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What can I get at the hackathon, except for a cash prize?

We continue to acquaint you with the participants of the last season of the Digital Breakthrough. Andrey Nekrytny, member of the Neskuchny Finale team, head of the Crimean branch of the National Association of Digital Economy, member of the expert council on digital economy at the State Duma of the Russian Federation, will tell you how to prepare for the hackathon and what to pay attention to get the most out of the competition.


Our team "Neskuchny finale" consisted of 5 people, this was the maximum possible number of team members allowed by the rules of the competition. We understood that if there were fewer of us, then we might not be able to cope with the tasks at the appointed time.

Our team had two web designers, a php developer, a .NET developer, and a project manager. When the whole team was assembled, we started work. In person, the team met at the regional stage, and before that they talked only online.

In the semifinals, we chose the direction of "Medicine". Then, of course, we did not expect that after a year everything related to the topic of healthcare would be so relevant for our country.



None of us previously worked in this sector or created products, but we considered this direction promising. The developed software product prototype became a passing ticket for us at the regional stage, and we received grant support from the Innovation Assistance Fund. But more on that later.

The hackathon for each of us has become a special event in life. We came from different cities and even from different federal districts - from the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol. Having met at the semifinals, we immediately set ourselves the goal - winning the nomination for access to the finals.

In our project, we looked for solutions to the task of creating a medical service that would optimize business processes and help the state in solving public health problems in controlling the provision of quality services to the population.

A year ago, there were few such services, so we began to study foreign solutions and the principle of their work, look for information on the Internet about government programs in the healthcare sector. We were determined to “cut the Gordian knot” and understood what the solution should be, how it could help, but experts helped us confirm our idea and make corrections.

I’ll say right away - no matter how many experts there are on the site, it's worth talking to everyone.

Communicating with experts helped us look at the situation from a different perspective. Thanks to this, we finalized the general structure and functionality of the future product. The analysis of his idea within the framework of the hackathon made it possible to understand how the prototype and future MVP will become innovative and how it will differ from existing analogues.

We had 36 hours, seven of which we devoted specifically to the study and clarification of all the nuances.



Next, we had to start the implementation of the project. On the second day, having completed all the work, we created a prototype in Figma. For the back-end, .NET CORE was chosen. In the framework of the prototype, we demonstrated the possibility of registering a personal account with a patient or doctor, as well as the use of certain functions.

After the presentation, we were looking forward to the announcement of the results. Our expectations were met and, as it turned out, the chosen direction became one of the most popular. The next step was a trip to Kazan for the finals.

The All-Russian contest “Digital Breakthrough” is not just a hackathon, but also a colossal opportunity that we had to use. We learned about this later when we announced that it was possible to apply for grant support.

Of course, we took advantage of the proposed option - in this we were helped by a quality study of the project within the framework of the hackathon. An application to the Fund for the Promotion of Innovation (FSI) was prepared by us very carefully: with the substantiation of the idea, its innovativeness and scientific novelty.

Justification of scientific novelty is difficult for many, but the most important thing is to justify the uniqueness of the future product and its difference from existing analogues. We did not have the task of creating something supernatural, but we understood that our product should be different and have advantages in comparison with competitors. It took us a week to prepare a high-quality application, given that most of the material had already been worked on at the hackathon. We found out the results in the final - our team received a grant. In total, about one hundred teams from different regions of Russia received financial support.

But there was still a final and a pre-accelerator. And here we are in the TOP 47 IT teams of the largest hackathon on the planet!



Today we continue to develop our product in the healthcare sector and make changes to it based on the current situation. Now there are a lot of software solutions in the direction of "Telemedicine", and we already have something to compare to more deeply develop our product.

The most important thing is that now we are developing the project at a higher quality and professional level. Competition experts taught us how to work with the idea and set goals.

Since the beginning of 2020, extensive information has been collected on the requests that are presented to medical IT services from the state today - what does private medicine want to see and what tasks can be solved already in the current realities?

Having talked with major market players, heads of IT companies to develop telemedicine services, we learned what they had to deal with and how they are developing now.

Monetization is the main factor of success!

Now that the prototype with functionality is at the final stage, we are calculating monetization so that the product not only benefits, but also pays for itself. Naturally, we do not now disclose all the details of the future product, but we will certainly inform you about the launch.

Summarizing all of the above, I can confidently say that thanks to the Digital Breakthrough contest, our team members have gained new knowledge, experience and access to training materials.
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The development of non-standard tasks, and even in a limited time, broadens the horizons, makes the team find the right solution.

Thanks to the competition, we realized how important it is to determine the team members and be involved in what you are doing - only this can lead to victory!

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