age from creating an account - but what’s cool about this code is that we can apply it selectively to enforce a different age with each of our individual partners. This applies to lots of our rules and will eventually lead to our partners being able to write their own. It’s a big part of what makes us unique, so it’s definitely exciting to be working on.\n\n**What are you most looking forward to in the coming months?**\n\nWell, it’s obviously going to be really interesting when we go live. It’s been a lot of hard work so we’ll have achieved a huge milestone when we get to that point. Not only that, but it will be great to get feedback from our partners once we’ve launched. We’ve done a lot of industry research during the building process, but I think it’s likely that our partners will ask us to develop features that we haven’t even thought of. It will introduce a different dynamic to our development process and produce some fascinating ideas I’m sure.\n\n**What drew you to Paybase?**\n\nThe culture, within the engineering team in particular, was a big factor. It was clear from the beginning that the team was very collaborative - everyone works on all parts of the system. It doesn’t matter where an idea comes from, everyone is listened to and has their ideas discussed. I could see these things from my interview and it has never stopped being true during my time here.\n\n**And is that still your favourite thing about your job?**\n\nIt’s certainly up there. I’d also say that constantly learning new things and working with new technologies is something I really enjoy. If there is an area that I want to explore that I don’t know much about, the support is there. It’s that flexibility around how we approach our development that I really enjoy.\n\n**How would you describe Paybase with only 3 words?**\n\nInnovative. Collaborative. Adaptive.\n\n**We learnt your background in tech in a previous blog, what about your future? Do you have any particular dreams?**\n\nHmm, tough question! Well in the short term I just want to learn as much as I can in all areas of development, that’s my main focus for now. As for end goals, I suppose it would have to be building my own product. Being able to have an idea that you’re passionate about and invest all your time and effort into making it would be really fulfilling. Then of course, if that business could be wildly successful and tick over while I’m sat on the beach, I’d be set!\n\n**A life we can all dream of there Joel! What do you do for fun (apart from the beach of course)?**\n\nJust the usual stuff really! I’m a big music fan so go to gigs when I can, I’m a keen skier in the winter - also very much into Lord of the Rings.\n\n**Your recent Easter celebrations seemed to be anything but usual**\n\nThe scotch egg hunt? Ah yes, every Easter bank holiday me and a group of friends go into as many pubs as we can that serve scotch eggs. It’s a great way to see London!\n\n**Count me in next year Joel, thanks for speaking to us!**\n\n[Twitter](https://twitter.com/paybase) &nbsp;[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/paybase/)\n","excerpt":"\nJoel will soon be celebrating his three year anniversary with Paybase - a very big cake is in order! After being here for so long, we know Joel pretty well, but sat down with him to get to know him even better.\n\nJoel, you’re in the engineering team....","cover":{"src":"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/developer-joel-hero.jpg","alt":"need one"},"link":{"to":"/blog/paybase-profiles-joel","copy":"Read more"},"tags":["Paybase Culture","Tech","Profiles"]},{"id":"de61c8f1-4fcb-5167-8fb1-e6f574cd6a55","title":"How do coders become coders?","slug":"how-do-coders-become-coders","published":"2017-10-10T00:00:00.000Z","author":"Dan Whale","content":"\n### We asked our Software Engineers where it all began, as well as some other things.\n\nTo get a job in the [skilled labour market](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/skilled-labor.asp), you are usually required to follow a pretty set path. You don’t become a footballer after starting out as an accountant. That being said I don’t imagine there are many accountants that began their careers as footballers. Some jobs just need a large amount of training or specific high-level education.\n\nBut ‘developer’, whilst being a highly skilled, highly talented and very much in-demand job, does not fall into this category. In fact, there seems to be a different origin story for pretty much every developer you ask. Our software engineers were kind enough to tell us how they got there.\n\n#### Joel – Software Engineer\n\n**So how did it all start for you Joel?