Abhinav Mehta, Director Software Engineering, Photon

Photon, a global leader in AI and digital solutions, helps clients accelerate AI adoption and embrace DigitalHyper-expansion® to make tomorrow happen today. Working with 40% of the Fortune 100, Photon enables them to remain agile and future-ready in an era of converging digital and AI boundaries. Powering billions of touchpoints daily, Photon combines AI management, digital innovation, product design thinking, and engineering excellence to drive lasting transformation for F500 clients.

As the Director of Software Engineering at Photon, Abhinav drives innovations in AI and cloud security, transitioning architectures to microservices, and aligning technical initiatives with strategic business goals.

In this episode, we delved into the hackathons at Photon and Abhinav's previous employer, Pandora. We discussed the numerous reasons to participate in a hackathon, such as learning about technology, experiencing roles different from your usual ones, collaborating with others, and driving ideas you believe in. A hackathon could be the perfect platform to demonstrate the validity of your idea to the world. We also explored the various "avenues" within a hackathon, like the "in it to win it" and the "learning" avenues. We examined the elements necessary for a successful hackathon, including a robust platform for finding teammates, presenting ideas, and forming teams; essential resources like test data, APIs, and licenses; and the crucial role of both internal and external mentors. Abhinav shared his best practices for increasing development velocity in day-to-day projects and recounted how a single hour of weekly coaching from an experienced mentor transformed his entire team.