Power of Productive Collaboration Ebook [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Sure, your marketing and creative teams collaborate. But are they productive?

We'll take a moment and let that sink in.

For years, the debate over content quality vs. quantity has raged on (we're on Team Quality, btw), but strong messaging and fabulous design isn't enough to capture attention anymore. Now, marketing and creative teams have to support an ever-growing mix of channels with high volumes of high-quality content. The pressure is on.

To relieve some of that pressure, we get others involved. But we've all sat on Zooms and huddles that, despite an agenda, don't go anywhere. We've all left brainstorms feeling frustrated and directionless. We've all felt the nagging sense that perhaps there is a more efficient way of working.

(Spoiler: There is.)

As a leading creative operations platform, Lytho deeply understands those pain points. (And, yes, our software provides solutions to them.) But just as important as the right tools is the process itself, which is why we assembled The Power of Productive Collaboration, our definitive guide to optimizing cross-team success.

Think of this as an easy-to-implement plan for strengthening communication across all teams, streamlining the feedback process, and collectively producing high-performing, engaging content.

Below are five obstacles that throttle marketing and creative collaboration. If these feel a little too familiar — or even if they don't — you can download our free guide to learn actionable solutions.

You Cringe When Asking for Feedback

But not because you don't want notes. Getting content approved is the most time-consuming and frustrating workflow stage for many marketing and creative teams, with 74% reporting it takes at least three rounds of review to get final sign-off. (Shout-out to those endless re:re:re:re email chains.)

Feedback Arrives in Every Form Possible — Including Carrier Pigeon

Okay, we exaggerated (just a little) with the bird reference, but, honestly? We wouldn't rule it out as a possibility. The point is that some people handwrite feedback, some people email it, some people Slack it — and all of this leads to a lack of consistency and transparency. Bonus: You're basically guaranteed a headache trying to gather it all.

There's No Established Way to Address Conflicting Feedback

We happen to be big fans of conflicting opinions, as they often challenge us to think more broadly or more creatively. However, how can you work through a differing perspective if you aren't even aware of it? Submitting notes across various platforms is guaranteed way to make sure that opinions stay siloed — and collaboration is stifled.

Getting the Green Light Is Basically Laughable

One of the most frequent barriers to success is unproductive approval processes. This includes unclear feedback, hard-to-manage proof routing, and slow review cycle, which can drain your resources. (Not to mention your patience.) Usually at this point, you're so close to going live, making that elusive thumbs up even more important. Tbh, it doesn't matter if your process is otherwise functional if everything gets blocked from going out the door.

Time Is Never on Your Side

Like, ever. The need for high volumes of high-quality content isn't going away — and neither are the problems facing non-collaborative teams. Teams that adopt a creative workflow management solution get content approved 76% faster and shorten project lifecycles overall by as much as 85%. So how do you go from butting heads and underdelivering to seamlessly communicating and distributing engaging content? It all starts with assessing your current workflow and optimizing each stage. And that's where we come in.

5 Frustrating Challenges Creative Teams Face in 2025 — And How You Can Finally Get Everyone Aligned

You have collaboration pain points. We have productive solutions in a handy guide that you can download right now.

Sure, your marketing and creative teams collaborate. But are they productive?

The Good News