**\n\nWell, I’m from a technical family. My mum worked for Microsoft and my dad’s company was linked to Microsoft as well, but I guess the first bit of programming I remember doing was just tinkering with websites at around 11 or 12. Then MySpace came out of course.\n\n**Ah so it’s in your blood Joel?**\n\nPerhaps! As a family we used to talk about apps that should exist but don’t, so after an unenjoyable chemistry degree I decided I would learn how to make them. I took a 3 months intensive course on web development at General Assembly. The course was designed to get you proficient in building a full stack application, using Ruby on Rails. I really enjoyed it and I knew from the course that I wanted to do this as my job.\n\n**And luckily Paybase came along.**\n\nYeah, over 2 years ago now. I started out doing a lot of JavaScript, which I’d only done a bit of before. I learnt a lot about Meteor, then from there moved on to touch all parts of the system by using a bit of Ruby on backend stuff and doing some more DevOps tasks with Kubernetes. As the system progressed and we’ve brought on new technology I’ve always tried to have some sort of input. That’s what I really value about working here, if you want to have a go at something you haven’t done before, you can. The support is there.\n\n**Good stuff! Any interesting bits of code you’ve done?**\n\nI have a bit of code which alerts me when tickets go on resale on Resident Advisor. It’s pretty useful, in fact my friends are now constantly asking me to sort them with tickets.\n\n**Sounds like you did a good job there then Joel! Thanks!**\n\n\n#### Ana – Systems Engineer\n\n**Ana! Where did you code journey begin?**\n\nIn Romania you study it at school. Even my secondary school offered it (though not all do) so I was about 12 when I started. But it was considered a ‘boy’s thing’ and I didn’t have a computer at home, so I didn’t get much support in those days.  \n\n**Wow, what kind of things were you doing?**\n\nBasic stuff, how to write HTML and C++. I carried it on through high school and ended up coming to the UK to study Computer Hardware and Software Engineering at university. There it was a mixture of Electrical Engineering and Signal Processing. I did a bit of C and a bit of Java, it was more around hardware and building stuff than software.\n\n**Aha, someone who studied it at university! How was it?**\n\nNot great [we both laugh]. I didn’t really like the uni but my placement year at IBM allowed me to explore new things. Due to a mix-up with the candidate selection I was actually given a business role, then at the end of the year I managed to get myself a technical internship.\n\n**Good going! And you learnt lots of code there?**\n\nYeah, I’ve mainly learnt code through my work. When I went into DevOps I was pushed into Cloud Services and needed to pick things up really quickly, but it was good. Now I’m at Paybase and am really enjoying my work.\n\n**Great, any side projects?**\n\nA few but they’re just things that help me with my job really, I just like learning things the hard way.\n\n**Why’s that?**\n\nIt’s how I was brought up. I always tried to do the hardest things at school because, if anyone else could do it then so could I. That’s the best bit of advice I could give if you want to get into coding. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else, just try it, and don’t give up!\n\n**Wise words Ana!**\n\n\n#### Michael – Software Engineer\n\n**So Michael, what was your first interaction with code?**\n\nWhen I was younger I worked at a graphic design studio that specialised in print. One client asked us to update their website and my boss told me to use Dreamweaver. Soon after that they asked us to redo their entire site and my boss didn’t really know what to do. I ended up googling lots of Stack Overflow and copying and pasting a load of jQuery. We got there.\n\n**And after the studio?**\n\nWhen I moved to London I was googling code by day and working in a pub by night. A friend knew some art people so I was doing portfolios and things like that, some paid, some not. By chance a friend of mine was working at a coding company and there was a job going. At that point I had a pretty decent grasp of frontend development and was offered the job!\n\n**That company was Payfriendz, which then became Paybase. So you’ve been here…?**\n\nA year and 4 months now. Being surrounded by really good developers means my code has come on leaps and bounds. When I started I was using the React Native framework and am currently involved with the backend of the platform using Node.js.\n\n**Cool, is there any code you’ve written which is particularly interesting?