dow-prod-tracker/EXECUTIVE_OVERVIEW.md

Dow Jones Studio Tracker — Executive Overview

What It Is

The Dow Jones Studio Tracker is a custom-built web application that gives the CG department a single, unified tool to manage all product render production — replacing the fragmented workflow of Workfront, Excel spreadsheets, and the OMG platform.

Think of it as a purpose-built Monday.com, but designed specifically for our CG pipeline stages, dependency rules, and team structure.

The Problem It Solves

Previously, tracking a deliverable from brief intake through final delivery required jumping between multiple tools. No single view showed pipeline status, artist workload, or delivery timelines. Overdue items and bottlenecks were discovered late, often through manual check-ins.

Now, everything lives in one place — with real-time visibility into where every deliverable stands across every stage of the pipeline.

Key Capabilities

Production Dashboard

A single-screen overview showing active projects, total deliverables, overdue counts, and pipeline completion rates. Charts break down deliverables by status and stage completion by type. Overdue items are surfaced immediately.

Project & Deliverable Management

Projects are created with full metadata (business unit, form factor, quarter, requestor, agency, cost tracking, and external IDs for Workfront/OMG/BMT). Each project contains deliverables that flow through the 10-stage CG pipeline with enforced dependency gates — stages cannot start until prerequisites are approved.

Multiple Views

• Table View — Dense, sortable list of deliverables with status and progress
• Board View — Kanban-style drag-and-drop for visual status management
• Timeline View — Gantt chart for cross-project scheduling at month/week/day zoom
• Calendar View — Date-based view of upcoming stage deadlines

Team Workload Visibility

A capacity grid and utilization heatmap show each artist's weekly assignment load, highlight overloaded team members, and allow filtering by project. Producers can balance work across the team before bottlenecks form.

AI-Powered Assistant

A built-in chat assistant (powered by Claude) lets users search across projects, find overdue items, get assignment suggestions, and perform bulk operations using natural language. A semantic search feature also allows finding projects and deliverables by meaning rather than exact keywords.

Notifications & Automation

In-app notifications alert users to assignments, status changes, approaching deadlines, and revision feedback. An automation engine allows setting rules that trigger actions (e.g., auto-notify when a deadline is approaching, auto-assign when a stage unblocks).

Excel Import/Export

Historical data can be bulk-imported from Excel. Project data can be exported for external reporting or stakeholder sharing.

Who Uses It

Role	What They Do
Producers and Leads	Create and manage projects, assign artists to pipeline stages, review and approve work, track deadlines, monitor team capacity
Artists	Check assigned tasks ("My Work" view), update stage statuses, submit revisions, and leave comments
Admins	Configure organization settings, manage automation rules, and oversee user access

Technical Highlights

• Web-based — runs in any modern browser, no installation needed
• 10–30 concurrent users supported
• SSO authentication via Microsoft
• Light and Dark mode with system preference detection
• PostgreSQL database with vector search for AI features
• Built on Next.js (React) — modern, fast, and maintainable

Current State

The application is fully functional with all core features implemented: dashboard analytics, project/deliverable CRUD, the full 10-stage pipeline with dependency enforcement, board/timeline/calendar views, workload management, AI chat and semantic search, notifications, automation rules, revision tracking, and Excel import/export.