Community Manager

Adobe Workfront Experts on Workfront System Smarts & Strategic Starts

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
September 22, 2025
32 replies
12332 views

October 29th, 2025

We are happy to welcome Monique Evans, Kiersten Kollins, Nichole Vargas, Cynthia Boon and Leslie Spier for an AMA session about Workfront System Smarts & Strategic Starts.

Our experts:

Monique Evans is a Senior Manager - Global Content Studio Operations at Stanley Black & Decker, Inc.
Kiersten Kollins is a Marketing Operations Tech Manager at DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse
Nichole Vargas, Leslie Spier & Cynthia Boon are Customer Success Managers from Adobe.

How this AMA works:

This thread will open on Wednesday, October 29, for you to start submitting your questions
Reply to this post with any questions you have for our Experts. They will reply to as many of your questions as possible.
After the AMA is over, the thread will be locked for new replies, but it will remain visible as a resource.

Workfront

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LindsayO

Level 2

Our teams are using a lot of external grids to keep track of our projects and their own teams' milestone tasks (that they identified). Instead of external grids - I'd like to build a report in Workfront so that these are in real time and not manually updated by the teams.

Here's the report design I'm trying to mimic:

Column 1 --> Column 2 -------------------------------------------------------> Column 3

Project A --> Current Upcoming Task [Assigned to specific team] --> list of previous [specific set of tasks] completed

These tasks are not predecessors but they are identified by a custom field. Is there any way to create a custom column that pulls in the list for "custom field X is not blank AND is complete"?

I'm working with the textmode below but would like to replace Predecessor with my custom field. Any suggestions?

displayname=Predecessor(s)
listdelimiter=<br>
listmethod=nested(predecessors).lists
type=iterate
valueexpression=CONCAT("(✅: ",{predecessor}.{name}," - ",{predecessor}.{assignedTo}.{name}," - ",{predecessor}.{plannedCompletionDate})
valueformat=HTML

NicholeVargas

Adobe Employee

This might take me a minute, but it should be possible using the task collection vs predecessors!

NicholeVargas

Adobe Employee

@lindsayo This should work for you, although you'll want to swap out the text "Name of Custom Field" with the name of your actual custom field.

displayname=Previously Completed Task(s)
listdelimiter=<br>
listmethod=nested(tasks).lists
type=iterate
valueexpression=IF(!ISBLANK({DE:Name of Custom Field})&&{status}="CPL",CONCAT("✅: ",{name}," - ",{assignedTo}.{name}," - ",{plannedCompletionDate}))
valueformat=HTML

W

WorkfrontWhiff

Level 3

Is it possible when updating the project status i.e. 'Cancelled', it updates the tasks (inc NEW tasks) to match the project status? Would this be a Fusion query?

CynthiaBoon

Adobe Employee

Hello! It is possible, but you're correct, to have this automated, you would need Fusion. There is a Fusion template that is along those lines to give you an idea of how it could work, but that's definitely a scenario that customers have built in the past.

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/workfront-fusion/using/create-and-manage-templates/currently-available-fusion-templates

C

CoreyMa4

Level 2

Our team struggles a bit with too many notifications. I have tried to create a spreadsheet with more details and examples of the different notification types and recommendations on which should be turned on and off. Even referencing the Event Notification Types guide, this has been a bit of a struggle to put together. Would it be possible for a handout or something to be created that not only clearly defines a notification, but can give a few examples of what would trigger them?

NicholeVargas

Adobe Employee

@coreyma4 That’s a great question and something that can definitely vary by user and setup!

There are quite a few types of notifications that can be triggered in Workfront, both in-app and via email. It’s important to note that in-app notifications aren’t fully comprehensive and also can’t be turned off, so if users find those overwhelming, it may be best to help them understand which ones to focus on and which to disregard.

For email notifications, the article you linked is an excellent resource for understanding the different triggers and how they work. You may want to go into the Setup area and review what notifications are turned on globally and see if there are any that can be deactivated. Likewise, if you get an email that you don't need, you always have the option of clicking "stop emails of this type" in the bottom corner and that will automatically turn it off for you. I’d also recommend watching the on-demand event Mastering Email Notifications in Workfront, which covers best practices and strategies for controlling notification volume and tailoring them to your team’s needs.

