Kanopi Studios

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Communications Associate of UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescenct

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We promote the integration of developmental science into policies, practices, and public discourse to advance the creation of science-based systems that help young people thrive.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Kanopi Studios to accomplish?

• Help refine and structure our website, which included consolidating two websites into one
• Create an up-to-date, modern design that will last more than five years
• Define challenges for users and strategize better user experience and retention

SOLUTION

How did you find Kanopi Studios?

Referral

Why did you select Kanopi Studios over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Was a trusted vendor for UCLA

How many teammates from Kanopi Studios were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

With Kanopi, we wanted to (1) modernize our website with a new design, layout, and tagging structure, (2) consolidate our policy website into our main website, (3) strategize the best design for user experience and understand pain points for users to create a web design that would minimize friction and retain users for longer, (4) identify our web traffic audiences and create a website more in-line with out organization's targeted audience, and (5) update our search function.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have not launched our website yet, but one successful outcome that we have seen so far is our web developer's ability to use the designs Kanopi made with minimal questions and additional instructions from our organization. Seeing our web design come to life with such precision shows off Kanopi's proactive attention to detail in the creation of these designs, as well as their meticulous notes and design assets.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes, the whole management team was incredible! Cam (our project manager) kept us on track (even ahead of schedule!) without making anyone feel rushed. He was always available and receptive to any questions, and he managed multiple teams from various departments and University schools with ease. 
During this project, he was also very proactive about talking to our IT team to ensure they were comfortable with new designs and website functions so that the hand-off to development went smoothly. Now that we are in development, I can tell how much work our Kanopi team did internally to make our development process easy!

What was your primary form of communication with Kanopi Studios?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I really appreciate how much research Kanopi Studios did at the beginning of our project to set us up for success. It was great to understand user challenges, audience types, and design flaws in real time. I liked seeing the click maps, scroll maps, and seeing the analytics through the eyes of a web strategy team. 
I was also impressed at how all the Kanopi team members worked so seamlessly with eachother. There was always great communication throughout the teams, even when I was meeting with people individually. I think Kanopi is unique because they are very holistic. They understand all the sides of how to make a successful website, and they offer you all of the information so you can make an informed decision for your organization!

Are there any areas for improvement or something Kanopi Studios could have done differently?

I think you all are great! I can't think of anything to change. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Archives of San Francisco Opera Association

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

San Francisco Opera has been thrilling audiences since 1923; and is known for commissioning numerous world premieres, training some of opera's greatest young artists, and creating innovative programs and events to inspire a new generation of opera goers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Kanopi Studios to accomplish?

• Design and build a new platform to replace an existing, outdated database.
• Migrate 100+ years of performance data into the newly built platform.
• Ensure the security and ongoing viability of the new platform and data, while creating a user friendly interface.

SOLUTION

How did you find Kanopi Studios?

Referral

Why did you select Kanopi Studios over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Kanopi Studios were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Project overview:

1. discovery – to include legacy site review, stakeholder needs/goals

2. technical planning – to include development and deployment  

- Specifically, technical planning, site development, content migration, implementation design, training/testing, and deployment

Included in the build will be:

1. the Drupal CMS

2. content/data clean-up and migration from the legacy database

3. implementation of a bootstrap theme user front end w/ minimal customization

4. full text search function with results filtering option

5. image and file transfer

Key deliverables:

A new platform that uses best practices for data management, that is scaled to meet future needs, adheres to data management best practices, and — above all else — is secure.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

1. Remain within budget and on-time;
2. Design and build new database structure on Drupal 10 platform;
3. Migrate legacy data to new platform;
4. Build administrative interface for internal data managers;
5. Build user interface for public users that is easy and intuitive;
6. Ensure security of new platform as well as post-launch support and ongoing maintenence.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Our project had one main project manager - who was professional, responsive, and an absolute pleasure to work with.  The rest of the team was as well.  They worked very well together, keeping each other and our team informed and looped in as needed. When clarity and/or changes were needed, the team was attentive in listening to our needs, thoughtful in their responses, and open to working through complexities in order to find the best solution for our project.  The work was consistantly delivered on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Kanopi Studios?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The Kanopi team worked seamlessly together despite being geographically located across the States and Canada. They were consistently reliable, professional, realistic, and timely in their work and a pleasure to collaborate with from beginning to end.  

