Fine-tuning your
Creative Production
Workflow
Brian R Stuckey!
Senior Product Manager!
at globaledit!

About globaledit
Globaledit is the online SaaS platform that empowers
creative professionals to manage visual production at
scale.!
CAPTURE. REVIEW. APPROVE. MARKUP. SHARE.
ARCHIVE. All within globaledit.!

Overview
• Mapping Your Process!
• Finding Points of Improvement!
• Implementing Change!

1. Mapping Your Process

Why Map?
• Visualize a complex process!
• To clearly communicate it to all team members!
• It’s a way to help everyone understand the process
and to check if everyone has the same mental
model !

Mapping Benefits
• Inefficiencies and problems become obvious!
• Quickly spot patterns in usage!
• Great tool for training new employees!
• Basis for a company/team standard!

How to Map
• Take an asset-centric view of your process!
v Follow an image from camera to archive!
• Document each step and write down!
v What does each step do?!
v Who does it?!
v How are data passed between steps?!
v What tools get used?!
v How long does it take?!
What?
Who?

Sample Format
Step Name!
Who!
How Are
Images
Transferred!
Tools!
Duration!
Selects!
The images
from set go
though a
second
round of
review!
David Jones!
USB Hard
Drive,
Contact
Sheets!
Adobe
Bridge!
15 Min!
Description!
Markup!
Images are
printed out
and drawn
on !
Angus Young!
USB Hard
Drive,!
Printouts !
Pen & Paper!
30 Min!
Retouching!
Modifying the
image per
the markup
instructions!
Saul Hudson!
USB Hard
Drive!
Photoshop &
Capture One!
8 Hr!

Completed Map

2. Finding Points
for Improvement

Improving Steps in the
Process
• How are steps communicated?!
• How are images hand off between steps?!
• Do people specialize in tasks? !
• Is it possible to consolidate tools?!

Improving the end-to-
end process
• How large are the units of work?!
• Where are people doing rework?!
• What is overall team load?!
• Where is the bottleneck?!

Simplified Workflow

Example: Bottlenecks

Example: Bottlenecks

Example: Bottlenecks

Example: Bottlenecks

Example: Bottlenecks
x!
x!

Summary:
• There will always be a bottleneck!
• Find it & reduce its impact!
• Update your map!
• Find the next bottleneck & repeat!

3. Making

Take a holistic
approach
• Whole process from capture to completion!
• Focus on throughput (reducing bottleneck impact),
not pain of any individual step!
• Expert Mode: A Linear Programming model can
help you optimize the entire system vs. individual
steps!

Keep it agile
• Team mindset of continuous improvement!
• Review impact of changes with your team
(retrospective)!
• Take on smaller units of work (or divide up larger
tasks in to smaller ones)!

Use the Scientific
Method
1. Establish Baseline (the map)!
2. Make one change (bottleneck)!
3. Measure outcome (quantify)!
4. Compare to baseline !
5. Accept or reject change (update map)!

Brian’s Rules:
• Take on bite-sized changes!
• Measure your work!
• Update the workflow map!
• Keep a list of changes your team wants to make!
• Never stop making changes!

Thank you!