**\n\nA few years ago I made a Kanye West weather vane based on what people were saying about him on Twitter, and then used sentiment analysis to forecast how positive it was.\n\n**Fantastic. Does it work?**\n\nNot amazingly well. I spent too much time on the visuals.\n\n\n#### Balazs – Software Engineer\n\n**Balazs, when did your code journey begin?**\n\nI guess I was around 12 or 13. I was making games using Gamemaker. It was really simple as it was a lot of UI as opposed to code. Crafted behaviour for elements, stuff like that.\n\n**And from there you were hooked?**\n\nI did bits and pieces at school but to be honest I fell out of interest with it for a while. It was when I was 22 that I had an idea for this music application, so to make it a reality I decided to teach myself how to code. I did some research on good programming languages and found Python. Annoyingly it was completely the wrong tool for my project but it did reignite my interest in programming.\n\n**And this was still all in your own time?**\n\nNo, I was doing some menial IT jobs. Then came my shameful period - doing Java [I get a cheeky smile from Balazs]. It’s just what they were using at the company I was working for. Then I started working on this project tracking app which really got me into JavaScript and thinking ‘yep, this is definitely what I want to do’.\n\n**So that was a big milestone in your coding journey?**\n\nI guess so, but the whole thing is ongoing. Especially as JavaScript moves so fast - you always need to keep on top of it. As a discipline, programming is so huge and interconnected with everything, you can go as deep down the rabbit hole as you want.\n\n**Interesting. Is there any code you’ve done that you particularly like?**\n\nHmmm, when I had been coding for about 2 years I thought I could build my own physics engine for a platform game. That was not the case. However I did make an Easter Egg on a popular fashion website where pressing certain keys invoked some strobe lighting and someone's head spinning around.\n\n**Hilarious, thanks Balazs!**\n\n\n#### Sam – Software Engineer\n\n**Sam, tell us how it all began.**\n\nMySpace!\n\n**MySpace?**\n\nYeah! You could make your own HTML which did things like make snowflakes fall from the back of the screen. You could also copy from others and tinker with theirs - it was basically a process of seeing what could and couldn’t be tinkered with. It was similar with Windows, I probably changed the settings more than the average 14 year old.  \n\n**So after all the tinkering what was your next big step up?**\n\nWell I did a Maths degree, so I learnt a lot about control flow. I was creating algorithms, doing more of the actual practices that are used in computing. Then during my masters I did a lot more coding - using Matlab with forays into Python and R.\n\n**And then you got a job in coding? Frontend or backend?**\n\nWell, not really. I went to Lloyds, but my knowledge was in scientific computing as opposed to anything related to front or backend. I was working with SAS which I was not a fan of, but within that I got to use SQL which I did like.\n\n**Then along came Paybase, or Payfriendz as it was then.**\n\nYep! I was actually hired as a ‘Data Wiz’ and I was originally building Python scripts to automate analyses. I then built an analytical dashboard with Meteor as that’s what the team were using at the time - that was my first real introduction to frontend and backend. Having built that I got a taste for JavaScript and I’ve been part of the tech team ever since!\n\n**Great! What’s your most interesting bit of programming?**\n\nA ‘Spotipi’ bot. I forked and extended on a Spotify Client for Node.js to enable collaborative playlists within the office using Slack integration.\n\n**That is indeed an excellent addition to the office. Good job Sam.**\n\n\n#### Asma – Software Engineer\n\n**Asma, our new starter! Let’s start from the top if you will!**\n\nWell, my first bit of programming was trying to create this charity website to donate books to Zimbabwe. I was using Wix and came to realise I didn’t really know how the tech worked, but wanted to know more about making websites. Then, via Youtube, I came across Code Academy and took some courses in my spare time.\n\n**Oh wow! So this wasn’t something you studied?**\n\nNo, I did a law degree! After that I was working at Lloyds Banking Group as a Business Analyst. I was interested in what the tech guys were doing but I couldn’t really get any exposure to it. The more coding I did on the side, the more I knew I wanted to get into web development.\n\n**So what was your next step?