Challenge
The organization’s digital engagement platform had recently undergone an outsourced redevelopment, but was launched before reaching a stable MVP. Technical debt was pervasive, and critical functionality was either missing or unreliable. At the same time, immature workflows and inconsistent processes meant project timelines frequently slipped, and the lack of a defined work intake model made it difficult to prioritize initiatives or assess their architectural impact.
Only a few overextended engineers were available to maintain and evolve the system. Without a centralized QA process or automated testing pipelines, every deployment carried risk—and ongoing firefighting became the norm. Trust across teams eroded, internal momentum slowed, and recruitment efforts stalled.
Leadership gaps compounded these issues. Without a hands-on technical executive in place, strategic decision-making was fragmented and execution lacked clarity. The organization’s technology stack could not scale to meet its ambitious outreach goals, and efforts to integrate new partners or delivery channels were constrained by architectural and tooling limitations.
Solution
Technology Partners began with a comprehensive technical and organizational assessment. Through interviews, code audits, and a SWOT analysis across people, process, and technology, the team identified key constraints and systemic risks.
One of the first strategic interventions was to provide interim CTO leadership. This fractional leadership role stabilized ongoing workstreams and re-established confidence across departments while supporting the search and onboarding of a full-time, mission-aligned technical leader.
To address capacity challenges, Technology Partners defined a staffing strategy that blended internal alignment with fractional external expertise in DevOps, QA, and cloud architecture. A new recruiting framework was introduced to reduce bottlenecks and ensure future hires could plug into a cohesive delivery model.
In parallel, the platform itself required immediate stabilization. Technology Partners deployed a senior engineering team to re-architect the message bus, restore broken CI/CD pipelines, and decouple ingestion workflows to isolate failure points. These changes laid the technical foundation for predictable delivery cycles and future scaling.
To validate system readiness for growth, the team implemented a rigorous stress testing process that simulated high-load usage scenarios. The results surfaced bottlenecks, performance thresholds, and critical failure points—giving leadership data-driven insights to guide architectural decisions and prioritize technical debt remediation.
A roadmap with more than 70 actionable initiatives was delivered, phased by impact and priority, and aligned to the organization’s long-term goals. Key improvements included capacity-based planning, the introduction of formal QA and release structures, and upgraded project management tooling to replace ad hoc ticket boards and spreadsheets.
Results
The nonprofit regained stability and reclaimed ownership of its platform. The foundational remediation efforts eliminated major architectural risks and created a system capable of supporting the organization’s growing global footprint.
The transition from crisis response to structured, capacity-based planning allowed teams to better align around deliverables and timelines. Technical leadership was restored through the successful recruitment of a full-time CTO, whose onboarding was supported by the Technology Partners team to ensure momentum and continuity.
This was a mission-critical transformation. We were honored to step in during a time of uncertainty, bring stability to the platform, and help build a clear, scalable roadmap for the future. Seeing the organization move from firefighting to focused execution—and do it in a way that’s aligned with its mission—was incredibly rewarding.
Eric Lynn
Delivery Lead, Technology Partners
Stress testing validated that the platform could scale under peak load, and the organization now has the confidence to pursue more ambitious integrations and growth strategies.
With a roadmap in hand and newly established delivery rhythms, the organization is no longer operating in survival mode. Instead, it has the structure and stability to focus on innovation, mission impact, and long-term sustainability.
Key Outcomes
- Delivered a roadmap with over 70 prioritized initiatives across people, process, and technology
- Stabilized core platform components, including message handling and CI/CD pipelines
- Validated platform scalability through custom stress testing and performance simulation
- Restored leadership continuity by providing interim CTO services and supporting executive recruitment
- Introduced planning and QA structures that enabled predictable, capacity-aligned delivery
