Toptal Blog

Unlock the full potential of your product’s UX with the power of user research. Find out how data analytics, user reviews, customer interviews, market research, and usability testing can transform design solutions to exceed your audience’s expectations.

For a large codebase, managing database schema can become tedious, especially if you maintain multiple testing environments or customers that update the product at different paces. Sometimes, documenting the latest schema or database changes isn’t enough.

In this article, Toptal Database Engineer Ivan Pavlov introduces us to concepts that help manage database states.

Grocery delivery startup Instacart has recently been valued at $4.2 billion. In this article, Management Consultant Patrick Gaffney works backwards and uses some basic assumptions to determine if the valuation is reasonable.

With companies opting to stay private for longer, analyzing private companies in this way can help us better understand industries typically shrouded in secrecy and provide clarity on the efficacy of certain business models.

As several successful big brand products have demonstrated, designers can leverage game design concepts by adopting a game designer’s mindset to design better, more engaging products.

Innovative energy companies are deploying blockchain to streamline operations and improve customer experience. Building on our first article, we explore case studies in energy and highlight similar themes and lessons for exploring real-world blockchain applications.

The discipline of mergers and acquisitions is a complex and labyrinthine one, peppered with its share of false starts, thrilling chases, and heartbreaking shortfalls.

Toptal Management Consultant Javier Enrile explores the use and structuring of earnouts as one of the most effective tools for the M&A practitioner seeking to break negotiation deadlocks and mitigate risk.

Often associated with gaming, virtual reality has the potential to drive the future of a wide range of industries. This article outlines how virtual reality will change the face of healthcare, manufacturing, and journalism.

Effective user research doesn’t have to cost a fortune. There are many low-cost methods available, all of which will put a designer on the road to designing better products.

Attention on the financial aspects of startups tends to focus on the external measure of fundraising. Yet before this, there are many aspects for an entrepreneur to consider regarding setting their business up for financial success.

In this article, we address eight vital considerations to take around the equity, budget, and valuation components of a startup.