JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Parenting skills programmes are the primary intervention for conduct disorders in children. The Pause app enhances these programs by providing digital microinterventions that reinforce learning between sessions and after programme completion. The potential of AI in this context remains untapped. Hackathons have proven effective for healthcare innovation and can facilitate collaborative development in this space.

Objective:

To rapidly build AI-powered features to enhance parenting skills via the Pause platform.

Methods:

We undertook a one-day hackathon. The day included an ideation phase drawing on the Design Council’s Double Diamond framework and a development phase using micro-sprints based on Agile and Scrum approaches. The interdisciplinary participants included medical professionals, developers, and product managers.

Results:

Participants identified three core problems: generating age-appropriate distractions, receiving feedback on parenting efforts, and effectively using the journal function. During the solution phase, a wide range of options were explored, resulting in three key solutions: AI-assisted idea generation, a tool for summarizing parenting interactions, and a weekly journal round-up. During the development phase, participants completed four micro-sprints. Teams focused on three workstreams: building a “weekly round-up” module, creating an AI-based distraction generator, and developing a summariser for active play sessions. These prototypes were integrated into the pre-production environment, with each work-streams producing a functional component for further testing and integration by the end of the hackathon.

Conclusions:

This one-day hackathon utilised the Double Diamond approach to develop AI-powered features for parenting programs. Three solutions were explored across workstreams, resulting in two fully functioning and one near functioning app components. The rapid problem-solving approach mirrors other health technology hackathons and highlights the untapped potential of AI in digital parenting support, surpassing traditional e-learning or video-based methods. This work suggests broader applications for AI-driven coaching in fields like social care. Despite a small team, the hackathon was focused and productive, producing relevant solutions based on prior engagement with parents and practitioners. Future research will assess the impact of AI-powered features on parenting outcomes.