Pineapple
Discover how one Bay-Area boutique creative studio spends the bulk of their time building brands and not managing tasks
“BasicOps has been transformative in how we efficiently manage the work and our time which allows us to focus on creative outputs for our clients. It sounds counterintuitive, but having time to do the work can often be the most challenging part of complex collaborative projects.”
-Marcus Colombano, Partner + Director of Strategy
Meet Pineapple:
Industry: Creative Studio
Location: The Bay Area
Company Size: 6-10
Founded: 2017
Pineapple is a branding and creative studio located in the heart of the beautiful Bay Area. With clients big and small, ranging from B2B tech companies to up and coming Direct-to-Consumer brands, Pineapple does strategy and design work with a lean team of some pretty amazing creatives. Pineapple uses BasicOps to streamline the administrative work that no creative tends to love: managing project plans, tasks and timelines. The team is freed up to focus on what their clients need most, great creative outputs and flawless execution.
Pineapple has used BasicOps from its earliest days. As a small, new team they rallied around a desire to do exceptional and out-of-the-box creative work. With diverse backgrounds from both the in-house and agency side, they knew the biggest challenge ahead would be managing projects and timelines efficiently in the interest of excellent client service.
“We’re not a team of project managers, we are strategists and designers that need to manage projects. As a collective group, we had used most productivity solutions from post-it notes and excel sheets for day-to-day tasks and project management software like Asana and TeamGantt for more complex operations. The issue was, the features we wanted were always buried in more expensive versions of the product.” said Marcus Colombano, Partner and Director of Strategy at Pineapple.
BasicOps freed up the team to create a strong infrastructure of buttoned-up processes from client onboarding and setting clear milestones, all the way through to final asset handoff. As a team, key members of each project can chat and collaborate through each step of the project. This single source of truth for clients, project owners and team members creates a centralized homebase that results in first-class service and stellar creative that continues to wow clients.
Who In the Pineapple world is using BasicOps?
There are four key groups that rely on BasicOps:
In-house Team Members. Strategists, designers and writers want to focus on the creative outputs that they own - that is why they got into this business. “As a team, we really count on each other to be responsible for our own independent work and reliable when it comes to what our team needs from us. BasicOps is the tool that enforces this accountability without the dreaded burden of high-touch task management because it is automated right there in the system,” says Graphic Designer, Molly Drill
Contractors. Both long and short-term contractors know that the expectation is that when they work with Pineapple, they will receive their tasks in BasicOps. For users that are not actively in there on a day-to-day basis, they still receive their notifications and can easily connect external apps like Slack that support how they choose to work.
Pineapple Partners. Marcus and his partner Paul are running the business and also leading strategy, design, business development and client relationships. They have to map out their time wisely and be where they are most needed which can change day-to-day. BasicOps makes it easy and relieves a lot of the stress that comes with high demands on time.
Clients. While clients are not actively in BasicOps, Pineapple uses timelines to visualize the project for clients. They set clear milestones which inspires confidence that key dates will not be missed and they can trust in the plan and timing of the project.
What are the features Pineapple can’t live without?
Pineapple uses the full breadth of functionality, but there are a handful of stand out features that the team has come to count on for maximum productivity, collaboration and organization:
Communication. Communication is what makes collaborative work from anywhere possible. The Pineapple team is spread far and wide across time zones but key information is readily available so, wherever team members are, whenever they are online, they’re connected and can communicate directly via message or on tasks to keep project momentum at full speed.
Notes. Several folks on the Pineapple team take free form notes and ideate during meetings and brainstorms. Project Owners and Leaders can delegate instantly and turn creative ideas right into actionable task assignments via the Notes feature, which is key for meeting client briefs and timelines. One team member says, “It’s the kind of thing you want with you in every single meeting.”
Timeline. Pineapple uses the timeline feature with clients to show week to week where each task falls, where milestones are and how dependencies impact the greater timeline. By painting a clear picture of how the project will move forward, they can provide an informed, realistic launch date. It inspires confidence early which is key to a happy, long term client relationship.
Integration. Pineapple was a dispersed team before 2020 but now, more than ever, they rely on being able to seamlessly jump right from DM to Zoom or pull up a client document from Google Drive. Being out of the office has made BasicOps an even more essential part of the Pineapple tool kit. They can incorporate most systems and apps that clients use for their own operations.
Result: World Positive Report brought to you by Pineapple with a key supporting role by BasicOps
BasicOps has touched every project deliverable out of Pineapple in one way or another. While Marcus and his team attribute many wins in part to BasicOps, a recent 120-page report was a standout achievement.
Their client, Obvious, a mission driven investment firm, planned to release their first ever World Positive Report, highlighting the incredible work being done by their portfolio companies. Pineapple was tapped to execute a scope including Strategy, Design, Content and Production of this data-rich branded editorial project.
BasicOps housed the many moving pieces, allowing them to work back from an ambitious launch date and manage a large, complex project. They launched on target and on time - which is always a win in any studio’s book In addition to the report, the supporting assets built a web experience on key channels like LinkedIn and Twitter to really amplify the great work being done by these mission-driven companies. Ultimately, the client was incredibly happy (success!) and it was a collective win for all parties.
“Complex creative work is a bit like a relay race. You rely on your teammates to get you what you need so you can build on it and pass it to the next runner. BasicOps streamlines this process and allows us to do it in an incredibly organized and collaborative way. We are a more focused, productive organization because of BasicOps.”
-Marcus Colombano, Partner + Director of Strategy, Pineapple