Not just a hackathon… this feels different 🔥

I initially assumed this hackathon would follow a familiar pattern: Read the problem → start coding → submit. However, this experience turned out to be very different. When we first received the problem statement, we believed we understood it. After revisiting it for a few days, we realized we didn’t fully grasp it. There is a clear difference between reading a problem and understanding the people behind it. So we made a deliberate decision to pause development. Instead of jumping into coding, we focused on asking the right questions: Who are we building for What challenges do they face What genuinely helps them What is merely “nice to have” This phase took nearly a week. At that time, it felt slow, but in hindsight, it was the most valuable step in our process. Once we gained clarity, everything else became much more straightforward. Feature decisions became easier. Choosing the tech stack was clearer. Most importantly, we understood what not to build. In our team, I am responsible fo