Finally, it’s worth considering how your users prefer to work. If your team primarily collaborates in Microsoft Teams or Slack, Workfront notifications can be integrated there as well allowing you to reduce email traffic and surface updates where users are already active.

D

David-M-Allen

Level 3

Since the update, several things have changed that are creating confusion for my users. The main issue is that the Requests section now starts off by default with the "new experience" toggle on. Its there away that I can set our instance of WF, so that the default on that toggle is off?

CynthiaBoon

Adobe Employee

Hello! We definitely heard this question in the 4th Quarter Release Webinar a few weeks back. Currently, there is no way to turn that off at the Global level, but your users can absolutely turn that off individually. For organizations that rely heavily on their current Requests page functionality, I had recommended that Sys Admins send a note to their users with a screenshot of how to toggle that off.

D

David-M-Allen

Level 3

Cynthia, thanks for the reply, but sending a note to new users every time they join our WF instance will not be feasible. We have a whole university of people who can opt in to request work from our marketing unit, who will only use the requests section of WF.I will probably need to create a new user doc around this or make a Fusion notification that gives the new users the info. Seems like a lot of unnecessary work on my part around something so simple, that we do not want activated yet.

G

Greta_12-25

Level 2

Ability to exclude projects or tasks from a timesheet. You may want to assign a user to a task (or project), but it is not one that should appear on a timesheet.

This would be an expansion of the ability to disable logging time to a project. Those should then not display on a timesheet.

MoniqueEvans

Community Advisor

Unfortunately you cannot remove items from a timesheet unless you change the date frame or unassign the user. I would highly recommend rethinking your current process workflow to include logging time to be able to use a lot of the amazing features that Workfront has to offer.

But if that isn't an option for you, you could post an idea and have others in the same position upvote the option to delete items from timesheets. Once that functionality exists you could use Fusion to delete in mass.

In the mean time, I recommend training users to pin the key items to their timesheet and/or using the general hours at the bottom for time logging and to ignore the tasks and issues.

G

GregNa

What's the quickest way to assign a simple to do task or issue to someone. Not related to a project not related to a portfolio. Just "hey John find 10 more files for us for our archive."

G

Greta_12-25

Level 2

One way could be to go to the user and add a comment via Updates. Not sure if that is recommended or the quickest/simplest way.

G

Greta_12-25

Level 2

Ability to set a Start Date or End Date for Exchange Rates (similar to the capability for Job Role).

MoniqueEvans

Community Advisor

This is a great idea, not quite a functionality available yet. If you haven't already please post this as an idea and I will absolutely upvote it. In the meantime, I think you may be able to achieve this via Fusion but I wouldn't know where to begin.

G

GregNa

There are hardly any answers here for this whole event....what am I missing?

kautuk_sahni

Author

Community Manager

@gregna The speakers are responding to each question one at a time. Please allow them a moment — your question will be addressed shortly.

And please refresh your page to see the update getting reflected.

Kautuk Sahni

KellieGardner

Community Advisor

what is your recommendation for sharing objects with small subset of users outside of the original shared list.

Example: Request Queue for Marketing is shared with the Marketing Group. However there are 3 users in the IT Group that can request items from marketing and need access to the queue.

Lyndsy-Denk

Community Advisor

Would it work for you to create a Team where you can add the random requestors? Share the queue with that team.

MonicaDi4

Level 2

As many of us are going into Annual Planning and trying to get our projects for next year aligned, what are some best practices, or tips for annual planning you have learned along the way?

CynthiaBoon

Adobe Employee

Hello! I can tell you how I handled this, and it was primarily through a combination of specific Portfolios, Project Templates, along with a defined use of defined Project Statuses that matched my Governance model.

So, our fiscal year began in October, and we conducted budget meetings over the summer. I would start "collecting" potential initiatives for the next year, and creating projects with a basic "annual planning" template with tasks that aligned to a general Milestone path. These projects lived under Annual Planning Portfolio, with a "Requested" status. The Governance model for projects (and project requests) would start at Requested, then either Approved or Rejected (with reasoning attached) and if approved, then it could move into a Current status, with the applicable Project Template.

Doing it this way allows you to build reporting with current Projects, sprinkled in with Annual Planning Projects, if I include that Portfolio. AND since I'm attaching Project Templates that have some Custom Form fields on the Tasks, I can build a fabulous little Annual Planning calendar.

Hopefully this helps a bit!

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