Keeping Curious: Why R&D and Hackathons Matter
Si芒n Adeoye, one of our product managers, digs into how dedicated innovation time fuels creativity, problem-solving, and continuous learning.
We鈥檙e fortunate to have an incredible team of engineers building the future of connected spaces through OKO and the Connected Spaces Platform (CSP). As a Product Manager, I鈥檓 responsible for defining and prioritising the features we want to build, and then overseeing their development to ensure we鈥檙e meeting users' needs.
Working closely with the engineering team every day, I get to see their passion for experimenting, problem-solving, and pushing boundaries firsthand. That鈥檚 why I鈥檓 a big advocate for creating opportunities for innovation 鈥 not just to advance our products, but to give our engineers the space to explore new ideas. We enable this continuous innovation through dedicated R&D time and annual Hackathons. In this article, I鈥檒l dive into why both are essential to our culture of creativity and share insights from the engineers who make it happen.
Research & Development
R&D is the lifeblood of innovation 鈥 it's where we discover solutions to problems we didn't even know we had! This is why during each sprint - a two week cycle focused on completing a set amount of development tasks - we allocate 10% (equivalent to one day) for developers to tackle an R&D project of their choosing. The project must satisfy at least one of the following:
It relates to the advancement of OKO or CSP in some way.
It allows engineers to upskill on their own or other clients' codebase/tech stack (we have multiple client teams working on Unreal Engine, Unity, Web, and Cloud Hosted Services).
Each engineer has full control over the scope of their R&D work 鈥 there鈥檚 no product manager hovering over their shoulder asking for estimates or tracking deliverables. If they ever need inspiration, they can turn to our dedicated R&D Slack channel, where team members share project ideas, collaborate on challenges, and give behind-the-scenes sneak peeks of their progress.
Hackathons
Hackathons have been a driving force for innovation since their inception in the late 1990s. The first-ever hackathon, organized by the project in 1999, was designed to bring developers together to collaborate on technical challenges. What began as a niche event quickly grew in popularity, and today, hackathons have become a cornerstone of creative problem-solving and innovation across industries.
These events offer a structured, yet flexible environment where participants can tackle problems without the constraints of day-to-day work. By breaking down silos, accelerating development, and sparking breakthroughs, hackathons encourage experimentation and the kind of creative thinking that traditional settings often can鈥檛 provide.
Understanding just how valuable they are for innovation and engagement, we host an annual themed hackathon. Over five days, participants can team up or work solo to build a working prototype that aligns with the given theme. As I write, we鈥檙e gearing up for one of these hackathons, and I鈥檓 excited to see the fresh ideas and solutions that will emerge from it!
While we keep the atmosphere relaxed, we do have some key criteria for the projects. They must either extend an existing feature, demonstrate a new feature, or showcase how our current features can be used in innovative ways. This ensures that the outcomes remain relevant to our broader product goals, while still leaving plenty of room for experimentation.
Once the five days are up, participants present their project to the wider product organisation, discussing any setbacks they may have experienced, learnings they have made, and ideas for iterating on it in the future. Although hackathons are often seen as being engineer-focused, we make a point to include people from all disciplines at 草莓视频在线 鈥 from QA to the art team. This diversity of skills and perspectives creates a unique collaborative space, offering employees the chance to work with people they wouldn鈥檛 typically interact with on a day-to-day basis.
Initiatives like R&D and Hackathons cultivate a culture of innovation and creativity, giving our engineers the autonomy to own a piece of work from ideation to implementation while incorporating their own personal development goals. It might seem counterintuitive to reallocate time from scoped product work to experiment uncharted territory, but it鈥檚 an investment that continues to pay off. Learnings from these projects have led to faster and more confident feature execution and completed projects can also find their way into OKO once they鈥檝e been officially signed off.
But don鈥檛 just take my word for it, let鈥檚 find out straight from the source!
Tom Yehya - Engineer, OKO Unreal Engine Client Team
鈥淚 really enjoy my R&D time as it allows me to get creative and explore technologies I don't typically work with. My first complete R&D project was adding a simple right-click context menu in the Unreal Editor Extensions to speed up the creation of Space Entities 鈥 the core of OKO spaces. It had been a big pain point for me having to swap tabs, drag & drop actors, and then convert them.
Although the project was relatively simple, it had a big impact on the user experience. Seeing it be well-received and successfully integrated into OKO felt like a major accomplishment.鈥
As part of Tom's R&D time, he added a right-click context menu in the Unreal Editor Extensions, streamlining the creation of Space Entities in OKO and improving workflow efficiency.
Adrian Meredith - Specialist Engineer, OKO Web Client Team
鈥淪ome of the most pivotal features I鈥檝e worked on started as R&D experiments, with some taking up to five years to find their perfect application. For me, R&D is about pushing boundaries, challenging assumptions, and acting as insurance against stagnation.
As a rendering lead, most of my projects have often been graphics-related, with my goal being to push the product in ways it鈥檚 never been done before in relation to 鈥済ameplay鈥. During the first hackathon, my team created a game where users would have to roll through an obstacle course in a giant ball and get to the top first! It was such a success that the following year we took it to the next level. Players would navigate a creepy forest in the mountains, trying to avoid being caught by zombies hunting them down.
The key to successful R&D is creating an environment where 'bad' ideas are not just acceptable, but necessary. Every revolutionary product started as someone's 'terrible' idea and in my experience, the only true failure isn't in pursuing an idea that doesn't work; it's in being too afraid to try. When you free yourself from the pressure of immediate success and embrace the joy of exploration, that's where the real fun begins鈥
Adrian鈥檚 2024 hackthon project 鈥楨scape The Dark Forest鈥 was a fan favourite!
Michelle Shyr - Engineer, OKO Unity Client Team
鈥淚n my last hackathon, I explored AR development and created an interactive experience where hand tracking and gesture recognition in AR could detect user gestures and translate them to display hand emojis in the OKO space. This year I hope to take it one step further by adding support for full-body pose recognition!
I enjoy R&D time and hackathons because they provide the freedom to explore new ideas without the usual constraints, often leading to innovative breakthroughs that wouldn鈥檛 emerge in a structured environment. The fast-paced nature of a hackathon makes problem-solving exhilarating, pushing me to think quickly, adapt, and iterate in real-time.鈥
As part of Michelle's hackathon project, she developed an AR experience that uses hand tracking and gesture recognition to display hand emojis in OKO.
We know that the path to technical innovation isn鈥檛 linear and doesn鈥檛 happen by accident 鈥 it happens when people are given the freedom to explore and experiment. R&D and hackathons aren鈥檛 just side projects at 草莓视频在线; they鈥檙e a vital part of how we stay ahead, challenge assumptions, and unlock new possibilities. The true success of a project is measured by the learnings made along the way, irrespective of whether it leads to a working prototype. Whether it鈥檚 refining existing tools, discovering unexpected solutions, or chasing a 鈥渢errible鈥 idea that turns out to be brilliant, this culture of continuous learning fuels everything we do.
