Product Communities

This 3-part series is designed to provide essential advice and actionable steps to make the challenging role of System Administrator a bit easier. As a follow up to last week’s blog on setup, this week will focus on how to best streamline your instance for maximum efficiency and productivity. ACTIVATE KEY EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS AND REMINDERS How many times do you check your email every day? Whether it’s once or every time a red bubble appears, you are trying to stay ahead and keep connected.  Workfront offers in-app notifications to keep you in the loop and to help avoid flooding your inbox, however, not all actions trigger a notification and not all users are working in Workfront every second of every day. To ensure that assigned work is not missed, updates are addressed and approvals are made, activate key global email notifications within Setup for all users.  The most popular email notifications that are inactive by default are: I’m assigned to an issueA project I’m on

No need to navigate away, include a webpage on your Workfront dashboard.  Are there numbers you pull from another system to include in Workfront custom forms? Do you want to make a Workfront request queue more accessible? Do your users regularly access a web-based document management system or wiki that contains needed project information? Including URLs on a dashboard allows your users to navigate quickly and easily to live websites without leaving Workfront. Before you jump into the setup, there are two conditions that must be met—the URL is encrypted (https) and the website must allow embedding as an iframe. You may be asking, what is an iframe?       “An iframe (short for inline frame) is an HTML element that allows an external webpage to be embedded in an HTML document. Unlike traditional frames, which were used to create the structure of a webpage, iframes can be inserted anywhere within a webpage layout

A responsibility assignment matrix (also known as a RACI matrix) is a common tool for communicating roles and responsibilities on a project. The intention of using a RACI matrix is to clearly communicate who is responsible, who is accountable, who should be consulted, and who should be informed throughout the life of a project.This article discusses what to consider when building a RACI matrix in Workfront as well as some of the trade-offs that come with different approaches.Where to Build Your RACI MatrixThe first consideration to make is where in Workfront should your RACI information live. I have generally seen two approaches to RACI matrices while working with Workfront clients.RACI fields added as custom data to projects. This approach makes sense for projects with shorter schedules or projects planned at a lower level of granularity. As a general rule I recommend planning projects at a milestone level when getting started in Workfront. Less project tasks means less overhead for u

Training > Additional Resources > Training blog > No “hacks” needed when you have Workfront I’m constantly amused by the “life hacks” videos out there. Although they keep me entertained during late-night social media browsing, from what I've seen, none of them actually make the task at hand any easier. In fact, some of them seem pretty complicated. And let’s face it, I just don’t have the time or patience for that.  At work, I often manage multiple projects at a time, plus complete assignments from projects my teammates are managing. But I don't need “work hacks” to make my work life easier because I have Adobe Workfront!  The content development team manages ALL of its content creation through Workfront—videos, learning paths, product release updates … even this blog post. We’re big proponents of the saying, “If it’s not in Workfront, it doesn’t exist.” (Someone really needs to make T-shirts with

First use case: Customer Case Studies and Video ProductionI use a template to manage all of the tasks to create a case study and/or a customer video. It looks something like this. This template is used every time we start creating a new customer story. We adjust the dates and assignments based on who is working on the project and the timeline we’ve talked about with the customer. This helps us keep track of all the tasks, and work among teams (Creative Services, Campaigns, my managers) to get the correct reviews and approvals internally as well as with the customer. For video production we have even created vendor logins that allow us to communicate with them via proofs to get very specific feedback implemented simply and efficiently. Once we have the customer story approved and reviewed by all internal and external stakeholders we add a custom form that uses a Fusion connection to Salesforce and WebDam to send the content to the Content Asset Table (automatically u

Workfront was built for people, with configurable capabilities for any team. It can support multiple departments on a single instance by adding group configuration elements that empowers Group Administrators to manage Workfront based on their department’s needs.  This week’s blog will focus on the 4 key elements that make Workfront the most flexible enterprise application platform, used across departments, teams, regions and countries. CONTROL YOUR OWN CONFIGURATIONS With Group Administrators, everyone in the company can share a single instance but departments can be administered separately, controlling their own settings, templates, workflows, and users at the group level. Here at Workfront, each department has its own Group Administrator to help standardize and assist with a myriad of items, including:  Be a Workfront champion and share best practices around how the department operatesProvide assistance configuring new workflowsSubmit bugs to product for improv

