Hackathon 2025 — 1st Place
Sprout
Confidence → Clarity → Career Success
01 / The Problem
Job Hunting Feels Like a Confidence Crisis
The brief: design something that helps people navigate career uncertainty. We kept coming back to the same insight — the biggest barrier to job hunting isn't skills or experience. It's the internal stuff. Imposter syndrome. Fear of failure. Networking anxiety. No app was really addressing that.
Overwhelm
Job seekers don't know where to start. The process feels massive and undefined before it even begins.
Imposter Syndrome
Even skilled candidates talk themselves out of applying. The inner critic is louder than the resume.
No Clear Path
People know their dream role but have no roadmap from where they are now to where they want to be.
02 / The Framework
The Hero's Journey, Applied to Your Career
We needed a narrative spine that could hold the whole experience together in a single day's design sprint. The Hero's Journey gave us that. Every phase of the app maps to a story beat — users aren't just tracking skills, they're on a quest. It gave the presentation a clear arc and gave the app emotional coherence.
The Call to Adventure
Learning from the Mentor
Crossing the Threshold
Return with Success
03 / The Solution
A Calm, Visual-First App That Grows With You
Sprout starts with a gentle assessment — no pressure, just conversation. It reflects your strengths back to you, maps a personalised career path, offers CBT-based exercises to build confidence, and prepares you for real-world networking. Growth is visualised through plant metaphors: roots, trunk, branches. It feels encouraging, not overwhelming.
Strength Assessment
A multi-step onboarding flow uncovers your strengths, challenges, and career interests through simple, conversational prompts.
CBT-Based Exercises
Daily confidence-building tasks — like reframing negative thoughts — grounded in cognitive behavioural therapy principles.
Career Tree
Visual map from your current role to your dream role, with a clear skill gap analysis and step-by-step growth plan.
Networking Support
Curated events matched to your goals and comfort level, with post-event reflection prompts built in.
Flexible Growth Plans
12-day sprint, 30-day plan, or 6-week deep dive — users choose the pace that works for their life right now.
XP & Milestones
Progress is celebrated with achievements and badges that make growth feel real, not abstract.
04 / Key Screens
Designed in a Day, Prototyped Under Pressure
Every screen was built during the hackathon itself — no pre-work, no templates. The visual language needed to feel calm and grounded, because the content is emotionally loaded. Soft greens, clean type, and a plant-growth metaphor carry that through.
Onboarding
Strength Selection
Challenge Check
Your Roots
Growth Plan
Daily Routine
Career Tree
Networking
Connections Garden
05 / The Pitch
Five Minutes. One Shot. Solo.
After a full day of designing with three teammates, I stepped up to present alone. No safety net, no co-presenter to hand off to — just me, a deck built on the Hero's Journey, and five minutes to make the judges feel what Sprout was trying to do. I structured the pitch as a story: the user's call to adventure, their trials, their transformation.
5 min
Solo Presentation
The Approach
I leaned into the Hero's Journey framing for the pitch itself — not just the app. Each slide moved through a story beat, so the judges weren't just watching a product demo, they were experiencing the user's emotional arc. It was the riskiest creative call I made all day, and it landed.
06 / The Result
We Won.
Out of all the teams competing that day — all designing under the same constraints, the same pressure, the same deadline — Sprout took first place. Built during finals week, designed in a day, pitched by one person. It still feels surreal.
The winning team — that's me, the blonde one. With Rui, Steven, and Sebastian. Nov. 30, 2025.
How the Day Actually Went
The One-Day Sprint
Morning
Brief received. Team formed. Problem framing and concept discovery — settled on the Hero's Journey as the backbone.
Midday
Wireframes, user flow, and feature prioritisation. Deciding what to cut when you only have hours is its own design skill.
Afternoon
High-fidelity screens built in Figma. Visual language defined — soft greens, plant metaphors, calm type.
Evening
Pitch deck assembled. I stepped up to present solo. 5 minutes. Story-led. First place.
07 / Reflection
What a Hackathon During Finals Teaches You
I don't think I would have chosen to do a hackathon during finals week if someone had warned me. But I'm glad I didn't know what I was getting into.
Constraint is a design tool
Having one day forces clarity. You can't overthink, you can't gold-plate. Every decision has to count, which makes you surprisingly decisive.
Narrative wins pitches
A product that tells a story lands harder than a product that lists features. The Hero's Journey wasn't just a gimmick — it gave the judges something to feel.
Presenting alone is a skill
There's no one to fill the silence or take over if you lose your thread. Solo presenting taught me to own the room in a way that tag-team presenting never quite does.
Team trust moves fast
In a single day, you learn quickly who does what and how to get out of each other's way. It was one of the best collaborative experiences I've had in the program.