Hack Weeks

The sixth week of every quarter at Clef is a hack week. We stop working on our normal projects and create small teams to work on little projects that we are excited about and can finish in a week. Anyone can propose a project, and there are no rules about what is allowed to be worked on except that it should be related to Clef. Every employee decides what they want to work on, so projects that require more than one person also need to convince other employees to work with them. Anyone can work on a project solo, but teams are encouraged and can be up to 4 people working on the same project. As much as possible, teams should be cross-organizational to give people a chance to work with folks who they don’t work with on a daily basis.

Lunch should be ordered in or prepared as group so that everyone eats together. This is meant to be a communal week where everyone is working, talking, and thinking together. Getting projects finished in a week will be tight, and the goal is for everyone to work on projects that they’re excited about, so there should be a general buzz of energy.

We’ll also experiment with doing some of these hack weeks off site, and bringing in interesting speakers to spark some creativity at the beginning of the week.

At the end of the day on Friday, each team will present their project to the rest of the company, and then we’ll host a hack week celebration.