
Case Study: Java Development Team for Euretos
After evaluation and previous experience with competitor nearshore development organizations we have chosen for Grid Dynamics (and hence Ukraine) as our base for development.
Factual Video Streaming Service
“There's a lack of talent in Washington DC.”
It becomes quite difficult to find talent, because everyone wants to hire seniors. And what I currently observe is that the bar of seniority has considerably dropped.
In the past few years, people with 2 years of experience got used to call themselves seniors. But when looking for new candidates, we still search for people with extensive experience.
“Finding seniors was our main motivation to go for remote cooperation”
Many business owners that I spoke to had reached great success with outsourcing. I just wanted to see if we could have the same kind of success. So far that seems to be the case.
Finding seniors was our main motivation to go for remote cooperation. To be completely honest, another motivation was reducing cost, because as a startup, we operate on a minimal budget.
"Grid Dynamics came in first, providing the biggest number of candidates."
Out of all companies that offered me outsourcing services, I chose two – Grid Dynamics and another one.
I gave both a test – to fill the role of a front-end developer. Grid Dynamics came in first, providing the biggest number of candidates. That's how we started cooperation with Grid Dynamics.
“We saw that the number of hours watched has increased.”
We're still in a fairly early stage, because we only had one front-end developer Valentyn up till a few months ago. He was the only guy building features for the web app and he has so far developed a bunch of new things.
The main one is the key component of video streaming – when you open CuriosityStream web app, you can see a video in the top half section. Valentyn also introduced subscription flow changes, added some other features, and fixed bugs.
iOS and Android developers are working on background playback. Background playback is where you can have the video playing while you open and use other apps, just like on YouTube.
After Valentyn developed the video feature, we saw that the number of hours watched has increased on our web app. And the new onboarding flow that was also developed by Valentyn lifted the paid subscriber conversion rate.
"We have a team of six at Grid Dynamics so far and we're looking to hire two more."
We started hiring developers in Ukraine since May 2019. Now we have a team of six at Grid Dynamics and we're looking to hire two more. So eventually, it'll be eight, and we'll keep this number for at least six months.
Lilia at Grid Dynamics does a great job of the initial screening for us, which saves us some time. Initial screening helps to check the candidate's basic skills – level of English, required tech skills, ability to cope with our tasks. What we do next is look at the candidate's personality.
But after that, we dive right into about an hour of coding session. During this time, we're validating the candidate's resume. Honesty and trust are our priorities, so if we see that the resume is factual, we can trust the person, as they possess the skills that they pointed out.
"It can be challenging, but the return on investment is definitely worth it."
Outsourcing is great value for a business, as hiring remotely makes it easier to scale. The main advice – try to figure out a way to integrate the offshore team with the on-site ones. It can be challenging, but the return on investment is definitely worth it.
Read the full interview here.
Factual Video Streaming Service
After evaluation and previous experience with competitor nearshore development organizations we have chosen for Grid Dynamics (and hence Ukraine) as our base for development.
Working with Grid Dynamics has helped us to respond to market needs faster and more efficiently with top quality developers who are as dedicated to success as our own internal people.
We were looking to hire an experienced ReactJS developer, and after talking to a number of companies, we came to the conclusion that Grid Dynamics’s offering was the best.