Kanopi Studios

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.

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Our website was out of date and didn’t reflect on the platform that we needed to be on.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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director of a company in the travel and tourism industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?

When I first started my position, I inherited a Drupal site that needed a lot of changes. The original Drupal agency I hired didn’t deliver up to par. Eventually, we tasked Kanopi Studios to help with ongoing site maintenance and improvements. 

What was the scope of their involvement? 

The site is based on Drupal Commerce and had a backlog of broken parts left over from our past engagement. Kanopi Studios came in to fix the issues before implementing new features and optimizing our site.

What is the team composition? 

We’ve worked with five people, including a project manager and about four developers.

How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?

I used Clutch to research Drupal agencies and found Kanopi Studios. They were also recommended to me by a professional contact, so I decided to reach out to them and had a good experience.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent about $80,000, although, with the COVID-19 situation, we’re not spending nearly as much as we were before.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with them since February 2019. 

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

Our site was a tremendous source of headaches until we found Kanopi Studios. They have a clear ability to deliver, and we’ve yet to give them a problem that they haven’t solved quickly. That’s just unheard of on our side. It’s obvious that they make client satisfaction their number one goal. 

How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management has been top-notch. They’re extremely responsive — if there’s a particularly urgent concern that comes up, they always step up to the plate to get things done. In terms of communication tools, we use Teamwork to manage their tasks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the project management and dev work are my favorite parts of working with them — not to mention how friendly they are.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing specific comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do your research first and check out their team. Before we committed to the engagement, they let us talk to one of their developers rather than a sales person. That allowed our software developer to discuss our project specs with them and get a sense of their capabilities.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of communications at the San Francisco sheriff’s office. I manage all of the external communications to our stakeholders, which ranges from people that use our services, that come and go from our jails, their families and friends, people in public safety and law enforcement, government stakeholders, justice partners, and in general, the public of San Francisco.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?

We didn’t have a functioning website. The only feature that worked well was the search for people in custody. Nothing else on our site communicated what our department does, and the information wasn’t delivered in a user-friendly format. The content was also not written in an accessible way.

We were trying to bring the website up to modern standards, increasing the accessibility and making it mobile-responsive.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team at Kanopi Studios developed a mobile-responsive website from scratch. They did all of the research, created the wireframes, and presented the idea. I had a stakeholder committee that reviewed all of their presentations. They also provided a copywriter halfway through the process to assist me with the writing. Along with having an accessible design, the website can be translated using Google Translate.

How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?

Our Department of Technology and the city & county of San Francisco had approved 12 vendors, which we issued an RFQ to. We received four responses from vendors who submitted proposals. After the four vendors came in to present their ideas, we scored them as a group.

I had a committee of different people in our department that were invested in the website, and we evaluated them based on that. Kanopi Studios came out with the highest score.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost $325,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We selected them in December 2018. After the contract process that lasted several months, we started working with them in May 2019.

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

The team at Kanopi Studios was very experienced. They were realistic while remaining creative. The research that they presented was comprehensive and thorough.

It was an adjustment to work with a distributed agency because I had never done that before. There was a bit of ramp-up time for me to feel comfortable, which I appreciated. I ended up feeling completely comfortable. They also drew on a variety of people across the US and Canada that brought different skills to the table.

How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style was excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I thought their team was extremely professional. They also have a lot of experience with the city and county of San Francisco. Overall, their team was collaborative, creative, and resourceful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not anything that comes to mind.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an organization dedicated to writing and literary expression. We support writers and readers both in the United States and internationally. I'm the director of communications.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?

We maintain a website that does a lot of things for us. It's an advocacy website, a news hub, and a resource for our users. We found it needed some improvements, and we hired Kanopi to help us with maintenance, security updates, and sitewide changes to drive more traffic, improve conversions, and provide more information to our users.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have them on a monthly retainer. They provide all the services I mentioned on an ongoing basis. They do development work on our WordPress platform. The first order of business was a full site audit. They went through all our backend code, and they made notes about things that were working well and outlined places we could improve.

What is the team composition?

We have a dedicated project manager and a technical lead. As needed, we also work with other developers and specialists.

How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?

We did an RFP and considered three different vendors for this contract. Kanopi's expertise in WordPress, their focus on client engagement, and my previous experience with them were all deciding factors in choosing them as our partner.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we've spent less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We just started working with them at the beginning of October 2019. That monthly retainer is ongoing.

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

Our team is very happy with them. So far, they've delivered all the improvements we've requested, and they troubleshoot very quickly. We've faced a few problems with forms and security issues, and they're helping resolve all those existing issues. Their solutions are clever, and they help us save money. They're attentive to all our needs.

How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They're highly responsive, and they stick to deadlines. We always know when a project is running ahead or running behind. We work with them through video conference, Teamwork, and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're a partnership organization that is really committed to our needs. They help us think through our needs and high-level goals, they're friendly and fun to work with, and they really feel like a part of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They're excellent, and there's nothing I can think of that they should improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know what kind of relationship you want to have. Don't hold back with them, and be clear about your goals. We talk to them about everything, and they're as ambitious as we are. See them as a partner and follow their guidance.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the communications specialist for a program called advancing new standards in reproductive health at the University of California, San Francisco.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios ?