**\n\nI left Lloyds and went to Sparta Global for a 3 months intensive course on web development. Not long after I was here at Paybase!\n\n**You certainly seem to have a ‘go out and get it’ attitude.**\n\nYeah! I remember seeing a Ted Talk which was all about how for a lot of people work just becomes habit, which means you’re not really living to your full potential. I really like law, but I wanted a career where I’d be constantly learning new things.\n\n**Great! Any interesting side projects you’ve worked on?**\n\nAt Sparta Global I worked on an app for wedding planning/management. I’ve done my part but it’s a collaborative piece so it’s still in the pipeline!\n\n**Sounds useful, thanks Asma!**\n\n\n#### Tom – Software Engineer\n\n**Where did you first start with code then Tom?**\n\nAfter uni really! I studied Economics which is pretty mathsy, but when uni finished I had a few personal projects that I wanted to pursue - so I thought I’d learn how to code.\n\n**So all self-taught?**\n\nYeah. I was working in a pretty uninspiring sales job at the time and decided to take some time off to learn how to get better at code. As well as my projects I did a few bits for friends and family - websites and things. I was mainly using inline PHP and some dodgy jQuery.\n\n**Nothing wrong with that if it helps you learn! When did you start working with code professionally?**\n\nI actually got a job at the Daily Mirror, doing the real backend of the backend. I was doing a lot with backend infrastructure and Node.js development. After gaining that skill set I joined Paybase!\n\n**And we’re happy to have you! What was the most interesting of the personal projects you mentioned?**\n\nHmmm, bear with me here: an online massively multiplayer role-playing jackpot game.\n\n**Errrm...a what sorry?**\n\n[Tom laughs] It’s a game where you have to search the whole of the UK on Google Maps to find photographic clues to get jackpot prizes. Still working on that one!\n\n**Good luck to you Tom!**\n\n\n#### Chris – CTO\n\n**Now Chris, I get the feeling you’ve been playing with code for some time. When did you start?**\n\nWow, I can’t honestly remember. I must have started with shell scripting when I was 7 or 8. It let me automate common tasks and it felt pretty cool interacting with the computer in a black window with a flashing prompt.\n\n**7 or 8?! You had an interest in code so young!**\n\nWell, it mainly stemmed from computer games. I loved playing them, but after a while I’d get really interested in the technology that enabled such fun experiences - especially networked games. Initially I started making games with Game Maker and GML (like Balazs), but I soon branched out into game server emulators.\n\n**How so?**\n\nI loved Warcraft 3 and I wrote a fork of PVPGN in C++, which was an open source emulator for Battle.net. I extended it with a leveling and matchmaking system for custom maps. I hosted it on a server in my bedroom. At its peak there were a few hundred players online which was quite a feat given it was hosted on a low-throughput ADSL connection.\n\n**Wow! Where did it all go from there?**\n\nAs much as I enjoyed the gaming aspect, I was also interested in building business applications. I wrote a number of business intranet systems in ASP, and then PHP. I also wrote a few desktop applications in Python and later .NET. From there, I mostly built websites for small businesses. Mostly brochure-ware websites and eCommerce builds. I played with a lot of languages when I was younger, largely driven by wanting to peel back the layers and understand why different approaches where superior across different contexts.\n\n**Ah ok, so at this point you were working somewhere?**\n\nNo, I was still at school, I was about 15. It wasn’t until 18 that I got my first job as a developer, where I mostly worked in PHP, deployed to manually provisioned Linux VMs with Apache and fastcgi. Wow, things have come far!\n\n[Me and Chris talk for a while and I realise I could write pages on all the things Chris has worked with and worked on.]\n\n**You have learnt so much about code over a long time, do you feel you’ve hit your major milestones or are you learning as much now as you ever were?**\n\nI'm always learning - and if I'm not, I'm dissatisfied. The same is true of the people we hire. Paybase derives a lot of it's market advantage through it's approach to technology. Instead of taking off the shelf solutions which might work okay, we'd rather push what’s state of the art and solve problems as best we can. But this requires constantly pushing oneself, it's not the easy way.\n\n**Interesting! Are there any particular projects you’ve worked on that stick out for you?