Coders Lab: a custom CMS delivered through an extended product team

Coders Lab had technical expertise, but assigning it to an internal product would either pull people away from the core business or require months of recruitment. Time to market was also critical.

GMI could assemble a dedicated team within two weeks and work in the client’s chosen technologies: React and Symfony. The companies selected an extended-team model instead of a conventional hand-off.

Two GMI developers worked as part of the Coders Lab team. The client remained Product Owner and controlled priorities, while the additional team contributed delivery capacity, an outside perspective and product experience.

The backlog was mapped in StoriesOnBoard and delivery work was managed in Trello. Sprints usually lasted two weeks, but the cadence changed when technical risk called for a dedicated spike or experiment.

The collaboration produced a custom CMS that allowed Coders Lab to manage information about its training courses. It formed part of a new website built with stronger search visibility in mind.

According to the client testimonial, the new site generated higher organic traffic and more leads. Coders Lab also highlighted the communication quality and partnership between the teams.

The project shows why a technical organisation may still benefit from an external team. The value is not replacing internal people; it is adding capacity quickly without a long recruitment cycle or loss of product control.