A first hand perspective of the 2010 Overnight Website Challenge.
Hour -1
Our team members stream in and excitedly begin to unpack. It has the feeling of the first day of summer camp. The other teams are showing of their shiny PCs, monitors and nerd regalia. Simultaneously individuals size up the competition. Many people reuniting with old co-workers from former companies. There is an excited review of the freebies from the grab bag (jump drive, sweet!) and a buzz about the geeky door prizes (Legos, Star Wars, Nintendo, I think I just saw some nerds head explode).
Hour 0
We meet our client, awkwardly go around the circle to introduce ourselves and return to our work area. Still a lot of setup is going on to get everyone on the same solution/network/page. Question and answer session with the BA Designer and Client begin.
Hours 1-4
The initial hours blaze by in a blur of setup, a fluctuating scope and large paper pages filled with grandiose widgets and site sections are hung around our work area. Bits of requirements from the client begin trickling in, Facebook integration check, YouTube check, default playing audio on the homepage…hold on. Negotiations follow shortly after. The team is very confident and still ready to take on anything, but we still do not have a clickable, demo able site at this point.
Hours 5-7
First lunch break, Jimmy johns, first Five Hour Energy, we are facing the first lull in excitement. This is replaced by silent determination of the developers. We are starting to see some progress. First click-able pages our compiling. The list of features seems endless at this point along with our confidence to deliver everything at this point.
Hours 8-11
The unending confidence begins to fade as the realization of being half out of time sets in. We experience the first goal adjustment. We huddle to reprioritize the larger goals of the project. Around the group we start experiencing small victories around the outside functionality, twitter feeds and flicker integrations successfully “cross the river”.
Hours 12-15
Second meal and we are still grinding away, some developers are starting to show signs of the strain, others are continuing to crank away. Client is getting a little sleepy, starting to show first signs of impatience and excitement is giving way to exhaustion.
Hours 15-18
It is always darkest just before the light…An eerie silence falls over the collective group. Some individuals see this as an opportunity to become boisterous and increasingly annoying. A strong sense of self-control is employed to not bludgeon people with the freebie coffee mugs (this is not directed at anyone on our team).
Hours 19-20
Post apocalyptic wasteland, half-eaten burritos, nerds sleeping under desks, developer meltdowns abound. A numbing sense of a never-ending “Groundhog day” scenarios keep popping up. We fixed that…didn’t we…I thought we did, who am I again? Has anyone seen Shawn? We take a quick outdoor break, A quick regroup as a team to determine the final scope and focus for the remaining push to daylight.
Hours 21-22
Meeting with the judges goes phenomenally the site works the story is concise and the client is singing our praises. The team is elated.
Hours 22-24
Some time spent roughing together an outline of a presentation, but a general sense of mission accomplished. Some fixing of bugs, some issues pushing to the staging environment. Second breakfast and then we make our way into the presentation room without a laptop but there is a general confidence that we won’t be chosen as one of the finalists.
Hours 24-25
Beginning of the presentation and door prize winners are picked. A rumbling from the back of the room is that we are one of the 4 finalists, a numbing sense of panic falls over us, did someone bring a laptop into the big room? Is the site live, who was our non-profit again, does anyone remember what we built?
Hours 25-26
Geo and I work through a couple logistical issues, we are demoing from a disconnected Mac laptop running Safari, 3 Strikes…ouch, definitely one of the bummers about going first. The issues get worked out. We roll with the punches and do our best to present the solution that we came up with. The demo goes ok, the software performs, in-context editing is a big hit along with all of the social integrations. Our non-profit give us a shout at the end of our presentation. The other three teams present some very nice websites, the finalists are picked, and we take 3rd. The winner is chosen, medals present and everyone is asked to leave.
Hour 26+
General sense of exhaustion, accomplishment, and a feeling of being too tired to sleep. In conclusion, one of the coolest events I have ever been a part of and can’t wait for the next time…now if I could only remember where I parked my car?