**\n\nHmm, I've got one. The [Kubernetes](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes) project, and more generally container orchestration systems, have been one of biggest steps forward the industry has taken in many years in terms of stable, scalable and predictable deployments. In early 2014, I was with a friend in San Francisco and we were working on essentially the exact same thing. A few months later, Kubernetes launched!\n\n**Ah that must have been annoying!**\n\nNo! No not at all! It was an incredibly mentally challenging project, and really forced me to think about all the problems Kubernetes was solving and how they could be solved. The project definitely extended my grasp of the problem. When Kubernetes came out we were just thinking ‘wow, this is great!’.\n\n**Good to know! Thanks for sharing Chris!**\n\nSo it seems that to be a great coder, all you need to get started is an interest in programming, some research, and a love of learning. Once you’ve got that it won’t be long before you’re building your own celebrity weather vanes and online massively multiplayer role-playing jackpot games.\n\nIf you’re a developer interested in learning more about what what we’re doing at Paybase, please do get in touch!\n\n[Twitter](https://twitter.com/paybase) &nbsp;[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/paybase/)\n","excerpt":"\nWe asked our Software Engineers where it all began, as well as some other things.\n\nTo get a job in the skilled labour market, you are usually required to follow a pretty set path. You don’t become a footballer after starting out as an accountant. Th...","cover":{"src":"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/development-team-hero.jpg","alt":"need one"},"link":{"to":"/blog/how-do-coders-become-coders","copy":"Read more"},"tags":["Tech","Coding","Paybase Culture"]},{"id":"2545e9b6-b35b-54b2-86ee-2f220c6b3ed5","title":"How to 'Hackathon' when you don't 'do' code","slug":"how-to-hackathon-when-you-dont-do-code","published":"2017-08-10T00:00:00.000Z","author":"Ellie Fryer-Ambler","content":"\nTraditionally, a Hackathon is a focused attempt to build or create something new - usually a working prototype for a product such as a web or mobile app - within a short amount of time.\n\nGone are the days, however, when these events were exclusively technology focused. Companies such as Google and Facebook embed the spirit of Hackathons into their day-to-day culture and use Hackathons as a business tool, rather than just an event, by typically holding one every [6-7 weeks](https://www.fastcompany.com/3002845/secrets-facebooks-legendary-hackathons-revealed) .\n\n> “Lots of other groups – legal, HR, business development – use Hackathons to rethink how they do their job, or how they can restructure what they’re doing. I think the core idea is to take ideas you haven’t had a chance to focus on and think about them in a different way. Lots of companies have the notion of a “think week,” a week to brainstorm other things. It doesn’t have to be in the middle of the night. If a company has hired the right people and trusts its employees to have good ideas, it should trust them to have the free time and autonomy to come up with amazing things the company should explore.”\n>\n> - Pedram Keyani, Engineering Manager, Facebook\n\nTaking inspiration from Facebook, [Hackbase 2017](https://trello.com/b/sU5qSIji/hackbase2017) [@Paybase](https://twitter.com/paybase) took place a few weeks ago and saw cross-functional teams working together on a variety of business focused projects, activities and games.\n\nFrom what we learnt, we’ve put together a short guide on how to create a company-wide Hackathon that promotes team bonding and generates value for your company that you may not otherwise get during the ‘normal’ day-to-day.\n\n## How to ‘Hackathon’ when you don’t do code\n\n### 1. Start with a team breakfast\n\n<div class=\"med-img\">\n  <img src=\"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/paybase-hackathon-breakfast.jpg\" />\n  <p>[Image above: The Paybase team at The Woolpack, London Bridge]</p>\n</div>\n\nThere is nothing like a good breakfast to set your Hackathon off on the right foot.\nRight from the start the atmosphere is buzzing with everyone excited about what is in store over the next two days.\n\n> “A great two days of sharing knowledge and ideas while having fun and getting to know the team better.”