Let's Get Technical! Tech Jam Recap

John Reynolds

Earlier this month Verint enthusiasts from 10 different companies joined Social Edge for a 24 hour Tech Jam. 15 Community Managers and Developers came together with one simple goal: put their heads together and innovate on the Verint Community Platform by creating a usable proof of concept (POC) in just one day. It was a globe-spanning event with participants from Finland, the United Kingdom, and coast-to-coast in North America!

The event started with a bang. In our first session we had one hour to build cross-functional teams and gather potential ideas. We jumped right into a Zoom whiteboarding session where participants posted real-time sticky note ideas in the following categories: Widgets, Automations, Embeddables, and Other. Within 15 minutes we had 22 solid ideas on the board! After a rich group discussion and informal vote, we settled on four ideas to build. The teams then hopped into breakout rooms to get started.

The first task within the rooms was team-building. The groups were asked to break the ice by creating an identity for themselves in the form of a team name - and the names given by our host or brainstormed did not disappoint! We had teams: Crickets, Binoculars, Paul Revere, and last but certainly not least, the Fab 4. Next, each team spent 15 minutes fine-tuning simple requirements and designs so that by the end of the first virtual session, they had a rough outline of what needed to be built. 

The teams then worked collaboratively offline (some overnight!) sharing progress updates and screenshots of their work in order to build a working version or proof of concept of their respective projects within the 24 hours. Emails, Slack and instant messages were flooded with excitement. When we reconvened the next day, the teams jumped into breakout sessions for 15 minutes of face time to prepare before the live demonstrations!

Team “Crickets”

The ask: Develop a widget that allows a community member to share public community content to LinkedIn.

Project type: Widget

How it went: The team created a widget that could be added to any Content Type page in the sidebar that allowed users to share the current page on LinkedIn.

Team “Binoculars”

The ask: Customize the “Forum - Thread Details” widget to display the users who are currently viewing the content.

Project type: Widget

How it went: Through an initial feasibility review, our development team found that only the number of users viewing the content is available for retrieval and not specific user details. Switching gears, we created a Custom version of the Activity Story Stream to display the “Number of Viewers” data with the Activity Stream, which could be styled different ways based on the number of viewers (e.g. “Trending” or “Hot Topic”)

Team “Paul Revere”

The ask: Create an automation to alert administrators when users in a certain role create content

Project type: Automation Rule

How it went: This team created the configuration panel and a working rule to allow admins to configure one or more automations in the Administration panel. Admins can select the Role to watch for, the administrators to send alerts to, and even style the type and content of the notification message. The team learned a lot about how automations worked and which APIs were the best fit for the job.

Team “Fab 4”

The ask: Create an automation to alert administrators when users in a certain group create content for the first time

Project Type: Automation Rule

How it went: This team created the configuration panel and a working rule to allow admins to configure one or more automations in the Administration panel. Admins can select the Group  to watch for, the administrators to send alerts to, and even style the type and content of the notification message. Further enhancements allow the number of posts to be configurable so the first post or anniversary milestone posts can be alerted to admins.

Overall, we were thrilled with the participation and success of our first 24 Hour Tech Jam! The code created from each team was shared with everyone who attended to enhance in their communities.

Stay tuned for the next one, we hope to have you join us!