For internal agencies, how to you manage creative approvals without giving proof visibility to project owners and others in the project?

[CalvinFold]

I'm a bit curious about all the secrecy, especially not wanting to let the project owner view the approval?

Since our project managers are the project owners, they are at the center of the entire project. Beyond that, we don't add anyone to the project who shouldn't be able to see the contents. Most of those people have view-only access except to tasks they have been assigned to (except of course the project owner).

[LisaFi]

In our case, POs have actually downloaded and shared unapproved creative with their requesters. Often, they'll go in to view progress on the job proof before we've ironed out all the kinks. In an external agency, we'd never let the client view our work until it was presentation-ready. The PO does not need to be privvy to our "sausage making" or have eyes on the performance of our writers and designers as they work through their creative refinements.

[CalvinFold]

Aaah, then I would say we handle this in two ways:

1. We only use WF approvals for client approvals (final approvals), not creative rounds. Creative rounds are pretty dynamic and quick so they are done offline within the assigned teams. This idea of using WF for creative rounds has been fielded now and again, but no traction yet.
2. Our PMs (POs) have a different mandate, and since they are in charge of the project, they know better than to share WIP (work in progress) without consulting the creatives first. And since that creative isn't in WF, that also serves a a barrier to anyone who might be inclined to bend the rules.
3. We're also pretty collaborative with the client, so the client sees rounds throughout the process as we are ready to present them. So this probably lessens anyone's need to "peek" between rounds.
4. We operate as much as possible just like an external agency. Firstly so our internal clients get an apple-to-apples experience regardless of which "agency" they use. Secondly because we do actually have external clients now and again, and we don't want two separate operating models when we can help it.

[LisaFi]

Thanks for the reply, Kevin. How do you manage creative rounds offline? We are all working remotely now and looking for the best process. Collaborating on attachments in Teams works well for copy docs and Powerpoints, but Indesign proofs are more complicated. The designer would have to create a pdf in Acrobat before sharing. Eager to hear about your process.

[denise_moore_ameritas]

My suggestion would be to have a folder within the Workfront project that has the sharing dialed down to only be accessible to those within creative who are working on and/or approving the piece until it is ready for others. Then, when it's ready for others to review, move that document into another folder that has the sharing set for the project owner and/or others to be able to access/view it as needed.

[LoriSt]

This is exactly what we do when the designers and writers are still ironing out the details before it goes to anyone else. Create a separate folder in docs and remove all inherent permissions, then share only with those you want to have access to these proofs. Then, when final is ready for client, upload to main folder.

[LisaFi]

Thanks, Denise and Lori. This is a great solution, though it will mean adding a new task or two to our workflow.

[LeighHa1]

Lisa,

Someone on my team recommended marking the Second Stage as "Private Stage" to prevent client from seeing any comments at all.

[LisaFi]

Thanks, Leigh. We looked into this. Though it would be helpful to hide the comments, they'd still have access to the work in progress.

[Peggy85]

Hello, Denise discussed dialing down   the sharing   to only be accessible to those within creative.  I was unaware that folders could contain different sharing statuses.  Can anyone tell me how this can be accomplished? 

thank you