In the context of the rapid growth of the e-commerce market, the success of a product directly depends on the speed of development and stability of the team. We are developing a platform in this area, and when the issue of scaling arose, it became obvious: assembling an in-house department is long, expensive and not always effective. We chose an alternative path – creating a remote team through Volna at https://itvolna.tech. This step allowed us not only to speed up processes, but also to significantly improve the quality of development.
Why We Abandoned Classic Hiring
At the time of the expansion launch, we already had an MVP version of the platform: a customized stack based on React and Node.js, integrations with payment systems, and a basic analytics panel. However, to move on to the next stage — full scaling, launching a b2b module, and reworking the architecture for growth — we needed a close-knit team: a front-end developer, a back-end developer, and a DevOps engineer. Finding such specialists quickly, without compromising on quality, through traditional hiring is an almost impossible task. It was important to us:
- Save time on recruiting and onboarding;
- Avoid bureaucracy with registration;
- Get people who will immediately join the process and start producing results.
That’s when we turned to Volna.
How Volna solved our problems
Volna works as an IT platform for quickly selecting remote teams for specific projects. The main advantage is that they don’t just look for “a person with a resume”, but form a team for your stack, work format and goals. We sent a short brief: current architecture, tasks for the quarter, required technologies (React, Next.js, PostgreSQL, Docker, CI/CD), level of English and experience with Agile approaches. Two days later, we received a selection of candidates – with detailed profiles, proven skills and cases.
What’s important is that all three (frontend, backend and DevOps) turned out to be not just “juniors from the Internet”, but mature specialists with experience working in international products, startups and distributed teams. The interviews were quick, without formalities, but with deep technical sessions, after which we immediately got to work.
How the team works
Now each of the involved specialists works in their own area of responsibility, but the interaction between them is built like a strong in-house team. Here’s how it works:
- The frontend deals with the client part of the platform, b2b-cabinet interfaces, performance optimization and SSR implementation via Next.js. Thanks to the developer’s experience with international UI guides, we managed to put the visual logic in order and improve the UX on all key pages.
- The backend develops microservices, is responsible for API and business logic, including working with the shopping cart, order processing, and analytics. We use Node.js + Express, the database is PostgreSQL, authorization via OAuth2.
- DevOps has fully migrated us to Kubernetes, implemented CI/CD processes via GitHub Actions, and set up monitoring with Prometheus + Grafana. Now deployment is automatic, and logs are centralized in the Elastic Stack.
Communication happens in Slack, tasks are managed in Linear, synchronizations are done twice a week. There is no micromanagement, no constant control – everyone works autonomously, but in the same rhythm. And the best thing is: even being in different countries and time zones, the team feels like a single whole.
More than just outsourcing
Volna closed all administrative processes for us: contracts, reporting, payments – all this did not require a single call from us to a lawyer or accountant. The work is carried out in the outstaffing format: specialists are not part of our staff, but are integrated into the product as if they had always been with us.
This approach allows for flexible scaling: we can bring on new people as the workload grows, without increasing operating costs. There is also no binding to a specific country market — Volna provides access to a global talent pool, which means finding someone with the right experience and mentality becomes possible.
Business results we achieved
The project moved faster than expected. Instead of the standard 3-4 months to build a team and set up processes, we began actively developing within a week of starting our collaboration. This allowed us to:
- Speed up the release of the new version of the platform by 6 weeks;
- Reduce system response time by 38% by reworking the API and implementing caching;
- Increase user retention through improved interface and stability;
- Significantly reduce the workload on management – now we focus on the product, not on recruiting.
We are currently discussing team expansion with Volna: our plans include adding a QA engineer and a mobile developer to move towards a hybrid application based on React Native.
Conclusion: Remote Teaming Isn’t a Compromise, It’s an Advantage
The distributed development model through a partner like Volna is not just a response to a personnel shortage. It is a real way to build a flexible, scalable and effective structure without being distracted by secondary things. And if earlier we doubted whether it was possible to assemble a dream team completely remotely, now we have a working case – and it shows that it is possible. The main thing is to choose the right partner.
