Creative Brief Workflow

How do I set up this workflow for my team?

Publish the template in your workspace and it's ready to run the live process immediately, with no installation or development project needed. You'll want to assign a brief owner and identify your designers as workspace members so tasks can be assigned to them. The request form fields and email content can be adjusted by describing the change in plain English or editing steps directly in the workflow editor.

Who reviews the brief for completeness, and what happens at that decision point?

The brief owner reviews each submitted brief and records a decision: Ready to proceed, Needs more information, or Out of scope. The workflow waits for this decision and saves it to the record along with any noted gaps or reasons. Based on the decision, the brief either moves forward to priority and designer assignment, goes back to the requester for missing information, or is marked Declined with reasons sent to the requester.

What happens if the brief is missing information?

If the brief owner marks the brief as needing more information, the status changes to Information Requested and the requester gets an email listing the specific gaps. Once the requester submits the missing details through that emailed form, the answers are saved to the record and the brief returns to In Review for the brief owner to check again. This loop repeats until the brief owner marks it Ready to proceed or Out of scope.

Who assigns the designer, and how is that tracked?

Once the brief owner marks the brief Ready to Proceed, they set the priority and assign a designer in a single task. The workflow waits for this, saves the priority and designer assignment to the record, and then assigns the designer to that record. This means the record's timeline shows exactly who was assigned and when.

Does the designer have to confirm the brief before the requester is notified?

Yes. After assignment, the designer acknowledges the brief and records a planned delivery date along with any questions they have. The workflow waits for this acknowledgement and saves those details to the record before the status changes to Assigned. Only then does the requester receive an email confirming the assignment, the designer, and the planned delivery date.

Can I customise the questions on the request form or the emails sent to requesters?

Yes. The request form fields (like Objective, Deliverables, Channels, and Brand Requirements) and the wording of acknowledgement, decline, and assignment emails can all be changed by describing the change in plain English or editing the relevant step in the workflow editor. Earlier versions of the workflow are kept, so you can review what changed over time.

Do requesters need an account to submit or respond to a brief?

No. Requesters submit their initial brief through a public request form and respond to any follow-up requests, like providing missing information, through a form emailed directly to them. They never need to create or log into an account at any point in the process.

How is the status of a brief tracked from submission to assignment?

Every submitted brief becomes a record with a reference number and a status that updates automatically at each stage, including Submitted, In Review, Information Requested, Declined, Ready to Proceed, and Assigned. Table views and dashboards in the workspace show all records grouped by their current status. The record's timeline also logs what happened at each step, from submission through designer acknowledgement.

What information ends up saved on the brief record versus staying with a task?

Anything entered on a task the workflow waits for, such as the brief owner's completeness decision, the priority and designer assignment, and the designer's acknowledgement details, gets saved directly to the record. Answers submitted through emailed forms, like the requester's missing information, are also saved to the record. This gives you a complete picture on the record itself, without needing to dig through individual tasks.