I recently participated in Hack Week, Zillow’s annual innovation sprint when employees from across the company step away from their day-to-day responsibilities to imagine, design and build what’s next. With more than 1,800 participants from Seattle, Mexico City and virtual locations around the world, Hack Week is a celebration of bold experimentation and innovation.

This is my personal Hack Week journal: a day-by-day reflection on the challenges and breakthroughs that made this one of my most rewarding weeks at Zillow.

Day 0: Friday — Say hi! Preplanning

Our Hack Week adventure began the week prior with a Friday Zoom call. While async discussions about team formation and pitching our Hack Week idea had taken place a few weeks earlier, this was our first time seeing each other’s faces on Zoom. I personally invested significant time in preparing the pitch and idea to ensure everyone could connect with the project’s purpose. It was a chance to get to know everyone and understand each other’s schedules and commitments.

We discussed the problem we wanted to solve, whom our project would help and how our solution could make a real difference.

Project snapshot: Exploring seller empowerment with AI

During Hack Week, our team set out to explore how AI might help homeowners feel more confident and informed as they consider selling. We were curious to know whether early insights such as a home’s place in the market, local trends and potential strategies could make the journey to listing less daunting.

While our work was exploratory, we loved testing out ways that generative AI could support sellers at the very beginning of their journey. The goal wasn’t to replace agents or predict outcomes, but to imagine tools that could guide homeowners with clarity and context.

The team was excited. We had a perfect mix: two front-end developers, two back-end developers and one product manager. We even laid out our daily goals, making sure to prioritize a positive team experience above all else.

Day 1: Monday — Kickoff & power-up party

On Monday morning, I was up early, ready for a day at the Seattle office — a significant change after months of working remotely in Cloud HQ! Our team started assembling from their various hacking locations. Wylie Wong had flown in from California that very day. Alberto Robles and Javier Calette were already in Mexico City, preparing for their first day there. Our product manager, Chris Price, was hacking virtually. My own first stop was the office coffee station, where I grabbed a black coffee and settled into a quiet phone booth.

The office buzzed with fellow hackers, all focused and passionate. Our first planning session kicked off a little late, but there were big smiles all around. We quickly reviewed the problem and sketched out our solution. Wylie and Javier took the lead on the front end, while Alberto and I tackled the back end. It felt like a scrappy startup, with us owning everything from product to marketing. We planned an end-of-day sync to keep the momentum going.

Lunch on the 39th floor, overlooking Elliott Bay in Puget Sound, was incredibly energizing. By the afternoon, our first front-end component was ready, using mock data. We also established clear contracts between front end and back end to ensure smooth integration.

As the day wrapped up, our Day 1 goals weren’t just met — they were exceeded! The Hack Week power-up party was the perfect way to celebrate. Food and drink stations were well-distributed, the seafood and desserts were amazing, and the 17th-floor patio was buzzing with energy. I collected lots of goodies — a laptop bag, a hat, bottles and more — but it was the feeling of inclusivity and teamwork that truly stood out.

By 7:30 p.m., I was still full of energy, content with our project’s progress and the company’s wonderful gesture to make us feel appreciated. I drove home, already excited for the next day.

Day 2: Tuesday — Full throttle

On Tuesday, I joined the morning kickoff meeting from home to ensure everyone knew our Day 2 goals. After a long meeting and some follow-ups, I realized staying home was actually more productive for deliverables, given my late start for the office.

By midafternoon, we had made significant progress. Front end had completed the UI components with mock data, and back end had successfully integrated data with downstream services. We even implemented our gen AI integration, making our product smart and AI-powered. We were a full day ahead of schedule.

Day 3: Wednesday — Midweek mayhem

Being back in the office felt great after missing the Hack Week vibe the day before. But our excitement was quickly tested by a connection issue: One of our critical data sources was unreachable — a complete blocker.

At noon, I reached out to the partner team and its manager, apologizing for the mid–Hack Week request. I could access the API locally, so it was clearly a server-side issue. Thankfully, they quickly deployed their end point to a shared VPC and provided a working end point. What a relief!

Lunch was delayed but well-deserved. We also identified incomplete and inaccurate datasets in our non-prod environment, another blocker as our AI feature needed reliable data. The LLM platform support team was incredible, providing optimization tips for our API calls, and clearly invested in our success.

By our afternoon sync, all front-end and back-end features were integrated — a full day ahead of our original plan! Since most of my team was traveling back on Day 4, we skipped the morning sync and planned to connect in the evening.

Day 4: Thursday — Travel and polish

As the only team member who wasn’t traveling, I spent Thursday fine-tuning our AI models and smoke testing across different properties.

At 1:30 p.m., we had async discussions about code cleanup, quality and performance improvements. We were all back on Zoom just a few hours later, reviewing our scope, testing the feature together and implementing minor enhancements.

Day 5: Friday — Showtime

We were incredibly proud of our planning and execution. Our explicit goal was to finish feature work by Thursday, leaving Friday for submission prep. We wanted to make sure our slides and demo recording were top-notch.

At 1 p.m., we gathered to combine our work and make the most of our strict three-minute recording time. One teammate recorded the demo, but the content and storytelling were a full team effort.

By 4 p.m., our beautiful slide deck and demo recording were ready. We wrapped it up about an hour later and committed to recharging over the weekend.

Reflections

Hack Week reminded me of why I love working at Zillow — it’s not just about the products, but the joy of creating together. Zillow’s emphasis on meaningful goals and fulfilling experiences really shone through.

There was a moment on Wednesday when I thought the VPC blocker might derail our momentum. But it reminded me of how powerful a responsive, cross-functional culture can be. One message, one deployment, and we were back on track.

I’m deeply grateful for everyone’s contributions and want to give shout-outs to all who helped. Special thanks to:

• Wylie: For jumping into the front end with confidence and leading the UI magic.
• Javier: For clean, reusable components and clear async comms.
• Alberto: For back-end excellence and calm under pressure.
• Chris: For defining the bigger picture and helping connect with data sources.
• Our partner team and LLM support folks: For showing up and unblocking us when it mattered.

Connecting face-to-face with teammates from such diverse backgrounds left a lasting impression. This was truly one of our best weeks.

I can’t wait to do it again next year!