Project requests take on many forms across creative and marketing teams. It is not uncommon for these to be informal—like an email from manager to manager, or someone stopping by your desk to discuss a new idea they have. This informal interaction is a wonderful place to start for new companies and young teams, but as your business scales, you may quickly find yourself in over your head with missed deadlines, or scratching your head at how your team has so quickly become overwhelmed.
Whether your team is currently working with paper forms, Google Docs, or even an internal system, there are certain tried and true techniques that will help you get the most out of your project request forms so that your team can cut down on planning meetings, organize the chaos and get back to doing the work that matters most.
What to Include in a Project Request Form:
Your team has its own unique goals and processes, so each form should be tailored to the information your team needs to execute a successful project with ease–and as little back and forth as possible!After working with hundreds of teams to set up their own internal forms and processes, we have some ideas to get you started:
Contact Information for the Requestor: This may seem obvious, but sometimes the simplest fields are the easiest to forget! Making sure you know who is requesting the work is the first step to checking it off your list and sending it down the right path.
Project Type: Knowing what type of project is being requested allows you to streamline your form and know which questions to ask—emails, product packaging, and web banners all require different specifications and likely would change which teams or users will be doing the work.
Clear Expectations: Including ideal start and end dates, exact image dimensions, or examples of what you are looking for will help ensure you hit the mark on the first iteration.
Marketing/other Objective: Whether the request is small or large, every project should start with a goal. Make sure the goal is understood and agreed upon by including it in the request.
Required Fields: While this isn’t a specific field in the form, you should make sure requestors can’t submit incomplete requests by making all the necessary information required to submit the form. Note, while you should definitely make “necessary” information required, you should avoid making every field required so it’s not too cumbersome to fill out.
Option to upload media alongside: Include a place for requestors to submit additional documents—from examples of what they need to resource documents and specific images they would like to include.Free form notes section: While it’s great to keep your requests uniform, having a notes section allows requestors to include additional details and expectations, which will save you additional follow-up in the long run!
How to Get People to Actually Use Your Request Form
You’ve implemented the perfect form. You’ve shared it company-wide, and even kicked off a few successful projects that way, but you’re still receiving requests via email or even having people stop by your desk from time to time. Teams often struggle to embrace change, so it’s natural to have a transition period, but here are a few best practices to help ensure everyone adopts the form.
Keep the Forms Simple: The goal for any process you create should be to eliminate hassle on both sides of the process. Keeping the forms as straightforward as possible will help ensure that everyone can fill it out with ease.
Redirect Requests through the Form: If there are individuals who repetitively bypass the request process, kindly redirect them to the form. While some people may feel more comfortable sharing the details verbally, you can listen to the request and then kindly ask them to write it down via the form.
Always Follow Up: Whether your form allows an automatic confirmation when the request is submitted or you have to manually respond, always make sure the request is confirmed. This will help to build trust in the process.
RoboHead Streamlines Your Project Requests
Teams that implement RoboHead enjoy streamlined projects from initiation to completion! RoboHead request forms can have automated rules that help direct requests where they need to go, but also allow for requests to be denied or revised.
Request Approval: RoboHead offers robust request approval tools to let you approve, deny, and request updates on requests without having to break out into a separate email.
Form Rules: Rules in RoboHead forms let you build a form that can serve all of your teams without them all having to look at the same set of questions.
File Management: RoboHead allows users to upload files when creating a request or note, and then maintains those files as part of the request and eventual project for easy reference.
Automated Notifications: RoboHead’s wide variety of notification options help ensure that your team is notified about new requests right as they come in, and will continue to help as the request becomes a project.
Any team that works with clients and stakeholders can see improvement by migrating from paper and email to a request form, and RoboHead’s tools can help you every step of the way.
Keep a Pulse on Trends in Creative Operations
Never miss an update.
Subscribe to receive occasional updates with trends and insights to power your team’s workflows.
