Creative Operations

Creative Operations Transformation

A Creative Sprint That Changed How Teams Work—and How Clients Approve

In-House Creative Team·2020-2025

Workflow

Creative Sprint Process

Context

In-House Creative Team

Years

2020-2025

My Role

Process Development & Team Leadership

The Operational Challenge

Our creative team offered 3 rounds of back-and-forth copywriting edits, followed by 3 rounds of design edits. Feedback arrived piece by piece, so each update moved slowly and clients reviewed individual elements without seeing the full campaign.

Long approval times compounded the problem. We could not sustain both the volume of work and the creative strength of the campaigns without changing how the work moved.

The Shift: Review the Whole Story

I changed the process so clients could see the full picture together, rather than approve disconnected pieces in isolation. Discovery brought their knowledge of the participants into the work early; the creative review meeting showed how the campaign connected from beginning to end.

Clients felt involved and developed pride of ownership. Instead of receiving another round of files to mark up, they could recognize their input in a complete campaign. That shared understanding changed the approval experience.

Leadership That Made It Work

A process diagram alone would not change the way the team worked. I developed the approach, presented it at the marketing strategic meeting, secured the okay, and implemented it. Alongside that work, I joined the board developing and implementing Wrike company-wide.

The process deck made the operating expectations visible: who led each project, how copy and design collaborated, when product and production joined, and where decisions and approvals happened. Its February 2024 presentation reintroduced the team and reinforced the process for both new and existing colleagues—it was not the original launch.

Protecting Craft, Not Just Moving Faster

The weekly critique created a space for designers to explain their intentions, ask questions, and improve the work together. Feedback focused on quality and consistency rather than prescribing every design decision.

Client discovery and participant journey mapping connected those decisions to the people receiving the campaign. The retrospective then brought accomplishments, roadblocks, solutions, and improvements back into the next project. The structure supported creative judgment instead of replacing it.

RSL Rewards: The Workflow in Practice

The deck uses RSL Rewards to carry the process from client discovery and audience journey mapping into a complete campaign review. Branch kits, activation materials, and welcome series for the loyalty and travel audiences are presented as connected experiences.

Here, those materials demonstrate how a campaign moves through the workflow. The separate RSL Rewards case study explores the creative challenge of speaking to two audiences within one program.

How the 7 Weeks Ran

The Creative Sprint, meeting by meeting

Week 1

Campaign Kickoff

Understand the client, the audience, and the brief before any creative starts. The gold star of the process: clients feel ownership, trust the team, and production runs more efficiently.

Initial Kickoff

Program Manager Kickoff

Creative brief
Creative turnover in Wrike
Creative direction starts: statement of work notes, marketing strategy, participant journey mapping, brand dissection
Moodboard + brand assets

Client Discovery

Client + Creative Discovery Session

Brainstorm with the client
Listen to how the client talks about participants—they know them best
Map the journey each audience takes: sales team, branch managers, loyalty and travel participants

Weeks 2–5

Creative Kickoff

Research, write, design, and review the campaign as one connected story—thoughtful creativity with emotional details placed throughout the journey.

Phase One

Creative Kickoff Meeting

Creative team meeting
Assign lead creatives along with support
Meet with the product team
Meet with the production team

Creative Sprint Kick-off Meeting

New project · variable

Inform the whole creative team of the new project: brief, timeline, production, and who owns which tasks.

Project Kickoff· 10–20 minWho is the client, what we know so far, top priorities from discovery.
Creative Brief· 15–30 minWalk through the creative brief.
Asset Review· 10–20 minWhat we need from the PM and what we need to produce.
Marketing Plan· 20–40 minEvery task in the marketing plan and what this sprint covers.
Wrap Up· 5–10 minWho is on the project (designer + copywriter) and the action items.

Phase Two

Research Phase

Copy + design research time: the client and the client's brand
Moodboarding
Copywriting phase

Phase Three

Design Phase

Final copy posted (if needed)
Designer in full design mode
Midweek critique with designers: feedback and iterations

Weekly Design Critique

Wednesdays · 1 hour

A designers-only space to share work, think critically about decisions, and raise quality and consistency—not to prescribe solutions.

PresentationsEach designer gets 10 minutes to present what they're working on.
Feedback SessionWhat needs improving? What works?
Action ItemsWhat came out of the meeting and the next steps.

Phase Four

Review Phase

Internal review meeting
Internal edits (if needed)
Client presentation meeting—the full campaign at once
Post-meeting file approval upload
Client edits + final approvals

Weeks 6–7

Production Phase

Move approved creative into coordinated digital and print delivery, then learn from it before the next sprint.

Production

Production Phase Kickoff Meeting

Launch planning
Data
Digital + print production timeline
Q&A
HubSpot testing period
Print production proofing period

Creative Retrospective Meeting

Creative Retrospective

Look back on the project with the PM, client marketing manager, and anyone else who should be part of it.

Team AccomplishmentsWhat updates do you want to share with the team?
RoadblocksWhat did you run into?
SolutionsHow will we solve them?
ImprovementsHow can we improve as a team or process?
OpportunitiesWhat future opportunities are you excited about?

Repeat →

My Role — What I Built & Led

I developed and led the Creative Sprint Process, presented it at our marketing strategic meeting, and implemented it after receiving approval. I also served on the board developing and implementing Wrike across the company. My contribution was the operating structure: how people collaborated, how creative was reviewed, and how work moved into production—not a visual identity system.

Development and leadership of the seven-week Creative Sprint Process
Presentation of the process to secure approval at the marketing strategic meeting
Implementation of the new creative workflow
Full-campaign creative review in place of fragmented client feedback
Company-wide Wrike development and implementation board participation
Creative direction within a repeatable, collaborative operating structure

Operational Impact

The improvements I reported were 40% faster delivery and 30% better collaboration efficiency. Client approvals shifted from long waits to almost immediate decisions when clients saw the full campaign and felt ownership of it. The review meeting became a standout success. The 2023 figures below describe team output, not results attributed to the workflow alone.

40%

Faster Delivery · Reported Improvement

30%

Better Collaboration · Reported Improvement

7 Weeks

Creative Sprint Duration

Digital Campaigns · 2023 Team Output

2.49M

Email Sends · 2023 Team Output

109

HubSpot Workflows · 2023 Team Output

Reflection

Better approvals started with a shared picture of the work.

The biggest change was not simply fewer edits. It was giving clients a complete campaign they could understand, contribute to, and feel proud of.

That is how I think about creative operations: build enough structure to protect the team's craft, make collaboration meaningful, and keep the work moving without losing what makes it good.

Workflow Artifacts