Embedded teams that ship.
Senior product designers and engineers who work as part of your team, not alongside it. We're accountable for the same outcomes you are.
What the teams looks like
A YLD team usually mixes product, design, engineering, delivery, and architecture, with the balance set by what you're trying to build. We've staffed teams that were mostly engineering with one designer embedded for a year, and teams that were mostly designers and product people validating a concept before any code got written. The composition is a function of the work.
Good software engineering and good product design are crafts in their own right, broader than any single language, framework, or tool. Specialisations narrow decision-making. The engineers and designers we hire are generalists or T-shaped by intent.
Good software engineering and good product design are crafts in their own right, broader than any single language, framework, or tool. Specialisations narrow decision-making. The engineers and designers we hire are generalists or T-shaped by intent.
Software Engineering
On the engineering side, we've built and maintained systems in Node.js, Python, Java, C#, Go, and Rust, and our front-end teams ship in React, React Native, and the design systems that sit underneath them. We've been building on Kubernetes since the early days of it being a sensible choice, and we work in AWS, GCP, and Azure depending on where you already are.
Product Design and Development
On the design side, the work runs from User Research and Service Design through UX and UI Design, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Data Analysis, and Usability Testing, to Design Systems and Design Ops. We were one of the first consultancies in Europe to treat design systems as a discipline, and we still run Design Systems London.
Multiple disciplines,
one team
We work together
Most consultancies split delivery into separate sales: engineers, designers, product managers, delivery, sometimes architecture, all priced and staffed independently and meeting at a handover. We don't work that way and never have.
Our teams ship product
That means a designer arguing about the journey alongside an engineer arguing about the data model, a product person making sure both arguments are pointed at the right outcome, and a delivery lead keeping the work shippable. The shape flexes to the engagement, but the integration doesn't.
Why it matters
The reason this matters is that the gap between working software and software that works for people is almost always a product, design, or delivery gap, not an engineering one. Products get built and don't get used. The fix needs the full team in the same room from day one, with the authority to disagree.
Where we sit
There are two ways most teams buy outside help today.
The first is a talent marketplace. You get individual contractors, fast. They're skilled, but they're not a team, and the integration cost lands on you.
The second is a large consultancy. You get a team and a delivery process, but the senior people you met in the pitch aren't the people writing the code, and the cost reflects an organisation built to run hundred-person programmes you don't need.
How we run engagements
Short discovery
Most engagements start with a short discovery. A small team spends two to four weeks inside your business understanding what you're trying to do, what's been tried, and what the constraints actually are. The output is a plan we can both stand behind, not a slide deck.
Shape the work needs
From there, the team scales to the shape the work needs. That might be three engineers and a designer working on a single product surface, or a cross-functional team of eight rebuilding a platform. Either way, it's a team, with a delivery lead accountable for what ships and a senior consultant accountable for the technical and product decisions inside it.
Integrated team
We work in your tools, on your boards, in your repos. We don't ask you to adopt our process; we slot into yours and improve it where we can.
Handover
We aim to leave. The engagement isn't successful if your team can't keep building when we go, so handover starts on day one rather than at the end. Your engineers pair with ours, your designers work in the same files, and the documentation we write is the documentation your team will use after we've gone.
What "embedded" actually means
Most consultancies sell you a project. We sell you a team that joins yours.
That changes how the work runs. Our people sit in your standups, write in your codebase, ship to your environments, and answer to the same outcomes you do. There's no statement of work that ends with a handover document. The team is part of yours for as long as it needs to be, and the things we build keep working when we leave because your engineers built them with us.
It also changes who we send. Embedded only works if the people we put in are senior enough to make decisions in the room, opinionated enough to push back, and pragmatic enough to ship. That's the bar.
Our Work
Media
Optimising publishing for a $B client with Kubernetes & DevOps
We helped a publishing giant migrate 21 brand sites onto one scalable platform by establishing a DevOps culture and united siloed teams to reach new heights.
Learn More
Web3
Achieving DevOps maturity, Kubernetes mastery, and lifecycle security
YLD strengthened Uphold's cloud with open-source tools, and enhanced EKS Kubernetes ensures seamless app interactions and improved team collaboration.
Learn More
Web3
Scaling security and reliability with DevOps maturity
YLD delivered strategic recommendations to enhance security and reliability at scale that would enable faster innovation and better risk management.
Learn More
Same teams, AI-augmented
The way we work has shifted. Coding agents now write a meaningful share of the code on most of our engagements, and our designers use AI tools across research, prototyping, and content. Smaller, more senior teams ship faster than they did two years ago.
The model on this page is the same. The teams are the same. What's different is how they work, and what we can take on as a result.
The model on this page is the same. The teams are the same. What's different is how they work, and what we can take on as a result.
AI-Augmented Delivery
Senior teams of product designers and engineers who know where AI accelerates the work. Smaller teams delivering more at a faster pace.
Learn More
Explore our full AI offering
If you're looking for help shaping what to build with AI, including readiness assessments, governance, or fractional Chief AI Officer support, check out these pages.
AI Shaped Services
Learn More
All case studies
Learn More
Got something you're trying to ship?
Tell us what you're working on. We'll tell you whether we can help, and how.