After closing Series B funding, a specialty InsurTech carrier needed to launch a self-service broker quoting portal and automated photo-claims workflow in two quarters, but local hiring in London and Boston dragged past five months per senior engineer. SNWN assembled and onboarded two dedicated cross-functional pods (React/TypeScript, .NET Core, Playwright QA, and AWS DevOps) in 21 days. Story-point delivery more than doubled, production escape bugs fell by 64%, and pod retention stayed at 96% over 18 months.
Funding in the Bank, Roadmap Ready - But Six-Month Hiring Delays
Commercial insurance brokers promised higher policy volume as soon as the carrier launched multi-location fleet quoting and instant endorsement APIs. Waiting half a year to recruit, interview, and onboard ten local engineers meant missing peak policy renewal season.
Key Operational Bottlenecks Before the Project
- Local senior .NET and React hiring cycles averaged 19 weeks plus steep recruitment agency fees.
- Previous freelancer experiments created inconsistent code quality and painful timezone handoff gaps.
- Internal tech leads were stretched too thin reviewing PRs to build core underwriting features.
How We Embedded Cohesive Pods That Work Like In-House Teammates
Instead of tossing individual resumes over the wall, we stood up intact engineering pods who already knew how to build, test, and ship together.
Matched Domain-Vetted Engineers and Aligned 5 Hours of Daily Overlap
Within 14 days, the client's VP of Engineering interviewed and selected two balanced pods - senior .NET Core API developers, React/TypeScript frontend engineers, SDET automation specialists, and a shared DevOps lead - working with guaranteed UK/US morning overlap.
Completed Secure Laptop, SSO, and Domain Onboarding in Week Three
Every engineer worked from MDM-encrypted workstations connected via zero-trust VPN into the carrier's GitHub, Jira, Figma, and Slack channels, shipping their first merged pull requests on day eight.
Built End-to-End Playwright Test Suites Alongside Broker Quoting Features
Our SDET engineers embedded automated API contract tests and Playwright browser suites into every sprint story so new broker quoting calculators never broke existing policy endorsement rules.
Tracked Sprint Health, Code Review Speed, and Knowledge Documentation
An SNWN Engineering Delivery Lead ran bi-weekly health check-ins with the client's CTO, ensuring clean ADRs (Architecture Decision Records), fast PR turnaround, and zero single-person knowledge silos.
Launched Ahead of Renewal Season With Zero Freelancer Churn
The new broker portal went live three weeks ahead of Q1 policy renewals, and 11 of the 12 original SNWN engineers are still shipping on the product 18 months later.
Sprint Delivery Velocity
Measured by completed, QA-verified story points per two-week sprint after month two.
Pod Kickoff to First Production PR
Compared against 4 to 5 months for local senior recruitment.
18-Month Engineer Retention
Stable long-term teammates retain deep domain knowledge of policy rating rules.
Day-to-Day Business Impact
- Broker self-service quote-to-bind volume grew 78% in the first two quarters post-launch.
- Escaped production defects fell by 64% thanks to embedded Playwright and API contract automation.
- Saved 41% in total engineering cost per squad compared to equivalent London/Boston fully loaded salaries.
Tools, Platforms, and Technologies Used
Every component in this deployment was selected for long-term stability, clear observability, and straightforward handover so internal engineers never get locked into black-box scripts.
Dedicated Engineering Teams
See how our specialists design, migrate, and manage workloads like this every day.
Frequently Asked Questions About This Project
How is an SNWN dedicated engineering pod different from hiring freelancers?
You get full-time, long-term SNWN staff engineers working exclusively on your roadmap inside MDM-secured environments, backed by an engineering lead, QA automation standards, and HR/retention continuity.
How do timezone handoffs work for US and European product teams?
Pods structure shift hours to guarantee 4 to 5 hours of live daily overlap for standups, pair programming, and architecture grooming, while asynchronous progress continues smoothly afterwards.
Who owns the source code and intellectual property?
You own 100% of all source code, architecture documentation, tests, and IP from the moment every line is written directly inside your own GitHub or GitLab repositories.
