Content Production Workflow: Requirements, Roles and Approval

Content production turns articles, images, videos and resources into usable assets for an audience and a destination. Different formats need different materials and acceptance checks. Combine a common workflow with format-specific requirements, explicit approval and version control so the next owner can maintain what was published.

Define the asset, audience and destination

The brief should identify the reader’s task, asset, destination, exclusions and evidence requirements. “Make an understandable video” does not specify the operation to demonstrate, what must work without sound or the conditions for using the footage.

A fictional brief might request an article and short video that let a first-time operator reproduce a checking procedure. Both assets must explain the same verified steps. GOV.UK’s user-needs guidance helps focus on tasks and circumstances. If the format is still undecided, use the content format comparison before commissioning production.

Assign owners, reviewers and deliverables

Assign responsibility for the brief, factual review, production, acceptance and maintenance. These are roles, not a requirement to hire five people. Where someone holds several roles, record the decision made at each gate.

The Department for Education’s content strategy guidance offers a useful example of quality assurance, sign-off and ownership. Agree who can return an asset for correction and who can stop release. A deadline does not substitute for approval.

Gather evidence, permissions and format requirements

List sources, screenshots, people, photographs, music, logos and customer quotations. Confirm destinations and reuse permissions. Possessing a file does not establish permission to edit it or use it in another medium. Track unknown permissions as unresolved requirements.

W3C’s image decision tree helps choose text alternatives according to purpose. Complex charts may also need a surrounding explanation or data table rather than relying on a short description alone.

Review a prototype and agree changes

Review a useful prototype before full production: headings and a worked example for an article, a key graphic, or a script and representative scene for video. Assess whether it supports the task and whether evidence and conditions are available.

If the current screen contradicts the script, permission is missing or an essential condition is absent, agree a correction before completing the asset. Record the affected files, workload and reapproval responsibility. Do not quietly add unapproved requirements while the producer works.

Produce text, visuals and video

Keep terminology and conditions consistent in writing. Check units and legends in graphics, and match video instructions to the demonstrated sequence. When converting an article into a video, adapt the explanation to the medium rather than assuming a direct copy will serve the same task.

The content marketing article workflow covers planning and editing one article. Consult primary evidence before building examples, and do not convert assumed figures into actual results. Google’s people-first content guidance supports source and usefulness checks; it does not establish that producing more formats improves rankings.

Check quality, accessibility and delivery

Where possible, ask someone other than the producer to perform the task in the brief. Check readable tables, links, device presentation and the message after an action. Send specialist claims to a reviewer who understands their scope.

W3C’s audio and video accessibility planning guidance discusses considering captions, transcripts and visual descriptions early. If essential visual information is absent from the audio, choose an appropriate way to convey it. Review automated captions for words, names and timing instead of accepting them merely because they exist.

• Match the final text, screens and captions.
• Provide alternatives or explanations suited to meaningful images and video.
• Align resource and form conditions with the invitation.
• Confirm that file and permission conditions match the publishing destination.

Release a version and hand over maintenance

This fictional handoff illustrates an article-and-video project. It does not represent measured production results. Even when files use separate version numbers, identify the approved combination for release.

After release, make it possible to trace a changed specification across all affected assets. Downloads and plays are not automatically qualified leads. Record access, verified inquiries and contracts separately. A complete handoff gives the next owner the approved files and the conditions for keeping them accurate.