Product Engineering
From idea to production.
Design and build digital products, SaaS platforms, web applications and mobile experiences from concept through launch.
Most products don't fail at the idea.
They fail somewhere between the idea and a version people can actually use. Scope drifts, decisions get deferred, and the first release arrives too late to learn anything from.
Sound familiar?
- You have committed to a launch date and have no engineering team behind it.
- A prototype proved the idea and now has to become a product people pay for.
- The requirements are clear to the founders, but not to anyone building.
- Design and engineering are running as separate projects and have yet to meet.
- The current build has slipped twice and nobody can say exactly why.
- Your product works, but adding anything to it now breaks something else.
What we do
How the work runs
Product definition
Turn a business goal into a scoped product: what it does, who it serves, and what the first release has to prove.
Product design
Interface and interaction design driven by the real workflow, not by a template.
Engineering
Web and mobile applications built on APIs designed to outlast the first version of the interface.
Launch and iterate
Get it into production, watch how it behaves, and keep improving it.
What you get
What you end up with.
Deliverables, not promises. Every one of these is something you own and can point at when the work is done.
A first release that can be sold
Not a demo. Software in production, with accounts, payments or onboarding wired up as the business requires.
An architecture that survives version two
An API and data model designed so the second and third releases are cheaper than the first, not more expensive.
Working software every phase
You see and use real software throughout, so scope decisions are made against something concrete.
A codebase your team can take over
Tests, pipelines, documentation and an environment any competent engineer can pick up.
Typical use cases
- Taking a new SaaS product from concept to first release
- Building the web and mobile applications for an existing platform
- Rebuilding a product that has outgrown its original implementation
- Adding a major new module to a product already in production
Engineering capabilities
- Next.js, React and TypeScript front ends
- React Native and Expo mobile applications
- .NET and C# services
- REST APIs and versioned contracts
- PostgreSQL and relational data modelling
- Authentication, roles and permissions
- Automated testing and CI pipelines
- Error monitoring and release management
Why Recode
Why bring this to us.
- We build and operate our own SaaS product, so we design for support, billing and migrations from the start.
- Design and engineering sit in the same team, so the interface and the API are decided together.
- We scope to a release that can be validated, rather than a feature list that can be invoiced.
Relevant work
Built by Recode.
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View projectHow we work
From problem to production.
- 01
Discover
Understand the business, users, requirements and problem.
- 02
Design
Define the product experience and technical direction.
- 03
Build
Engineer, test and iterate.
- 04
Launch
Deploy, integrate and get the product into production.
- 05
Evolve
Monitor, maintain and continuously improve.
Ways to work together
How to start without committing to everything.
Most clients begin with a discovery sprint: a fixed fee, a few weeks, and a plan you own whether or not we build it.
Discovery sprint
Find out what it takes before committing to build it.
A short, paid engagement that turns an idea or a problem into something you can make a decision on. You keep everything we produce, whether or not you build with us.
- Scoped requirements and a defined first release
- Technical approach and architecture
- Delivery plan with phases and a cost range
- The risks worth knowing about before you spend
Best for
New products, or a build big enough that guessing is expensive.
Product build
A defined outcome, delivered end to end.
We design, engineer, test and launch the product. Work is phased so you see something real early and keep seeing it, instead of waiting months for one reveal.
- Product design and engineering
- Working software in your hands every phase
- Deployment, monitoring and handover
- Documentation your team can actually use
Best for
Getting a product, platform or internal system into production.
Embedded team
Senior engineering capacity that stays.
We work as part of your team — your board, your standups, your priorities — with the scope set by the roadmap rather than a fixed statement of work.
- A named team, not rotating contractors
- Your tooling, your process, your repository
- Capacity that flexes as priorities change
- Knowledge that stays documented, not siloed
Best for
Live products with more roadmap than delivery capacity.
Rescue and modernisation
Take on software that has stalled.
We start with an honest assessment of what exists — what is salvageable, what is not, and what it would cost either way. Then we stabilise it and make it changeable again.
- Codebase and infrastructure assessment
- Stabilisation of the most urgent failures
- An incremental path off what cannot be kept
- A system your team can safely change again
Best for
Inherited, stalled or legacy software still carrying the business.
Questions
Product Engineering: common questions.
- Can you build both web and mobile?
- Yes. We build Next.js web applications and React Native mobile apps against the same API, so the two stay consistent instead of drifting apart.
- How long does a first release take?
- Most first releases land in three to six months, depending on scope. A discovery sprint gives you a real number before you commit.
- We already have designs. Can you just build?
- Yes. We will review them against the technical reality first and flag anything that will be expensive to build or awkward to use, then build.
- How do you price work?
- Fixed fee for discovery, phased fixed scope for builds, and a monthly rate for embedded teams. You get a cost range before any build starts, and we would rather tell you a number you do not like than discover it together halfway through.
- Who owns the code?
- You do. All source code, infrastructure definitions and documentation are yours, in your repositories and your cloud accounts, from the first commit.
Other services
Need product engineering?
Tell us the problem and the constraints. We'll come back with how we'd approach it, what it would take, and whether we're the right people for it.