Propane

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run partnerships and strategy at Sentropy Technologies. We’re a machine learning startup and we provide our services in the trust and safety space. We work with online platforms to help remove toxic and harmful user-generated content.

What challenge were you trying to address with Propane?

We worked with Propane to produce two recruitment videos.

What was the scope of their involvement?

There were two video-based projects that we worked with Propane, and the project that I was in charge of was creating a video to showcase our company’s employees and culture — it was going to be used primarily for recruiting purposes. They created the video by hosting a number of interviews with employees. 

They made a couple of cuts for us, but we ended up with the main ones. There was a five-minute cut, which they then cut down to about two minutes, so we have different versions we could use for different circumstances.

What is the team composition?

They were doing two projects at the same time, but I believe there were 2—3 people we communicated with regularly on the culture video. One of the people we worked with was the project manager, and I met with her twice a week for updates on the project. The other people we worked with were more on the creative and production side, so I don’t really know their specific roles.

How did you come to work with Propane?

We researched on Google and sent out RFPs (Request for Proposal) to a bunch of agencies including Propane — and they impressed us right away. They just put in a lot more dedication and time than any of the other vendors did, as they tried to learn more about our business right from the start. They asked to set up a product demo so they could really understand what we did and how we operated.

Additionally, they came through very strongly with the RFP they put together — it was very thoughtful. Their team put together a presentation for some of their ideas, and they were really thought-out ideas. We could tell they really understood our business, and that’s saying a lot because our business is really complicated. They definitely went the extra mile to present their ideas, which was phenomenal.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $45,000 on the two videos.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2020–April 2021.

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

I was really happy with how the videos turned out. Propane really took the time to understand us and our culture, and that all came through in the final project, which they did phenomenally.

How did Propane perform from a project management standpoint?

They never missed a deadline and overcommunicated everything. They always knew exactly where we were in the process, and I felt that they all brought us in at all the right points to get feedback. They used Confluence to manage the project, and we set up two calls every week to review the project and give feedback. A lot of the calls were video calls and all the notes were sent by email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by how quickly they could get up to speed on what we did, and they really took the time to understand our business from multiple angles. Because of that, the projects they produced really felt like us and it didn’t feel like we hired a third-party vendor to do it. They just really ingrained themselves with who we are as a company.

We’re a startup so it wasn’t like we were spending millions of dollars with them, but I was really impressed with how much time they dedicated to us. The last thing I will say is that they were really fun and great to work with — everyone from their team had such a positive attitude about everything.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, no. Propane did everything really well, and the other thing we liked about them was, they worked with us on how a little bit cost-conscious we were.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would tell them to just work with Propane, and make sure they take the time to review what they put together. Set the time to talk through any of their questions so they can really understand your business up front.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a publisher at an arts calendar.

What challenge were you trying to address with Propane?

I inherited a website nearly 20 years ago. It needed to be revamped, refocused, and rebranded.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team at Propane helped us set goals, prioritize audiences, performed background research, and clarified our needs.

We created the website over Zoom. Before we all went on lockdown, we began the process.

What is the team composition?

On various occasions, we’ve worked with ten people, including an account manager.

How did you come to work with Propane?

I searched on Google. One of the factors was that they already worked with a large arts organization in San Francisco. We sent an RFP to 11 different firms, and Propane was the most responsive to the technical requirements we had in the RFP.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March–October 2020. We just launched the site.

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

Propane turned our vision into reality. To create something without being in the room with us, I think they did a pretty fantastic job.

Their service was extremely responsive. The secret to all projects like this is having a good account manager. Our account manager was phenomenal, always making themselves available.

How did Propane perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything has been through email or Zoom. During the design process, we had a weekly Zoom meeting. When it came to deadlines, it was excellent. If anything wasn’t going to meet the deadline we agreed upon, their team was clear and upfront early on. There were no surprises.

For project management, their team used Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their creativity. The team was able to take our words and make them into something stunningly visual. It was very exciting for me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our database is extraordinarily complicated. I think we could’ve put in a bit more input in advance, but again, they’ve been helpful in any changes we’ve requested.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Customers are in very good hands.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I used to be the chief revenue and advancement officer of San Francisco Symphony, the largest performing arts nonprofit in California. I oversaw all revenue: all parts of the business that pertain to fundraising, marketing, and external parts of the business (public relations, front-of-house, volunteer engagement).

