Toptal Blog

The Toptal Blog is the top hub for developers, designers, management consultants, executives, and entrepreneurs, featuring key technology updates, tutorials, freelancer resources, and management insights.

Toptal core team members share their experience, expertise, and perspectives on the Toptal Edge Blog

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Optimize Your Environment for Development and Production: A Pydantic Tutorial, Part 2

Learn how to develop a Django application coupled with pydantic where the development environment matches production.

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Arjaan Buijk

Arjaan is a senior engineer and data scientist who creates mission-critical cloud solutions focused on Rasa for international banks and insurance companies. He architects and teaches large-scale Kubernetes solutions.

Own Your Health: The State of Connected Medical Devices

At-home medical monitoring is on the rise, thanks to the growing ranks of IoT devices and the promise of fewer doctor visits. How can designers ensure that at-home products meet patients’ needs?

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Lauren Song

Lauren is a UX designer with over nine years of experience helping businesses build compelling products. In 2015, her team received an International Design Excellence Award for the Interactive Surgical Manager, a dashboard software system that helps hospitals manage surgical supplies. Lauren has also created interaction guidelines for Samsung Electronics and provides augmented reality solutions for an internationally renowned construction tech company.

Tell a Compelling Story: Pitch Deck Components That Persuade

To persuade investors to fund your startup, your pitch deck must do more than present a solid business case. It must generate an emotional response.

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Brian Nichol

Brian is a seasoned management consultant who has held multiple corporate SVP roles and has been a consultant for startups seeking advice on fundraising and valuing their businesses. Having successfully raised seed capital for his own startup, he has a deep understanding of the commercial and operational aspects of starting a business.

Cybersecurity Spotlight: Preparing Your Organization for Deepfake Voice Clone Fraud

Neural networks have become expert manufacturers of the human voice, a skill that both content creators and cybercriminals love. Experts from the United Nations, Adobe, and speech synthesis pioneer Descript weigh in.

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Christopher Holloway

Christopher Holloway is Toptal’s Senior Writer for Technology. An award-winning journalist with more than a decade of experience investigating how technology transforms sectors like retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and banking, he has held editorial positions at highly reputed media companies in Latin America, including AmericaEconomia, La Tercera, and Netmedia.

Growth Product Management: What You Need to Know

Growth product managers are now a mainstay of Silicon Valley, but what do they do, how do they work, and what value do they bring? Find out in this guide to an increasingly vital product role.

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Philippe Araujo

As a growth product manager, Agile expert, and digital innovation consultant, Philippe helps clients, both startups and established companies, use data to deliver an improved user experience and increase product performance.

Deconstructing Jobs: How Innovative Companies Are Reimagining Work

Boundaries created by traditional jobs are holding businesses back, says Ravin Jesuthasan, author of Work Without Jobs. His case study of Providence Health & Services shows how a new work paradigm can solve talent issues and spur growth.

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Kristen Senz

Kristen is Toptal’s Senior Writer for the Future of Work. An experienced journalist and content strategist, her reporting on cutting-edge research and emerging business trends has been published by Forbes, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, and the World Economic Forum.

The New Risk Management Playbook: Black Swans and the Rise of Scenario Analysis

Want a risk management strategy that fosters resilience and reveals new opportunities? Shift your focus from predicting events to preparing for impacts.

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Michael J. McDonald

Michael is an award-winning journalist who has worked at Bloomberg News and Thomson Financial. He is a Senior Writer for Toptal’s Management Consulting Blog.

Craft an Outstanding UX Portfolio With These Recruiter Tips

Many UX portfolios are poorly formatted and lack crucial information. Leverage these portfolio design tips from a UX recruiter to stand out and get hired.

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Ignasi Boza

Ignasi is a product designer and UX recruiter who has spent more than a decade working with tech companies, design consultancies, and outsourcing services. He specializes in developing research frameworks, creating wireframes, producing vibrant digital products, and building customer experience teams by recruiting talent from around the world.

Toxic Communication in Virtual Workspaces: A Looming Liability for Remote and Hybrid Companies

The tendency to “speak” more harshly from a keyboard than you would face to face—called online disinhibition—doesn’t just happen on Twitter. When it creeps into office conversations, it can create a toxic work environment that damages your brand and bottom line.

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Jeff Gangemi

Jeff is the Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead at Toptal. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and an MBA from Cornell University with an emphasis in leadership and innovation. Jeff has spent the past 15 years building demand generation, content marketing, and digital programs that drive meaningful transformation and growth for both internal teams and external clients. Before joining Toptal, he held senior management roles at Accenture Song, Material, and Telus International.