Meridian Digital — 40 Employees • 5 Departments • 12 Tools
| # | Process | Department | Owner | Frequency | Est. Hrs/Wk | Manual Steps | Tools Used | Pain Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Creative Brief → Deliverable Pipeline | AM Creative | Project Managers | Daily | 18 | 9 | Google Docs, Slack, Asana, Figma, Adobe, Dropbox | 5 |
| 2 | Client Onboarding (Deal Close → Kickoff) | Sales AM Finance | AM Director | 2-4x/month | 8 | 14 | HubSpot, Slack, Asana, Google Drive, QuickBooks | 5 |
| 3 | Monthly Client Reporting | Account Mgmt | Account Managers (×4) | Monthly | 14 | 7 | HubSpot, GA, Social platforms, Google Sheets, Slides | 4 |
| 4 | Creative Feedback & Revision Cycles | AM Creative | AMs + Designers | Per project | 12 | 6 | Asana, Slack, Email, Loom | 4 |
| 5 | Resource & Traffic Management | PM & Ops | Traffic Manager | Daily | 10 | 5 | Personal spreadsheet (manual) | 4 |
| 6 | Invoicing & Billing | Finance | AP/AR Specialist | Monthly | 6 | 6 | Harvest, Google Sheets, QuickBooks | 4 |
| 7 | Month-End Reconciliation | Finance | AP/AR Specialist | Monthly | 6 | 5 | QuickBooks, bank statements, spreadsheet | 3 |
| 8 | Project Status Tracking | PM & Ops | Project Managers | Daily | 7 | 4 | Asana (inconsistent), Monday.com, verbal standups | 3 |
| 9 | Deal Handoff Documentation | Sales | Account Executives | Per deal | 2 | 3 | Google Docs, HubSpot | 3 |
| 10 | Client Welcome & Kickoff Scheduling | Account Mgmt | Account Managers | Per new client | 2 | 4 | Email, Calendar, Google Docs | 2 |
Priority Score Formula: (Impact × 0.50) + ((10 − Complexity) × 0.30) + ((10 − Build Effort) × 0.20)
| Rank | Opportunity | Dept | Type | Impact | Complexity | Build Effort | Priority Score | Hrs Saved/Wk | Quick Win? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Standardized Creative Brief Template with Required Fields | AM Creative | Simple Rule | 7 | 2 | 2 | 7.5 | 5 | Quick Win |
| 2 | Centralized Feedback Channel (Asana-only + version tracking) | AM Creative | Simple Rule | 7 | 3 | 3 | 7.0 | 4 | Quick Win |
| 3 | Automated Client Reporting Dashboard ★ | Account Mgmt | Conditional | 9 | 5 | 6 | 6.8 | 14 | — |
| 4 | HubSpot → Asana Auto Project Creation on Deal Close | Sales AM | Linear | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6.5 | 3 | — |
| 5 | Consolidate PM Tools (Retire Monday.com) | PM & Ops | Simple Rule | 5 | 2 | 2 | 6.5 | 2 | Quick Win |
| 6 | Auto-Notify Finance on Deal Close (HubSpot → Slack/QuickBooks) | Sales Finance | Linear | 5 | 2 | 2 | 6.5 | 1 | Quick Win |
| 7 | Full Client Onboarding Automation (end-to-end) | Cross-dept | Complex | 8 | 6 | 7 | 5.8 | 5 | — |
| 8 | Traffic Management System (Replace Personal Spreadsheet) | PM & Ops | Conditional | 7 | 5 | 6 | 5.8 | 5 | — |
| 9 | Consolidated Doc Platform (Phase Out Notion) | All | Simple Rule | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5.8 | 2 | — |
| 10 | Harvest → QuickBooks Invoice Auto-Generation | Finance | Linear | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5.5 | 4 | — |
Each AM creates briefs in Google Docs with no standard format. ~30% missing critical info (brand guidelines, specs, target audience), causing rework.
Mandatory brief template in Google Docs (or Asana form) with required fields. Brief cannot be submitted without all fields completed.
~5 hrs/week (reduced rework from 30% to <10% of revision rounds)
Simple Rule — checklist enforcement
None. Requires AM team buy-in.
Implementable in 1-2 days
Creative feedback arrives via Asana, Slack, email, and Loom. Designers miss updates, work from outdated feedback.
All feedback goes through Asana comments with version-tagged attachments. Slack/email/Loom feedback is redirected.
~4 hrs/week (reduced confusion, fewer “wrong version” revisions)
Simple Rule — policy change + Asana workflow configuration
Creative brief template (#1) helps but not required
Implementable in 1 week
4 AMs × 8 clients × 1.5-2 hrs = 48-64 hrs/month manually pulling from HubSpot, GA, social platforms, ad platforms, building charts in Sheets, pasting into Slides.
