With the advent of distributed computing, the need for frameworks that facilitate its programming and management has also appeared. These tools have typically been used to support the research on application areas that require them. This poses good initial conditions for Translational Computer Science (TCS), although this does not always occur. This paper describes our experience with the PyCOMPSs project, a programming model for distributed computing. While it is a research instrument for our team, it has also been applied in multiple real use cases under the umbrella of European Funded projects or as part of internal projects between various departments at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). The paper illustrates how the authors have engaged in TCS as an underlying research methodology, collecting experiences from three European projects.