Custom Software

Software product development services

Building a product differs from building a system to a specification. Nobody knows the right answer yet, so the work is about finding it with as little waste as possible.

Discuss Your Project

When you build an internal system, the requirements exist somewhere and need uncovering. With a product, they’re a set of guesses. Will people use this? Will they pay? Which feature matters? The fastest way of learning is to put something real in front of users, so the first version should be built to learn, not to impress.

A minimum viable product has become a bit of a tired phrase, so it’s worth being clear about what it means here. It isn’t a badly built version of the big idea. It’s a small, well-built product that solves one problem fully for one kind of customer. Quality matters even at that size, because people can’t judge your idea through a product that keeps crashing.

Working with founders and product teams

Some clients come with a detailed vision and a need for engineering capacity. Others have a problem they understand well and aren’t sure what the product should be. Product design work fits in the second case. Either way, you’ll get a straight opinion from us on what we’d cut. If you’re building a subscription platform, you may also want to read about SaaS development.

Common product mistakes

Building before validating

Months of development go into something that a few conversations and a prototype could have tested in weeks.

Feature creep

Each stakeholder’s idea gets added, the release date moves, and nothing gets learned.

No measurement

Without analytics, the roadmap is run on opinion and on whoever spoke to a customer most recently.

What we offer

Scoping workshops

Agreeing on target user, core problem and what the first release has to prove.

Prototyping

Clickable designs tested with real users before serious development.

First version

A focused, production-quality release with analytics in place from day one.

Iteration

Regular releases shaped by usage data and customer feedback.

Team transition

Helping you hire in-house and handing over smoothly when the time is right.

Where it fits

  • Founders with a validated problem and a need for engineering
  • Companies launching a new digital product line
  • Internal tools with potential as commercial products

Technology

  • Laravel
  • React
  • Next.js
  • Flutter
  • PostgreSQL
  • PostHog
  • Figma
  • Stripe

Product Development questions

What does an MVP cost?
That’s driven by scope, and the aim of an MVP is to keep it small. Published UK guides commonly start from around £10,000, but your own number depends on what it needs to do.
Do you take equity?
We generally work on a paid basis. It’s better for you to know that our advice isn’t tied to our payout.
Who owns the intellectual property?
You should. Investors will want to see clearly that the company owns its code, so make sure your agreements assign it properly.

Related services

Further reading

Interested in Software Product Development?

Outline what you need, and we will reply by email with questions or next steps.

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