Fostering Innovation: Inside Sertifi's Q4 Hackathon

In the fast-paced world of technology and innovation, staying ahead of the curve is imperative for any forward-thinking company. At the heart of this endeavor lies the spirit of creativity, collaboration, and continuous improvement. For Sertifi, nurturing this spirit is not just a goal but a commitment. And what better way to fuel this commitment than through our much anticipated quarterly hackathon?

On October 16, Sertifi’s product and engineering teams had the opportunity to participate in Sertifi’s Q4 hackathon.

“It is an opportunity to work on an area of the product that people are passionate about and might not have an opportunity to explore during the normal course of business. It is a time to collaborate and innovate,” said Sertifi CTO, Stephan Nagy.

Eleven submissions and a tie between infrastructure architect, Marty Diamond, and senior software engineers, Priyanka Gupte and Ryan Jenkins, came out of the event.

Team Marty

Marty set out to simplify the onboarding process for new developers and existing team members who needed new equipment when setting up their local environment. Now, with Marty’s project, Sertifi team members who are establishing a new local environment are only required to kickoff one or two setup processes to make sure they have all the programs and files in place to work seamlessly.

“At first, I thought I would have to throw in the towel. I spent a day working on my idea and couldn’t get it to work. But then, at the last second, everything clicked. It was such a dopamine rush!” Marty explained, reflecting on his win.

Team Priyanka and Ryan

Priyanka and Ryan also set out to simplify a process that was taking up their team’s time. In the past, the Sertifi product had been connected to a third-party authentication system to offer a single sign-on security option to customers. With Priyanka and Ryan’s project, their team can now omit the third-party system when utilizing authentication by streamlining the process to the Sertifi product. This process will also allow the Sertifi team to automatically pull in changes to a customer's SSO configuration if they provide a metadata URL and gives the team control over the experience by allowing custom messaging.

Priyanka had a taste of beginner’s luck as this was her first hackathon. "I value the opportunity to develop a proof of concept during the two-day hackathon, allowing us to turn a concept into a reality," she said. “This is an innovative time that gives participants a chance to try something that they are passionate about outside of their sprint work.”

Ryan agreed by adding, “I like being able to have a dedicated time to work on a new idea rather than kicking it down the line. The hackathon is a great chance for us to collaborate and work on anything and everything under the sun that interests us.”

Sertifi will continue offering events that give our teams space to act in their most creative form. In fact, Stephan is already planning next year’s hackathon calendar. “We’ve had some great ideas and submissions over the past year, and I’m pleased with the camaraderie and collaboration I’ve seen. I look forward to seeing what the new year brings as we continue to ideate and collaborate to improve the product and our processes,” he said.

To learn more about the Sertifi team, check out our Workplace Culture page here.