Learning to lead before feeling ready: My ADC Hackathon experience

With little leadership experience, RMIT student Kim Ngoc wasn't sure she was ready to lead her team at ADC Hackathon 2026. But navigating tough decisions, tight deadlines, and unexpected challenges led her team to First Runner-up and taught her that effective leadership isn't about having all the answers, but learning to move forward despite uncertainty.

Taking on a new challenge can make you question your own abilities. When I became team leader for the ADC Hackathon 2026, I wondered whether I could guide my teammates, make the right decisions and meet the team’s expectations. I had little experience leading others, and I could not be certain how I would handle the pressure. Still, I knew that waiting until I felt completely ready would not help me grow. I decided to take on the challenge and learn what leadership meant through the experience.

Preparing to take the lead

I knew that enthusiasm alone would not be enough to lead a team through a demanding competition. With limited experience, I wanted to understand what the role required before we began.

I reached out to mentors and friends who had competed in similar challenges, asking about strategy, common mistakes and how to prepare effectively. Rather than following every suggestion, I considered which advice suited our situation and discussed it with my teammates. Together, we shaped our approach around each person’s strengths.

Fortunately, we communicated well and exchanged ideas openly. Working with them helped me understand the importance of listening to different perspectives instead of trying to direct every part of the process myself. Our challenge was not a lack of ideas or teamwork; it was knowing which ideas to pursue and how to turn them into a convincing solution.

The preparation also changed how I viewed leadership. I had assumed that a good leader needed to know what to do at every stage. Instead, I began to see that leading also meant recognising what I did not know, asking for help and using what I learned to prepare the team. Even so, I worried that one wrong decision could waste our time or weaken our solution. The hackathon would soon put that fear to the test.

Making decisions under pressure

Across the three-day hackathon, our initial ideas did not always hold up under further research. New information exposed gaps in our reasoning, forcing us to reconsider parts of our approach. Each change meant weighing what we had learned against the limited time we had left. I began to realise that the hardest part was not simply finding a good idea, but deciding when an idea was strong enough to pursue.

At one point, we struggled to determine whether our proposed solution was distinctive enough. My instinct was to keep researching until we could be confident that we had chosen the right direction. I worried that committing too early might lead us towards a weak solution, but continuing to explore every possibility carried its own risk: we could run out of time before developing our strongest ideas.

I found myself caught between two responsibilities. I wanted to make an informed decision, but I also needed to keep the team moving. More research might uncover useful insights, yet it would not necessarily remove every doubt. I had to consider the evidence we already had, listen to my teammates’ perspectives and judge which direction offered the strongest potential within our constraints.

Making that call was uncomfortable because I could not guarantee the outcome. I had to accept that a decision could be reasonable without being perfect. Once we committed to an approach, we could focus our remaining time on testing our reasoning, addressing gaps and strengthening the solution instead of repeatedly returning to the same question.

This experience changed how I understood responsibility as a leader. It did not mean making every decision alone or pretending to be certain. It meant creating space for my teammates’ input, bringing our perspectives together and making a call when further hesitation would hold us back. I could not control every uncertainty, but I could take responsibility for how we responded to it.

Winning beyond the award

When our team was announced as First Runner-up at the RMIT ADC Hackathon 2026, I felt proud of what we had achieved together. The result recognised our collective effort, but the experience also gave me a more meaningful answer to the question I had asked myself before the competition: Was I good enough to lead?

I did not leave the hackathon as an experienced leader with everything figured out. However, I had learned that I could seek guidance, listen to others and make decisions even when I was unsure of the outcome. Working with my teammates also showed me that leadership was not about always having the best answer. It was about recognising each person’s strengths and helping the team work towards a shared goal.

I know there will be future situations that challenge my confidence, and I still have much to learn. But I no longer see feeling unprepared as a reason to hold back. Instead, I want to prepare thoughtfully, remain open to different perspectives and take responsibility when opportunities arise. The hackathon taught me that confidence does not always come before taking the lead; sometimes, it develops through the decisions we have the courage to make.

Story by: Nguyen Thi Kim Ngoc, an RMIT Vietnam student. This article does not reflect the views of RMIT Vietnam as an institution.

21 October 2026