Case study • Coders Lab
Coders Lab: a custom CMS delivered through an extended product team
How a programming school expanded its own capacity, launched a course-management CMS and improved organic traffic and lead generation.
8 min read
2
Developers
7
Sprints
~150 h
Work per sprint
Why a programming school hired an external development 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.
An extended team instead of a project behind a wall
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.
A custom CMS for course information
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.
Technical skill does not always mean available capacity
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.