The background
This Series B funded global travel platform operates with
millions of daily users, and grows 40%+ year-on-year with
engineering teams spread across the US, Europe, and India.
Like most global product companies, they weren’t short
on ideas but they were short on bandwidth, specialized
expertise, and time.
The core challenges
The challenge was building the right teams, structured around the
right problems.
Bandwidth constraints
3-7 day delays in product
decision-making
Expertise gaps
Slow progress on FastAPI
microservices & cloud
modernization
Hiring limitations
Inability to scale teams
quickly or affordably
Infra scalability issues
40% engineering time spent
on ops, slowing innovation
Talent geography
Limited local engineering
presence in India
Analytics bottlenecks
PMs waited days for
insights
The Solution: Strategic Team Building
Two focussed, specialized teams with deliberate composition.
Overview of approach
Analyzed exact skill gaps and
business needs
Designed two teams:
Infrastructure + Analytics
Mix of senior architects
(strategy) + mid-level engineers
(execution)
14-18 month engagement
with knowledge transfer
built-in
Clear charters and
measurable success metrics
Weekly touchpoints without
micromanagement
Team 1:
Infrastructure Modernization
Transform from on-prem to cloud,
eliminate bottlenecks, reduce costs.
Team Composition (6 Specialized
Professionals | 14-16 Months)
1 Infrastructure
Architect
(Senior, 15+
years)
3 Cloud
Engineers (Mid-
level, 5-7 years
each)
1 Systems
Performance
Engineer
1 DevOps
Specialist
Team 2:
Analytics & Insights Platform
Build real-time analytics platform,
enable data-driven product decisions.
Team Composition (8 Specialized
Professionals | 16-18 Months)
1 Data
Engineering
Lead (Senior,
12+ years)
3 Data
Engineers
(Mid-level,
6-8 years
each)
1 Analytics
Engineer
2 ML/Data
Scientists
1 Analytics
Architect
What business impact did these two
specialized teams deliver?
The combined strength of the two specialized pods unlocked transformative impact. Together,
they reduced engineering toil, accelerated experimentation, and equipped product teams with
the clarity needed to make faster, data-driven decisions.
Impact of Team 1: Infrastructure modernization
Impact of Team 2: Analytics & Insights platform
Key insights on what made this approach successful
Insight 1: Composition > Headcount
- 14 well-selected professionals delivered $5-10M+ value
- Same budget in random hiring = 10% of results
Insight 2: Autonomy Drives Accountability
- Clear charters and measurable goals create ownership
- Teams optimize ruthlessly when they own outcomes
Insight 3: Knowledge Transfer is Structural
- Pairing senior + mid-level builds internal capability
- Not an afterthought—it's built into team structure
Insight 4: Infrastructure Multiplier Effect
- Cost savings secondary to velocity unlocked
- Can't scale product or data if infrastructure is bottleneck
Insight 5: Data-Driven Iteration Scales
- Hours instead of weeks so you can run exponentially more experiments.
- The 30% ARPU lift came from iteration speed, not magic.