Are there any areas for improvement or something Kanopi Studios could have done differently?

They have met and gone far beyond all of our expectations; we are extremely pleased with the experience of working with them and the product as delivered.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Deputy Director, Marketing Technology of International Rescue Committee

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) works in more than 50 countries and in 28 U.S. cities to help people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover and rebuild their lives.
 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Kanopi Studios to accomplish?

• Support the IRC in building a new, multilingual communications website on the latest version of Drupal
• Migrate thousands of pages from our previous Drupal site to the new, upgraded version
• Develop a new client-facing website in Drupal to support IRC programs

SOLUTION

How did you find Kanopi Studios?

Referral

Why did you select Kanopi Studios over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Kanopi Studios were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Develop migration scripts which combines the current RescueX SE/DE/EU Drupal 9 instance and RescueXOrg (US/UK) Drupal 9 instance. This will entail:

• Migration of all content types and embeddables from the SE/DE/EU instance to the RescueX US/UK Drupal 9 instance.
• Document migration process and scripts to move files to destination directory.
• Maintain a mapping table between source entities and destination entities that will persist as part of the migration. 
• Merge content from existing Drupal 9 SE/DE EU instance with the current RescueX US/UK instance.
• Ensure migrated content adheres to new domain structure /se /de /eu.
• Existing nodes will not be migrated as translations.
• Advise on migration best practices on migrating to a live site.
• Optimize workflows for future code releases.
• Provide ad hoc support when needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Increased global web traffic and market-specific fundraising revenue from merged multilingual Drupal site
• Maintenance, editorial and translation efficiencies from a single platform

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Kanopi's team fit seamlessly into our own Agile Scrum development processes, working in sprints on our schedule and delivering work in a timely manner. The work was often more complex than anyone expected, but Kanopi always kept us informed and with an open dialogue, expectations were always communicated and set.

What was your primary form of communication with Kanopi Studios?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We know we can go to Kanopi Studios for big or small development challenges, and they have a strong bench of technical and website experts to support. They have been flexible in meeting the complex needs (and demands!) of our large nonprofit organization. With their support and staff augmentation model, we have developed close relationships and feel Kanopi to be an integral part of our web development and product management team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Kanopi Studios could have done differently?

Kanopi has generally been quite adaptable to our needs, and we've been able to quickly work through issues as they arise.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Communications of First Tee

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

First Tee is a youth development organization that helps kids and teens develop character through the game of golf.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Kanopi Studios to accomplish?

• Redesign Chapter Intranet
• Create a collaborative environment for our Chapters

SOLUTION

How did you find Kanopi Studios?

Current Partner

Why did you select Kanopi Studios over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Kanopi Studios were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Website development and design service for First Tee's chapter intranet. 
• Included Discovery phase with stakeholder research; 
• Visual Design with design layouts for mobile and desktop breakpoints; 
• Website Development with technical strategy and website development; 
• Testing & Deployment with QA and user acceptance testing, content manager training, and site deployment; 
• Post-Launch Support. 

Deliverables included: 

• High-level summarization of goals; 
• homepage design layouts for desktop and mobile; 
• BudyBoss design layouts for desktop; 
• User stories; 
• Customized BuddyBoss implementation; 
• WordPress Intranet; 
• Recorded Training Session as a private YouTube video link; 
• Final site; 
• 30 hours of post-launch Services

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Remain within our budget; 
• Transfer all content (pages, posts, menus, users, and media) to a new Wordpress platform before October 31, 2023; 
• Create a collaborative tool embedded within the site that allows users to engage with each other and share best practices 
• Connect with Salesforce CRM as the main source of access

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We were assigned 1 main project manager who was excellent! Her response time was so quick and thorough. The project was organized from start to finish. We were able to launch the site 1 week ahead of our deadline. Overall, we are very, very pleased with Kanopi!