Initially, we were just interested in support and ongoing maintenance on our Drupal website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

A previous vendor had built our site unsuccessfully, so when we first stared working with Kanopi they found a lot of errors in coding, and brought us up to speed. We had some issues getting ready for the modernization of the site. They did a whole tech audit, and reviewed everything that was going on in the backend of the site and improved the functionality. Now we're looking to them to redesign our website and bring it up to date.

How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios ?

We did an RFP, and viewed a bunch of other companies, and they were just the best. They were recommended to us by our department's communication manager and I knew they had worked with some other groups around UCSF and they were known for their Drupal expertise. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested $20,000 – $25,000. Our budget for the redesign will be $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in October 2018, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

They're really easy to work with, they're intuitive, and sometimes recognize problems before we recognize them. They're really great with working within our budget, so if there's a larger project they'll prioritize things.

How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage everything through teamwork. We don't have a lot raging fires that need to be tended to, but when we do we typically problem solve within a couple of hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're really friendly and easy to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I'm a complete superfan. I'm really happy with the work they've been doing. Even if you don't have a background in design, you can still work with them without any problems.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the communications director at Goldman Environmental Prize. We seek to honor and support grassroots environmental activists around the world to help protect the environment and inspire others to do the same.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?

We needed a vendor to develop a new website for us. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kanopi Studios built our current website in WordPress, managing both design and development. We’re particularly busy in spring, so we're doing a lot of updates on our website. Kanopi Studios implements all the changes and develops new templates and solutions for us. They also help us resolve bugs and improve the interface between our home page, a press page, and profile pages. 

What is the team composition? 

We work with a project manager and two or three other members of their team. 

How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?

The relationship had started before I joined the company. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started with them in October 2014, and the partnership is ongoing.

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

The website looks very professional, which is important for our business. If we have an urgent issue, Kanopi Studios resolves it as soon as possible. They have a system for marking the urgency of the projects, which has been working very well. In addition, they're able to come up with solutions that are creative and unique. I don't have the technical expertise, so I appreciate having a partner who is able to think through things and make recommendations. 

How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint? 

They're very responsive and great communicators. We use Teamwork to keep track of the projects and we also use email and phone to stay in touch. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're always trying to find the solutions that will make us happy. They're willing to work with us, even when we have our moments of stress.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In a perfect world, they'd have more developers. However, they're very responsive, especially when it comes to urgent projects, so we haven't had any issues. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear, transparent, and consistent in communication. Also, make sure you have a good relationship with your project manager. We found a monthly video call to be very helpful as well. 

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I'm the director of marketing for a telecommunications provider.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios? 

We were trying to find a solution to build out our website in a more efficient and user-friendly manner. We wanted to enhance the speed and usability of the site in general, in hopes that this would increase conversions.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Kanopi Studios is providing web development and content services. They work in Drupal. They modify some of the content on the website and rearrange it so that it’s more usable and better accessible by my end users. Everything else, I left up to them. I hand them the keys and let them drive the project.

What is the team composition? 

We work with 5–6 people. Our project lead is the main point of communication. The technical team members join the calls on a regular basis and support the project as needed. I expect the total number will grow as we move into the next phase. 

How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios? 

An employee at my previous job introduced me to them. I met with Anne (CEO/Founder, Kanopi Studios), who outlined what they could do for us in a succinct and engaging manner. I brought them on, and they delivered on everything that they said they would. Because of that positive experience, I told my new boss that we should use them for web design. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

Work started in late May 2019 and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Kanopi Studios didn't come in and try to maximize their dollars. From day one, they work to maximize their value. I trust them implicitly. They do very thorough technical audits, and they’re excellent at prioritizing the results. They separate minor issues with the website that can be put at the end of the queue from the ones that need to be repaired tomorrow. They focus their energies on high-impact, high-result tactics. 

They came to my current company and have performed just as well as they did for the previous company. I have a different project manager and technical lead, which speaks to the consistency of their process and approach. I highly recommend Kanopi Studios. 

How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint? 

Their project management team is great. They do a weekly video call with us, and we can always tell that they’re giving us their undivided attention. Kanopi Studios’ project managers are almost overwhelmingly efficient. My challenge is keeping up with their process. Notes, next steps, or tasks from the meeting are documented and pushed out quickly.

Overall, they do a really good job of communication through weekly calls, emails, project updates, and Slack. The personal touch and super-efficient workflow have made this partnership a really good experience for us. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Kanopi Studios gets results; they know what they're doing.

Are there any areas they could improve? 

Nothing's come up yet in our current engagement. I also can't think of one instance in my prior engagement where we had to wait for them or had any issues.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Mind Your Brain is a company focused on developing courses and information for mental health professionals. Our organization is largely based around the work of Dr. Dan Siegel, a world-renowned author and speaker with a Harvard medical degree. I'm a consultant on the marketing and product development area. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Kanopi Studios?

