Immo Studio Conversations: Digital Product Design

A strong brand can open doors, but if the product doesn't deliver on that promise, it rarely stays open for long.

In this conversation, Immo Studio founder Imogen Ley-Clowes speaks with Charles Swain, founder of Heliotrope Digital, about building scalable digital products, why the earliest stages of product discovery matter more than most founders realise, and how thoughtful digital product design supports stronger branding over the long term.

This conversation is the latest in our Immo Studio Conversations series, where we explore the disciplines that shape successful brands through discussions with the specialist partners we collaborate with. 

Imogen:

Tell me a little about Heliotrope Digital and what you're focusing on at the moment.

Charles:

We're an agency specialising in digital product design and development, which basically means we build pretty much anything web-related, but our speciality is high-volume, scalable web and mobile applications.

Things have obviously been changing since the arrival of generative AI, so a real focus for us has been understanding how best to harness the latest technology without sacrificing the quality of our output. 

Imogen:

Is there a typical client you work with, or maybe to frame it slightly differently, is there a common trigger point for why people start having conversations with you?

Charles:

We do get to work with a really wide range of businesses and different industries, which is something I love about the job. We've worked with established businesses in property, legal, sustainable energy, recruitment, and we also work with startups that have really unique ideas.

In terms of the trigger, it varies. Quite often it's simply that a business knows they want or need to develop some kind of technical product, or they're looking at a digital transformation programme to make the business more competitive, but they don't necessarily have the skills in-house. Having the idea is one thing, but implementing it successfully is something completely different. 

We also get enquiries from businesses who've had a bad experience with a previous developer. Rebuilding that trust can be tricky, and sometimes it means taking a few steps backwards before you can move forwards, but we always try to make that transition as smooth as possible.

Imogen:

We see something similar. Sometimes people have had difficult experiences with branding agencies or web agencies, and it's a tricky balance. You're trying to help them trust your decisions again, explain why you're doing things, but not overload them with too much information. 

Do you find the kinds of enquiries you're getting have changed over the last six months?

Charles:

We've been trading for almost a decade now, so things have changed a lot over that time. In the early days we'd pretty much work on anything we could get our hands on, but over time we've become much more selective about the projects we take on.

The focus has naturally shifted towards larger-scale digital products because that's really where we do our best work. More recently, I've also been looking at offering more strategic consultancy as part of what we do.

After working in the industry for so long, you develop a bit of a sixth sense for why something works or doesn't work, and that experience can be valuable before a project gets into development.

Imogen:

That feels very well timed because people are getting much more confident about trying things themselves or building internal teams, but that doesn't always mean they have the experience. 

What would you say is something you really wish people understood about building a product before they came to you?

Charles:

In a typical project, over 80% of errors are introduced at the early stages, while less than 10% happen during the digital product development itself. Yet most of the project time is usually devoted to development and testing. It really can't be overstated how important those early stages are.

Developing a strong concept, getting feedback from prospective users, running workshops, interviews, surveys, prototyping—all of those things help make sure the solution actually fits the problem you're trying to solve.

It's easy to overcomplicate things, but you can never get too much feedback from the people who are actually going to use the product.

Imogen:

I think that's the value of working with someone who's guiding you through the process. It's asking, "What do we know? What are we assuming?" and opening those conversations up before decisions become fixed.

When clients come to you, do they usually have quite a solid brand already, or is that something they've not really thought about?

Charles:

It can be a real mix, especially because we work with everyone from startups through to much more established businesses.

But even if you're established, you still need a strategy for how your brand is developing. Very similar to product development, it's always about considering the customer's perspective. I think that's really the key to any successful commercial business.

Imogen:

I imagine that makes your job either much easier or much harder depending on where they're at with their brand. When they do have a strong brand, how do you pull that through into the product?

Charles:

For me, it's always easy to see when the personality of the founder or the team comes through in the finished product.

We're constantly exposed to different products and messaging, so people develop a very quick sense of whether something feels genuine or whether it feels corporate and soulless. Getting that personality to come through is the important thing.

Imogen:

We've talked a little bit about AI already, but how are you finding implementing it into your own process? Is it making life harder or easier?

Charles:

I think over-reliance on AI can be massively detrimental, and that applies to every industry, not just ours. Blindly accepting responses without applying human critical thinking can create some really big problems further down the line.

Our goal is to use it to increase the speed of our output without sacrificing the quality of what we do.

It has definitely changed the speed with which ideas can be developed, but the fundamentals haven't changed. Defining requirements properly, getting early feedback from users and doing the background research are just as important today, if not more so.

Imogen:

I think that's probably true across creative industries as well. AI can speed things up, but it can't replace judgement. Finally, what are you and the team most excited about working on at the moment?

Charles:

Right now, we’re excited about working on a product of our own, which has just been submitted to Google Play and the App Store for review. It's been great to work on something internally as well as for clients, and to go through that same process ourselves.

For me, the fundamentals haven't changed. The products that succeed are still the ones that solve real problems for real users.