Background

At a growing agency, the biggest slowdown isn’t always the work itself. It’s those moments in between: the link dropped in the wrong chat, the deck no one can find, and the question that’s already been answered five times this week. When everything is moving fast, those tiny delays stack up and quietly slow you down.

That’s the world Kaitlyn Miner, People & Culture Leader, and Kim Siercks, Process Improvement Analyst, navigate at Pathfinders Advertising. The 50-person agency specializes in brand strategy, creative, media, and digital execution for regional and national clients.

Miner leads the agency’s people and culture function, where clarity and consistency directly shape the employee experience as the company scales. Siercks works on the operational side, stepping in to identify bottlenecks and help get work moving again when projects stall.

Between them, they had a clear view of where the agency worked (and where it didn’t).

Challenge: growing fast, losing track of what matters

From new-hire onboarding to client delivery, the issue was the same. Teams spent too much time tracking down information.

Miner heard this feedback directly. “I’d get questions constantly. And they would be the same questions from multiple employees.”

Pathfinders had used Dropbox for years to keep their files organized and accessible. From creative assets to welcome packets, everything had a home. But as the agency grew, Dropbox wasn’t the only place work lived. Conversations happened on Teams. Feedback lived in email. Notes were attached to decks. And no one could find what they needed, when they needed it.

Information wasn’t missing. It was fragmented.

Solution: one place to search and understand, quickly

Leadership started looking for ways to make information easier to find across the company without changing how things work. When they learned about Dropbox Dash, they saw a solution. Dash would work with the tools teams already use, bringing content, conversations, and context together in one searchable place.

“We [already] use Dropbox to store everything we do. Dash [helps us] find all of the outputs we need,” says Siercks.

By connecting tools like Dropbox, Microsoft Teams, and other work apps, Dash creates a centralized, AI-powered search function across the Pathfinders ecosystem. Instead of remembering where something lives, employees can search once and get results from across all their files, threads, and documents. And every request is permission-aware, so they only see what they’re cleared to access.

For Miner, this means fewer repeat requests. “[Now I] ask, ‘Have you dashed that yet?’” she says. “It helps empower people to look for [answers] on their own, while still making sure employees feel supported.”

Dash also summarizes documents and quickly surfaces key details, helping teams orient without opening and scanning multiple files. Instead of digging through threads and folders, they get the right content in seconds.

Results: 750 hours reclaimed—and everyone can find what they need

Siercks saw the value of Dash during a new client “immersion” session. “Usually it would take us about a week to turn that day into a usable team download,” she says. With Dash, the team distilled the key insights into a one-hour briefing and began executing the next day.

Miner has seen similar gains in performance management. While teaching employees how to do the Performance Management Review (PMR), she used the chat feature in Dash to help them write reviews in their own voices. “Over a six-month cycle, [the team] can save the chat and add wins as they happen,” Miner says. “By the end, you have a fully incorporated PMR that’s ready to deliver.”

In both cases, Dash has meant less time processing context and more time applying it.

Miner calculated the impact across the company. Creatives say they save five to six hours a week. Operations leaders get time back to resolve issues faster. HR receives fewer repeat questions without giving up support. “Dash has actually saved probably two to three hours a week,” she says. “If you do the math, it figures out to 750 hours a year per person.”

And once teams stop chasing links and answers, they can put that time back into what Pathfinders calls “investment work”: learning, process improvement, and strengthening culture.

“Dash gives us more time to spend with each other,” Siercks says, “and to invest back into the business and ourselves.”