Training > Additional Resources > Training in the new normalWorkfront One launches Training Blog and Best PracticesTo say the pandemic has introduced new challenges to the work landscape is an understatement. “Normal” as we once knew it has no roundtrip ticket and we are faced with redefining what the new normal looks like. The Adobe Workfront Training team is pleased to announce the launch of the Training Blog as we aim to redefine how we interact with customers to provide the most relevant content for their needs.   Each month, and sometimes more, you will have the chance to explore featured content based on themes and topics written or curated by our team of subject matter experts and content developers. We encourage you to bookmark and visit the Training Blog to receive updates on on demand content or new live training offered by our training delivery team.  Featured Content Best Practices As they

To wrap up the Workfront is Simple series, this week focuses on the final setup segments — people, finance and system protocols. Detailed below are setup and best practice recommendations for resource management, finance management and overall system capabilities — confirming our sentiment in Part 1 that building a quality foundational design sets the framework for successful work management. PREPARING FOR RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Once you have defined the roles, responsibilities and access levels of each user (details can be found in Workfront is Simple, Part 1), look to get started with setting up schedules, timesheets, and email notifications to prepare for resource management. Detailed below are recommendations for these areas of the Setup menu.  Schedules By creating custom schedules, you can define workweeks, input company holidays and use user availability to determine or calculate project timelines.  Since schedules are applied to both users and projects, th

As you, your leaders and your organization consider proposed initiatives in the future, available resources need to be considered first before work gets approved and underway. Think of the Resource Planner as a transaction register or a means to capture available capacity based on resource allocation. As each project in prioritized order depletes resources from capacity, less is then available for proposed future work. Eventually, resources may run out leading to a negative number (as shown in red) in Workfront.  To continue the Resource Management series, this week’s blog will provide steps on how to successfully use the Resource Planner to ensure successful capacity planning in Workfront.  1. DEFINE THE DEMAND In order to know if capacity can meet demand, you must first have an accurate picture of the existing and desired demand for work: In Flight Work Demand - The total amount of work represented in projects that are already created and scheduled / assigned to

For Workfront, and many of our customers, the last month was focused on pivoting to conducting business virtually, and ensuring that we had the right plan, tools and technology to support our efforts. We then sharpened our pencils in terms of our business strategy, priorities, deliverables, and to ensure full utilization of our resources. Data-driven, transparent conversations with our teams has been key to this process for us, and others.  For one sporting good retail customer, what normally is a time focused on creating trade show deliverables, has been refocused on other initiatives to drive online sales. Over 350 people switched overnight to working remotely, pivoted their plans, and relied on the processes built within Workfront to enable visibility into the decisions to be made and the work to be done. All teams that make up marketing and creative manage their work through Workfront - from the request queues to project and task management. “It’s the only way we keep track

Every organization has at least one person who can steer things back on track when the unexpected happens to ensure that strategic plans are executed, and executed well. Whether or not that individual or team of people have the defined role of project manager, they are the ones responsible for bringing multiple departments and stakeholders on a journey, together, to turn project plans into action and to communicate all changes along the way. Outlined below are several features and solutions Workfront offers to make that job easier.  UTILIZING PROJECT TEMPLATES FOR QUICK SETUP Having a strong process before Workfront is what makes Workfront work. With a well defined and clearly diagrammed process, you can reflect that in Workfront using templates.  Customizable project templates capture all of the repeatable processes, information, and settings associated with your projects in a single place. By using project templates, similar or recurring projects can easily be cr

Workfront’s robust reporting capabilities deliver real-time data to help improve accessibility, accountability and analytics within your organization. They surface critical data to help support strategic discussions and speed up the decision making process, hold users accountable for assigned work, identify process gaps or bottlenecks for future improvements and highlight team, group and individual successes. The tools may seem complex, but when broken down into segments, are easily digestible. To help guide you through understanding the importance of surfacing data, how to collect and present it, and what reporting features will improve visibility and drive business outcomes, we created a 6-part series with recommended actions. Visualize the DataEffective reporting provides insight and motivates action. Visualizing data before it goes into Workfront will prevent digital clutter and establish guiding points as data is entered into the system. Before you can start building rep

To continue the 3-part System Administrator series on people, process and technology, this week’s blog will focus on understanding your processes, from the perspective of administering Workfront. Summarized below are four key areas outlining the work management understanding that you need to have based on feedback from others just like you, who’ve not only taken on this role but have created a successful career out of it. Often the role of System Administrator will include helping to define, manage, monitor and maintain your organization’s way of working. This means that you are part of creating the overall workflow process — maintaining both knowledge and facilitation of how work gets done. To get you started on defining the baseline for your work processes, ask yourself the following questions: How is the work being requested?How is work being fulfilled?How is work being reviewed and approved?How is work completed and handed-off?How is work being assessed for value, priority, a

