Step 1 of 5
Build the judge narrative
Judges score dozens of projects - clarity in 30 seconds wins.
Build my hackathon narrative. I will paste the project description and the judging criteria below. Produce: the 30-second story (problem someone has, what we built, the impressive part, why it matters) in plain words; the one-sentence version for the submission title/tagline; explicit mapping of the project to EACH judging criterion (what we say and show per criterion); and the anticipated judge questions with honest answers (including 'what would you do next'). PROJECT AND CRITERIA: [paste here]
Expected after this step
A 30-second story, tagline, criterion-by-criterion mapping, and Q&A prep.
Should not happen
- ✕Demoing features instead of the story
- ✕Live-demo death with no recorded backup
- ✕Ignoring stated judging criteria
- ✕Judges finding broken buttons in 30 seconds of clicking
Verify before continuing
Do not move on until every check is true. The complete button stays locked until then.
Do not continue if…
- !Demoing features instead of the story
- !Live-demo death with no recorded backup
- !Ignoring stated judging criteria
- !Judges finding broken buttons in 30 seconds of clicking
If the AI messes this up
Use this when the AI fakes progress or breaks the feature. It forces a real fix.
The narrative ignores the judging criteria. Rewrite the mapping so every criterion the rules mention has an explicit claim and a demo beat behind it.