dow-prod-tracker/PRODUCER_GUIDE.md

Dow Jones Studio Tracker — Producer Guide

Overview

This guide walks you through how to use the Production Tracker day-to-day. The app is designed to be open all day alongside your other tools — dense, glanceable, and fast.

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Navigation

The sidebar gives you access to all major areas:

• Dashboard — Your home base: KPIs, charts, overdue alerts, recent activity
• Projects — All projects in a grid, with create/import actions
• My Work — (Primarily for artists) Shows your personal assignments
• Workload — Team capacity and utilization views
• Timeline — Cross-project Gantt chart
• Calendar — Date-based view of upcoming deadlines
• Notifications — Bell icon with unread count

A Command Palette (keyboard shortcut) lets you quickly search and jump to any project, deliverable, or page.

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Dashboard

When you open the app, the dashboard shows:

• KPI Cards — Active Projects, Total Deliverables, Overdue Count, Pipeline Completion Rate
• Deliverables by Status — Pie chart showing the breakdown (Not Started, In Progress, In Review, Approved, On Hold)
• Stage Completion by Type — Bar chart showing which pipeline stages are completing on time
• Overdue Deliverables — A table of items past their due date, with links to jump directly to them
• Recent Completions — Activity feed of recently finished stages/deliverables

Use this as your morning check-in to identify where attention is needed.

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Managing Projects

Creating a Project

From the Projects page, click Create Project. Fill in:

• Project name and code name
• Business unit and form factor
• Quarter (e.g., Q2 2026)
• Priority (Low, Medium, High, Urgent)
• Requestor and agency
• External IDs (Workfront, OMG, BMT) — for cross-referencing with other systems
• Estimated cost

Bulk Import

If you have historical project data in Excel, use Bulk Import on the Projects page to create multiple projects at once.

Project Detail Page

Click any project to open its detail page. Here you'll see:

• Collapsible metadata panel at the top with all project info (click to expand/collapse)
• View switcher: Table | Board | Timeline
• Add Deliverable button
• Import/Export buttons for Excel

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Managing Deliverables

Creating a Deliverable

From a project's detail page, click Add Deliverable. Enter:

• Deliverable name
• CMF/SKU identifier
• Asset count
• Requested delivery date
• Planned delivery date

Once created, the deliverable automatically gets all 10 pipeline stages, pre-configured with the correct dependency chain.

The 10-Stage Pipeline

Every deliverable flows through these stages in order:

1. Brief Intake → 2. File Delivery → 3. Model Prep ──→ 4. Early Images (optional)
                                           │ GATE
                                           ▼
                                     5. Catalog Images
                                           │ GATE
                           ┌───────┬───────┼───────┬──────────┐
                           ▼       ▼       ▼       ▼          ▼
                        6. Hero  7. Pack  8. Photo 9. 360    10. Dynamic
                         Images  Images   comps    Spin       Spin

Key rules:

• Nothing starts until Brief Intake + Model Prep are complete
• Catalog Images must be approved before stages 6–10 can begin
• Stages 6–10 run in parallel once Catalog is approved
• Early Images is optional — it can be skipped without blocking anything
• Stages marked as Critical Gates must be approved before downstream work unblocks

Stage Statuses

Each pipeline stage goes through these statuses:

Status	Meaning
Blocked	Waiting on a prerequisite stage to complete
Not Started	Unblocked and ready to begin
In Progress	Artist is actively working
In Review	Work submitted for lead review
Changes Requested	Feedback given — artist needs to revise
Approved	Lead has signed off
Delivered	Final delivery complete
Skipped	Optional stage marked as not needed

Advancing Stages

On the deliverable detail page, each stage card has action buttons that let you transition the status:

• Unblock — manually unblock a stage (if dependencies allow)
• Start — mark as In Progress
• Submit for Review — artist submits work
• Request Changes — send back with feedback
• Approve — sign off on the stage (this may auto-unblock downstream stages)
• Mark Delivered — final completion

The system enforces the dependency chain — you can't approve a stage if its prerequisites aren't met.

