Step 4.3: Keep your product org informed and on track

Clarify key product review stages 

To drive product review stages in the product delivery process, have a table dedicated to check-ins or any key product delivery milestones specific to your organization.

Once you’ve set up your project milestones, you can add a list of key stakeholders for each one. This makes it easy to notify them (keep reading to learn how to set up automations to take care of this for you!) when it’s time to get their reviews and approvals.

Then, set up views to help stakeholders focus on what’s coming next. Here are two view types you might want to consider:

1. Milestones by project

This grid view allows you to see all milestones by project or feature, so you can see all upcoming checkpoints at a glance.

2. Milestones calendar

This calendar view showcases all check-in dates so that stakeholders can easily see what progress checkpoints are taking place, and when. Key dates can also be synced to personal calendars via your choice of calendar integrations.

Speed up asset reviews

If you’ve added assets directly to your table using the attachment field, the easiest way to get feedback is by having stakeholders make attachment annotations. Annotations let you leave comments directly on an attachment (!) by previewing the asset in full-screen mode and then clicking anywhere on the image. 

You can view these annotations in the record comment feed (the sidebar that opens to the right of your base). A comment bubble will also appear directly on the attachment thumbnail, so you know when the feedback is in and it’s time to take action.

Another way you can speed up the review process is by creating dedicated interfaces for each product feature or team member with Interface Designer. 

Interfaces minimize the time stakeholders spend searching for relevant information in a base, and their interactive nature makes them easy to use. A design interface, for instance, allows designers to easily review the specific records that need feedback or approval.

Automate progress updates and review requests

Finally, like in the team-level section, you can cut down on manual tasks by incorporating automations into the review process. For example, you can set up an automation that alerts designers when an asset’s status has been marked as “needs approval” in your base.

Want to try it? Click the automations button in the right-hand corner of your base, then choose your trigger and action. 

Here, we’ve created an automation that sends a Slack message to the designated designer every time a record’s status is changed to “needs approval.” Stakeholders are notified in real-time, preventing potential delays.

Automations can also be set up to notify team leads, stakeholders, and leadership about project updates. If there’s a lot of information that stakeholders or leadership need tabs on, you can create an automated weekly update email.

Congratulations! Streamlining the way you assign work and track project progress is a huge part of every project launch. As you near your product launch, don’t forget to measure:

• Time spent on manual work (automations can cut down on this)

• Project and sprint health (ie. by referring to OKR completion across pods)

• Actual vs. projected time spent in key product development stages

• PM/EDP staff productivity and engagement

• Project risks (can be mitigated with ongoing visibility into progress and resource capacity)

When you standardize the processes around your launch, product teams can focus on what matters most: building and shipping high-quality products your customers will love.

Nearly there! Head to Stage 5 to learn how you can use Airtable to manage and review your product launch.