The Hack Belgium Labs Process
A flexible yet rigorous framework honed over 15 years. We navigate complexity with you, ensuring every step is designed to deliver tangible outcomes aligned with your goals.
Leo Exter
Founder & Chief Energiser
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More Than Steps: A Tailored Journey
Our process isn’t a rigid checklist copied from a book; it’s a framework built on hard-won, real-world experience. We start with your strategic goals and tailor every engagement accordingly. Successful innovation involves making smart trade-offs – our structured approach, refined time and again, helps you make the right choices at each critical juncture.
Discovery & Alignment
We dive deep with you to uncover the driving strategy behind the initiative. We clarify real objectives (Is it communication? New product exploration? Culture change? Ecosystem building?), identify key stakeholders, and crucially, map out the desired follow-through and necessary post-event conditions from day one. Steadfast alignment here prevents wasted effort later.
Challenge Definition
Vague challenges yield vague results (“Garbage in, garbage out”). We collaborate to define specific, concrete, and hackathon-friendly problems that are solvable within a realistic timeframe. This often involves internal workshops, expert input, and vital ecosystem validation to ensure the challenges resonate and attract the right solvers who see potential value.
Participant Recruitment
This is often the single most critical element for success. We look beyond just numbers, focusing intensely on participant Motivation, Competence, and essential Diversity. Leveraging our unique, cross-vertical network built over 15 years, we conduct persistent, targeted outreach to bring the specific people – participants, experts, users – needed for your unique challenge. We don’t stop digging until we find them.
Program Design
Based on the agreed objectives and defined challenges, we meticulously design the event flow. We select the right minimalist tools (like our Scrutinizer™, Lean Canvas), structure interactions for maximum value, and plan crucial validation points. Every element is chosen purposefully, always conscious of the trade-offs needed to meet your specific goals and budget.
Event Execution
Whether a short workshop or a multi-day hackathon, we cultivate an intense, focused, distraction-free environment (preferably physical). Deliberate time pressure fosters urgency and cuts out fluff. Frequent, structured validation checkpoints with real users and experts break weak ideas fast or rapidly refine strong ones. Simple canvases keep conversations on track. The final pitch serves as the ultimate test of an idea’s coherence and viability.
Follow-Through
True success is measured by what happens after the event. Because we planned for it during Discovery, the necessary conditions – allocated resources, budget, leadership time, and critical management buy-in (especially middle management) – are anticipated and ideally secured beforehand. This ensures validated concepts and energized teams have a pathway forward.
Experience Makes the Difference
This process isn’t theoretical; it’s forged in the fire of executing over 40 complex hackathons and countless workshops. We intimately understand the potential pitfalls and critical success factors. Our value lies in guiding you through the necessary trade-offs at each stage, leveraging our experience to design and deliver an innovation experience that maximises your chances of meaningful, tangible results.
Grounded in Principles That Work
Happy customers
Our process delivers results because it’s built on a foundation of proven principles. We believe in starting with human needs, keeping things lean, leveraging diverse viewpoints, and driving towards consensus through structured interaction. These aren’t just ideas; they are the core tenets that guide every step we take.
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