What was your primary form of communication with Kanopi Studios?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

You can tell the team communicates very well with each other. At times, several people would be working on 1 task, and all were in the loop on what needed to be completed. We never felt like we had to explain a task more than once. They had an excellent attitude and responsiveness throughout the project.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Kanopi Studios could have done differently?

Our only recommendation would be to push back on the client more if needed. We asked for an enhanced launch date at one point, which wasn't feasible with the project. Kanopi tried to make it work, but it ended up not being possible to launch it at that early date. Had we known sooner that it really wasn't feasible, it could have tempered some expectations on our end. Really, that is a very minor (and the ONLY) improvement I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Creative Director of company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide insurance for 501(c)(3) nonprofits.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Kanopi Studios to accomplish?

• Assist with the redesign of our public website.

SOLUTION

How did you find Kanopi Studios?

• Referral

Why did you select Kanopi Studios over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Kanopi Studios were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Redesign and development of the NIA public website, within an existing brand. It was critical to satisfy requirements including responsive design (working optimally on all devices), performance (fast-loading), and accessibility (inclusive to all users) - among others.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Launch on time. Timeliness and responsiveness to updates/changes. Site passing performance metrics in Google's Performance Tools / Core Web Vitals, and accessibility tools like WAVE.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

All items were delivered on time and all needs were responded to and addressed.

What was your primary form of communication with Kanopi Studios?

• Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We had a particularly positive experience with one of their developers who was extremely talented and went above and beyond in many cases to deliver what we asked for and more.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Kanopi Studios could have done differently?

The phase in which the design was being determined was a bit long, but in fairness we were fairly granular in exactly what we wanted - perhaps more than other clients.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Web Engineer of TWiT.tv

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The TWiT.tv Podcast Network with Leo Laporte features the #1 ranked technology podcast This Week in Tech, along with other top-ranked online shows which provide news, commentary, help, how-to and perspective on the latest trends in digital tech from seasoned experts and journalists.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Kanopi Studios to accomplish?

• Update and maintain our Drupal server
• Update and develop new page designs

SOLUTION

How did you find Kanopi Studios?

Unknown

Why did you select Kanopi Studios over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Kanopi Studios were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Upgrade our Drupal 7 site to use Drupal 9.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Updated web site successfully running on Drupal 9.

What was your primary form of communication with Kanopi Studios?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We held weekly meetings and were able to receive updates on what was currently being worked on and where we stood on budget. They were also available for questions or discussions outside of the regularly scheduled meetings as well. We ended up finishing under budget!

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Kanopi is such an impressive collection of talent that we were confident throughout the entire process that our project was in good hands. I don't think there's any third-party that we work with who we trust more than Kanopi.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Kanopi Studios could have done differently?

I couldn't imagine the project going any more smoothly than it did.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Vice President, Communications & Marketing of Cohen Veterans Network

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

CVN works to strengthen mental health outcomes and complement existing support. Our vision is to ensure that every veteran, active duty service member, and family member is able to obtain access to high-quality care that enables them to lead fulfilling and productive lives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Kanopi Studios to accomplish?

• Refresh our public-facing website
• Energize our brand
• Turn our digital efforts toward a consumer focus

SOLUTION

How did you find Kanopi Studios?

Online Search

Why did you select Kanopi Studios over others?

