Every year we give all employees a chance to step away from routine tasks, think expansively, and collaborate on new ideas during our company “Hack Week.” Hacking solutions goes back to Etsy’s roots. Many of the most awesome features of our site stemmed from successful hack projects.

Over the years our hacking tradition has transformed from an exclusively technical event to a company-wide festival of innovation and collaboration. The ability to “favorite” an item by hovering over the thumbnail image was built during Hack Week. So was a tool in our staff directory that lets employees send personalized recognitions to co-workers. We even used Hack Week to create an “Etsy Museum of Unusual History,” an experiential record of the early beginnings of our company and the community we serve, complete with punk-rock-style handmade buttons from craft fairs back in the day and an embroidered art piece paying homage to a site glitch— still a coveted inside joke.