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Assigning Artists

On any stage card in the deliverable detail view, use the Assign Artist popover to:

1. See a list of team members
2. View skill-match suggestions — the system recommends artists based on their skills, skill levels, and current workload
3. Assign someone as Lead or Support
4. Multiple artists can be assigned to a single stage

The assignment immediately appears in that artist's My Work view.

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Revisions & Comments

Each pipeline stage supports a revision workflow:

1. Click Revisions & Comments on a stage card to open the detail sheet
2. Create a revision when an artist submits work
3. Review the revision — approve it or request changes with feedback notes
4. The revision round counter tracks how many iterations a stage has gone through
5. Comments allow threaded discussion on any stage — useful for context, questions, or notes

Feedback notes (producer → artist) and internal notes (team-only) are tracked separately.

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Views

Table View (Default)

A dense, sortable list showing all deliverables in a project. Each row shows:

• Deliverable name and metadata
• Pipeline progress bar (color-coded by stage status)
• Assignment info
• Status badge

Board View (Kanban)

Columns represent deliverable statuses: Not Started → In Progress → In Review → Approved → Delivered → On Hold.

• Drag and drop deliverables between columns to change status
• Cards show priority badges and pipeline progress

Timeline View (Gantt)

A cross-project timeline showing deliverables as bars on a time axis.

• Zoom: Month / Week / Day
• Filters: By status, priority
• Summary stats: Project count, deliverable count, average completion %, overdue count

Calendar View

A monthly/weekly calendar showing stage due dates as colored event pills.

• Filters: By project, stage type, status
• Click any event to see details

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Workload Management

The Workload page helps you balance work across the team.

Capacity Grid

A weekly table showing each team member's assignment count and status breakdown. Each artist has a max capacity (default: 5 concurrent assignments). The grid highlights anyone who is overloaded (assignments exceeding capacity).

Utilization Heatmap

A visual heat map showing team utilization by week. Darker cells = higher utilization. Helps spot who has bandwidth and who is stretched.

Controls

• Toggle between Grid and Heatmap views
• Set the week range: 4 / 8 / 12 weeks
• Filter by project

Use this view before making new assignments to avoid overloading artists.

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Notifications

The bell icon in the top bar shows your unread notification count. Notification types include:

• Assignment — You've been assigned to a stage
• Status Change — A stage you're tracking changed status
• Revision Submitted — An artist submitted work for review
• Revision Feedback — Feedback on your submitted revision
• Comment — New comment on a stage you're involved in
• Deadline Approaching — A due date is coming up
• Deadline Overdue — A due date has passed
• Stage Unblocked — A stage is now ready to start

You can mark individual notifications or all notifications as read.

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AI Chat Assistant

A built-in chat panel (powered by Claude) lets you interact with the tracker using natural language. Examples of what you can ask:

• "What deliverables are overdue this week?"
• "Show me all projects for Q2 2026"
• "Who has capacity to take on more work?"
• "Assign Prateek to the Hero Images stage on Project X"
• "Create a new deliverable for the ABC laptop project"

The assistant is context-aware — if you're on a specific project page, it knows which project you're looking at.

Semantic Search

The search bar supports semantic search — type a natural language query and it will find matching projects and deliverables by meaning, not just exact keyword matches. For example, searching "laptop renders for Q2" will find relevant results even if those exact words aren't in the project name.

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Excel Import/Export

Import

• From a project detail page, click Import to upload an Excel file of deliverables
• From the Projects page, use Bulk Import for multiple projects
• The system maps Excel columns to the data model and creates records

Export

• From a project detail page, click Export to download project data as an Excel file
• Useful for sharing status with stakeholders who don't have app access

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Tips for Daily Use

1. Start with the Dashboard — Check KPIs and the overdue table first thing
2. Use the Workload view before assigning — Avoid overloading artists by checking capacity first
3. Lean on skill suggestions — When assigning artists, the system recommends the best match based on skills and availability
4. Use the Timeline for planning — The Gantt view is the best way to see cross-project scheduling conflicts
5. Keep stages moving — Approve completed stages promptly so downstream work auto-unblocks
6. Use comments for context — Leave notes on stages so anyone can pick up where you left off
7. Try the AI chat — It's especially useful for quick lookups and bulk operations