\n>\n> - Russ West, Head of Partnerships\n\n### 2. Plan a workshop\n\n<div class=\"med-img\">\n  <img src=\"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/paybase-hackathon-twitter-in-thirty-workshop.jpg\" />\n  <p>[Image above: Ellie running ‘Twitter in Thirty’ workshop]</p>\n</div>\n\nEveryone has a speciality, skill or even just an opinion on a topic others are unfamiliar with. This is not through lack of interest but a natural outcome of people working in different positions - people know different things.\n\nA Hackathon is the perfect platform to hear ideas that you would not otherwise hear. Whether you need input from other departments to help your area of work or you have something to teach others, Hackathons are an ideal chance to lead a discussion-based workshop.\n\n> “Hackbase was informative and allowed me to learn about how different aspects of the business approach their daily tasks.”\n>\n> - Danielle Herndon, Head of Compliance\n\nA few workshops ran by our colleagues included:\n\n*Website Positioning*: A workshop focused around how to best position Paybase to appeal to our key markets: eCommerce Marketplaces, Gig/Sharing Economy platforms, Crowdfunding and Charity fundraising sites. It was very interesting to see the points of views of our colleagues, and how well they compliment each other.\n\n*Ops? Ops!*: A high level overview of some of the current operational projects in process and the reasons why we have these in place. This workshop offered a space to share any thoughts or ideas to help us improve current processes.\n\n<div class=\"med-img\">\n  <img src=\"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/paybase-hackathon-ops-workshop.jpg\" />\n  <p>[Image above: Jarina running the Op? Ops! workshop]</p>\n</div>\n\n> \"Some of the operational processes, particularly KYB and partner onboarding, are very complicated. These represent opportunities for automation!\"\n>\n> - Chris Wessels, CTO\n\n*Platform?? Explained!*: An open session for exploring some of the details around the inner workings of our platform and the technology behind it. The main aim of this workshop was to encourage people to ask any questions they have about our platform. This included the technology behind it, how it works, how we plan on scaling it technically and logistically as well as our philosophy and process. Our CTO Chris said, ‘’People are extremely interested! We'll be having a recurring weekly session for this purpose. Looking forward to it.”\n\nA few things we learnt:\n\n### Think about the schedule\n\nWhen is the best time for this workshop? First thing in the morning when everyone is most alert? Or is this a creative ideas workshop that could be better suited over lunch? Ask yourself: is there an exercise or project I’m asking the team to produce post workshop? If yes, make sure your workshop is early on in the Hackathon to allow time for your team to complete it.\n\n### Length\n\nThe workshop itself shouldn’t be too long - under an hour is perfect. Keep the energy up!\n\n### Remember your audience\n\nThis is an important one. There may well be people from different departments with different skill sets and technical knowledge attending. Make sure that this is planned for by either being accessible to all levels or schedule separate workshops tailored towards beginners or experts!\n\n### Keep your objectives clear\nWhat do you want to achieve from this workshop? Educate? Inspire? Inform? Encourage a change in company culture? Whatever you are looking to achieve make sure you keep this in mind throughout.\n\n> “It confirmed once more how awesome the team at Paybase is. The results (produced in the workshops in a very short period of time) were fantastic!”\n>\n> - Anna Tsyupko, CEO\n\n<div class=\"med-img\">\n  <img src=\"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/paybase-hackathon-platform-workshop.jpg\" />\n  <p>[Image above: Chris, taking questions about the Paybase Platform]</p>\n</div>\n\n### 3. Plan a competition\nA two day event can seem like a long time. To prevent people dipping into their normal tasks you need something that they can work on in-between the workshops, activities and food.\n\nAt Hackbase we ran a competition based around leveraging the PDS2 regulations which are set to open up banking services in the coming year, with our Paybase Platform in mind. Our goal was to create business plans and pitch back to the team in the style of The Apprentice - but without anyone getting fired!\n\n> “The best part? Getting a better understanding of all the opportunities PSD2 is creating.”\n>\n> - Dan Whale, Fun Liaison Officer\n\n<div class=\"med-img\">\n  <img src=\"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/paybase-hackathon-leveraging-psd2.jpg\" />\n  <p>[Image above: Danielle leading the workshop: Leveraging PSD2]</p>\n</div>\n\n> “My favorite part of the challenge was bringing together different factions of the business to think about how to leverage the changing landscape to deliver real value to Paybase and our clients.”