Makeathon: Behind the scenes

Makeathon is our internal version of a hackathon where, for three days, Pinployees (Pinterest employees) from across the business collaborate on passion projects and hacks that are normally outside of their day-to-day scope of work. Pinployees pitch ideas to improve our product, culture or internal processes. As we gear up for Makeathon 2023, we’re chatting with two Pinployees and learning about their experiences. 

Meet Christine Andrew, Client Account Manager in EMEA

Hey there, fellow readers! I’ve been on an incredible journey at Pinterest for the past two and a half years. As an Account Manager on the UK Sales team, I have the privilege of managing the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) vertical. Today, I want to share with you an exciting chapter in my Pinterest adventure, where I took the opportunity to ideate ways to simplify the generation and delivery of campaign insights with my colleagues. 

Makeathon is an annual event that is all about harnessing the power of our collective brilliance to tackle challenges head-on. It’s an opportunity for Pinployees to bring forward ideas that can fix the issues we face daily. The best part? You are not alone! Countless teams are ready to rally behind your idea, offering expertise and support to turn it into something truly extraordinary.

During Makeathon, my peers and I worked on an idea to develop a tool that would upgrade the way Account Managers access campaign insights. We discovered areas of opportunity that would drive efficiency and speed. With eight talented individuals, including fellow Account Managers, Data Scientists and Automation Engineers, we embarked on a mission to transform our vision into reality. Each team member contributed their unique expertise, to address the challenges and envision the upgraded capabilities of this tool. Together, we pushed the boundaries of what was possible.

And so, our brainchild came to life—a tool that would reduce the time and effort spent on obtaining campaign insights. This breakthrough creation has had a profound impact on Account Managers worldwide. 

Through the power of collaboration, innovation and the unwavering support of Pinterest’s remarkable culture, we’ve created impact across all business units. As I look back on this experience, I’m reminded of the immense potential within our organization. Each Pinployee has a unique voice, and when we come together, extraordinary things happen. So, let’s continue to embrace innovation, support one another and strive for greatness. Together, we can shape the future of Pinterest and make a difference in the lives of our users and advertisers alike. Huge shoutout to the team that worked on this effort: Ronald Mendez, Anirudh Koul, Tim Keil, Daniel Richardson, Adrian Abeledo, Ria Szeredi and Sepehr Abed.

Meet JP Ramos, Software Engineer II in Mexico

Hey everyone! I had the opportunity to join the App Foundations team on Pinterest as an iOS Engineer a bit over a year ago. In my day-to-day role, I work on making improvements to the app that benefits millions of users. I really enjoy doing this behind-the-scenes work creating an overall best-in-class experience for Pinterest users. 

One of the best things about working here is that my friends and family use the product I work on, so I get lots of direct feedback and ideas on what they’d like to see on the app. When I first heard about Makeathon, I got really excited about the opportunity to change things up a bit and build new features that Pinterest users would potentially get to interact with. Makeathon is a company-wide event, so everyone gets the chance to take a week for pure innovation. 

For the past year, I’ve been thinking about possible projects to work on. I am so excited to participate in this event for the first time! I’ve been making a plan, developing an idea and getting people excited about it. The project already has some followers and soon other Pinployees will be joining the team to bring the idea into reality. I’m sure Makeathon will be a great experience! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for a recap from my first Makeathon on our Pinterest Engineering Blog.