Designing and building creative tools and intelligence products for humans

We build human-first products that treat the human side as seriously as the technical side. Interfaces that are conversational, systems that explain their reasoning, and AI technology that fits into how people actually work rather than forcing them to adapt.

For over 20 years, we've solving problems alongside teams at Google, IBM, Air New Zealand, Kpler, EE, News UK, Tesco, and The Economist, sitting in the space between product strategy and hands-on engineering, designing systems and shipping products that make the complex feel simple.

Since 2017 we've worked freelance helping teams as hands-on engineers and consultants, and as interim CTO. The last five years have been mostly AI, working in consumer intelligence, research, and media creation and distribution. That's meant building insight tools, agents, and gen UI copilots on top of messy data. Alongside this, we released several products, including Mass, a way to simulate human feedback at scale. More recently we've been working with London-based agencies on AI engineering workflows and platform development.

Product design, thinking machines, and AEO.

The human side is as serious as the technical side. Interfaces that feel conversational, systems that explain their reasoning, and technology that fits into how people actually work.

Product design and engineering

Designing the interface and writing the code that makes it happen. This is the core of our fractional consultancy work, and what we do every day.

Thinking machines

How people talk to it, how it reasons, how it fails, and how it stays in production. Not just designing the interface, but engineering products that make inference trustworthy.

AEO and GEO

Answer engine optimisation for your site and products, making them the source an AI assistant quotes when it answers a question. Unlike SEO, which competes for a ranked link, AEO competes for a citation inside a generated answer.

Work with us

Alongside our product work, we do 1:1 pair sessions and workshops for teams and individuals in the industry. We work with product engineers, designers and solo founders who want to get more out of their AI tools, and with teams that need a fractional design+build partner.

Fractional design + build

We join your team in-house or remote and do the job alongside you. From designing the product to building it and then shipping it to production.

Team workshop

Hands-on workshops for teams adopting tools like Claude, Cursor, and ChatGPT. With over 20 years' experience in engineering and design, we've put our knowledge into courses that work.

Pair session

Maybe you're working on a product, but you're stuck on how to make it live. Or you're still in the design phase, and want to make actual progress. We work together to go live.

Let's talk

If you're building a product and you need the human side of the engineering as well as the system, tell us what you're building and which services you need. Either reach out by email or feel free to book some of our time on our calendar.

hello@thingsthat.com

We're always honest about what we can and can't do. If we're not the right people for it, we'll tell you straight up. We have a large network of incredible designers, engineers and innovators, so if we're not the people, we'll know someone who is.