Project
About project
About project
About project
VK is the largest technology company in Russia, reaching 89% of the country’s internet audience. At this scale, workloads on product teams spike sharply: during new service launches, it’s crucial to quickly reinforce development without lengthy hiring cycles.
Doubletapp was engaged precisely during these high-demand periods. We strengthened VK’s backend teams with Middle+ and Senior engineers, from developers to tech leads. Staff augmentation helped handle peak workloads, with our specialists joining projects within 2 to 5 business days and quickly adapting to the context. In 2024, the Doubletapp team received a perfect 10/10 rating in VK’s internal contractor assessment.
We supported VK on three main initiatives:
- Reinforcing backend teams during peak periods and reducing pressure on in-house staff.
- Integrating into existing workflows without long adaptation periods.
Supporting teams through active growth phases.
Challenge
Challenge
Challenge
Staff augmentation is essentially a way to fill a temporary gap. When a team is established but task volumes suddenly increase or a new hypothesis needs testing, hiring a permanent employee isn’t always practical. An external engineer helps the team get through peak loads, after which operations return to normal.
Doubletapp has been providing staff augmentation since 2020. We collaborate with major tech companies such as Yandex, Avito, Okko, and Sber, as well as fast-growing startups. Our teams include specialists in backend, frontend, mobile development, QA, DevOps, design, and other areas.
The process works as follows: we receive a client request, select relevant candidates and submit their profiles. Then, after interviews and approval, the engineer joins the project—typically within 2 to 5 business days. Most of our specialists stay embedded for a year or longer, integrating seamlessly into existing teams and processes.
Selection evaluates not only technical skills but also motivation, communication, and responsibility, qualities highly valued by clients.
Solution
Solution
Solution
Our engineers worked directly within VK’s backend teams, improving internal services that power the daily work of dozens of product and engineering teams. Specific project details remain confidential under NDA. However, the results are visible to every user: services run faster, errors occur less frequently, and updates reach production without delays. In short, the work our team contributed directly enhanced the stability, speed, and reliability of VK’s services.
Results
Results
Results
Working with VK allowed us to strengthen one of the largest product ecosystems in Russia while gaining practical experience that refines our methods. Collaboration with a team of this scale provided insights into how processes are structured in large products, solutions that work best under peak load, and requirements for engineering teams in Russian big tech.
These observations have shaped our internal processes and methodologies, which we now apply across other client projects. Through work on VK’s internal services, we contributed to the user experience of millions, simply through high-quality engineering.
Doubletapp aims to be more than a short-term stopgap—we strive to be a partner that helps products improve. We establish transparent processes, maintain high preparation standards for specialists, and provide ongoing support within client teams, raising the standard of staff augmentation across the industry.
To exchange experience and respond quickly to market needs, we maintain an open partner Telegram channel (@dtpartners), sharing fresh case studies, requests, and updates.
We also share best practices on professional platforms such as Habr, VC.ru, and Workspace, analyzing real cases and demonstrating workflows between contractors and clients. Many of these materials originated from tasks handled specifically in VK projects, sparking discussions across the IT community.
Our goal is to make staff augmentation in Russia human-centric and transparent: we host roundtables at the DUMP conference, run the annual Digital Tour by Doubletapp, uniting contractors and clients to discuss industry challenges and develop practical solutions, and we share insights on technology, large-team processes, and lessons from working with major services.
IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
Before each project, specialists are prepared to work within VK’s teams. We brief them on processes, requirements, and interview formats, while technical leads help refine algorithms, architecture, and problem-solving skills, conduct mock interviews, and review mistakes. This preparation ensures engineers hit the ground running, fully understanding team pace and working norms from day one.
Our preparation system is end-to-end, from internships to regular reviews. Doubletapp collaborates with Ural Federal University to train interns in real-world projects. Upon graduation, these specialists reach junior/junior+ level and are ready for staff augmentation assignments. Clients consistently note the quality of preparation and rapid adaptation.
Once a specialist joins a project, support continues. It includes regular feedback collection from VK, monitoring each engineer’s progress, assistance with organizational matters and workload adjustment, and biannual internal reviews documenting performance, engagement, and engineer requests.
Doubletapp also invests in professional growth, funding training, paying for conferences, and allocating 10% of working time for skill development.
