Avoid revisions,
unblock your team

Approvals are the most visible bottleneck in any creative operation.

1. The symptom: 47-message email threads

If your team approves content over email, it already has a problem. Not because email is bad in itself, but because it disconnects the decision from the asset. Six months later no one remembers why that call to action was changed, and when they do remember, the email is buried.

A well-designed approval workflow lives on the asset itself. Every comment is pinned to a specific point in the design, every decision is documented, and anyone on the team can come back six months later and reconstruct why version 7 replaced version 6.

The decision, far from the asset

Email

…and when they remember, the email is buried.

The decision, attached to the design

On the asset

Anyone can reconstruct why version 7 replaced version 6.

5rules

2. The five rules of a workflow that works

  1. 01

    Define the roles before you start

    Who reviews, who approves, who can veto. Ambiguous roles produce endless approvals.

  2. 02

    Set an SLA for each stage

    “The client reviews within 48h.” “Design iterates within 24h.” Without an SLA, everyone assumes they have time, and no one does.

  3. 03

    Contextual comments on the asset, not in the body of an email

    This is what separates Figma from PowerPoint+email.

  4. 04

    Status visible to everyone

    In review, approved, in production, published. Without this, everyone keeps asking everyone else.

  5. 05

    One approval question per iteration

    “Do we approve this version?”, yes or no. If it needs changes, that's a new iteration, not a conditional approval.

3approval types

3. Three types of approval, three distinct workflows

Not everything is approved the same way. Forcing the same workflow onto an Instagram post and a TV ad is a recipe for both of them running late.

Fast approval (daily post)

A single approver, a 4-hour SLA, no iterations. If it isn't approved in time, it publishes automatically with the default version. Good for high volume and low risk.

Standard approval (campaign)

Two rounds: internal review (24h) and client approval (48h). Comments on the asset. Automatic versioning. Good for most agency work.

Critical approval (TVC, brand launch)

Three or more rounds, with named stakeholders, a formal presentation at each milestone, and conservative versioning. Slow by design, but the risk justifies it.

4mistakes

4. Mistakes that cost dearly

  1. 01

    Approvals by consensus of five people

    If you need five people to say yes, then really no one approves. Five times slower, zero clarity.

  2. 02

    “For your consideration” comments with no concrete action

    If it isn't actionable, it isn't a comment, it's noise.

  3. 03

    Approving in one tool and archiving in another

    The approved asset should go straight to the library, with no re-uploading.

  4. 04

    Changing the workflow for every client

    Three standard types are enough for 95% of cases. Per-client customization is operational debt.

How Polimake solves approval workflows

Studio, Polimake's creative surface, comes with approval workflows built in. Each brief defines who approves, in what order, and with what SLA, and comments live on the produced asset. Whatever is approved enters Media automatically.

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Guide: creative operations

Keep reading

←Back to the creative operations guide
Content production at scaleHow to scale content production without losing quality: pipeline, batching, specialization by stage, and when to automate.Read more →Creative brand managementHow to maintain brand consistency when several teams produce content in parallel: living brand guidelines and templates.Read more →Creative KPIs: what to measure and howThe four metrics that matter in creative operations: approval time, reuse rate, revision ratio, and coordination vs. creation.Read more →