What challenge were you trying to address with Propane?

They were initially brought in to redevelop our outdated website to improve the UX/UI.

What was the scope of their involvement?

During the UX/UI update, we arrived at the conclusion that there wasn’t much alignment within our organization about how we wanted the website to be. This led to an exercise in the development of a brand framework. We held conversations about our mission and vision to shape our branding, and they reconfigured our content strategy to supplement our renewed framework.

What is the team composition?

We were working with Neil (Co-Founder), Kim-Minh (Director of Strategy), and Alec (Director of User Experience). There were a couple of others who were working on the creative and technical side of things.

How did you come to work with Propane?

Propane was brought on prior to my onboarding the company. I believe that the prior CMO at the Symphony brought them on.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a significant 6-figure range.

What is the status of this engagement?

They began in February 2017, we wrapped up the work in August of 2019.

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

Propane’s work was strong, thoughtful, and immensely valuable. They delivered a much more streamlined process of buying tickets and making donations. They also made excellent strides with our SEO, the hard results of which are obscured by the effect of COVID-19. After the new site went live (and the site was developed by another company), we saw an uptick in site traffic. We got great feedback about the usability of the new website.

While we relied on another agency to deliver our visual identity, Propane’s work on our brand framework and content strategy definitively informed what we ended up with. Their work also helped us formalize the strategic objectives for our organization, which enjoyed a redefined messaging focus that it previously lacked.

How did Propane perform from a project management standpoint?

While I wasn’t as heavily engaged with them for project management, my staff members who worked with them directly reported that their service was excellent. Our conversations during in-person meetings were always amazingly informative. They’re a great company and I thoroughly enjoyed our working relationship. If I were still at the company, I’d try to find a way to continue working with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

As a group, they’re intellectually curious and very creative. They understand data well and helped us get out of the weeds, a typical challenge for major performing arts organizations. They helped us look at things differently and were responsive to feedback.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can only think of one challenge. I don’t think they always understood the core work of the business — meaning, the 20 or so weeks of classical concerts we do every year. As a company that was less familiar with our industry, they focused more on what could be done with the more popular parts of programming. That said, I think I’m being pedantic because I’ve spent my career working in the performing arts.

They were open to feedback, as well as to understanding why their ideas — while being great — wouldn’t fly with some of our different stakeholders.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Like with any partnership, have a clear brief from the start. Be flexible and communicate. Be prepared to put the time into it and to be open to listening to all of their ideas. They’re great partners.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Chief Marketing Officer of Banner Health, a $10 billion integrated health system serving the South West.

For what projects/services did your company hire Propane?

Prior to Banner Health, I was at Kaiser Permanente. At both companies, I need to significantly transform our digital footprint and ecommerce business and I hired Propane for both. Propane was pivotal in getting Kaiser Permanente digitally prepared for the Affordable Care Act, and they performed so well that I brought them into Banner as well.

What were your goals for this project?

To drive traffic and to increase revenues for the company.

How did you select this vendor?

I wanted a hands-on agency that had both the strategic thinking as well as the ability to execute. I had over a dozen agencies in my roster at the time, but none of them offered the capabilities that Propane does.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

At Kaiser, they had to consolidate over 520 standalone websites into a single unified KP front door, and they had to be fully integrated into each of the State Insurance exchanges as well as the Federal Insurance exchange. Incredibly complex and tricky.

At Banner, we needed to consolidate 30 websites to a single one and create robust presence for each of our service and product lines. They have been able to craft solutions that help tie experiences from one property to another for customers , which is highly valuable as brands struggle with fragmented systems.

What was the team composition?

The team had a total of ten people, counting both Propane and staff on my side. They worked seamlessly as partners including both business owners and the client side IT staff as well. Highly collaborative team work on all of my engagements with them.

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

We've seen 86% increase to web traffic and 41% increase to engagement at Banner. Google My Business results increased over 30% as well. Internal leadership is very pleased.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was excellent: on time and on budget.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have been able to craft solutions that help tie experiences from one property to another for customers, which is highly valuable as brands struggle with fragmented systems. Propane can also dive deep into a multitude of business lines to expose the value propositions that make our brand unique and memorable to our audiences.

