One workflow that completely eliminated a painful manual handoff

Summary

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MarTech Podcast ™

Episode: One workflow that completely eliminated a painful manual handoff

Host: Benjamin Shapiro
Guest: Christine Royston, Chief Marketing Officer at Wrike
Date: February 3, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Benjamin Shapiro sits down with Christine Royston, CMO at Wrike, to discuss how her team leveraged workflow automation—particularly approval routing—to eliminate a painful, manual handoff that often bottlenecks creative collaboration. The conversation highlights the intersection of AI and human-centered creativity, focusing on practical steps for streamlining marketing operations and keeping teams aligned and efficient.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Challenge: Manual Handoffs in Approval Processes

• Common Issue: Managing roles, responsibilities, and approvals in creative work is complex. Teams often get bogged down by unclear approval chains, conflicting feedback, and delays when reviewers are unavailable.
• Insight: Lack of clarity leads to wasted cycles and friction, making it challenging to achieve final outcomes efficiently.

The Solution: Automated Approval Routing with Wrike

• Automated Workflow: Christine describes how her team has deployed clear, automated routing for content approvals, tailored to specific asset types and responsibilities.
  • Pre-defining approvers for different work types.
  • Automated notifications ensure that the right people receive requests at the right time.
  • Set turnaround times for reviews to avoid bottlenecks caused by absences or unclear deadlines.
  • Centralized commenting and decision-making within Wrike enhance visibility and accountability.
• Result:
  • Elimination of “who should I send this to?” confusion.
  • Reduction in conflicting input and review cycles.
  • Streamlined, transparent process that keeps momentum without overburdening collaborators.
  • All orchestration and approvals take place in Wrike for full traceability.

Human Creativity Still at the Center

• While automation streamlines logistics, Christine emphasizes that the creative work itself remains a human endeavor, with AI assisting in the orchestration.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the biggest workflow transformation:

  “It is probably approval routing … Many people want to approve something, review something, provide their input. … We are being really clear for certain types of work, who is the approver, when does the approval go to that person or request for input, how much time do they have to turn it around. … That has taken a lot of the manual ‘who should I send this to for review?’”
  — Christine Royston [01:55]

• On the impact of automation:

  “…setting up that routing so that you're able to say, all right, it's ready to go to the next step and it gets routed and people can review it … all orchestrating in Wrike. People can do it in Wrike, they can approve it in Wrike, they can add commentary on visuals if they don't approve it…”
  — Christine Royston [02:26]

• On clarity and ownership:

  “Roles and responsibilities and clarity of who owns what … is one of those key pieces to a successful system so that you’re not … getting way too much input that’s kind of conflicting so you can’t actually get to the end result.”
  — Christine Royston [02:48]

• Host’s humorous take:

  “I just want a no button that you can smash. So whenever anybody comes with some sort of an approval or request… one AI automated button that just says no and then slams the door on everybody. But maybe that's something we could build later.”
  — Benjamin Shapiro [03:24]

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Important Timestamps

• [01:15] — Introduction of Christine Royston & episode’s central topic.
• [01:47] — The one workflow that eliminated a manual handoff: Approval routing.
• [02:26] — Explanation of the automated workflow, specific benefits, and Wrike integration.
• [02:48] — Discussion of why roles and responsibilities matter in collaboration.
• [03:24] — Host’s lighthearted commentary and episode wrap-up.

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Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is candid, relatable, and actionable, reflecting both the practical frustrations and the innovative solutions that define modern marketing operations. Christine’s insights are clear and grounded in real-world experience, while Benjamin injects humor and summarizes key takeaways for listeners interested in reducing workflow friction in their own teams.

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For more actionable marketing and technology insights, subscribe to the MarTech Podcast or explore Wrike’s resources at wrike.com.

Transcript

[Podcast Announcer]

The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iheareverything.com.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

From advertising to software as a service to data, across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55 to 65% open rate. Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising. Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours. We're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action. Then it's just a matter of timing.

[Podcast Announcer]

Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world class marketers that used technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's a host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

I'm Benjamin Shapiro and joining me today is Christine Royston, the chief marketing officer at Wrike, the intelligent work management platform trusted by over 20,000 companies. And today, Christine's going to reveal how teams are using AI to transform car creative collaboration, keeping human creativity at the center while automating everything else. Christine, I want to move on to our lightning round where I'm going to ask you a couple of Martech related questions around AI and creative collaboration. Are you ready?

[Christine Royston]

I am ready, yes.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

All right, what's one workflow that your team built that completely eliminated a painful manual handoff?

[Christine Royston]

Ooh, I would have to say, I think it is probably approval routing. So if you think about roles and responsibilities, many people want to say, everybody wants to kind of approve something, review something, provide their input. And so what we have done is make sure that we are being really clear for certain types of work, certain types of asset. Who is the approver, when does the approval go to that person or request for input? How much time do they have to turn it around? And that has, I think, taken, taken a lot of the manual. All right, well, who should I send this to for review? And I need it within two days, but this person either doesn't know it or they're on vacation. And so setting up that routing so that you're able to say, all right, it's ready to go to the next step and it gets routed and people can review it within, you know, all. Everything that we, we are orchestrating ends up in wrike. People can do it in wrike, they can approve it in wrike, they can add commentary on on visuals if they don't approve it and they want a little bit more, a little bit more work done. So I think that piece because roles and responsibilities and clarity of, of who owns what I think is one of those key pieces to a successful system so that you're not spending time circling around or getting way too much input that's kind of conflicting so you can't actually get to the end result.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

I just want one of those big staples buttons. It used to be the I forgot the get it done button or something like that. I just want a no button that you can smash. So whenever anybody comes with some sort of an approval or request for me to do something else, it's just one AI automated button that just says no and then slams the door on everybody. But maybe that's something we could build later. And that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks for listening to my conversation with Christine Royston, the chief Marketing Officer at wrike. If you'd like to contact Christine, you can find a link to her LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on martechpod.com or you can visit her company's website, which is wrike.com, w r I k e.com if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button in your podcast app or on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed next week. All right, that's it for today, but until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

[Podcast Announcer]

Foreign thanks for listening to the Martech Podcast and I hear everything. Production Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit iheareverything.com.