Túlka: How a market leader scaled development practices in step with growth
Túlka is a disruptor in the field of interpretation services. By using automation, arranging its services efficiently and cost-effectively as well as using a SaaS-like approach, they’ve quickly become the leader in their field in Finland.
As the company grew quickly, development practices needed to change rapidly, as well. To stay ahead and offer the best possible environment to do forward-thinking development work, Túlka started working with Polar Squad.
Quick scaling to lead the market
“We are forward-thinking in our field and have used technology to disrupt the field of interpretation services, which typically operates with fairly traditional means and tried-and-true methods. As our company grew, the need to review our development processes became evident, so we contacted Polar Squad”, states Ari Mäkelä, CDO of Túlka.
Túlka’s growth had been so quick that the tech team faced an entirely different reality, and their practices needed to be renewed. The teams maintained a principle of continuous deployment, even if the tech and practices didn’t fully support it, which caused stress. Onboarding new people was slow, as documentation hadn’t quite kept pace and roles were not always clear. Túlka also had a two-team approach, with one team based in Finland and the other in Ukraine. There was a risk of a growing disconnect between the two teams.
Polar Squad carried out an assessment to determine how to tackle these topics and find the strengths and weaknesses of Túlka’s development processes, practices and tools. Then, in coaching sessions, Túlka’s employees received practical guidance in improving their culture, processes and tools.
Identifying must-win battles
“The DevOps assessment confirmed our concerns, offering additional insights about how to go about solving them. We were able to prioritise the topics we wanted to tackle”, says Mäkelä. “For instance, we identified a clear need to increase communication between our two teams.”
Túlka also had great opportunities in terms of technological changes – implementing test automation and infrastructure as code would improve the work of developers at Túlka.
The learnings of the assessment were put into use in coaching sessions, which worked well for Túlka as an organisation: “The coaching part of the project was a key component in being able to apply the assessment insights in a practical sense. It was a fluid process, going from gathering information to fixing things”, says Mäkelä.
Equipped to expand to new industries
The entire Túlka team has done great work taking on the challenging task of pivoting their ways of working in the middle of a fast-paced growth phase.
“We’ve implemented quite a bit of changes to development practices. First versions of infrastructure as code have been implemented, and we’re increasingly using test automation. We have better quality with lesser errors, automation to the point where release notes are created automatically, and nobody needs to fetch code from anywhere. Perhaps most importantly, our onboarding and information sharing processes are in a much better state – our two teams act as one. We’re going deeper into all these themes”, Mäkelä describes.
Going forward, Túlka has big plans. “We have a platform that works very well, enabling us to take the lead in translation services. We’re now looking to apply our platform in new contexts. For us to get here, our project with Polar Squad has been crucial. It’s a common problem that processes don’t keep up with a quickly growing tech organisation; solving that problem enables growth companies to scale, keep their development teams happy and efficient and, ultimately, to achieve their business goals”, Mäkelä sums up.
Looking to level up your development team and practices?
We can help; have a chat with Tuomas Lindholm –
tuomas.lindholm@polarsquad.com – +358 40 177 1719