We have room for a few problems right now. bring us yours
the door is open

Got a problem worth solving? Let's get to work on it.

&us open is a standing invitation. Hand us a challenge you have been circling and we will give it fresh thinking to push it forward. It is free, and there is nothing to buy at the end of it.

No fee No pitch to sit through No obligation, ever Yours to keep
The &us team gathered around a wall of sticky notes during a workshop
A team reviewing pages of workshop notes on the floor

* The same team trusted by

British Red Cross Design Council Imperial College London Johnson & Johnson LVMH Macmillan Cancer Support MHFA England Post Office Takeda The Economist HP

What it is

A free hit of new thinking for a problem on your plate.

We make things for a living. Ideas, prototypes, provocations, brought to life fast. No team runs at full tilt every week, and when we have room we would rather point that energy at a real client problem than let it sit idle. So we are opening the doors. Tell us what you are wrestling with and we will get to work on it.

01

You bring the problem

Something stuck on your list. A live project that needs another brain. A question you cannot quite crack. Whatever it is, hand it over.

02

We set up a quick call

We get back to you within two working days to set up a short call, so we understand what you are really after before we start.

03

We bring the thinking

The spark you were missing, the angle you had not spotted, something solid to react to. Yours to keep, no strings.

the honest bit

Why would anyone do this for free?

“Fair question. This is how we meet people. We would rather show you what it is like to work with us than send you a deck about it. So we give first, on a real problem, with no invoice attached.

If it clicks and you want to do more together, brilliant. If not, you keep the thinking and we have met someone new worth knowing. Either way is a good outcome for us.”

Rob Fletcher-Isaacs
Rob Fletcher-Isaacs Partner, Co-founder

The kind of thinking we bring

We answer with a provocation, not a proposal.

Hand us a problem, and we'll reframe it and generate expansive ideas to explore a new direction. A few we have been chewing on lately:

Energy

What if energy could go from a commodity to something loveable?

Pensions

What if your pension felt more like the life it's buying you?

Retail

What if the shop knew what you needed before you did?

Hospitality

What if eating alone felt like the best seat in the house?

Who it is for

Built for people carrying more problems than hours.

If you lead marketing, innovation or growth in a large organisation, you know the feeling. A backlog of things that deserve real thought, and rarely the space to give it. &us open is a place to put one of them down and let someone else pick it up.

  • Chief Marketing Officers with more ideas than time to chase them down
  • Heads of Innovation looking for a spark from outside the building
  • Insight and strategy leads who want their thinking pressure-tested
  • Growth and proposition teams with a problem that has gone quiet

Who you would be working with

Real people not a faceless inbox

A small senior team who like rolling up their sleeves. Bring a problem and these are the people who get stuck into it with you.

Emily Dent

“Half our job is finding the real problem hiding behind the one you called us in for”

Emily Dent

Transformation Lead,
&us Partner

Saul Minkoff

“Give me the problem you can't quite crack, the best solutions can be found by looking from another angle.”

Saul Minkoff

Innovation Director

Mor Bakal

“I can turn your idea into something you can react to, that's where the real conversation starts.”

Mor Bakal

Lead Designer,
UAL Lecturer

A few problems we've
helped unstick

River Island sustainable packaging and unboxing redesign

Designing an unboxing experience people wanted

A 5-day sprint that rethought packaging and unboxing with sustainability at the core.

Seven high fidelity prototypes from an innovation sprint

Created an in house innovation engine

A seven week deep dive that gave a stalled growth strategy a clear way forward.

HP AI Studio dashboard showing active projects

Launching a groundbreaking AI MVP

Helped HP design AI Studio, a new platform to accelerate AI and data science model management.

Post Office consumer app screens for cards and identity

Catapulting consumer experiences forward

Helped British heritage brand Post Office rebuild its digital and innovation capability from the ground up.

In good company

Just the right amount of creativity and challenge to get us moving.

Martin Thackray, Innovation Lead, Post Office. On rebuilding the Post Office's digital and innovation capability with &us.

Why we do it

Because we genuinely love a good problem

There is no hidden meter running. When we have room in the team, we would rather spend it giving something useful to a client than keep it to ourselves. It is how we get to make, to flex, and to meet people working on things that matter.

We run a handful of these at a time, so we can give each one proper attention. Bring us yours and see what comes back.

A member of the &us team arranging sticky notes on a workshop wall

Bring us a problem

Tell us what you are wrestling with.

Be as rough or as ready as you like. A sentence is enough to get us started, and once you press submit, we will be in touch to arrange some time to connect and explore your challenge in more detail.

  • Free, with nothing to buy at the end
  • We reply within two working days
  • The thinking is yours to keep, either way

By sending this you are happy for &us to get in touch to arrange a call about your problem. Nothing more.