NOTE: To use this guide, copy the content using the “Copy page” button above and adapt the examples to your team. Updated September 2026.

AI hackathon facilitator guide

A two-hour, hands-on session where a single team turns its everyday work into Claude skills and projects. Everyone arrives with a task they do every week and leaves with something Claude does well for it, tested on their real work.

Earlier AI hackathons produced prompts, which get forgotten in a document somewhere. In 2026 the output is a skill or a project that stays in Claude, works the same way every time, and can be shared with the rest of the team.

The format at a glance

Why one team? When everyone does similar work, every task in the room is relevant to everyone, and people build on each other’s ideas instead of explaining their jobs.

Who can facilitate

A Claude Champion, a team lead, someone from L&D, or a programme lead. The facilitator:

• Knows how the team’s work gets done
• Can keep a group to time and draw quieter people in
• Is comfortable helping someone describe a task step by step
• Has built at least one skill or project themselves

Do one dry run out loud before the first session. You talk faster in your head than out loud. If you’re new to running workshops, The Workshop Survival Guide by Rob Fitzpatrick and Devin Hunt is a good short read.

Planning: the two weeks before

Access. Company accounts on a Team or Enterprise plan are the right choice when you want people to keep using what they build and share it. Personal accounts are fine only for practising on public information; check your AI policy before anyone uses company data.

Room. Tables in groups of four or five, a screen, power for every laptop, a whiteboard or flipchart, and sticky notes.

Invite and pre-work survey

Invite

Subject: Two hours to take one task off your plate

Hi [team],

Bring one task you do every week and leave with Claude doing it the way you want, every time. In two hours you’ll build a Claude skill or project for your own work, test it on the real thing, and share it with the team.

When: [date, time] · Where: [location] · No technical background needed.

Before you come: fill in the short survey (link) so we start with the right tasks.

[Facilitator]

Pre-work survey (send a week before)

1. Tasks: list three tasks you do regularly. For each: how frequent it is, how long it takes, and what’s frustrating about it.
2. Rules: which policies, checklists or standards shape how you do them?
3. Templates: which documents or formats do you fill in again and again?
4. Experience: have you used Claude or other AI tools? What do you want to leave with?

The session plan, minute by minute

1. Opening (15 minutes)

• Welcome; round the room: name, role, the task you want to fix.
• Show one example from this team’s work: the task done by hand, then the same task with a Claude skill. Show a mistake and how the skill handles it.
• Skill or project? A skill is how a task is done; a project is what you’re working on.

2. Choose the task (20 minutes)

• On your own (10): use the task tracker to rank your pre-work tasks by pain and frequency, and pick one you do weekly or monthly.
• In pairs (10): explain your task to a partner; they ask “what does good look like?” and “what goes wrong?”. Swap.

3. Build (40 minutes)

• Walk through the design template (10): who uses it, the inputs, the steps, the rules, the output, examples of good and bad, and the check at the end.
• Build (20): fill in the template, then ask Claude to turn it into a skill or set up a project with it. Facilitator circulates.
• Show two or three (10): volunteers show theirs; the room suggests one improvement each.

4. Test and refine (35 minutes)

• Test (15): run it on a real example from your own work. Note where the result differs from what you wanted.
• Refine (15): fix the instructions, not the output, and test again on a second example.
• Share wins (5): one thing that worked, one thing learned.

5. Wrap-up (10 minutes)

• Each person commits to when they’ll use it this week and who they’ll share it with.
• Agree where the team’s skills and projects will be shared, and the follow-up date.

The task tracker and design template

Task tracker

There’s no point perfecting a skill for a task that happens once a year and mildly annoys you. Pick high pain and high frequency.

Design template

For a skill, this becomes the SKILL.md; our Claude skill template explains the format. For a project, it becomes the project instructions.

Facilitation tips

• Use a visible timer and give two-minute warnings.
• Stuck choosing a task? Ask them to talk through yesterday, hour by hour.
• Too big? Bring them back to one task they did this week.
• Too ambitious? Improve a task they already do before inventing a new one.
• Access problem? Pair them with a neighbour and have them fill in the design template on paper; they build it afterwards.
• Keep it confidential: real work within your AI policy, no sensitive data on the big screen.
• Celebrate small wins. Five minutes saved every week is a good result.

After the hackathon: day one to month two

Tracking results

Running it across the organisation

• Let Claude Champions facilitate the next ones; our Claude Champions programme covers the network.
• Share the best skills organisation-wide. On Team and Enterprise plans, an owner can make a skill available to everyone.
• Keep a team library of the skills and projects each hackathon produces, with an owner for each.
• Run one per team rather than one big event; for a company-wide immersion, see our AI Week planning skill.