We were looking for a firm to help us with our website, which is built on the Drupal platform. At the baseline, we needed month-to-month maintenance and minor feature upgrades. We also hired them for the more significant updates and changes we need to make. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kanopi Studios provides monthly maintenance and base support. This level of service mainly revolves around minor frontend tweaks, security and module updates, and bug fixes. 

Some of the larger projects they've done have ranged from adding new features to updating how we handled aspects of the site on the backend. 

Recently, they created a functionality  we've termed an "all-access pass." This feature allows users to purchase access to our entire library, rather than buying individual courses. 

What is the team composition? 

Our main points of contact are a project manager and a Drupal developer. A few others from Kanopi Studios work for our business in the background. 

How did you come to work with Kanopi Studios?

When we decided to move on from our previous developer, we conducted a thorough review process and considered several different firms. Kanopi Studios came highly recommended. We met with them a few times to talk through their experience and methodology. They were a good fit for us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent between $10,000–$50,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the middle of 2017 and have an ongoing partnership. 

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

To assess Kanopi Studios, we look at the overall health of our business including more general web metrics. They make sure everything is working the way we want it to. The work that they're providing our company is up to our standards. 

How did Kanopi Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Kanopi Studios keeps everything very well-managed. They're always on top of tasks and are skilled communicators. They keep our team appraised of progress. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

From a technical standpoint, Kanopi Studios has a tremendous knowledge of Drupal. Along with their internal developers, the team is well-connected and plays a significant role within the larger Drupal developer community. They have quite an extensive reach in that space, and their fingers are always on the pulse of new trends. 

They're very helpful when it comes to fixing a new problem or considering how to add new features. If they haven't done a task before themselves, they invariably know someone with the necessary skill set who can quickly provide answers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really can't think of any. I've worked with many different firms over the years in a variety of roles, and Kanopi Studios performs very well. They're skilled and efficient. They communicate effectively and have maintained stability within the team they assigned us. We've had a positive experience so far. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust your first impression when you first meet Kanopi Studios. We met with a lot of teams, but they were the best— and it's shown. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Mises Institute is an educational organization dedicated to researching and teaching the Austrian School of economics and politics. We publish books and journals, produce videos and podcasts, host conferences around the world, and offer free online resources. As technology manager, I handle audio and video production, graphic design, and management of our website. 

For what projects/services did your company hire Kanopi Studios?

We first worked with their founder when she was our project manager with another vendor. When she started Kanopi Studios, we stayed with that firm for support and ongoing development. After a year, we moved to Kanopi Studios. That move was a game-changer, and we've been happy ever since.

What were your goals for this project?

In 2013, we redesigned our site from the ground up, moving our robust website from a proprietary setup to Drupal 7. Our goal was to build an attractive, efficient site that our staff could easily manage and constantly improve.

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed several vendors. The deciding factor was the founder's professionalism and our ease in interacting with her.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We evaluated our mission and organizational goals throughout the wireframe design, architecture, site management, and launch. We interacted extensively and scheduled many conference calls. Since the launch, we've continued with ongoing improvements, development, and maintenance.

Because our website evolved over 15 years, it was a rat's nest of dysfunctional systems. Building a new home and importing a huge database into Drupal was extremely challenging, but they made it happen.

We're constantly improving our website and launching new development projects. We are working on a text-to-speech project and an API that will expand and improve site performance and features.

What was the team composition?

We mostly spoke with our project manager, information architect, and UX expert. We had limited interaction with the graphic designer and technical team, so I'm not sure how many people were involved. After launch, most of our interactions have been with our project manager and technical lead.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The most obvious impact has been the improved, responsive site design and streamlined website management. It's easy to add and edit content. Another unexpected impact has been the expansion of Drupal site features. For example, it's easier to host RSS feeds of our podcasts and audiobooks, feed them to platforms like Stitcher and Spotify, and add Spanish and Korean translations of our website.

We had 11,507,718 unique page views in 2018, and mobile device and tablet sessions accounted for more than 3.9 million total visits. The website is key to reaching new audiences and younger demographics. For example, 48% of our online readership in 2018 was under the age of 35, and nearly 47% of all sessions occurred on mobile devices. Their team makes this ongoing creative growth possible. Looking to the future sets us apart.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They're professional and systematic. The founder has managed the entire process. While quite responsive to our ideas and suggestions, she keeps the project on track and under budget. Our current project manager and tech lead are fantastic. They're quick to respond to and solve problems.

Since we're a nonprofit, it's important that they are also cognizant of our budget and timeline. They break down invoices, so we know how they spend every minute and dollar.

We communicate weekly through video conferencing, but they are regularly available through email and Teamwork and are always open to schedule meetings. The entire team is extremely responsive, accommodating, and pleasant. Their customer service is impeccable. Sometimes the founder calls, out of the blue, to see how things are going. They make us feel like their most important client.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I've never worked with a company that balances customer service, friendliness, work quality, deadlines, and professionalism so well. They are simply the best. We are pleased to work with Kanopi Studios and always recommend them. I've worked here for nearly 18 years, and hiring them was the best website-related decision we've ever made.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We should have been slightly more hands-off. They accommodated our constant requests and changes, but we should have stepped back and let the experts run with it.