This is made possible by the consultative & strategic approach, and their empathetic channeling of the user experience through HCD. Their design systems approach brings brand consistency and scale and ultimately their language-agnostic coding and technical skills bring these digital experiences to life.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of. I recommend them for small or large projects because they have been able to right-size scope on any project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the creative director at an electric company under a division that provides field service software solutions.

What challenge were you trying to address with Propane Studio?

We needed to redesign our corporate website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Once we started working together, we met quite a few times to go over strategy and our business objectives. They interviewed our management team to make sure their goals for the website aligned with ours, picking up on any nuances of what the managers wanted to see on the site. Our team engaged with them on design and we developed the site on our end, collaborating closely as they rearranged content and iterated as needed.

What is the team composition?

Neil (Partnership and Chief Experience Officer, Propane Studio) helped us with the strategy of the website. We also worked with a few others, including a content advisor, art director, and a designer.

How did you come to work with Propane Studio?

We selected vendors to interview from a shortlist of the top agencies on the West Coast and set up two interviews with each company. Ultimately, we liked Propane's presentation the best; it was the most well-thought-out and strategic we'd seen.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started engaging Propane in the Fall of 2015. The project kicked off in January 2016 and wrapped up by that April.

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

Propane helped us achieve our goal of increasing leads from the website by 10%. They strategically laid out content in a more user-friendly and engaging way.

How did Propane Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They were on top of everything and timely about checking in; we never had an issue with their team. We utilized their internal project management tool to proof design iterations, allowing us to easily make comments as needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Propane is an extremely talented strategy and branding company. Their biggest strength is web design.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend working with Propane. You're going to meet the goals and objectives you want if you choose to work with them.

Please describe your company.

My organization is [a wholly owned subsidiary of a global leader in car manufacturing], specifically the electronics research laboratory.

What is your role at the company?

I’m a senior industrial designer.

What was your goal for working with Propane Studio?

We requested them to do the graphic design for a mobile application for the vehicle entertainment system. They had to make the concepts for the graphics and the look and feel of our application. 

Please describe the scope of their work.

We broke it down into three steps. The first one was to get the input for the look and feel of the application, the second milestone was to execute and create the graphical assets for us to be able to build the application, and the third one was to create iconography for our application.

Why did you select Propane Studio with which to work?

We used our own internal purchasing process based on different quotes. Propane Studio was the most qualified from the three bids and had the best pricing.

Can you provide a sense of the size of the work?

There was a lot of technical work that had to be done. So, I would say it was a medium-sized project, about 20 screens that were very detailed and had to work for the vehicle environment. It’s not a mobile application that you can look at on your phone, but it’s an application that is integrated into a production car. So, that elevated the complexity of the project.

How long did the work take?

The project was about six months, mostly because of our timeline. They had to adjust their work schedule with our agile process to develop software, so they had to fit into our timeline. The project started in January [of 2014] and went to July.

What were the results of the work?

The creative work was straightforward. I’m happy with the quality of the ideation phase. There’s a challenge to the integration of the graphics into our industry, and they showed good flexibility in adapting to our processes and internal deadlines.

I think the technical knowledge of the platforms is something that could be improved, in terms of following guidelines and recommendations for a specific platform, and documentation of the specifications of how to apply the graphics in our framework, or on our software. That was something that could have been much better.

Did this have a negative impact on the project overall?

I think so, but I also don’t know of any company that has a solution for that yet. This is something we’ve been learning together to improve. There’s no benchmark of how to do these things, but it could be a good improvement to look into better technical tools to share those particular specifications better, so that the developers are able apply their graphic concepts in a more straightforward way.

What were the results of the work?

Right now, the only feedback would have to be internally. The product hasn’t launched officially yet. Their technical knowledge of the graphics and how the Android operating system and development tools work have been appreciated. That did have an impact. From the creative side and graphical side, I’m happy with the quality of the work. Unfortunately, as our platform is a little bit older, you don’t have the cool screens that you have on your desktop or your phone. So, we really need to be careful which graphics we use, otherwise the quality will be perceived by our customers as a low quality of our displays and hardware. I think that was the best example of the shortcomings of the project, but I also understand it’s a specialized area they were working on here.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

They were quite good with communication and project management. They have a good suite of tools to communicate with us and show us their progress. They have a good setup to share files, and they delivered all the work up to the specifications and requirements that we agreed upon in the beginning of the project. I have a really good relationship with them. They really did quality work.

