Taking a hackathon digital under lockdown
Husqvarna Group
When the pandemic threatened Husqvarna’s annual “Shotgun” hackathon, we moved it online — reaching more people and running it five times since.
The Challenge
Each year, Husqvarna ran "Shotgun," a one-day hackathon at its Swedish HQ where engineers built mock-ups and prototypes over pizza and beer. When the pandemic sent everyone home, the event was at risk of being cancelled — so Husqvarna asked Nosco to find a way to run it digitally.
What we did
On the Nosco platform, Shotgun didn't just survive the move online — it grew. More people could take part, ideation had more room to breathe, and the format expanded to include video pitches and fast iteration cycles. Crucially, commercial stakeholders across global markets could now evaluate and champion ideas, bringing in experts who'd never been part of the process before. In honour of the original, the whole thing still ran end-to-end within a week, closing with a live video finale. The winning team earned eight dedicated Fridays to mature and test their idea and build an execution roadmap for company executives.
Results
Shotgun has now run digitally five times over two years, drawing between 45 and 135 ideas each round with minimal internal promotion. Three projects went through an eight-week incubation, and two were approved to run market pilots — laying the groundwork for a faster, repeatable way to feed the innovation pipeline.
