From Code to Clarity: Rethinking Hackathons in the Age of AI

Winning the Drupal AI Hackathon – Play to Impact 2026

Hackathons have always meant one thing to me: code, caffeine, and controlled chaos. You show up with a rough idea, write as much code as humanly possible in a short time, and hope it holds together long enough for a demo.

The Drupal AI Hackathon – Play to Impact: 2026 edition changed that assumption completely.

And honestly, it took me a while to adjust.

Setting the Stage

For context, my name is Shibin Das (D34dMan on Drupal.org). I work at Factorial GmbH, and I had the pleasure of hacking alongside my colleague David (gxleano). I’m also the founder of FlowDrop, a visual workflow builder JavaScript library, with a corresponding Drupal project that goes beyond editing workflows into orchestration, auditing, and logging.

This hackathon was a two-day in-person event, but it actually started a week earlier with a virtual kickoff. That detail may sound minor, but it made a huge difference. We met our teammates early, started exchanging ideas, and arrived on day one already aligned as humans—not just as developers.

Day One: This Is Not Your Usual Hackathon

Very early on, we realized something was different.

The first half of day one wasn’t about code at all. It was about:

• Meeting the team properly
• Understanding the business requirements
• Asking uncomfortable but necessary “why” questions

Only after that did we start brainstorming. We demoed possibilities, debated approaches, and—crucially—came up with a rough plan before lunch. That alone felt like breaking an unspoken hackathon rule.

Then came one of the most valuable moments of the entire event: 👉 We spoke with a real user.

That conversation completely reshaped our thinking.

More than half of our “cool” ideas didn’t survive that discussion. Not because they were technically impossible—but because they simply didn’t make sense from a business or user perspective. And that was a good thing.

Later that same day, we demoed our progress to the client. The result? Another round of ruthless prioritization. Features were cut. New ones were added. Everything was re-aligned around actual business value.

By the end of day one, it was clear: This hackathon was designed to optimize for impact, not output.

Day Two: Parallel, Focused, Aligned

By day two, we were on our heels—in the best possible way.

Because we had already aligned on what we were building and why, we could split the team effectively:

• Half focused on development
• Half focused on demos and presentation

No chaos. No last-minute philosophical debates. Just execution.

This was also where AI-assisted development truly shined.

Generating code with AI significantly accelerated our work—not just for implementation, but for:

• Rapid prototyping
• Demo preparation
• Presentation content
• Exploring and discarding ideas quickly

The gap between idea and working solution has never been smaller. And that shift fundamentally changes how hackathons—and honestly, product development in general—should be approached.

We’re no longer forced to spend most of our time translating ideas into code. Instead, we can spend that time listening, validating, and iterating on business needs.

Throwaway solutions are no longer a failure—they’re a feature.

The Mental Shift (and the PTSD 😅)

I won’t sugarcoat it: adjusting to this new reality wasn’t easy.

There was genuine developer PTSD involved. The instinct to “just start coding” is deeply ingrained. Letting go of that and trusting a process that prioritizes understanding over implementation felt… wrong at first.

But by the end of the hackathon, the status quo had shifted.

We experienced a level of collaboration with business stakeholders that would have felt unimaginable just a few years ago. AI didn’t replace developers—it freed us to operate at a higher level.

The Result

We participated as Team Token Burners, and I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved together:

Team members: Adam Nagy (team lead), David, Henk, Ziarla, Imanol, Francesco, Aarón, Enrique—and myself.

🏆 We won 1st prize.

Beyond the win, we contributed meaningfully back to the Drupal ecosystem:

Improved Modules

• FlowDrop
• FlowDrop AI Provider

New Modules Contributed

• FlowDrop AI Agent
• FlowDrop Node Session

This wasn’t just a hackathon project—it was real, usable work.

A Well-Thought-Out Event

None of this would have been possible without exceptional organization and facilitation.

Huge thanks to:

• The Drupal Community of Practice organizing team at EC and EUIBAs
• Sabina La Felice, Monika Vladimirova, Antonio De Marco, and Rosa Ordinana-Calabuig
• NTT DATA’s Innovation team for hands-on facilitation throughout ideation, prototyping, and pitching
• The jury members for their thoughtful feedback
• Sponsors and ecosystem partners including Drupal AI, amazee.ai, Mistral AI, and DevPanel

This hackathon wasn’t just well organized—it was intentionally designed for the future we’re stepping into.

Final Thoughts

This experience reinforced something I strongly believe: In an AI-assisted world, the true bottleneck is no longer code—it’s clarity.

The ability to understand, validate, and iterate on business needs is becoming more valuable than raw implementation speed. And when hackathons are designed with that reality in mind, the results speak for themselves.

I’m excited to see where this approach takes the Drupal community next.

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