3 Days, 100 Participants, and a Scavenger Hunt: How Ro’s Hackathon Builds Technology and Camaraderie
Tags: Health Technology, Telemedicine, Hackathons, Company Culture

This Fall, Ro launched its inaugural hackathon to drive technology innovations and spur new ideas that continue to improve the healthcare experience for patients and providers. Well-known to those working in the technology industry, a hackathon is a time-restricted, sprint event in which people with different skills and backgrounds come together to design and develop new technology products and solutions. Hackathons are designed to cultivate an environment of productivity, creativity, and ingenuity.

Ro’s hackathon, dubbed the Rockathon (Ro + hackathon), brought together more than 100 participants and various cross-functional teams across three days of ideating, designing, and demoing more than 15 projects. In this spotlight, members of Ro’s Tech Org who led the Rockathon will share insights on how it came to fruition and the benefits it offers.

Chloe Pi kicking off the Rockathon virtual demos.

What motivated you to launch a hackathon at Ro?

Chloe Pi, Chief of Staff: We launched the Rockathon with several goals in mind. First, we hoped to provide a dedicated time and space for Ro employees from different teams and backgrounds to get together to drive creative solutions to problems. We know that effective cross-functional collaboration can lead to new solutions that empower providers, such as Ro’s automated auditing systems, and features that benefit patients, like our newly launched in-visit product recommendations. Second, we wanted to present a team-building opportunity, to help foster relationships by working together to tackle unique challenges in a unique setting. And, finally, we were excited to create a new tradition at Ro, joining others like Ro’s Founders & Jam, informal breakfast meetings every Friday, Ro Passions sessions, fun and instructive lessons from Ro employees about a hobby or interest, and Work-It Wednesdays, meeting-free deep-work time every week.

Raphael Schmutzer, Senior Product Designer: We hosted the Rockathon to give teams a chance to take a step back from their ongoing projects to brainstorm together, explore new ideas, and to find new ways of helping us reach Ro’s goals of expanding access to high-quality, affordable healthcare. The Rockathon allowed a temporary departure from (fully) focusing on our day-to-day or week-to-week initiatives, and to instead allow our team the flexibility to ask bigger questions and propose ambitious solutions to problems we had tried to address before or those we were just diving into for the first time. The Rockathon encouraged everyone to think months and years into the future to surface ideas that — if fully designed, built, and tested — could improve Ro’s platform and better serve patients and providers.

Jillian Stein, Product Manager: We felt passionately about launching the Rockathon in a year when our team has gone completely remote. Ro has continued to hire aggressively throughout this year, so the Rockathon created a place for team members (people who previously sat next to each other in an office every day and people who have never met in-person) to bond in a fun, productive, and competitive environment. These relationships are so important — they encourage trust and communication across our teams well beyond the whirl-wind week of the Rockathon.

“In its first iteration, the Rockathon has already become a staple of Ro’s culture. From the start, the event generated such energy and excitement across the organization, driving the teams’ ingenuity and momentum throughout the week. It was incredible to see such deep commitment to building a patient-centric healthcare system. Engineers, designers, and data scientists worked alongside physicians, pharmacists, and business stakeholders to brainstorm and design solutions to make healthcare more accessible and enjoyable for all. Perhaps most impressive was that the participants produced not just good ideas, but concrete solutions that could be shipped to benefit our patients — vastly exceeding our expectations,” said Saman Rahmanian, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Ro.

What are some of the benefits of hosting a hackathon?

Chloe: Hackathons are designed to not only build technology, but also camaraderie and cohesion among participants. This was clear throughout the Rockathon, as those participating began the event tackling tough challenges and tight timelines, and ended the week proudly celebrating the results of their work in our demo presentations. It was incredibly satisfying to see the Rockathon’s open and encouraging atmosphere drive the teams to think differently about problems, solutions, or technology. This paid off with ideas both bold, such as integrating voice-enabled features for patients, and practical, such as adding QR codes to treatment packaging.

Raphael: The Rockathon was a source of energy and inspiration. There was a palpable excitement among those who participated, pushing one another to pursue their ambitious projects. Everyone at Ro was impressed during the company-wide presentations to see all that had been accomplished in just a few short days. As with any successful hackathon, the Rockathon not only revealed what was imaginable, but offered solutions that had a demonstrable value, clear functionality, and were a reasonable investment to build. This served as a reminder of one of Ro’s principles, that we must always be willing to, “look under the rock,” to find the best ideas and solutions to benefit our patients.

Raphael leads his team’s demo during the Rockathon.

What was your approach to designing a hackathon?

Raphael: From the start, we designed the Rockathon to strike a balance of productivity and fun. One way we did this was to introduce two awards that served to fuel competition as well as keep the teams focused on Ro’s mission. We presented an award for the project that had the most potential to improve the patient experience and one with the greatest potential to improve patient safety. To break-up the fast-paced work throughout the week, teams also joined in for a virtual scavenger hunt and Jeopardy game with prizes.

Chloe: Hackathons typically include people with technical backgrounds, but we didn’t want to limit ours to the Tech Org.To make this happen, we selected project ideas that were intentionally cross-functional. We spent time promoting the event, educating those new to hackathons about the process and the role they could play, and championing the value it would bring to Ro. As a result, we had strong participation not only from the Tech Org, but from employees in a variety of roles. For instance, our entire legal team participated, including the newest members who had just finished their onboarding!

Jillian Stein presenting during the Rockathon demos.

What made Ro’s hackathon unique?

Jillian: At Ro, we have the privilege of working with talented people from such diverse personal and professional backgrounds (from engineers who have built fintech iOS apps to registered nurses with experience in emergency medicine). On any given day, a cross-functional team at Ro may include a legal expert, a physician, a product manager, and a marketing leader. Ro brings these kinds of perspectives together every day, and the Rockathon was no different. From the planning committee to the participants to the judges, the Rockathon reflected exactly the type of cross-functional collaboration we hoped to encourage throughout the week — the same kind of collaboration that we have become accustomed to at Ro. This cross-functional approach is what made our first Rockathon so successful, and it’s why we are looking forward to the next.