PHP and JavaScript developers for Oktopost

This case study shows how cooperation with AI Engineering extend Oktopost’s development pipeline as well as serve as the core pillars for the company’s success.

At Oktopost we look for highly ambitious and motivated people who are ready to look beyond a nine-to-five job. But after we had monitored Israeli market, we realized we couldn’t find appropriate candidates. That’s why, our main goal with Grid Dynamics was to recruit additional developers with the right skills and specializations.

Why AI Engineering?

Having analyzed a number of outsourcing providers, we chose AI Engineering because:

• AI Engineering proved to be very professional. The staff was very responsive and knew how to explain the market specifics and recruitment processes. We also liked the transparency of all procedures.
• AI Engineering managed to meet our needs and find the right tech talent.
• AI Engineering supports reasonable prices — not too low and not so high as other big companies in Ukraine have.

Impressions

Our cooperation with AI Engineering was successful, the team was very adaptive — any time we needed to settle some issues, they were promptly dealt with. We try to visit our Ukrainian team at least once every two months, because it’s important for us to be in touch with the team. When I visited the office in Kyiv, I was surprised how nice it was. It’s impressive that AI Engineering isn’t a big company but is still able to keep their standards high.

Value delivered

It’s hard to tell in numbers what was the productivity growth Oktopost experienced with AI Engineering, but I can certainly say that offshore development helped us extend our roadmap and develop the things we weren’t able to develop earlier. The key advantage of creating a development hub remotely is the increase of available talent pool. Now, if I’m planning to hire new employees, I can either examine Israeli or Ukrainian IT market, as I have functional teams in both. This way, remote cooperation adds flexibility to our business.

Tips

Here are some tips for working with a nearshore team:

• Think of at least a few credible arguments for building a nearshore development team — budget alone won’t be enough to compensate for the time and efforts invested.
• Over-communicate with your remote team — always be ready to answer their questions or call them.
• Use every opportunity to visit your remote developers.
• Developers should feel like they are a part of the team and not “hands for hire” — make sure they are satisfied and work on the projects that help them grow professionally.
• You need to invest more time in code reviews. Review, review, and once more review the actual code.
• You need to have established development processes and practices.