What do the team at an app agency actually get up to behind closed doors?
Honestly, quite a lot.
Most days, we’re deep in delivery mode. Solving technical problems, recovering struggling apps, untangling ageing codebases and helping clients move projects forward without throwing everything away and starting again. That’s the work people usually see us talk about, and understandably so. It’s what we’re here to do.
Still, agency life is rarely just tickets, stand-ups and release cycles.
Over the course of any given month, there’s a lot happening around the edges that shapes how we work together and, ultimately, how we support clients too.
Looking back at May, it felt like a pretty good snapshot of life at Indiespring.
Our Head of People, Anna Flynn, and Operations Director, Steve Sandbach, headed to Jill Bottomley’s ‘People Strategy in a Day’ workshop. Hosted in an immersion cave in Trafford, which probably isn’t where most people expect strategic planning conversations to happen! But, we’re fully behind any meeting with an eccentric location, and it was a very insightful session. Lots of actions to take away there.
More importantly, it reflected something we care about internally. Creating proper space to think about people, not just projects.
Anna also joined the panel at Empower Women in Tech in Manchester alongside some brilliant speakers from across the industry. Events like that help keep us connected to the wider conversations happening across tech, leadership and inclusion, rather than staying tucked away in our own little bubble.
Back at Indie HQ, we held our first AI and Innovation Day.
The idea was simple: give the team space to experiment, share ideas and explore what’s genuinely useful, both internally and for clients. Some demos focused on workflows and tooling. Some explored practical AI use cases. One somehow evolved into an Indiespring handbag mock-up, which may or may not now be under serious consideration as company merch.
That balance between playful and useful felt very 'Indiespring' to us.
Innovation doesn't always have to be for genuine business use or productivity. To stay ahead of the game, it's important to engage with new technologies recreationally too. That always starts with curious people testing ideas, sharing half-finished thoughts and seeing where conversations lead.
Alongside all of that, Anna also completed her Mental Health First Aider qualification with MHFA England. As our projects grow more complex and our delivery environments become busier, having people internally who can properly support colleagues makes a real difference. Healthy teams don’t happen accidentally, especially in technology. They require attention, investment and a culture where people feel looked after as humans, so we're really grateful and proud of Anna for getting this qualification.
Elsewhere in the month, our Managing Director Rob Sandbach and Product Manager Lizzie Wignall headed to MAU Vegas to spend time with our clients and see what’s changing across the mobile space.
Conferences can sometimes get reduced to networking photos and branded tote bags, but there’s a lot of genuine value in stepping outside your usual environment for a few days. It gives teams space to compare notes, challenge assumptions and come back with clearer thinking and new perspectives about where mobile products are heading next.
Although, in this case, there was also a Google poolside social involved, so we can confirm there were at least some tote bags.
Closer to home, we held our monthly team meeting too! This time, a longer mid-year session as we edge towards the halfway point of 2026. These meetings are always useful because they create space to pause and reconnect properly. Reviewing delivery progress is important, but so is celebrating wins, sharing context across teams and simply spending time together away from laptops.
Particularly in app development, where everyone can spend large chunks of the week deep in problem-solving mode.
And naturally, no Indiespring meeting would be complete without updates on everyone’s pets. Dogs continue to dominate proceedings, although the reptiles are building a surprisingly loyal following internally.
For us, culture has never really been about trying to look like the “fun” agency.
It’s more practical than that.
It’s about building an environment where experienced people can do thoughtful work together, keep learning, support one another and still enjoy the process along the way. Especially when the projects themselves can be challenging.
Recovering apps, stabilising platforms and navigating difficult delivery environments requires trust and calm collaboration. Those things aren’t built during a crisis. They’re built gradually, through the everyday habits and conversations that happen long before things get difficult.
That’s probably the best way to describe what goes on behind closed doors here.
A lot of technical problem-solving, yes.
(Also immersive caves, AI handbags, water-cooler chuckles and an unusually high volume of pet photos)
If any of that sounds like the kind of team you’d enjoy working with,, you know where we are!
We’ll bring the app expertise, and the life injection. Just drop us a message via the link below.