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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Modeling an Asset Class: Why Wall Street May Be in the Single-family Rental Market for Keeps

Wall Street has its eye on the single-family rental market. A convergence of rising home prices, changing rental preferences, and advancing technology is fueling the boom.

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Hudson Cashdan

Hudson is a management consultant with a decade of experience organizing and investing in single-family housing funds. He has worked as a hedge fund equity analyst, portfolio manager, and startup advisor, and has deep expertise in financial modeling and forecasting.

Hybrid Office Design: Ideas From a Global Leader in Workplace Architecture

Real-world examples from Gensler, the architecture and design firm known for creating innovative workspaces for Ford, Verizon, and LinkedIn.

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Sunny Gold

Sunny is the Lead Editor for Toptal Insights, where she covers business, tech, healthcare, leadership, and the future of work. A veteran journalist, Sunny has held editorial positions at some of the largest and most well-known media companies in the US, including Condé Nast, Hearst, and Bonnier.

Delight Users With These Mobile App Design Best Practices

Applying best practices—such as streamlining onboarding, implementing UI elements consistently, and communicating errors—will ensure your mobile product delivers an optimal experience and exceeds user expectations.

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Damola Taiwo

Damola is a senior UI/UX designer with experience creating digital products for such clients as fintech company e-Finance, equipment leasing firm Aquila Leasing, and music-streaming platform MyMusic. Previously, he led a creative agency, where he delivered projects for clients across multiple verticals for governments, airlines, financial institutions, entertainment companies, tech firms, and startups.

How to Approach SVG Animations in CSS

Animations make websites look more polished and exciting, and help improve user experience. Explore how the combined potential of SVG and CSS can be leveraged to create animations without relying on external libraries.

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Filip Defar

Filip is a web developer with expertise in highly interactive front-end applications. He helped build data visualizations for several BI products while working for companies such as AlignAlytics and Captario.

Remote Solutions for Effective Agile Retrospectives

Leading effective remote retrospectives can be challenging. These videoconferencing best practices will help you run successful retros whether your teams are remote or in-house.

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Jim Stewart

Jim Stewart is a project expert and certified Agile coach with more than 25 years of experience consulting on and managing projects for companies, including JPMorgan Chase and Fidelity Investments. He has been a PMP and CAPM instructor for more than 12 years.

Navigation can be a UX minefield. Apply these guidelines to design intuitive multilevel menus that increase findability and offer a consistent experience across devices.

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Andris Suipe

Andris is a Google and UXQB-certified design professional with a decade of experience in healthcare, fintech, data recovery, insurance, and other industries. He’s designed products for Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac platforms.

How Companies Are Building Digital Asset and NFT Strategies

Despite crypto volatility, major brands are continuing to invest in NFTs. It’s time for more companies—not just those with valuable, recognizable IP—to explore how to create NFT strategies of their own.

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Brian Nichol

Brian is an NFT strategy expert who has modeled digital asset strategies for clients in a number of industries. A seasoned finance professional, he previously worked for KPMG and South Africa’s PG Group.

The 3 Essential Elements of a Streamlined Product Strategy

Sometimes the simplest approaches are the most effective. Use this product strategy framework, comprising just three key elements, to streamline and focus your next product journey.

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Douglas L. Ringer

Doug is a product expert and executive coach who has led teams at Fortune 500 companies, including General Electric, Honeywell, and Ericsson. He has a demonstrated track record of improving profit and revenue at businesses spanning myriad industries.

Control Your Climate With This Raspberry Pi Thermostat Tutorial

Smart homes are the future, but what do you do if you have an old air conditioner or heater in your home? Replacing old devices isn’t always feasible, but you can automate them with a Raspberry Pi.

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Ovidiu-Nicu Andrei

Ovidiu-Nicu is a full-stack developer with extensive experience in PHP, JavaScript, and Linux administration. He has developed a number of WordPress plug-ins, large-scale apps, and performance-optimized MySQL procedures.