About

We're a digital product and service company

Code is an award-winning team of thinkers and makers that have helped some of the UK’s most successful businesses deliver leading digital products, services and experiences.

A new agency mindset for working with modern businesses

Modern businesses need a new type of agency relationship.
A relationship that looks at driving business outcomes by working hard together on the right things – the things your customers actually want.

A flexible relationship that can work across the business – challenging cultural norms and modernising customer experiences whilst enhancing internal skills and capabilities.

We created our Studio Manifesto to describe how we think today.

Solve problems over Predefined solutions

Businesses often feel a responsibility to have the answers to their problem already defined as they approach an external agency for advice. This is often very well-meaning, but it restricts the ability of the agency to consult and do the right thing over the thing that has been asked for.

Instead, we spend time with our partners in the problem space for longer. Yes, it can feel like a backwards step, but often the solutions are quicker, more creative and deliver a better outcome.

Experiences over Designs

Customers engage with brands over a host of media, marketing and digital touch-points. Crafting and understanding that experience such that we can persuade the individual to take the actions they want is the goal we are working towards.

The visual design of course has to be beautiful and well-considered, but a beautiful design that is not useful can never be truly beautiful.

Product over Project

Software systems need to be able to pivot and change shape as your business and your market demands it.

Thinking in terms of projects fundamentally hinders this ability. Projects are often fixed. Fixed scope, fixed price, fixed time. These hard parameters often lead to poor engineering standards – but importantly drives a lack of focus on what really matters. Delivering outcomes.

Think instead of your software as a product which is continually improved and it will always be adaptable and drive the outcomes you need as your market shifts in the future.

Value over Volume

Often businesses want to change a lot all at once when replacing old systems. However often we find only a fraction of the existing system holds value to the organisation. The majority is either legacy or not used by customers.

If we change the most valuable things first, we will see a greater commercial return faster. Why change 100 things when you can change the right 10 things and see even better results?

Insights over Opinion

Initiatives driven by the needs and wants of internal teams need backing up with insight and evidence from your customers, your market and your commercial data.

Projects that only have an internal lens will not be as effective as those that are insight-driven and based on the wider needs of the organisation and the real needs of your customers. So we strive to validate your beliefs our ideas and with real people at every point in our relationship.

Iterative over Big bang

The history books of digital system replacement are littered with over-ambitious software projects that failed.

Sometimes ‘big bang’ software projects don’t even get released because they are too unwieldy and affect too many elements of a business system.

Instead, modern organisations are developing architectural software approaches that allow the release of new experiences every day. Sometimes every hour. Working iteratively ensures that you are always able to respond to changes in the market and grow the business at pace.

Adaptability over Process

Business priorities have a habit of changing all the time. Detailed scoping documentation is often irrelevant once a true appreciation of what is needed starts to emerge from working together.

There is little value in plodding along a project plan if we are heading in the wrong direction. That’s why developing an agile mindset to delivering the most important things in the order in which we discover them is vital to driving a successful outcome.

Why choose Code?

We’re hands on

We spend time working on the business case to understand your goals and ambitions.

This lets us assess where to design and build new experiences in your digital business system to see the greatest impact and commercial returns.  

We’re human-centred

Working fast in short cycles allows us to prototype and test our ideas rapidly.

Getting new experiences into the hands of your users allows us to learn from our thinking and make improvements before we commit to software development.

We augment around you

Our multidisciplinary teams work best when they augment around your people.

We'll work together to define the problems and design the solutions you need to succeed. Working together allows us to coach by doing – leaving you more self-sufficient as we go.

Why do we call ourselves Computerlovers?

We invest time nurturing our talent and creating an environment that lets brilliant people shine and do their best work together.

Code’s leadership team

Decades of experience is how we get results.

Tony Foggett

Founder

Louis Georgiou

Founder

Gemma Handley

Managing Director

Dave Heath

Technical Director

Mark Sharp

Organisational Change Consultant

Steve Peters

Business Director

Chris Heg

Design Director

Richard Chapman

Head of Finance

Jess Sherratt

Head of UX

Colin Preston

Product & Service Design Director

Jamie Evawin

Head of Experimentation

Claire Kerley

Service Delivery Director

We're Part of
EssenceMediacom North

A partnership of specialist businesses with skills to own every moment of the customer experience and build the right business for the future.
EssenceMediacom
Media and advertising
Code
Digital product & Service
Cheetham Bell
Content and creative

Work with us

Get in touch to talk about your digital challenges and ambitions