High ratings, Great culture fit, Good value for cost, Company values aligned

What was the size of Kanopi Studios’ team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

CVN is seeking a web design/development vendor to help improve the website both in look and functionality that promotes the following best practices:

• Advanced website features, including client appointment scheduling, a virtual front door to our clinics, a bot feature for answering basic questions, etc.
• Intuitive website navigation and search
• Our intention is to create tailored pathways for users based on their area of interest (client veteran, active duty, military family member), donor, media, partner, etc.)
• Engaging ways to present our variety of content
• Optimized for Mobile
• Clean design elements

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Well designed and functional website
• Catered to our three main user groups
• Much improved back-end management tools

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes! Kanopi was very responsive and timely. They brought a ton of energy and creativity to the project.

What was your primary form of communication with Kanopi Studios?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Really great culture, all the team members seem to mesh well. They also took a lot of time to get to know us and our challenges.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Kanopi Studios could have done differently?

I wouldn't change much, on our side with a small team some of our production work took longer than expected. So perhaps spending more time on what was expected us our team might have helped.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the associate chair for finance and administration at one of the top healthcare and academic institutions in California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?

Our website was out of date and didn’t reflect on the platform that we needed to be on. We hired Kanopi Studios to do multiple tasks: website development, branding, and updating the platform to comply with the university requirements. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It started with a meeting with Anne (CEO) and Tanya (Sales Executive) to outline the scope of work. We went over what our goals for the website were in terms of bringing it up to date. We also wanted to bring in the different stakeholders and faculty to ask what they wanted to see on the website. That way, we could incorporate their feedback into the development project. 

We were then assigned a project manager, Tim (Director of Project Success). They moved us to Drupal 8, which is the platform we needed to use. They resolved the ease of navigating and the inconsistency in design which had come from different faculty members that previously created their own websites. Kanopi Studios took all of those platforms under one site and unified the look and template. 

SEO and data analytics were also conducted to help us pop up on searches — the second task after the initial web development. Kanopi Studios is currently working with other units on two other projects that I got them involved with. These require branding, more extensive web development, outreach, and surveys.

What is the team composition?

Besides Anne, Tanya, and Tim, we’ve also worked with Jim (Drupal Engineering Manager) and Randy (UI Strategist & Designer).

How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?

I had identified Kanopi Studios as one of the vendors we wanted to work with and went through a bidding process.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent around the $200,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in September 2019. The website development wrapped up in December 2020, but they are working on two new projects with other units.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

When the website was launched in December, everyone was excited and happy about the final product. The faculty was satisfied with the presentation and the look. The unified design of our website definitely makes it cleaner and more professional. When external clients and donors visit the website, they can now see everything in one place: the people involved in the center, the research they’re doing, and their activities.

How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Kanopi Studios keeps us accountable. They have a project management site where we can log in and see what’s happening, how far along we are in the task, and who is handling it. 

Tim, the project manager, is very professional and experienced. He has been consistent in the three projects he’s worked on. He keeps us on track in terms of timelines and weekly meetings, checks in about the project, and gives and gathers updates. The communication is superb.

I’ve worked with other vendors before, and it didn’t go as well as it did with Kanopi Studios. They were even gracious enough to attend our faculty meetings and hear the feedback directly. Their ability to pivot, make changes, and adjust to our needs is what makes the project very successful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everyone I’ve worked with is very professional, timely, and responsive. They do an excellent job and have deep expertise. Each member brings something to the table that makes them work amazingly well together.

They don’t overpromise; they’ve let us know upfront what they can and cannot accomplish or what does and doesn’t work, which is really helpful. They’re committed to the timeline and communicate any delays.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is nothing they could improve on. I’m extremely thrilled by the level of excellence that they’ve provided.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust that Kanopi Studios knows what they’re doing. They will help you and guide you through your vision. As long as you communicate what you want, the team will make it happen.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at the job-listing platform Indeed as a project manager on the marketing technology team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?

I engaged Kanopi Studios to work on our WordPress sites. They’ve specifically focused on our accessibility project to make sure that we were compliant with upcoming legislation around site accessibility.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Kanopi Studio had about six months to go through 16 WordPress sites for accessibility compliance. They came in guns blazing, making sure that all of our web assets were accessible to our end users. The team audited and remediated over 5,000 pages and adjusted the assets and copy as necessary. 