Once you have decided to transition to the new Workfront experience, it’s time to begin preparing your organization and Workfront users. The good news is that there are not a lot of technical challenges to solve for - the majority of the transition is rooted in change management.  This week’s blog will provide you with the tools and techniques to help you with this change process to ensure your rollout of the new Workfront experience is a success. There are three keys to a any great change management initiative: Understanding your StakeholdersGood Project PlanningCommunicate Early and Often UNDERSTAND YOUR STAKEHOLDERS There are several stakeholders to consider when planning the transition to the new Workfront experience, including those planning and executing the change and those that will be affected by the change. Here are some roles to consider for the change management team: Transition Champion - This person is responsible for the overall socialization and coordi

Leap — Workfront’s premier enterprise work management conference — took place last week with thousands in attendance to discuss ways of elevating and reimagining the way work gets done. Focused on the power of enterprise work management to help organizations switch from reactive to proactive mode, this year’s Leap conference shared best practices and customer stories about how to adapt and thrive in the new world of work.  Whether you were able to join live, watch an on-demand session or missed it altogether and wish to watch it at a later date (it will be available for the next 90 days), below are highlights from the virtual conference, broken down by the order of events.  For a downloadable post-conference presentation that you can customize and share with executives detailing your takeaways, tips and recommendations for further maximizing value with Workfront, click here.   KEYNOTE The 2000s brought forth new C-Level executives based on external even

Oftentimes, similar information is requested by multiple users, teams or departments. Rather than creating individualized reports for each user who reaches out, alleviate duplicate efforts by applying date and user-based wildcard filters. Wildcards can be applied to report filters so the results are dynamic and change based on the context in which they are used. Date-based wildcards, $$TODAY and $$NOW, allow for results to auto-update based on the dynamic date range entered in. Common examples include this week, last month or next year.User-based wildcards generalize reports so the results change based on who is logged in and viewing the report. While there are several variations, the most commonly used is $$USER.ID.Below are 3 simple, yet must-have reports for team members using wildcards. Click on the name of each report to download a 1-page guide with step-by-step report creation instructions. Then, share the reports with users who are typically assigned work, or add them all t

Are you taking the time to highlight Workfront with the decision makers in your organization, at least twice a year? Establishing a regular rhythm of business reviews helps ensure that leadership is well informed of the positive impact Workfront has made to the challenges they set out to overcome. This is your moment to share compelling information, position yourself as the leader of managing how work gets done across the business and to provide an opportunity for professional growth or promotion.  This week’s blog will detail six essential elements of effectively communicating the value modern work management brings with leadership, along with a list of recommended actions to guide the conversation. IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE Your direct leadership should be involved, up to your executive sponsor. If the Workfront technology happens to be “owned” by another group, those decision makers should be involved, as well. Finally, whenever possible, include those involved in identif

Did You Know? Disconnect During the Holidays By Delegating Approval Requests. The holiday season is upon us and, for many, this means time off! Time away from the office is essential—but logging in to Workfront while away to make approval decisions is not. Did you know that Workfront helps you disconnect by allowing you to delegate project, task, and issue approvals to a single user for the duration of your absence?  While you’re away, work still needs to get done, deadlines met, and approvals made. Delegating your approval requests to a trusted colleague allows you to be away without having to worry that past-due work will be stuck in your queue, awaiting your return.  You can pick and choose the start and end dates of this delegation period, or leave it open-ended if you are unsure when you’ll be back. When you delegate approval requests, the user to whom you have delegated approvals receives an email notification regarding approval activity.  To un

Within your projects, each of your tasks have a Planned Start Date as well as a Planned Completion/Due Date. Typically these dates could change for multiple reasons such as dependencies, delays, or changes in prioritization. As you change dates in your project plan, you might want to understand how your current project plan compares to the plan, let’s say a week or two ago. That’s where baselines come in. Baselines are a snapshot of your project plan and key pieces of information. These snapshots will allow you to compare information from the current plan, to the original plan, or any other point in time, to identify problem tasks, scope creep, and other trends over time. See more on baselines here.  Calculating ‘Slippage’ is a way you can see how each individual task compares to the original Project plan. This requires you to capture at least one baseline for a project. The specific baseline you want to compare your current project to should be marked as the “Default Baselin

