Our client, a leading food delivery app in India with unicorn status, faced significant challenges in scaling their engineering team to meet ambitious growth targets. The company needed to rapidly expand its development capabilities to execute its product roadmap faster and maintain its competitive edge in the market.

Key objectives were to:

• Quickly assemble a team of skilled engineers to support the existing in-house team
• Implement a flexible staffing model that could adapt to changing project needs
• Reduce time-to-hire without compromising on talent quality
• Accelerate the execution of the product roadmap
• Manage costs effectively while scaling the team

To address these issues, the client required a strategic partner who could provide a contract-to-hire model tailored to the Bangalore tech ecosystem.

We collaborated with the client to design and implement a contract-to-hire model that would allow them to scale their engineering team rapidly while maintaining flexibility. Our approach involved three key phases:

1. Building the Team:

A diverse and skilled team was assembled to meet the client's specific needs:

• Team Lead: A senior engineering manager with experience in high-growth startups and food tech companies.
• Backend Engineers: Experienced developers proficient in NodeJs, Python, and microservices architecture.
• Frontend Engineers: React specialists with expertise in building responsive and high-performance web applications.
• Mobile Engineers: Engineers skilled in React Native for cross-platform mobile development.

This team was carefully selected to complement the client's existing in-house talent and bring fresh perspectives to their engineering challenges.

2. Running Operations:

We implemented an agile methodology with a focus on seamless integration with the client's existing processes:

• Onboarding Program: A comprehensive two-week onboarding process to familiarize the contract team with the client's codebase, architecture, and development practices.
• Collaboration Tools:Implemented Jira and Confluence for project management and knowledge sharing between contract and in-house teams.
• Daily Standups: Ensured constant communication and alignment between contract and in-house teams.
• Bi-weekly Sprints: Adopted the client's sprint cycle to maintain consistency in planning and delivery.

3. Scaling the Solution:

As the contract team proved their value, we worked with the client to transition high-performing engineers to full-time roles:

• Performance Tracking: Implemented a robust performance evaluation system to identify top performers.
• Transition Plan: Developed a smooth transition process for converting contract roles to full-time positions.
• Knowledge Transfer: Ensured continuous knowledge sharing to maintain project momentum during transitions.

The implementation of the contract-to-hire model had a significant impact on the client's ability to execute their product roadmap:

• 50% Faster Time-to-Hire: Reduced hiring time from an average of 60 days to 30 days for skilled engineers.
• 3-Month Acceleration of Roadmap: The additional engineering capacity allowed the client to complete key features ahead of schedule.
• 95% Retention Rate: High satisfaction among contract-to-hire engineers led to excellent retention after conversion to full-time roles.
• 30% Increase in Sprint Velocity: The expanded team significantly increased the amount of work completed in each sprint.