Building Under Pressure at the SIMFEST Music Hackathon
My team and I spent the SIMFEST 2024 Music Hackathon building for the music industry against the clock. We finished 4th out of 12 teams — a hard-fought result I am proud to count as part of my journey.
What it was
The Music Hackathon ran as part of SIMFEST — the Cameroon International Music Festival 2024. The brief was simple to say and hard to do: get into a team, and in a tight window, build something useful for the music industry. Twelve teams showed up to take it on.
I joined a team of builders I mostly hadn't worked with before, and we dove straight in.
How it went
Most of it looked like the photo below — heads down around a table, laptops open, half-finished plates pushed to the side, and a countdown that never stopped feeling close. We scoped, argued, cut features, rebuilt, and demoed.
We fought hard for it. When the results came in, we finished 4th out of 12.
Why I'm keeping this
I'll be honest: 4th out of 12 wasn't the result we walked in chasing. But I'm including it on purpose. That weekend taught me and my team more about shipping under real constraints — scoping ruthlessly, trusting each other, and making decisions fast — than plenty of wins have. Those are the exact muscles I lean on when I build products today.
It's part of the journey, and a part I'm proud of.
More from the Journey
Related writings that dive deeper into design decisions, workflows, and creative problem-solving. Each article expands on ideas shared throughout this project.
