San Francisco, June 24th, 2019

Founded in 2003 in San Francisco, Propane is a full-service digital experience agency that designs and manages platforms, websites, applications, tools, and products. The agency is rooted in delivering well-conceived solutions across the entire marketing ecosystem, offering services such as brand strategy, content strategy and creative design.

By developing a deep understanding of the way consumers engage with a brand, Propane creates authentic experiences, campaigns and platforms. Behind most of that work is Neil Chaudhari, co-founder and chief experience officer. In an interview with TIA, he gives us an inside look of the work at the agency.

How would you describe your agency in a few words?

We have cracked the code on how to offer the right amount of consulting services with digital experience services to enable platforms within businesses.

What are the main areas of focus of the agency?

We have equal focus on Strategy, UX/UI and Development. Some clients think we are a dev shop, some think we are a strategy shop, others call us a UX/UI shop. That’s because in every project we bring a high level of expertise to the table. It’s all in the service of helping companies reach their true potential through platforms. We do this first by starting on more accessible projects like websites, applications, portals, and brand strategies.

What are the things you like and dislike from your position?

I love that we get to build complete platforms and applications from end to end and that we can show brands that they don’t always have to invest in just advertising, but that they should also invest in building better customer experiences. It makes the world a better place for brands to bring value to every customer touchpoint.

What I don’t like is the commoditized nature of the industry. There is overall less understanding of what it takes to build amazing experiences, therefore budgets are never truly correctly allocated for these projects.

How do you know that you are leading and leading well?

When teams and clients together are exploring what is possible transparently, when doors are being opened vs being shut, and when people are enjoying the work that they are doing because they understand the impact it’s going to have on our client’s business and our agency.

How much time do you spend with customers?

We wish we can spend more time with our customers. However, we try to encourage our clients to do qualitative or quantitative research. We also strongly believe in running prototypes back in front of customers. It’s so much easier to test out ideas and get feedback than it was historically.

What’s the communication style with your team?

We don’t have a particular style, in fact its diverse. Personalities, times of day, types of projects all factor into how we communicate. I will say that no one is afraid to speak their mind. We are tough but inspiring with each other. We crack jokes all the time, but we hold ourselves to high standards because no one else will. We like to have open frank conversations with our clients because digital is already complex, communication does not need to be.

How do you organize and prioritize your workload?

Program/Product Management along with Resourcing and Operations meet weekly to review and adjust longer term resourcing and prioritization needs. This is followed up by a weekly meeting with Department Leads to prioritize and review that week’s deliverables and needs, including items such as new sales activities.

The longer-term outlook helps ensure that when you get to the specific weekly review, your resource needs are covered, whether internally through schedule adjustments or via augmentation with outside resources. Allows us to stay on target for both deliverables and budget.

How do you motivate other members of the team to achieve more?

We ask ourselves this every day because it changes from age group, to lifestyle, to household commitments. At a high level, we let the members be themselves and play off their strength’s vs trying to conform them. We also try and inspire by showing them faster smarter ways of doing things. Who doesn’t like that? As a culture we try and acknowledge the great work that comes from our teams as often as we can.

What piece of advice would you give to a recent grad looking to work in the digital industry?

There are lots of video training materials that did not exist years ago, all easily accessible. Absorb all of that training for common digital programs like Photoshop and Sketch. You don’t have to be an expert but have the context of what it actually takes to produce quality work.

Appreciate the craft first, then figure out how to monetize it through digital business practices. Once you have a general understanding, then go deep into one practice that fits you best. Be it design, or UX, or technical, video, strategy, etc.

Go work at an agency because you will progress far faster than client side. Clients are all looking to hire ex agency people anyway. At least then you will have a choice. Don’t discount client side, or agency side, they both have their pros and cons. Then share knowledge with everyone around you, because the more you share the more you will absorb.

Always ask if there a better way, be forever curious so that you can keep up with the pace of innovation in digital.

Thanks Neil!

Learn more about Propane

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