Job ticket · London E1
Software, made with you — not just for you.
Workfoundry designs and builds mobile apps, web platforms and interfaces with your people at the bench beside ours. You see the work as it takes shape, learn how it fits together, and keep the skills when we step back.
Why build it together?
Software made behind closed doors often arrives finished but foreign.
Nobody inside the organisation quite knows why it works the way it does, so every small change needs the original supplier. We think that is a poor deal for everyone, including us.
When your people join design sessions, read pull requests and pair on a feature or two, the finished product makes sense to them. They can fix small things, judge larger ones and brief future work with confidence. Our aim is simple: when we step back, nothing stops.
Collaboration also makes better products. The people who will live with the software notice problems early: a field that never gets filled in, a report nobody reads, a step that only makes sense to the person who designed it. Having them at the bench while things are still soft and cheap to change saves rework later, and it means the finished thing fits the way your organisation actually works rather than the way a specification imagined it would.
Pick a way of working
Three arrangements we offer. Choose one to see what an ordinary week might look like. Most projects mix them: side by side at the start, more independent towards the end.
On the bench: what we make, what you keep
Every piece of work comes with a matching set of things that stay with your organisation.
- Mobile appsiOS and Android, native or cross-platform, with test builds on your team's phones early.You keep: source code, store accounts and signing keys, a release guide.
- Web platformsContent sites, portals and internal tools built on plain, well-documented technology.You keep: hosting in your name, automated deploys, a runbook.
- UI/UX designPaper sketches, clickable prototypes and a component kit, made in the room with real users.You keep: tested prototypes, design files, usage notes.
- ShippingApp store and web publishing done together, so next time your team can do it.You keep: a recorded walkthrough and the submission checklist.
- UpkeepFixes, OS updates and small improvements after launch, with clear notes on every change.You keep: a change log anyone can read.
Plan what your team learns
Skills transfer works best when it is planned, not hoped for. For each area, choose how involved your team wants to be. The plan below explains what that means in practice, so you can bring it to a first conversation.
Your choices stay in this browser. With optional storage accepted, they are remembered on this device.
Interface design
App code
Testing
Store publishing
Hosting and deploys
Your handover plan
What a working session feels like
Practical. We run short sessions instead of long presentations and share screens rather than slide decks. A typical one starts with the thing we built since last time, installed on someone's phone or open in a browser. We watch it being used, note what feels wrong, then decide together what to change first.
Questions are welcome at any level. If someone wants to know what a database migration is, we will show them one. You will also see our mistakes and how we correct them, which we think is healthier than pretending software is built in a straight line.
The unglamorous parts, done properly
Behind every good app is hosting that is paid for, backups that restore, certificates that renew and a deploy that anyone on the team can run. We build those foundations with you, write them down in plain language and make sure the keys are in your hands.
After launch, upkeep covers faults, annual operating system updates and small improvements, Monday to Friday 09:00–18:00 UK time. Read how we make things for the standards we hold ourselves to.
Borrowed from our toolbox
End the week with a demo. Fifteen minutes, whatever changed, however small. It keeps progress visible to people outside the project.
One home for decisions. A single shared page listing what was decided and why saves hours of searching old chats.
A password manager for shared accounts. Store, hosting and domain logins should never live in one person's head.
Questions from the doorway
Our team has no developers. Is this still for us?
Yes. Collaboration does not require coding. Product owners, operations staff and designers all have a place at the bench: testing builds, shaping screens and learning how releases work.
Will working together slow the project down?
A little at first, sometimes. It usually pays back quickly, because fewer things are misunderstood and fewer changes arrive late. We agree the balance with you at the start.
Who owns the code and accounts?
You do, from day one. Repositories, store accounts, domains and hosting are registered to your organisation and we are invited in.
Can you join a team that already has developers?
Yes. The embedded arrangement is designed for that: we work inside your routines and tools rather than asking you to adopt ours.
Bring the problem. We will bring the tools.
Pull up a stool