ShipIt, Atlassian’s quarterly 24-hour hackathon, enables employees from every department—including Legal and Finance—to drop their usual tasks and collaborate on creative projects. This inclusive event drives innovation, camaraderie, and impactful ideas beyond engineering teams, reflecting Atlassian’s core value of being the change they seek.
- ShipIt includes all departments with a focus on both technical and non-technical projects.
- The event encourages risk-taking and learning from failure.
- Participation has grown from one location to a global, often virtual, company-wide event.
What happened
Atlassian’s ShipIt is a quarterly 24-hour hackathon that calls on employees from every department to pause their regular work and innovate together. This event invites diverse teams formed from engineering, design, legal, finance, and other areas to pitch ideas and rapidly develop projects ranging from product features to process improvements.
The format encourages freedom of creativity with minimal rules, allowing both technical and non-technical contributions. Participants from junior hires to senior executives join the challenge, which has evolved to include virtual participation across more than 20 cities in 11 countries, reflecting Atlassian’s expanding global footprint.
Why it matters
ShipIt exemplifies Atlassian’s commitment to a culture of innovation where every employee can contribute to meaningful change. By breaking down typical silos and empowering people to collaborate freely, ShipIt strengthens cross-team camaraderie and surfaces creative solutions that might not emerge through regular workflows.
This event also mitigates fears around failure by framing experimentation as a learning process. The inclusion of non-technical projects and the broad scope allow the entire organization to engage with innovation, fostering a more inclusive and dynamic company environment.
What to watch next
Looking ahead, Atlassian will continue refining ShipIt with flexible participation windows and virtual formats to accommodate remote teams and customer-facing roles who cannot fully disconnect. New prize categories, including those judged by customers, highlight the event’s goal of delivering tangible value to users.
The ongoing challenge will be maintaining the balance between rapid experimentation and meaningful impact as ShipIt scales further. Observers should track which initiatives from upcoming ShipIts become integrated into Atlassian’s products and operations, as well as how the event influences innovation cultures at other companies.