Meet Shane O'Toole, Senior Technical Program Manager at AWS

Shane helps customers use cloud technology to meet their goals for reducing carbon emissions. Shane works with AWS customers, partners, and internal teams to develop and implement solutions that improve sustainability. He has over ten years of experience in various roles including operations, maintenance, engineering, education, and management.

In this episode, we discuss why hackathons are the best way to learn how to build a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) quickly. We also talk about different times when it's beneficial to organize a hackathon. Shane points out one particular situation that stands out: using hackathons to prove to clients or decision-makers that something is possible. He emphasizes, "Show them it's possible," highlighting that a live demo can be more convincing than even the best PowerPoint presentation. We also explore what usually slows down the speed of development. Shane believes that understanding the customer is crucial, and sometimes it’s tough to figure out what the customer really wants to achieve.

Additionally, we provide links to the AWS Sustainability Solutions library. These resources are great for setting up Sustainability Hackathons: AWS Solutions includes links to open-source repositories like Sustainability Data Fabric (GitHub link) and Sustainability Insights Framework (GitHub link).