How do you track post-production deliverables without spreadsheets?
Replace the spreadsheet with a system that works out status from what people actually do, rather than asking them to report it. In Wheelhouse, a card moves when someone opens the cut, every delivery destination is its own line with its own due date, and blocked is shown separately from late - so the list stays true without anybody maintaining it.
The problem with a deliverables spreadsheet is not the spreadsheet. It is that every cell depends on somebody remembering to update it, and the person who knows is the person who is busiest.
Wheelhouse works status out from what people actually do, not from what they report.
What that looks like
- A card moves to In Progress because somebody opened the cut, not because they ticked a box.
- Each delivery destination is its own line with its own spec, owner and due date. So “delivered” never quietly means “delivered to one of five places”.
- Blocked is not the same as late. Something waiting on a QC pass that has not happened yet is not anybody’s failure, and showing it in red teaches people to ignore red.
- If a package changes, every episode still on the old version is flagged. That is the sum a spreadsheet cannot do.
What you still type in
Less than you would expect, and deliberately nothing another system already knows. If a screen asks somebody to retype a fact your storage or your media system already holds, that screen is wrong and gets redesigned.
Last reviewed