Team

29 people in Ghent and Cluj. Big enough to guarantee continuity, small enough that we know each other and each other’s work.

Developers are the largest group, alongside project management, QA, data, UX, marketing and operations. Our team is 38 on average. Many people have been at Baldwin for years, and when we add someone we look for experience on purpose.

We would rather build a smaller team of people who can take responsibility on their own than a large one that mostly needs coordinating.

Experience sits where it should

We have built different specialisms inside the team on purpose. Steven leads our platform work, Pieter our Magento projects and Radu WordPress. Mircea leads QA, and Cristina runs our Cluj studio and heads project management there.

Beyond that we have people specialised in PHP, Python, React, frontend, data, technical analysis, UX and marketing. Oana is a lawyer by training and runs administration and HR.

That does not mean every specialist sits on every project. It means the knowledge is usually somewhere inside Baldwin when a project needs it.

Everyone by name, with role, city and starting year: People

Who works on your project

Not all 29. A typical project team is a project manager, one to three engineers and QA, with business analysis and UX added when the project needs it.

Exactly who that is depends on what we are building. A Magento project asks for different expertise than a WordPress site or an entirely new software platform. So we staff teams around the technology, the problem and the knowledge required — not around who happens to have hours free.

Then we keep those teams as stable as we can. People do not get swapped out because the schedule on another project works out better. What someone learns during a project is too valuable for that.

That does not mean everyone works exclusively for one client. We schedule people across several projects. On larger platforms someone may work on one project for a long time, or full time. On smaller work, capacity is shared.

When a project grows, we would rather add people next to the existing team than replace the ones who already know the system.

Project managers, not account managers

Your project manager knows your project on the substance. They understand the backlog, know the choices that were made, and watch planning, budget and priorities.

That is a different thing from an account manager who collects questions from the client and forwards them to a technical team.

Plenty of questions your project manager can therefore answer directly. When a conversation needs technical expertise, the right engineer joins. That keeps communication short and stops you paying for several technical people in a meeting that does not need them.

Working together explains how we organise that communication.

Ghent and Cluj are one team

We build in Ghent and in Cluj. Cluj is not a delivery centre that receives work after it has been thought through in Belgium.

Cristina runs our Cluj studio. Alongside project management, it houses backend and frontend development, Magento, QA and marketing. Oana takes on administration and HR there as our in-house lawyer.

Ghent has just as much development, project management, UX, data and operations.

Project teams can combine people from both studios. Same planning, same sprints, same responsibility. To us it is one Baldwin team in two cities.

Ghent and Cluj goes deeper into how the two studios work together.

Quality sits in the team

We have our own QA engineers who test software before it reaches the client. The developer who builds a feature is not the only person deciding whether it is finished.

QA sits in our sprints and knows the projects being tested. It is not a last check just before a release. It is part of how we build software.

What 29 people get you

Our size sits on purpose somewhere between a small development team and a large international agency.

• Big enough for continuity.A holiday, an illness or one person leaving should not stall a project. On important systems we make sure knowledge never sits with one person alone.
• Small enough for short lines.There is no commercial account layer between you and the project team. Your project manager knows the project and pulls in engineers, QA, analysis or UX when that is useful.
• Experienced enough to take responsibility.Our team is 38 on average, and we look for people who can make decisions themselves and understand that software is more than closing a ticket correctly.

Employed, freelance and everything between

Not everyone at Baldwin has the same contract. About a third of our team works freelance, but you barely notice the difference on a project.

Many of them have worked with Baldwin almost full time for years, sit in the same teams, follow the same sprints and carry the same responsibility for the result. We do not use freelancers as a flexible layer we switch on and off per project.

Questions we get a lot

How many people actually work on our project? Usually three to five. Typically a project manager, one to three engineers and QA, with analysis or UX added when needed.

Are they mostly experienced people? Yes. Our team is 38 on average and we look for experienced people who can take responsibility on their own.

Do you use subcontractors we never get to see? No. About a third of our team works freelance, but usually long term and almost full time with Baldwin. They sit in the same teams and work the same way as everyone else.

Do the same people stay on our project? As much as possible. Continuity matters, both for the quality of the work and for the knowledge built up during a project. On larger projects we would rather grow the existing team than replace people.

Do you have your own QA? Yes. We have QA engineers in house. Features are not only tested by the developer who built them.

Do you have UX and design in house? Yes. UX and design are part of our projects when they are needed. Our core stays software; for pure branding or campaign work there are better partners.

Who do we talk to day to day? Your project manager is your fixed point of contact and knows the project on the substance. Engineers and other specialists join when their expertise genuinely adds something to the conversation.

Working together explains how that communication works in practice. How we work goes deeper into how the team plans and runs your project.