\n>\n> - Chris Wessels, CTO\n\nTeams were purposely cross-functional to ensure that people from all departments got a chance to work with someone that they otherwise wouldn’t. We had two days to prepare our business cases, working on it whenever we had time.\n\n<div class=\"med-img\">\n  <img src=\"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/paybase-hackathon-project-calculator.jpg\" />\n  <p>[Image above: Russ & Tom scoping out the cost calculator project]</p>\n</div>\n\nA few of the incredible ideas that were produced from this exercise included:\n\n*Cryptobase*: A PISP aimed at Cryptocurrency exchanges that leverage our graph database in order to reduce KYC overhead.\n\n*Paybase360*: An internal spending and budget forecasting tool using spending predictions.\n\n*Advisor*: An end-to-end solution for SME customers, providing financial and business reporting as well as connecting them with the advisors they need to run their business.\n\n*Loyalbase*: An extension of the Paybase Platform to provide a seamless loyalty platform (for loyalty scheme operators) that functions without any merchant-side integration and irrespective of payment method.\n\nMany found this challenge to be a personal stretch, but also really rewarding:\n\n> “Presenting is not for me, but I realised I have more interest in other things - other than tech. I really enjoyed the idea creation part of this task”\n>\n> - Simon Holmes, Software Engineer\n\nThere was huge value in allowing the Paybase team completely free reign on creating ideas for leveraging PSD2 in the context of the Platform. It just goes to show the endless use cases the Paybase Platform could support!\n\n### 4. Get some fresh air - with a mini sports day!\n\n<div class=\"med-img\">\n  <img src=\"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/paybase-hackathon-sports-day.jpg\" />\n  <p>[Image above: The Paybase team playing the egg and spoon race]</p>\n</div>\n\nMake sure you plan for lots of well earned breaks. At Hackbase, the office became a hive of creative activity and empty pizza boxes which meant people welcomed a short break outside in the local park for traditional sports day games. An egg and spoon race, a hoopla and a very tense sack race finale - it certainly got the blood pumping!\n\n### 5. Remember the closing ceremony\n\nLastly, don’t forget about the closing ceremony to wrap up your event in style.\n\n<div class=\"med-img\">\n  <img src=\"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/paybase-hackathon-dinner.jpg\" />\n  <p>[Image above: The Paybase team eating Texas Joe’s]</p>\n</div>\n\nAs we rolled into Friday night, we gathered for the closing ceremony. It kicked off with the Apprentbase Challenge pitches. Awards were given out for Best Idea, Most Realistic Idea and Best Pitch. After the ‘shout outs’ to the people that made Hackbase possible (Dan Whale, especially), the team reflected over the two day event with a few well deserved beers and dishes from [Texas Joe’s](http://texas-joes.com/).\n\n<div class=\"med-img\">\n  <img src=\"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/paybase-hackathon-chris-quote.png\" />\n</div>\n\n\nAll in all, the non-tech side of the Hackathon was a huge success. It was great to see employees showing such an interest in what different departments do and use their own expertise to come together in a collaborative project.\n\nSo, if you are planning a company-wide Hackathon, have a schedule planned - filled with business related projects, team building activities and inspired cross- functional team competitions. Make sure there are plenty of breaks and delicious food to fuel your team, but most importantly remember to have fun!\n\nIf you like what you read and are interested to find out how we can help you with your payments, compliance and risk requirements - [get in touch](/#get-in-touch) . We’d love to hear from you.\n\nFollow us &nbsp;[Twitter](https://twitter.com/paybase) &nbsp;[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/paybase/) \n","excerpt":"\nTraditionally, a Hackathon is a focused attempt to build or create something new - usually a working prototype for a product such as a web or mobile app - within a short amount of time.\n\nGone are the days, however, when these events were exclusively...","cover":{"src":"https://paybase.imgix.net/blog/paybase-hackathon-hero-image.jpg","alt":"need one"},"link":{"to":"/blog/how-to-hackathon-when-you-dont-do-code","copy":"Read more"},"tags":["Tech","Hackathon","Coding"]}]}}}