The Challenge
UpTogether helps families build financial stability through direct cash investments and community support. As the organization grew, their technology needed to keep pace—but the path forward wasn't obvious.
Years of rapid development had created complexity. Multiple systems didn't always agree. The team knew something needed to change but couldn't step back from daily work long enough to figure out what.
How We Helped
What started as engineering support in October 2021 evolved into a deep partnership. Over two and a half years, we moved from supplementing their team to leading their technical strategy.
Phase one: Build. Working alongside their existing team, we helped ship features and maintain systems. This gave us visibility into how the technology actually worked—not just how it was supposed to work.
Phase two: Assess. In 2023, we conducted a three-month architecture assessment. Running in parallel with ongoing releases, we mapped the system end-to-end: where complexity lived, where it was necessary, and where it could be eliminated.
Phase three: Recommend. We delivered a practical roadmap: what to consolidate, what to rebuild, what to leave alone. Prioritized by impact and difficulty. Clear enough that anyone could understand the tradeoffs.
What Changed
The assessment identified opportunities to simplify without disrupting:
- Code cleanup that reduced maintenance burden
- Service architecture changes that cut operational complexity
- Security improvements that met evolving compliance requirements
More importantly, the team now has a shared understanding of their system. Decisions about what to build next can be made with confidence.
Long partnerships work because priorities change. The value isn't just what we built—it's the institutional knowledge that accumulates over time.