We had a very similar situation: key developers were overloaded, deadlines were slipping, and motivation was falling. We realized that the problem was not with the people, but with the lack of resources. Then I started looking for options that would not destroy the team culture and came across the nearshore model from Brazil, specifically nCube . This approach allowed us to add engineers who work in a similar time zone and quickly get involved in the processes. Importantly, this is not a replacement for the team, but rather support: our key specialists were able to focus on complex tasks, while the new developers took on the operational load. The atmosphere in the team has really improved.