Engineers inside your workflows, shipping software your team can operate and own.
The operating problem
A system can meet its specification and still fail the people who use it. We work with operators and your technical team to map exceptions, build a useful first release, and agree how ownership transfers.
See the mechanism
Ownership moves when the tests pass.
Every engagement runs the same loop. Each phase ends with evidence you can inspect, and operational ownership shifts to your team as each ownership test is met.
Engagement loop · interactive
A written problem definition and baseline
We map the real workflow with the people who run it, including the exceptions nobody wrote down, and agree the measure that matters.
Ownership testCan an operator walk through an exception the workflow map explains?
Operational ownershipVerne leads, with your operators
Verne leads
Shared build
Your team leads
Your team owns
Each phase ends with evidence you can check. The ownership marker moves toward your team as each test is passed; it does not move on a calendar alone.
What we build with you.
01
Discover
Workflow map, system inventory, constraints, failure modes, and a baseline for the outcome that matters.
02
Deploy
An embedded engineering team with scoped access, a named operational owner, and a shared delivery backlog.
03
Build
A working end-to-end slice, integration contracts, evaluation evidence, deployment automation, and observable failure paths.
04
Transfer
Runbooks, training, recovery exercises, and an agreed support boundary. Your team demonstrates it can run the system.
Where the model comes from
Embedded engineering, with the exit designed in.
Palantir describes a forward-deployed software engineer as one who embeds directly with customers and implements solutions together with the people who use them.1 The model has spread as companies try to turn AI models into working systems, because forward-deployed teams sit closest to the customer's real problem.2
We add two disciplines from public-service and reliability engineering. Discovery comes before any commitment to build, and stopping after discovery is a legitimate result.3 Handover follows a readiness review, training, and a progressive transfer of operations, change management, and access, with the building team available as backup while the receiving team settles in.4
Readiness is measured rather than declared. We use delivery measures your engineers already know, such as the time it takes to recover from a failed deployment.5
For technical reviewers
Transfer is written down as exercises with evidence, in the spirit of a production readiness review.4 Your team does the work; our engineer observes.
transfer-acceptance.yaml · example handover plan
# Ownership moves when these pass with your team at the keyboard.system: returns-triagereceiving_team: ops-platform # your engineersobserver: verne-fde # watches, does not typeexercises: - id: deploy-change task: Ship a reviewed change through the pipeline to production evidence: [pipeline_run, change_ticket, rollback_test] pass_if: deployed_by in receiving_team - id: handle-exception task: Investigate a failed job, retry it safely, reconcile with the ERP evidence: [incident_note, reconciliation_report] pass_if: record_counts_match and no_duplicate_postings - id: recover-environment task: Restore staging from backup using only the runbook evidence: [runbook_version, restore_log, time_to_restore] pass_if: completed_without_observer_helpsupport_boundary: verne_on_call: as_agreed_in_contract escalation: ops-platform-lead
A useful starting point
Your first engagement.
Start with a bounded workflow review. We agree the deliverables, access requirements, and price before work begins.
One important workflow and its accountable owner
Access to representative data and the people doing the work
Your deployment, security, and procurement constraints
Sources
Evidence and further reading
Primary sources for the standards and practices referenced on this page. They describe the field, not Verne's own results.
How the discovery phase works (opens in a new tab)GOV.UK Service Manual · last updated 21 June 2021Understand the problem before committing to build; stopping at the end of discovery is not a failure.
In 7–10 working days, Verne maps your workflows, data sources, repetitive decisions, automation opportunities, and AI risk areas. You receive a prioritized roadmap showing what to automate, integrate, avoid, and build first.