They also have good client relations to make sure they’re not missing anything. They get all of the information that is required to perform the work. They communicate on a weekly basis to make sure milestones are achieved. I have a good impression of their professionalism, their deliverables, and their commitment to their work. I think overall it’s really positive feedback, and in comparison with other companies we have worked with in the past, they were best able to adapt to our way of working. It can be really hard for them, especially as we’re so large and have all these really bureaucratic processes, so with purchasing and payment and communication, I think they did a really good job being patient with us, to be able to do their work.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the VP of Strategy and Operations at a seed-stage healthcare startup that provides expert medical advice to consumers, insurers, and businesses.

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

As a young company, we hired propane to review, revise, and launch a new brand across digital mediums. Our goals were to present a market image consistent with the high-caliber services we were delivering to clients.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We searched nationally for digital marketing vendors and held a series of calls, reviewed proposals, and created a list of 3 preferred vendors. Of those 3 we asked for a more detailed branding presentation to which we evaluated competency, responsiveness, ability to finish a project quickly, and understanding of our specific space.

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

Broken up into stepsL planning:
1) mission/vision/ needs/prioritization review with comprehensive team.
2) Strategic planning (define audiences and competetive landscape).
3) Recommendations, KPIs ,roadmap
4) Data infrastructure, flows, tools, visualization Building (invisio, zoho, google analytics, google tag manager, facebook, instagram, kinsta, etc)
5) Wireframes, use-cases, landing pages, website flows
6) Paid media recommendations
7) Integration of SEO, content and PR strategeis
8) QA, data tracking, trafficking Go-live
9) launch 10) vet/validate 11) scale/optimize

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

we worked with 6 or 7 individuals across the course of the engagement. CEO / co-founder Operations Director Director of Strategy Director of User Experience Director of Technology and more

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

When comparing pre-launch to post-launch: Website traffic increased by over 300% with significantly decreased bounce rates, qualified leads increased over 60%.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had bi-weekly check-ins with the leadership teams which helped keep the project on track. When issues arose regarding scope and processes, they were resolved quickly and amicably.

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

They take everything in-house and bring their own experts to you. They did not require significant involvement from our team. They worked independently and delivered a superior product.

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

Improvements could be made on sign-off and business requirement approval processes.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our organization is a 50/50 Joint Venture between the Sutter Health Network and Aetna Insurance companies. My role is that of CX and Marketing lead.

For what projects/services did your company hire Propane?

We were looking for a partner to help us reimagine the member experience on our secure member portal.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were

1. Improve the member experience by making core features and functionality hierarchical on the page so users can find the content easily.
2. We have a vast amount of data on our members but we aren't using this resource to improve their experience- leverage the data and personalize the member experience, capture user preferences and create stickiness.
3. Bring in the differentiated features our plan offers to members to the site and make them easy to use and understand.
4. Design some future state enhancements we could bring to the portal to improve UX, Bill pay, and connection to Sutter's E.H.R.
5. Pull the larger Aetna organization along to help us leap-frog our current position.

How did you select this vendor?

Propane was our partner in the redesign of the Sutter web offerings and helped us consolidate 53 distinct sites to one cohesive site with, one data set for providers, a single taxonomy and a modular design that accommodates some variation from legal entity to legal entity. This history and great experience with Neil and team made them our only choice for this prototype. Great work, good value!

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

This work included design, UI, UX, strategy, channel consideration, technical considerations and the creation of a cool interface from which to share the prototype journeys. My role was to drive the vision and detail out the current state.

What was the team composition?

Strategy, UI/UX, design, project management, agency leadership.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We are in the process of socializing this prototype with internal teams across the Aetna joint ventures and with senior leadership at Aetna. The response thus far has been incredibly positive.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

This went incredibly smoothly with PM's on both teams (Propanes and SH|A's) coordinating meetings, deliverables etc.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Vision of a future state, strategy, design, user experience. project management and agency leadership- they are the whole package. Mind you this was done during the COVID period and they did not miss a beat.

Are there any areas for improvement?

none