Inside Buildertrend

An inside look at Buildertrend’s 2020 Hackathon

Buildertrend's Hackathon

The next big Buildertrend idea has to come from somewhere. So, it might as well come from those who know our product best, right? We’re talking about our own super smart, super creative team, of course!

That’s the belief behind our annual Hackathon. This is an event where employees from across roles and departments work with members of the Engineering team to brainstorm and create a prototype application that advances our already robust construction project management software. It’s all about collaboration, finding solutions for customers and making the best project management platform even better.

hackathon 2020
Team “Can Everybody See My Screen” presents to the judges.

To up the ante, teams compete against one another to bring their idea to life in two days. For some, that means working through the night – but it’s all worth it if you walk away the winner. Because less Zzzs could mean more $$$.

A panel of judges awards the top three teams cash prizes, and their prototypes may even make it into the Buildertrend homebuilder app. That’s a win for those teams and an even bigger win for the customers who benefit from this type of ingenious innovation.

So how did Buildertrend Hackathon 2020 all shake up? We spoke to a few competitors during the big competition to hear firsthand!

Q: Why did you decide to participate in the Hackathon?

Charley Burtwistle, data scientist: I try to take advantage of any and all opportunities that Buildertrend offers. Our leadership team does a great job coming up with these opportunities and our events team does an incredible job putting them on. Hackathon was just another thing that I didn’t even consider not doing.

Brandi Bothe, graphic designer: Buildertrend is all about bringing your best self and best ideas to the table. It’s a place where if you have an idea, it’s welcome. Ever since I started, this value has driven me to ask how I can make a bigger impact outside of my role? Our team’s Hackathon project is just one of the ideas that has come from asking myself that question regularly.

Jen Christensen, enterprise QA analyst II: After spending a year and a half with Buildertrend, I was able to learn enough about the program to identify issues and areas that could use improvement. I finally felt comfortable enough to form my own team and bring an idea to life!

Q: Tell us about your idea. Why do you think it’s a winning one?

Charley: An internal tool for employees to find builders they know are the best in the industry …  Buildertrend users! With convenient searching and data points not found anywhere else, this search tool is one of a kind. If we believe in our product, we should believe in the people that use it.

Brandi: We are creating an email marketing integration with a globally recognized brand, making Buildertrend even more integral to our customers and their businesses. What makes our project the winning project is it’s easy to implement, it’s easy to build upon and it goes beyond an API integration in its business development potential, offering opportunities to expand our internal teams and grow our educational resources.

Jen: To provide builders, subs or vendors and owners with an easier experience of cycling from one details modal within a list to the next. We believe this is the winning idea because it was an issue not only identified internally, but from some of our current customers as well. Implementing requests from our customers into the program is a huge win for us!

Q: What are you most looking forward to?

Brandi: I’m most looking forward to seeing all the other ideas. We work with some brilliant and innovative thinkers – the judges have their work cut out for them!

Q: It’s day two of the competition. How are things going?

Charley: I think we finally called it quits last night around 3:00 a.m. The great thing about Hackathon is that you get a chance to work on something you’re passionate about with team members who are also passionate. The team aspect is critical, and you need to lift each other up to keep going. With only 24 hours, it honestly seems silly to waste time sleeping.

Jen: Great! There were a few hurdles the developers weren’t sure they could handle initially, but they’ve really worked hard to ensure we got everything done. Our UX team member has been an incredible asset with user testing that helped us decided on a final prototype.


Just before all eleven teams presented their final ideas and prototypes, we also spoke to one of our esteemed judges to see what he was looking for.

Q: What makes this event so important for Buildertrend?

Tyler Kopietz, vice president of sales: Not only are we able to tap into the brilliant minds of our employees, but we are able to enhance our product for the betterment of our customers.

Q: What makes an idea a winning one?

Tyler: For me, I was looking for a simple fix that could benefit all.

Q: What surprises you most as a judge?

Tyler: I’m always blown away by the dedication each team brings. Heck, this year an intern worked throughout the night and slept in his car in the parking lot!


After eleven polished pitches and much deliberation, the judges had their winner. Drum roll please … ba-dum-dum-dum-dum! The winner is Team Get Sh*t Done Bar!

Their idea focused on a global search and action bar within Buildertrend. This can change the way customers navigate through the platform, reducing the amount of time it takes to find tasks and helping them to get (as the team name implies) sh*t done. We talked to Sam Kirkland, team lead, to see what it’s like to walk away with the W.

hackathon winners
Team “Get Sh*t Done Bar” poses together after winning the competition.

Q: Congrats! Your team won Hackathon! How does it feel?

Sam Kirkland, architect: Amazing! It’s an honor to have the demo our team worked so hard on be recognized and hopefully make a large impact for our customers. This is the best part about working for a smaller company – being able to make impactful change.

Q: What made your idea a winner?

Sam: Our team had a heavy focus on technical expertise. This allowed us to make an impressive amount of progress on a really difficult problem. We recognized this project would be a large technical challenge, so we focused on that. Our end product suffered a bit because we had minimal product or UX expertise, but we knew we were going to struggle to get something put together in a day – even with four senior resources working all day. We were up until 2:30 a.m.

Q: Why is Hackathon so important for Buildertrend?

Sam: Hackathon allows Buildertrend to remain innovative. Additional processes to develop a new idea are a requirement for larger companies. However, a Hackathon allows us to cut past those processes and make a large amount of progress in a day.

Q: What’s next for Get Sh*t Done Bar?

Sam: The amount of interest from all departments has been really encouraging. Hopefully, this idea can be prioritized so we can get it in the hands of our customers.

About The Author

Sean Robinson

Sean Robinson Sean Robinson is a senior content marketing specialist at Buildertrend

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