Exploration Days (Hackathons/ShipIt Days)
Exploration Days are dedicated periods for employees to self-educate, experiment with new ideas, and develop themselves through hands-on projects. This practice fosters continuous learning, innovation, and team satisfaction by providing a structured yet flexible environment for exploration.
Use Exploration Days when you want to encourage employee-driven innovation, address technical debt, or boost team morale after a major project milestone. It's particularly useful for organizations seeking to foster a culture of continuous learning and experimentation.
Solves: Stagnant innovation, lack of employee engagement in learning, mounting technical debt, and post-project burnout.
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Step 1: Announce Exploration Days and set a theme (optional). (15 min)
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Step 2: Teams or individuals form and brainstorm project ideas. (30 min)
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Step 3: Participants work on their projects, experimenting and learning. (6 hours)
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Step 4: Teams present their projects and learnings to the wider group. (1.5 hours)
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Step 5: Celebrate successes and identify next steps for promising projects. (30 min)
- Remind participants that Exploration Days are not just about product development; encourage them to hack the office, culture, or processes.
- Emphasize that the goal is learning and experimentation, not necessarily perfection.
- Theme-based Exploration Days: Focus on a specific area or challenge.
- Skill-based Exploration Days: Encourage participants to learn and share new skills.
- Remote Exploration Days: Adapt the format for remote teams using virtual collaboration tools.