How Maple’s augmented development team delivered a key product under tight time constraints |

The challenge

Maple needed to launch its new stake, fast

Though they had an existing software development team, it was working at capacity. They needed to extend their available resource to successfully deliver against their upcoming deadline and meet this business-critical requirement. Yet, they knew they couldn’t hire enough engineers to fill the gap quick enough without outside help. And, if they were going to leverage the support of an offshore team, it needed to be financially low risk and scalable.

Maple

Location: Melbourne, Australia
Industry: Crypto
Duration: 6 months
Team size: 7 experts
Technologies used: MERN (MongoDb, Express, ReactJs, NodeJs)

The solution

Finding the right people the first time around

Our partnership with Maple began after their Marketing Manager, Charlotte Dodds, reached out to WeAssmble’s co-founder, Darragh O’Meachair, to better understand how we could help them meet a tight deadline. After an initial conversation, we scoped out their resource requirements.

As timelines were tight, we needed to be economical in our approach. That meant finding the right people the first time around. During our scoping meeting with Charlotte, we discussed the roles Maple would need us to fill based on several factors: the technologies their existing team use, their culture and the demands of the project.

This boiled down to WeAssemble seeking out highly-skilled individuals with experience across the MERN stack and the ability to easily fit into Maple’s fast-paced culture, with seven roles to fill. Maple needed their augmented team to have daily contact with their existing DevOps team to ensure smooth delivery and manage pipelines, so a good cultural fit was imperative.

Recruitment

From WeAssemble’s extensive pool of existing resource

With Maple’s requirements taken into account, we drew up job descriptions for each role, which were shared with our in-house recruitment team.

Our recruiters spoke to a selection of hand-picked engineers with expertise in Maple’s technologies. These individuals were found via our Filtered Talent process, which aims to only hire from the top 3% of developers in India. To expedite the process, they focused on selecting talent from WeAssemble’s extensive pool of existing resource.

After interviewing the candidates best suited for the roles and assessing their alignment with Maple’s values, we extended offers on Maple’s behalf. Maple’s team is made up of a product manager, project manager, front-end engineers, back-end engineers and a QA.

Set up

Augmented team to work from home

With the deadline for delivery fast approaching, it was decided that Maple’s augmented team would work from home to allow them to start without delay. We set their new team up with first-rate equipment and ensured they had access to the correct technologies and communication tools. So, it’s no surprise they hit the ground running. The onboarding process also included getting the new recruits up to speed with Maple’s ways of working, security requirements and payroll.

Putting collaboration first

Collaboration between teams in India, UK & Australia

All this ensured that Maple’s newest recruits seamlessly integrated with their existing development team. Communication between the augmented team in India and Maple’s marketing manager and technology team in Australia was managed by the product manager. For day-to-day communication, a dedicated Slack channel was set up to connect all components of the core team.

Achievement spotlight
Launched on time through efficient project management

Secured extensive cost savings that could be reinvested

Supportive and compatible team extension to offer ongoing support

The results

Maple delivered against their aggressive deadline

Maple’s development team extension was a huge success. Firstly, they coordinated with Maple’s technology, marketing and design teams to synchronise the project, going above and beyond to deliver the stake on time.

Secondly, Maple’s newest recruits integrated into their existing team flawlessly, embracing their culture and becoming an integral part of the team. They are now working on developing greater functionality for the product, which includes supporting an ongoing marketing push.

Not only did Maple deliver against their aggressive deadline, creating a safer cryptocurrency, but they also gained a flexible and cost-effective team that will continue to support the network’s growth.

Let’s work together

to assemble your low-risk, high-calibre offshore development team.