Head of Design & Operations—Streamline Workflows

 

Our Goal

Improve how we plan, prioritize, and execute projects at SEI by streamlining workflows, defining roles and responsibilities, optimizing our use of technology, and ultimately delivering more projects on time.

 

The Challenge

All types of projects, no matter the complexity, are looked at the same way.

Marketing projects funnel through Workfront, emails, Slack, text messages, Teams, directly to you as your heading to lunch (you get the picture-messy) and there is limited discussion before a project starts.

The Team

As Head of Operations, I partnered with a diverse team from marketing, social, analytics, technology, legal, compliance, UX, design, video, and content. I led all stakeholder interviews, facilitated working sessions, and presented regularly to marketing executives.

Project Managers 3 United States

Volunteers 18 United States, 2 Canada, 4 London

 

Strategy

Planning & Discovery

 
Visual mapping of stakeholders and how they interact with one another

Stakeholder Map Illustrates the complex nature of the how work gets done. It also represents the immense volume of people requesting projects (200+) and projects (100+ per week) across the organization.

 

Analysis of Current State Workflows

We collaborated with marketing units to document and analyze current state workflows.

Identified five key areas of focus:

  • Simplify production projects (brick process).

  • Prioritize projects effectively.

  • Improve ease-of-use for Workfront.

  • Clearly define roles and responsibilities.

  • Standardize project initiation processes.

This example is just one of many for the current state process for updating content and design on the website. It involves over 50 business unit project managers and the investment management unit, all of whom could initiate requests for new additions or updates. These requests came through various channels, including work management systems, email, and text messages, each with a slightly different workflow to get the initial request published on the website.

 

Analysis from Interviews

 

Define Top 5 Themes

  1. Simplify production projects (brick process)

  2. Prioritization of projects

  3. Improve ease-of-use for Workfront

  4. Define roles and responsibilities

  5. Define how a project begins

 

Define Work Types, Cloud, Box & Brick

By defining these work types, we have been able to tailor our processes and resources to better meet the unique demands of each category, ensuring more efficient and effective marketing operations across SEI.

 

Develop & Test New Workflows

Conducted in-person discovery sessions to map and refine the new processes.

 

The Result

1.5 days

Improved production delivery from 5 days

15%

Enhanced collaboration among marketing units

25%

Reduction in redundant tasks and manual errors

85%

Reduction of communication methods used at the project start

 

We significantly improved how we plan, prioritize, and execute projects across marketing and creative teams, leading to greater efficiency and collaboration.

  • Simplified Workfront templates and reduced steps required for production-level projects.

  • Refined the use of technology at the start of the project from 10+ tools to 1 to streamline workflows and optimize performance.

  • Established clearer communication processes before the start of each project.

  • Introduced creative briefs, enhancing overall communication between teams.

  • Defined roles and responsibilities, ensuring accountability and alignment.

  • Delivered more projects on time, thanks to improved workflows and team coordination.

  • Laid the groundwork for continued growth and success in our marketing efforts through enhanced collaboration and process alignment.