Currently, they’re working with us on four other major projects. We’re in the middle of a cybersecurity initiative with them to make sure that we’re security compliant.

What is the team composition? 

Overall, we’ve worked with about 20 contractors on various projects with a consistent team of 10. Our main contact is Jen (Senior Project Manager). As we get to different parts of the project, they’ll bring in other project managers to handle that specific portion. We’ve also worked with their CTO and some of their cybersecurity specialists.

How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?

I knew about them as Drupal developers from being in the same community. When I took on this project, I reached out to them to see if they did WordPress and went through a proposal.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested almost $700,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project lasted between April–December 2020. We hit the ground running around August and completed the accessibility project in time. The partnership is still ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The difference between Kanopi Studios and the other vendors we worked with was night and day. They really set the bar for how a vendor should deliver and what to expect. The team has been so consistently good at rolling out items that we’re at the point where we’re not worried about their work. We know that they’re going to deliver quality work on time, and everything is going to be okay.

How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a really great job of managing their tasks. Even before they start working on a ticket, they’ll meet with us to make sure that they understand what’s going on and what’s expected of them. The team walks us through the requirements and works to figure out how the roll-out process. Their qualified developers then take care of the problem in the development stage. From there, they do an internal QA, and the project manager reviews the ticket before sending it to our team to verify.

On top of that, they’re running at least four major projects concurrently, all of which are tracked in Jira. They’ve set up a special labeling system so that they know exactly what’s going on at any given time in our Jira system. This means that Jen can pull up updates for me immediately because the documentation is so great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We really just hired them to augment our team and help out occasionally whenever we got overwhelmed. But, when this accessibility project came up, none of my team knew anything about the criteria. 

We turned to Kanopi Studios, and they just brought on an accessibility expert to take over. She sat down with our team and stakeholders to walk us through what accessibility was and why it mattered. From there, she helped train our team on making changes and helped roll out both the code and copy.

They’ve been so good at what they do that we’ve actually started bleeding them out to other parts of our company. For example, by the time our internal accessibility team was ready to go, we had two months of lead time to get ahead on everything. That allowed us to help out with other parts of the company, bringing sites that weren’t from our group remediated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m completely happy with what they’ve been doing. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You have to be direct and open. If you come to them with an idea (even if you don’t know exactly what you want) and ask them to be straight with you, then you’ll have the best relationship. They do well with frank conversations because they focus on the problem and then how to solve it, not the political/corporate jargon.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the digital director of a non-profit that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion in corporate workplaces. We develop research, education, strategy and measurement tools to build positive change.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Kanopi Studios, and what were your goals?

We hired Kanopi after a thorough search for a web development partner to identify, recommend, and implement major improvements to our Wordpress website experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select Kanopi Studios and what were the deciding factors?

Kanopi stood out among other agencies as having broad expertise, thoughtful and principled management, a commitment to client service balanced with a focus on end user experience.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Wordpress website optimization and new feature/template development including strategy, u/x, wireframing, design, front and back end coding, QA and deployment.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We work directly, daily, with a Project Manager and Technical Lead who are dedicated to our website; additional resources are brought in as needed per project and include developers, site builders, designers and u/x experts. We have worked with at least a dozen wonderful Kanopians to date.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The two words most often used to describe Kanopi and their work with us are "huge improvement". Kanopi has exceeded our expectations and is a true partner to our digital team.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Kanopi uses Slack for quick messaging and Teamwork for project tracking. The team was always accessible and quick to respond. We connect frequently in focused Zoom calls to hash out website issues and map out project requirements. We always have a weekly status meeting to discuss our priority projects, and receive a weekly status deck to recap the weeks accomplishments and the goals for the week ahead.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They are women-led and founded on core values that align with organization's.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I think sometimes we are a difficult client and they could be more honest, and tell us so.