The world of work is a world of constant evolution and change. Some changes are incremental and can lead to something monumental over time. Other changes are monumental on their own and are thrust upon us. I recently read a story in Jim Collins’ classic ‘Built to Last’ about Johnson & Johnson and how J&J started producing a talc powder in response to a physician who complained about patient skin irritation. Johnson & Johnson then started including a small can of talc as part of the standard packaging with certain products. Customers unexpectedly began demanding the talc powder as a stand-alone product and J&J responded by creating “Johnson’s Toilet and Baby Powder”. Johnson & Johnson got into the baby powder market by accident, but continued to iterate incrementally in the direction of consumer products, which eventually grew to 44% of company revenues. Johnson & Johnson’s story illustrates the monumental impact of incremental changes. In the wake of the COVI

Workfront is growing and so is the Workfront Wednesday: Did You Know blog series! Originally introduced as a weekly technical tip sent to you via email on Wednesdays, the series has evolved into in-depth success toolkits around topics like mastering work management, adoption, strategy and growth. Based on your feedback, we are excited to introduce Quick Tips on the Workfront Community and retire the weekly email series. Unlike standalone blogs, these tips allow you to easily engage and collaborate with other Workfront power users through a Community discussion so that technical how-to’s can be accompanied with real-world examples.  Quick Tips are short, helpful hints about new or popular topics. They are published to the Workfront Community several times a week, so you don’t have to wait until Wednesday to see them. Access Quick Tips here on the Workfront Community to see what’s already been published. And soon you’ll even be able to submit your own Quick Tips! Stay tuned.&nb

First and foremost, as the Chief Customer Officer at Workfront, I want to take a moment to thank you for all for being great customers. Thank you for letting us into your businesses and, for many of you, into your lives. I always appreciate your willingness to really partner with us and to share your feedback - both the good and the not-so-good - in very candid, constructive ways. Your willingness to evolve with us helps us become a better company, and for that we are grateful. The last few months have been difficult for everyone - both professionally and personally. Having young children and a work-from-home spouse myself, I can empathize with the challenges you are facing. I also know that many of you are in industries that are suffering - you are dealing with furloughs, layoffs and increased workloads. One of our great customers who processes unemployment claims is working 24/7 with everyone up to the CEO on the ‘front-line’.   We realize this new environment can l

Match report colors with your company’s style guide using text mode.Do you have list reports or custom views that use conditional formatting, or column rules, so that a color can be applied to a specific row or cell? Did you know that you can use basic text mode to get those colors to match your company’s style guide?There are a few places in Workfront where you can select a custom color:MilestonesCustom statuses, priorities, and severitiesCustom chart colorsBranding colorsWhen specifying a color in Workfront, you have two choices:Select from the color palette, which will also give you the RGB code of the color you select from the color spectrum (green = 39aa00, as seen in the image below).Use an existing RGB code (from your company's style guide, for example), which will give you the specific color corresponding to that code.Whether you select the color from a color palette in Workfront or find the RGB code in another application, you can use the RGB code in Workfront wherever an

“You cannot manage what you cannot measure.” Peter Drucker, Management thinker How does your organization define and measure success? Regardless of industry, chances are that both historical and real-time data is utilized, analyzed and turned into actionable strategies for decision making.  In order to manage and measure the success of your team, you must be able to quickly check the status of all work items each team member is working on. Visuals are key, and by having a team dashboard, you get an organized, high-level overview of existing work and work coming down the pipeline without having to spend time digging around the system.  This week’s blog focuses on four different ways that you can drive efficiencies through reporting and visibility within your organization: Team Dashboard TipsKey Performance Indicators (KPI) DashboardCalculating Slippage via BaselinesBest Practices for Managing an Intake or Request Queue  TEAM DASHBOARD TIPS A te

In order to perform Resource Management activities, such as making assignments, measuring utilization, or understanding work capacity vs. demand, a handful of information must be gathered and documented. This week’s blog will define some of the suggested building blocks of data needed to properly use the Workload Balancer and Resource Scheduling tools in Workfront. DOCUMENTING KNOWN PROJECT WORK Once a project has been approved it can start to be planned. This typically involves a project or traffic manager defining and validating a list of activities or tasks, their durations, and dependencies or dates. To ensure successful resource management, there are a few other pieces of information that must be included: Assignments: Each task should be assigned the Job Roles or Users that will be contributing their effort to the completion of the work. Planned Hours: This represents the amount of effort needed to complete the task. For example, while a task may take 5