How to Streamline Your Video Workflow

Whether your company handles video production in-house or you outsource it, it’s crucial that your video workflow process is as lean and efficient as possible. That’s not news. But far too many times when production teams attempt to streamline the process, they are focused solely on just that, the actual workflow steps. Who does what and when.

Going beyond the video workflow tasks, there is another reason that projects get held up: people. If you’ve got too many cooks in the kitchen, it doesn’t matter how tight your process is, your team will stumble over one another when it’s time to cut and deliver a final product. Bottom line—this is a recipe for inefficiency.

Here are our top video workflow tips to wrangle the cooks and create exceptional content.

Learn to Love Kick-Off Meetings

Kick-off meetings are everyone’s best friend. Starting the project off in-person with a larger group means that all the cooks get to list out their ingredients and feel heard. In addition, everyone on the project hears the vision right from the source. Once you’ve set expectations, determined the goals of your video campaign, and identified roles, then the creative team can hit the ground running. This allows subject matter experts and stakeholders to step away with confidence in your plan.

If people are too busy to attend a kick-off meeting, they’re probably too busy to be an effective part of your video workflow. We’re not opposed to politely notifying people that if they, or a representative, aren’t at kick-off they will not be included in the approval process. It’s not always needed, but in extreme cases this is a quick way to cut down on a few cooks.

Identify and Empower Decision Makers

Sure, including everyone and getting more feedback sounds like a good thing. But the reality of figuring out what feedback is final and actionable in a crowded kitchen situation is quite the opposite. If you must have multiple sets of eyes on everything (and who doesn’t!) identify the key people responsible for eliminating the noise and approving final direction. Each team member should receive clear instructions on how they fit into the video workflow and what decisions they need to make throughout production in order to keep the process fluid and moving forward.

Don’t Get Stuck in Your Tools

If you think having one place to create, edit, and approve sounds amazing, you’re not wrong. But whether you use cloud-based document management tools, such as Google Drive or Dropbox, or a workflow tool created for just for video, like Wipster, you can still feel the pain of too many voices. Sure, you can mitigate these with a great folder structure and approval permissions, but we’ve found the best way to keep things moving is to use your collaboration tools in coordination with actual collaboration—you know, the face-to-face kind.

Let’s say you’ve got everyone’s comments and feedback in your Google Docs or Wipster account, now what? Try holding a 30-minute approval meeting with all your cooks. If the edits are small, make them live, if the issues are larger, get agreement on next steps before leaving the room. Once everyone has had their say, that’s it, no more feedback. We know another meeting isn’t anyone’s idea of efficient, but when you’re dealing with a big group of approvers this one step can save you hours of back and forth and give your production team a clear path to success.

Schedule Regular Check-Ins

Even if your team is working in a collaborative tool like Wipster, it’s important to host regular meetings (either in-person or on a video conference call) with your production team. They don’t have to be long—15 minutes tops. The purpose of these meetings is to give consistent status updates on the progress of the video production process. This structure will keep your team aligned on timeline, budget, and the overall goals of the project. If everyone knows what direction to run in, they can keep running in tandem.

By creating a clear video workflow and using collaborative tools, your team will maximize its productivity and be able to work efficiently with fewer errors and in fewer hours. Try implementing a few of these strategies and let us know how it goes! For more tips on video production and marketing with video, check out the Brightcove blog.