Stuck in subtasks

[rworkman]

Hi all - I am a project manager for a marketing and creative team. I manage all of the requests that come from product marketing, performance, engineering, etc. to make sure they follow a content/creative process flow that looks like this: 

- draft copy

- draft creative

-stakeholder review

- creative review

- brand review

- internal legal review

- external legal review

- build/handoff

I work out of a team managed project so I'm stuck using Epic>Tasks>Subtasks. I have added multiple work types on the task level: Performance, Content, Creative, Campaign, Task, Eng

Depending on who requests work or the type of request, the work type (task level) changes. 

Performance requests = Performance task type, Content review = Content task type,  and what not. 

MY ISSUE is that we are stuck assigning work through subtasks only and our naming convention can be super cluttered. For example: 

We get a performance request called "February Motion Ads" which automates a Performance task type. I assign to who requested it so they have visibility. The actual work is tracked through the subtasks and follows the flow I shared earlier: Draft copy, draft creative, etc. and each subtask is assigned to the appropriate content/creative team member. 

 The automated naming convention looks like this:

-Draft copy_February Motion Ads

-Draft creative_February Motion Ads

-Performance Review_February Motion Ads

-Creative Review_February Motion Ads

ETC ETC

You can imagine that gets messy as H when requesters use a long summary in their initial request. 

Im looking for advice. We've been using this system for a year now.. I copied it over from their previous process in Asana (I'm new to PMing, started a year ago. First time using this tool) but I feel like its messy and I'm just struggling keeping my creatives motivated to use this tool and I feel like if it looked better they'd want to use it. 

Thx all. <3

[Olga Cheban _TitanApps_]

hi @rworkman !

I would suggest using checklists instead of subtasks. This will make things much simpler and not so cumbersome.

Here's what this can look like for your specific flow:

I made this checklist with our solution Smart Checklist for Jira. As you can see, it allows you to tag responsible people, add deadlines, and include additional info in the Details section (available for each checklist item). Also, you can structure the checklist with headers and set custom statuses that allow you to track progress.

Once these tasks are completed, people can add links to created materials and other info directly to checklist items.

The best thing is that Smart Checklist lets you save checklists as templates and use them with automation. You say you already have custom work types for Performance, Content, Campaign, etc. You can create customized checklists for each of these work types and assign them automatically to the corresponding work items. This can be done with Smart Checklist's built-in functionality, so you don't have to set up any complex automation rules. 

As a result, a standard checklist will be automatically added to a new request once it's created. Moreover, responsible people (for example, from Legal) will already be tagged. All this will allow you to structure the process and keep it transparent and lightweight.

I hope this helps!

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello @rworkman 

Yep  I know exactly what you mean. What you built works, but it’s basically an Asana checklist recreated with subtasks, and Jira gets messy the second someone writes a long request title.

If you want best practice (and something your creatives won’t hate), I’d do this:

1) use the workflow for the process

Your list (draft copy → draft creative → reviews → handoff) is a process flow, so it belongs in statuses, not in 8 subtasks.

That gives you:

one clean ticket the requester can follow

a board that actually reflects where work is

less noise, less clutter, less “admin work”

You can still assign/reassign as it moves through stages (and automation can help).

2) If you really need different assignees per step, keep subtasks but fix the naming.

You don’t need Draft copy_February Motion Ads. Jira already shows the parent context.

So make subtask titles just:

“Draft copy”

“Draft creative”

“Stakeholder review” …etc.

If someone needs context, put it in the description or just rely on the parent link. This alone will clean up 80% of the “messy as H” feeling.

3) Rule of thumb (easy decision)

One request moving through a process → workflow/statuses (best practice)

Truly separate work items with different owners happening in parallel → subtasks (but short names)

Just a checklist → don’t use subtasks at all (use a checklist-style approach)

And yeah Jira configuration is always a bit of an art. The “right” setup is whatever keeps your team moving without fighting the tool.

If I had to pick one change that gives you the biggest win fastest: stop repeating the parent summary in subtask names and keep them short. Then if you want the “grown-up” version later, move the process into the workflow.

Hope it helps you a little and good luck.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @rworkman 

Why is it a struggle to keep the creatives motivated to use the tool?

Can you outline what the pain points are?

You mentioned "if it looked better". What about it "looks bad"? Is it just that the Summaries are long? Why is that a bad thing?