NAKATHON 2023

Develop the best solution for an immersive onboarding challenge!

This is your chance to showcase your creativity and skills at this year's online NAKATHON! So, get ready for an incredible challenge, a lot of fun, learnings and great prizes. 

The NAKATHON will take place on the 25th & 26th of March 2023, where you and your team will have 30 hours to supercharge your solution. There will be prep sessions and tutorials, and you will be able to work with your team using the NAKA environments weeks before the grand finale.

The challenge 

What people experience while being a newcomer significantly affects their happiness and engagement to the company in the long term. This is why the first weeks in a new company or at new position are one of the most critical moments in the employee experience journey.

All companies work towards making sure that new employees feel accompanied, boosting socialization activities both in-person and online. It is also crucial for the newcomer to feel comfortable using the company’s tools: Knowing how to retrieve information, or booking days off, as examples.

In the NAKATHON 2023, we are looking for the best solution to cover this Onboarding Challenge. Below, you can take a look some examples of specific problems, and we expect you and your Team to develop a solution for one of them.

You will be able to work with your Team using the NAKA environments weeks before the event. So, get ready to practice and turn ideas into reality!

Examples of identified problems:

Hybrid & remote work:

• - Engagement to the company and creation of the feeling of belonging
• - Socialization: How to get to know employees from other departments
• - Getting to know the team, and understand their responsibilities
• - Regular Networking with other team members / with other employees

Information overload:

• - Getting to know the company quickly and efficiently to navigate and understand the structure of a complex organization better.
  - Understanding the role and its responsibilities.
  - Getting to know all the politics and habits of the company.
  - Gaining an understanding of all the tools available in the company (such as Doorways, oneERP…)

Career continuation /career path:

• - Changing a specialization and join another department
• - Discovering other departments in the company (how they work, what are the positions…)
• - Improving skills & knowledge to grow faster within a career path

Other examples:

• - Tackling the tech knowledge gap
• - Obtaining feedback about the company, the onboarding process, colleagues, managers…
• - Evaluating employee well-being

Please note that if you think there are other challenges related to the Onboarding, feel free to make a proposal and we’ll take them into consideration.

Calendar of events

8th of February – 28th of February: Subscription for the NAKATHON is open.

From 20th of February – until the NAKATHON (26th of March): NAKA tutorials available

We will share with you link to a series of NAKA tutorials. The tutorials will cover topics such as: Basic concepts of NAKA; How to create an experience within NAKA; How to create a scenario inside NAKA and How to create 3D objects (mesh).

From 20th of February – until the NAKATHON (26th of March): NAKA environment is opened.

We will open the environment of NAKA, so you will be able to practice the creation of experiences, scenarios, or 3D objects. There will be a “Starter Pack” – prepared scenarios and objects in 3D that you will be able to use in your solution proposal.

From 20th of February - until the Q&A Technical Webinar (7th of March): Microsoft Forms for technical questions

There will be a Microsoft Forms sent, and in it you will be able to leave technical questions you might have. We will try to answer all the questions during the Q&A Technical Webinar.

Week 27th of February – 3rd of March: The week of “Solution’s Tuning Sessions”

An individual Team’s sessions, where we will help your team to define your proposal from a business point of view, making sure that it brings value and is user friendly.

Week 6th of March – 10th of March: Technical Q&A webinar

7th of March: We will host a Technical Q&A webinar. We will share the link in our communications.

Week 13th of March – 17th of March: 2nd round of “Solution’s Tuning Sessions”

The 2nd round of Solution’s Tuning Sessions for Teams that want or need more guidance.

25th & 26th of March: The Grand Final

25th of March – Beginning of the 30 hours NAKATHON.

26th of March – End of NAKATHON & presentation of all the Solutions.

Judging criteria

There will be four criteria for evaluation, and each criterion will be scored on a scale from 0 to 10, 10 being the maximum score. 

1. Technological development: Are there good practices used in the development of the solution? Weight on the final score: 30%

2. Business impact: Does your solution have a real impact on the business? Does it solve the challenge and provide added value? Weight on the final score: 30% 

3. Creativity and innovation. Is your solution something different and new? Weight on the final score: 20%

4. User experience. Is your solution easy to use and intuitive? Does it offer a stellar user experience? Weight on the final score: 20% 

Prizes

Each Member of the NAKATHON's winning team will win a VR headset, as well as other prize in the form of vouchers for stores and/or VR platforms. In addition, we will have a special prize for the teams that scored the highest in each of the evaluation criterion.

All of the winning projects might become a part of the real NAKA Onboarding solution offered to customers all around the world! We will also communicate and promote all the winners in the internal communications within NTT Data EMEAL!

Apart from these great prizes, participating in the NAKATHON will help boost your experience, get to know different teams from all around EMEAL and receive valuable mentorship support.

Tips for your solution

- We are looking for a solution that can be implemented in the NAKA platform, therefore your solution must cover a realistic challenge. Have in mind who the NTT DATA customers are, and who NAKA is created for: National or global companies, within the Telco, Banking, Insurance, Public Sector, Industry, Utilities sectors. 

- If your idea is for the Talent Management or Onboarding phase for a specific department (Sales, IT...) or sector (retail, energy…), or type of company (Non-profit, 100% remote etc. ...), make sure to mention it! 

- You can also think about a scalable solution that can be applied to any type of a company, department, or sector. 

- You can always implement gamification and other interactions. 

- Instead of creating a fake company for your solution, you can use NTT DATA as a real example. 

Participants & requirements

In order to participate in the NAKATHON, you need to be part of a 2 - 5 people team. 

Please note that, to participate, there must be at least 1 person within your team with a basic knowledge of Unity and SDK. 

Only NTT DATA employees are allowed to participate in this challenge. 

We are accepting subscription from all EMEAL regions.

By participating in the NAKATHON, you accept the legal terms of the competition.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have any questions about NAKATHON, please contact us at: info.naka@emeal.nttdata.com 

If you want to learn more about NAKA, contact us here:

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