Who we are
We're here to do great work and be great company while we do it. We treat our clients like friends, because that's who we want to work with.
Our Values
We don't just build products; we protect people. Systems fail people in ordinary ways: unchecked assumptions, unnecessary friction, patterns that quietly erode trust. We hold ourselves to a few core principles to work against that.
- We reduce the workload systems place on people. Every unnecessary step and every confusing interface adds strain. We find it and remove it, so the system stays lean and clear.
- We prioritize the margins. Most design optimizes for the average, typical, user. We start at the edges. When a system is safe and intuitive for those who need the most care, it becomes a better experience for everyone.
- We protect people's agency. Technology should support someone's judgment, not override it. We design systems that give people the information and control to act with confidence. When agency's already been lost somewhere upstream, outside our reach, we work to restore it too.
- We think holistically, not just digitally. A screen is only one part of a human journey. We look at the entire ecosystem, such as the politics, the legacy systems, and the lived experiences, to ensure our solutions work in real life contexts; not just when a user is in front of their screen.
Our Practice
Alongside you, not instead of you.
You work directly with senior judgment, from the first conversation to the last deliverable. No pitch team that disappears once the contract's signed, no handoffs to someone who wasn't in the room. Small team, direct access, throughout.
What working together actually looks like
Engagements start with us in the room, not behind a deck. Early work is hands-on and iterative: workshops, real conversations with the people who'll use what you're building, fast rounds of feedback rather than a single big reveal months in. You're involved throughout, not briefed at the start and shown a finished product at the end.
Continuity you can count on
Jordan stays connected to every engagement across the full portfolio, not just the ones he's leading directly. That means the judgment that shaped the strategy on day one is still accountable to it on the last day, whether he's in the room that week or not. You're never handed off to someone who's seeing the project for the first time.
How the team supports that promise
A Principal leads the actual thinking on your project, the strategy, the architecture, the decisions that matter. Apprentices work alongside them directly, learning the craft while contributing real, production-level work. Specialists join when a project calls for expertise the core team doesn't carry day to day. Together, that means senior time stays focused on what only senior judgment can do, and your budget isn't spent re-explaining context to someone new.
Our Story
To understand why we had to rebuild Hostile Sheep from the ground up, you first have to understand why we built it in the first place. The name started as a provocation. People were being treated like sheep; expected to stay quiet, follow orders, and accept systems that weren't built for them. Hostile Sheep was born from the instinct to push back. We refuse to accept harm as inevitable or use complexity as an excuse to ignore impact. Being "hostile" isn't about aggression; it is about fierce protection. We stand with our herd, but we are not docile. We are here to create with the people that broken systems have left behind, and this is our story:
- The concept for Hostile Sheep took shape in 2012, during a time when human-centered design was becoming a performative buzzword. While the design world was adopting all the right language about caring for users, it remained stubbornly stuck in its traditional ways of working. Our founder, Jordan Julien, developed a deep desire for a more authentic approach. That desire finally found a home when a freelance contract with General Electric's R&D team evolved into a five-year retained partnership, providing the perfect proving ground to officially launch the practice.
- A shift in GE's partnership model in 2016 forced us to look outward. We initially tried to collaborate with communication shops, but our quick and nimble way of working was an immediate culture shock. Because we delivered results so efficiently, we often didn't fit into the slower, high-overhead models, proving that we were better suited for a different kind of relationship.
- In 2017, we began reaching out directly to organizations that prioritized human outcomes over billable hours. The response was immediate. We grew from a small handful of projects to serving over thirty organizations at our peak, proving there was a massive appetite for a practice that valued speed and transparency.
- For the next five years, we operated at capacity, which gave us the freedom to choose projects that aligned deeply with our values. While we worked across verticals like healthcare, education, and financial services, it became clear that we weren't just specializing in industries, we were specializing in missions. We focused our energy on the essential pillars of a stable life: food security, health literacy, financial resilience, educational equality, and more. We realized our true work was protecting the human at the other end of the screen.
- In 2023, our pursuit of growth eventually led us to merger talks with a larger consultancy, which meant saying a difficult goodbye to the Hostile Sheep name. While the partnership seemed promising at the start, we eventually realized our core identities were too different to remain combined. We made the difficult choice to unmerge, which left Hostile Sheep broken and unrecognizable, setting the stage for our most significant challenge yet.
- 2025 has been a period of deep reflection and rediscovery. We needed to find the heart of the practice again before we could rebuild it. This brings us to today: the relaunch of Hostile Sheep. We are back to our roots as a human-centric ally for organizations that want to challenge the status quo and build sustainable, resilient success through holistic design.