How FAST Agile, Open Space Technology, and a community of volunteers helped transform a nonprofit and discovered something bigger in the process.
There are plenty of hackathons that produce software. And there are plenty of conferences that teach Agile practices. Hack for Good was born from a different question:
What happens when people don’t just learn Agile but use it to serve a mission that matters?
Last year, Hack for Good began as an experiment. This year, at PMI® Agile 2026, I realized it had become something much more.
A New Mission
This year’s Hack for Good partnered with Jubilee Association of Maryland, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
One of the most exciting additions this year was our partnership with Project Managers Without Borders. Through their support, we were connected with Jubilee, an organization whose mission reminded us exactly why Hack for Good exists.
Unlike last year’s three-day event, this year’s hackathon lasted only two days. While we had less time, we had more participants and an even greater impact.
Creating the Conditions
Hack for Good has never been about assigning work. It’s about creating the conditions where people discover how they can contribute.
This year, we once again used FAST Agile, which draws on Open Space Technology principles and enables participants to self-organize around meaningful work. Developers, project managers, coaches, designers, AI practitioners, product thinkers, and first-time contributors all found places where their talents could make a difference.
No one waited for permission. People followed the work.
Mobs formed, dissolved, and reformed as new ideas emerged. Leadership shifted naturally to whoever could move the work forward in that moment. Watching emergence unfold never gets old.
An Intentional Team
One lesson we learned from our first Hack for Good was that this experience should never belong to just a handful of people.
So this year we intentionally built a facilitation team that combined continuity with opportunity. Some facilitators returned from last year to share what they had learned, while new facilitators joined so more people could experience creating this kind of space.
I had the privilege of co-creating Hack for Good again with Quinton Quartel, alongside an extraordinary facilitation team: Anjali Leon, Ashanti Gardner, Brian Button, Kody Fintak, Jason Hall, Jeff Jia, Lada Kesseler, and Paige Watson.
Together, our role wasn’t to direct the work. It was to create the conditions where everyone could thrive.
Two Challenges. Real Impact.
Working alongside the Jubilee team, participants focused on two challenges affecting their daily work. The first was improving login performance. The second was making shift changes easier for Direct Support Professionals by reducing documentation through AI-assisted voice-to-text and multilingual translation.
In just two days, Hack for Good participants delivered solutions that achieved the following:
- Reduced login requests to approximately one minute.
- Enabled AI-assisted voice-to-text documentation.
- Allowed staff to speak naturally in their preferred language while automatically generating documentation in English.
These weren’t simply technical improvements. They represented more time caring for people and less time struggling with systems. Technology became an enabler of humanity rather than an obstacle to it.
The Moment That Changed Me
Every Hack for Good has a defining moment. Last year, it was seeing hope in our mission partners’ faces. This year, it happened during our final share-out. As the Jubilee team described what the work meant for their organization, I looked into the audience.
People were crying.
I heard countless people share, “You impacted me.” Many of them had never participated in the hackathon. They had simply witnessed the story. I’ve thought about that moment ever since.
I don’t think they were responding to software. I think they were responding to possibility. They saw strangers become teammates. They saw people trust one another. They saw professionals from different backgrounds unite around a purpose larger than themselves. They saw hope.
More Than a Hackathon
Since PMI® Agile 2026 ended, I’ve heard from other conference organizers asking if Hack for Good could come to their events. Nonprofits have asked if we could partner with them. I would love to say yes to everyone. But we’re not there yet.
We’re still learning what this can become and how to grow it without losing what makes it special. Maybe that’s the biggest lesson of all. Hack for Good isn’t really about hacking. It’s about creating the conditions where strangers become a community, ideas become action, and purpose becomes the product.
Thank You
To every participant who shared your talent, curiosity, and heart—thank you.
To Quinton Quartel, thank you for co-creating Hack for Good with me and continually trusting emergence.
To our facilitation team—thank you for bringing your unique gifts and leadership to the facilitation team.
To Ashley Forsyth, thank you for the vision that led to Project Managers Without Borders. Because of that vision, organizations like Jubilee can connect with communities eager to serve.
To Laura Davison and Julia Adams, thank you for championing this partnership, helping connect us with Jubilee, and providing support during the hack.
And to the entire Jubilee team, thank you for trusting us with work that matters.
What’s Next?
As we packed up the room, Julia Adams smiled and said, “This isn’t a pilot anymore.” I laughed because I knew she was right. Somewhere over the past two years, Hack for Good stopped being an experiment. It became a community, a place where strangers become teammates, where learning becomes service, and where agility becomes hope.
And where we discover that, perhaps, the most important thing we build isn’t software at all; it’s one another.
I have a feeling we’re just getting started.
