5 Common Workflow Problems That Derail Creative Teams (and How to Fix Them)

Once you’ve mapped your current workflow, the next step is spotting the trouble areas—and trust us, you're not alone.

Across creative, marketing, and cross-functional teams, we see the same handful of workflow problems pop up again and again. They’re small on the surface but big in impact.

Let’s break down a few of the most common ones:

1. Unclear Intake

Work shows up in five different ways: emails, Slack messages, impromptu conversations, or a vague "Can you take this on?"

The Fix: Create a central project intake process with structured fields—deadline, owner, scope, and priority.

2. Overcomplicated Approvals

Assets bounce between too many people, with no clear decision-maker. Projects stall waiting for feedback that never comes—or comes all at once, last-minute.

The Fix: Define who really needs to approve what, and in what order. Build turnaround expectations into the project timeline to streamline approvals.

3. No Central Hub

Everyone’s working from different tools, or worse—no tool at all. Files are scattered, statuses are unclear, and updates live in people’s heads.

The Fix: Choose one consistent project management hub. Whether it’s Asana, ClickUp, Smartsheet, or Trello—the tool matters less than using it consistently.

4. Manual, Repetitive Tasks

Copy/pasting updates, retyping briefs, sending the same reminders every week… it adds up fast.

The Fix: Automate what you can. Use templates, recurring tasks, and integrations to eliminate repetitive admin work and boost efficiency.

5. Too Many Meetings, Too Little Progress

Back-to-back syncs without clear outcomes. Or meetings that could’ve been async updates in your PM tool.

The Fix: Move status updates to asynchronous check-ins. Save meetings for solving problems, planning, or aligning—not recaps.

You don’t need to fix everything overnight. But identifying just one of these workflow issues and addressing it can make a huge difference in how your team feels—and delivers.

If you’re not sure where to start, take a step back. Read our post on how to spot workflow chaos before it derails your projects, then build on that foundation.

Small process problems create big slowdowns. Start where the friction is loudest.