Video created by Tricia Mendoza
Objective: 2021 marked AppDynamics’ 4th annual hackathon, Hacky New Year. For the first time, our team had to design a large-scale, all-virtual Hackathon event while many employees were feeling plagued by uncertainty, exhausted from a new work-life dynamic, and emotionally fatigued from a snowball of turbulent events. Our solution was to create a virtual experience built on these core themes: more seats at the table, resilience, and empowerment. We carried this new approach into future hackathons in order to create an energizing and immersive experience for hackers while embedding our themes into every corner of the event.
Contribution: I developed a comprehensive roadmap for our multi-channel communications approach. The comms timeline was structured on an experiential arc that provided a consistent drumbeat of engaging content. As the owner of these deliverables, I drove projects forward by sourcing the necessary talent to support design efforts, creating briefs with clear creative direction and scope, motivating teammates to meet deadlines, and providing quality/brand control before shipping deliverables. I worked closely with fellow designers and video-editors to create engaging design/video/animation assets, while owning creative direction and messaging. Working closely with designers and research designers, I also provided creative direction and feedback for the copy and design of post-event case studies.