Toptal Blog
The Toptal Blog is the top hub for developers, designers, finance experts, executives, and entrepreneurs, featuring key technology updates, tutorials, freelancer resources, and management insights.
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The Power of Figma as a Design Tool
How does Figma improve the design process and outperform Sketch and other design tools when it comes to designer collaboration? Learn the big differences that every designer should know.
Ben Kopf
Ben has 25 years of experience in UX, interaction, user research, and UI design. Ben thinks about what can be, not what is.
Jobs to Be Done: Turn Customer Needs Into Product Solutions
In product design, the jobs-to-be-done framework is a well-known approach that is designed to deconstruct the “job” a customer is trying to get done.
Daniel Lee
Daniel is a diligent designer with a solid academic background in media art, design, and human-computer interaction.
Making Your Software Work for You: An ERP Implementation Tutorial
In the life of almost any growing enterprise, there comes a point in time when the existing systems and processes become insufficient. For most enterprises at this key inflection point, implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which integrates all areas of the business, can help to overcome this issue. This article provides enterprise leaders with the benefits and risks of ERP, as well as a detailed step-by-step implementation guide.
Ted Bartlett
Ted has led finance and operating functions at $2bn to $20bn companies, and is an expert at M&A, negotiations and deal architecture.
The Catch-22 Facing Academia and the Tech Sector in the War for Top Talent
Academia and the tech sector are in a war for top technical talent. As well-funded tech companies continue to poach professors and graduate students, each sector faces crucial questions that may dictate their future relationship and long-term success. This article explores strategies that Bellevue College has employed to attract and retain top technical faculty.
Toptal Research
LTV and CAC: What Are They and Why Do They Matter?
LTV:CAC analysis is one of the most important exercises startup founders must go through to evaluate their business’ prospects and raise external funding. It is, however, frequently misunderstood and misinterpreted.
In this article, Toptal Finance Expert Ryan Downie runs through a practical tutorial of how to perform LTV:CAC analysis correctly, and how it should be adapted and interpreted depending on the business model or sector in question.
Ryan Downie
Ryan left the hedge fund world to become a startup consultant. He has helped clients raise more than $1.2 million in early-stage capital.
Leap Into VR/AR Design
Virtual reality is no longer in the realm of science fiction. Immersive technology desperately needs skilled designers to jump in, get involved, take risks, and create something new. Leap into VR/AR!
Ted Evans
Ted has a passion for creative problem-solving and has brought ideas to life for companies like Apple, Nintendo, Disney, and Virgin Media TV.
Web Scraping with a Headless Browser: A Puppeteer Tutorial
In this article, Toptal Freelance JavaScript Developer Nick Chikovani shows how easy it is to perform web scraping using a headless browser. Specifically, he provides a Puppeteer tutorial, going through a few examples of how to control Google Chrome to take screenshots and gather structured data.
Nick Chikovani
With more than six years of experience working as a developer and team lead, Nick has a passion for robust, scalable and clean code design.
Design Problem Statements: What They Are and How to Frame Them
Even exciting product ideas can flop without an understanding of the user problem to solve. A design problem statement is an essential step in the design process for creating products that truly matter.
Jordan DeVos
Jordan’s expertise spans across brand strategy, service design, and UX. She works with organizations to help strengthen teams and innovate.
What’s My Return on Investment and How Do I Calculate It?
Finding out your return on investment from a project can become a subjective process with the myriad of returns measures and formulas that exist. This overview provides a breakdown and explanation of how to calculate return on investment, looking at what type of return you need to measure and how to arrive at an answer. With further guidance on how to use returns data to guide objective decision making.
David Bradshaw
David is an expert in planning asset acquisitions, managing projects of up to $100m across the financial, real estate and consumer space.
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