Setting up content and creative project tasks

Featured

Hello, Call my Wrike Marketing community project managers.

Can someone share how they build the content and creative tasks in Wrike? We are currently set up as follows but are looking for a better solution.

01. Content (parent task) below are the subtasks

  • 01. Create copy
  • 02. Reviewer 1 copy
  • 03. Reviewer 2 copy
  • 04. Revision copy
  • 05. Approval 1 copy
  • 06. Approval 2 copy

Sometimes, we create a checklist for the review and approval tasks. 

Any recommendation would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you in advance.

2
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos
12 comments

For further understanding, are there dependencies between each of these?

0
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

Hi Nelson Martinez,
we have something similar ie:

  • A task for the copywriter used for copy writing and in the case also for proofreading

  • A specific workflow for this kind of task

  • A set of specific automations 

How it works:

  1. The copywriter has the task in "To Do" status.

  2. When he finishes his work he changes the status to "In Review"

  3. The "In Review" status creates a subtask (with different Worflow) assigned to the person who is to do the review (we need to have separate timelogs) and adds, to the main task, an approval.

  4. The reviewer, after checking the task, decides whether it is ok or not. If it is ok, the task goes into the "To Publish" status otherwise it goes into the "To Fix" status

  5. The copy then ends up with the task "To Fix" and works on it then goes back to step 2.

 

Status Group

Active

  • To Do
  • To Fix
  • To Publish

Deferred

  • In Review

 

1
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

I agree with the answer above. Additionally, I would also recommend looking into any automations that can make your process less manual. For example, when a task is marked from "in review" to "to publish", you can create an automation to assign, @ mention, etc.

2
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

I would suggest similar to Ben and Pietro. First define your workflow. Much like what Pietro described, you should have this defined and understood by the team. Second, create automations for assigning tasks based on status or even @ mention people based on status and maybe even custom fields. We also use a Blueprint that contains our tasks that once a request comes, the Blueprint is used to create everything. Our Blueprint of tasks also have job roles assigned to them so we can quickly filter and reassign the tasks to the team member that will have that role. 

1
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

Our team actually likes to use google docs for copy and review with the link the doc in the Wrike task.
We have also built specific copy workflows with automatic assignment at some stages.
That way, we only need one task rather than a number of subtasks.
Switching the status in between stages moves the process along efficiently.
We have included a 'Needs more info/clarity' status also so that it can be assigned back to the requester if relevant.

1
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

Responding to the above, our process for documents like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint is similar to Tania's. But for PDF's and images and such we have used the proofing and approval feature in Wrike. Folks have really liked it. I think automations/dependencies will be your friend in this process though.

1
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

Thanks everyone for your feedback and recommendations. 

Here's an example of how tasks are structured within our blueprint's content and design phases. We typically involve multiple reviewers and approvers in the process. After one reviewer offers feedback in the copy document, they @mention the next reviewer for their input. I'm seeking ways to enhance this process. Thank you.

 

0
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

Hey Nelson, I love this topic! We're always looking for ways to streamline our creative process in Wrike.

Here are my top tips for ya:

  • We have blueprints for pretty much any type of creative work, that way they can be customized for the work type (ex: a blog is going to have way different steps than a video!), steps are never forgotten, and you don't have to do a bunch of customization when setting up a task. Just add a pre-fix when you launch the blueprint so your creative team gets customized task titles in their inbox so they can quickly spot what they're looking for (that's direct feedback from our team).
  • Definitely get the creative team involved in designing the blueprints! We've found success in focusing on one at a time. Get the team together, build the blueprint together, test it out with a real deliverable, then talk about what worked/what didn't, tweak it, then repeat this process when the team is ready to tackle another blueprint.
  • Our creative team LOVES checklists inside of their tasks! (Reference the screenshot below.) This has been a game changer for reducing subtasks and of course not missing steps so nothing falls through the cracks.
  • Last week we made the decision to make our brand managers the final decision makers on edits. Sometimes we had several stakeholders weighing in on a deliverable (let's say collateral), and there were so many comments on the proofing file that it was too chaotic for the copywriters and designers to make sense of it and what should be changed due to conflicting opinions. If this sounds like a challenge you're facing then I would highly suggest assigning ONE person to the Review task and making that person responsible for getting feedback from stakeholders (scheduling a meeting to screenshare and review 1:1 works well), and then that person is responsible for condensing the feedback down in a concise format for the creative team. This also avoids confusion of which reviewer is responsible for marking the task as done and tagging the next person (been there).

I would love to use automation in our process but we don't have specific people assigned to certain deliverables or reviews. And that's okay, it works for us. So do what works for your team - try things and experiment together! For example, we could use the built-in Approval feature, but our Reviewers like to have subtasks assigned to themselves so they can track their work and see what's coming their way on their Personal board or a dashboard.

Below is an example of our Collateral blueprint. All major creative work has a creative kickoff task (which I only have one blueprint of and reuse it on all blueprints that need a creative kickoff, so if our process changes I only have to update it in one place!) "Needs Prioritized" is a status we added a few years ago as the first step in the workflow to indicate that the work isn't ready to be worked on. It works SO well! When a step is completed, there's a reminder on their checklist to update the status of the next task and tag the owner. We don't automate any part of this because they often leave more information/context for the next person. And we don't want people to get a custom message AND another inbox notification from an automation.

I hope our use case has been helpful!

EDIT: I want to add that we use ONE workflow for tasks because we're an Agile team and our Kanban Board is the source of truth.😊 We've toyed with the idea of different workflows, but haven't discovered a way making it work with the team's Board view.

3
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

We take a more free-form approach to Wrike and primarily use it for collaboration. So we don't have a set workflow on each task but strive to clearly communicate the status and what is next and who needs to do what.

1
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

I love all these thoughts and ideas!  and for @nelson definitely consider using Custom Fields, Automations, Blueprints and Request forms to standardize your process. 

I typically avoid parent/subtask relations primarily for reporting and control of sorting project effectively.. so you might consider adding a FOLDER for Copy Tasks... (or design) etc.. 

 

I have an example here of how we use these!  https://help.wrike.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/21833214182423-Blueprints-Dashboards

1
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

Another thought crossed my mind as well. You can create a group within Wrike then have that group @ mentioned with an automation. For example, if you change the status of a task, you can automate the group that something is ready for action (like a review).

1
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

Hey everyone! Thank you to everyone for sharing your feedback and ideas on my questions. Your contributions mean a lot! 🙂

0
👍 Spot On 💡 Innovative Approach 💪 Stellar Advice ✅ Solved 🪄 Remove Kudos

Folllowing List for Post: Setting up content and creative project tasks
[this list is visible for admins and agents only]

Top
Didn’t find what you were looking for? Write new post