Structured Approvals
What:
Establish criteria, define roles, and provide actionable suggestions to bring an idea from proposal to approval.
Who:
A feedback process should involve everyone who has an interest in the problem. Use structured approvals to ensure that all of your projects meet the success criteria you have defined.
Where:
Feedback should be given in a tool allows for comments, tracked changes, and version control. A well-designed approvals process can help you make more informed and timely decisions, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations.
Best Practices:
What: Establish criteria, define roles, and provide actionable suggestions to bring an idea from proposal to approval.
Who: A feedback process should involve everyone who has an interest in the problem. Use structured approvals to ensure that all of your projects meet the success criteria you have defined.
Where: Feedback should be given in a tool allows for comments, tracked changes, and version control. A well-designed approvals process can help you make more informed and timely decisions, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations.
Best Practices: To achieve faster, better approvals —
Define roles.
The recommender writes the proposal, guiding the solution through the initial discussion and drafting steps.
Team members whose feedback is necessary to vet the proposal should be consulted.
The approver makes the final call, serving as the single point of accountability, resolving any divergent feedback, and committing the team to implementing the decision.
Establish clear criteria.
Establish benchmarks so you can track progress toward the end goals during the project.
Consider factors like cost, level of risk, ease of implementation, and return on investment as you review the proposal.
Example: Use a product roadmap to assess the strengths of a proposal and map the possibilities it opens up.
Set deadlines.
Specify when the approval needs to be made.
Avoid both making the decision too early and foreclosing valuable possibilities, and making the decision too late and missing the window of opportunity.
Gather feedback.
Everyone who needs to provide input on the decision should have an opportunity to contribute feedback.
Keep this circle of team members consulted as small as possible to avoid slowing down the decision with too much deliberation.
Example: Frame your proposal strategically to get an enthusiastic yes.
Success is:
You know you've completed a successful review process when new ideas are flowing up from the relevant teams, and the Approver has the information they need to make settled decisions.
Templates:
Making it happen:
Here's how Almanac helps you structure reviews and approvals more constructively.
Success is: You know you've completed a successful review process when new ideas are flowing up from the relevant teams, and the Approver has the information they need to make settled decisions.
Making it happen: Here's how Almanac helps you structure reviews and approvals more constructively.
Approvals
Bring transparency and accountability to your collaboration by requesting final approval in Almanac.
Review Anything
Upload your slide decks, spreadsheets, PDFs, and more directly into your Almanac workspace.
Status-based Workflows
Properties let you manage statuses, assignees, and priorities right on your document.
Next: Structured Knowledge Management
