Toptal Insights

Technology is a democratizing force, and improving global access to tech education is a priority for organizations like Mozilla, IBM, and the United Nations. With its inaugural Scholarship for Women being awarded to a worthy candidate in Ghana this year, Toptal is proud to join the growing worldwide effort to help talented individuals and communities gain access to the tools and resources they need.

Social responsibility is increasingly front-of-mind for employees as they consider where to build their careers. This article explores how skills-based volunteering can not only serve as a strong employee retention strategy in response to this greater desire for social impact, but also democratize highly skilled talent to help a broader range organizations and communities.

Online communities shape the relationship between a company and its distributed workforce. They also foster connections between workers, enriching both their professional and personal lives. In this article, David Abramovich, the Online Community Leader at Toptal, shares fundamental steps to successfully cultivate this critical ingredient that increasingly impacts the future of work.

In Part II of our Product Managers vs. Project Managers series, Johnny Chao explores situations in which companies should seek a Product Manager, Project Manager, or hybrid of both.

While often overlooked, the data warehouse enables companies to reveal valuable insights concealed within their vast data troves. In this article, domain expert Josip Saban shares foundational principles and applications that are essential knowledge for all modern managers.

Product managers and project managers are two of the most important roles in every technology company and are crucial to the future of tech. Yet they are often conflated and misunderstood. In this article (Part I in a two-part series), Johnny Chao, Product Management Vertical Lead at Toptal, and a career product manager, outlines the similarities and differences between each role, as well as the core skill sets that allow product and project managers to excel.

In K-12 education, end-of-year student tests drive crucial decisions for teachers and policymakers. But these assessments are profoundly flawed ways of measuring student growth and achievement. This article explores the ways in which technology can improve such assessments, as well as the K-12 classroom experience as a whole.

As talented employees move between companies with increasing regularity, businesses are faced with a challenge: how to consistently retain their best and brightest. This article explores the use of continual employee education as a retention strategy that benefits both talent and employers.

Business Intelligence and artificial intelligence are increasingly crucial yet often misunderstood tools in an enterprise context. This article clarifies the differences between each field and explains how they will work together in the future.

Although employee tenures are decreasing, innovative companies embrace the trend as an opportunity to maximize impact. In this article, Andy Anderson, a Toptal Client Partner, shares perspective on how such companies view - and capitalize on - employee attrition.

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.

Major economic forces are shaping the Future of Work. Toptal sits down with executives from Seattle to hear their perspective on topics impacting companies across the US, including the talent gap and the looming threat of disruptive innovation.

Learn how Toptal, one of the world’s largest fully remote companies, instills critical cultural elements to scale trust with its distributed team and customers.

Digital transformation is critical to an organization’s long-term competitiveness and success. This article explores the keys to driving digital transformation, focusing on a case study in the healthcare space.

Top talent has plenty of options. This article explores some of the key lessons Toptal and its clients have learned in how to best attract, retain, and motivate top talent.

To drive digital transformation, companies increasingly rely on external resources to build and maintain new products. However, the means by which they source such resources often generate mixed results. In this article, we explore the historical roots of contingent labor sourcing, focusing on IT recruitment. We then share perspective from an executive who lead a recent Fortune 500 digital transformation, during which he adopted an innovative approach to rapidly scale his team of talent.

Chatbots are among the most visible applications of AI technology. This article explores how chatbots have evolved into important tools for consumers, businesses, and entire industries.