Automated data aggregation from HubSpot API + GA API + social/ad platform APIs into a report template. AM reviews and adds commentary only.
~14 hrs/week (reduce per-report time from 1.5-2 hrs to ~20-30 min)
Conditional — multiple API integrations, template logic, platform-specific handling
API access to all platforms; may need middleware (Supermetrics, Funnel.io — $100-300/month)
3-4 week implementation
AM manually creates Asana project from scratch after deal closes. Template exists but is outdated.
HubSpot deal closure triggers automatic Asana project creation with populated fields, assignees, and task structure.
~3 hrs/week
Linear — trigger + template population
Updated Asana project template; HubSpot-Asana integration (native or Zapier — previous attempt failed, needs dedicated setup)
1-2 week implementation
Some teams use Asana, others Monday.com. No single source of truth for project status.
All project management in Asana. Monday.com retired. Standardized Asana workspace structure.
~2 hrs/week (reduced context-switching, single status view)
Simple Rule — migration + policy
Monday.com data migration to Asana
1 week migration window
AM manually pings Finance via Slack to set up billing. Often forgotten; Finance finds out when first invoice is due.
HubSpot deal closure auto-triggers notification to Finance with deal value, billing terms, client info.
~1 hr/week (plus eliminates missed billing setups)
Linear — HubSpot workflow → Slack notification to #finance + QuickBooks client creation
HubSpot workflow configuration; contract terms in HubSpot deal record
1-2 days to configure
14 manual steps across 4 departments, 2-3 weeks elapsed, things fall through cracks.
Orchestrated onboarding workflow: deal close triggers project creation, folder setup, welcome email, finance notification, kickoff scheduling, status tracking — all automated with human checkpoints.
~5 hrs/week (reduce elapsed time from 2-3 weeks to 3-5 days)
Complex Orchestration — connects HubSpot, Asana, Google Drive, QuickBooks, Gmail
Items #1, #4, #6 should be implemented first (building blocks)
4-6 week implementation
Traffic Manager uses personal spreadsheet for resource allocation. Single point of failure — no one else can do this job.
Resource management built into Asana (Portfolio + Workload views) or dedicated tool. Visible to all PMs.
~5 hrs/week (reduced manual scheduling, eliminated single-point-of-failure risk)
Conditional — requires process documentation, data migration, team training
PM tool consolidation (#5) should be done first
2-3 week implementation
Some teams use Notion, others Google Docs. Duplicated documentation, inconsistent access.
All documentation in Google Workspace. Notion phased out.
~2 hrs/week (reduced searching, single source)
Simple Rule — migration + policy
Notion content audit and migration
2 week migration window, low urgency
AP/AR manually pulls Harvest hours, compares to contracts, creates QuickBooks invoices line by line. 15% error rate.
Harvest time data auto-generates invoice drafts in QuickBooks based on contract terms. AP/AR reviews and approves.
~4 hrs/week (reduce invoice creation from 3 hrs to 30 min + review)
Linear — Harvest API → contract logic → QuickBooks API
Contract terms must be digitized consistently (currently in personal Google Sheet)
3-4 week implementation
| Connection | Type | Tool / Method | Est. Cost | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot → Asana | Automation | Zapier or native | $20-50/month | Phase 1 |
| HubSpot → Slack (Finance notify) | Automation | HubSpot Workflow (free) | $0 | Phase 1 |
| HubSpot → QuickBooks | Integration | Zapier or middleware | $20-50/month | Phase 2 |
| Harvest → QuickBooks | Integration | Zapier or native sync | $20-50/month | Phase 2 |
| Data APIs → Report Template | Aggregation | Supermetrics or Funnel.io | $100-300/month | Phase 2 |
| Asana Resource Management | Feature | Asana Business plan | Included | Phase 2 |
| Total Estimated Monthly Cost | $160-500/month | Within budget | ||
#6 (Finance Notify) ───┐
#1 (Brief Template) ────┤
#5 (PM Consolidation) ──┤── #4 (HubSpot→Asana) ──┐
│ ├── #7 (Full Onboarding)
│── #8 (Traffic Mgmt) ─────┘
#2 (Feedback Channel) ──┘
#3 (Reporting) [independent]
#10 (Invoice Sync) [independent, needs digitized contracts]
#9 (Doc Consolidation) [independent]
| KPI | Department | Current Baseline | Target (Phase 4) | Measurement Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hours on manual reporting | Account Mgmt | 48-64 hrs/month | 8-12 hrs/month | Time tracking comparison |
| Client onboarding elapsed time | Cross-dept | 14-21 days | 3-5 days | Deal close to kickoff date |
| Creative revision rounds | Creative | 2.8 avg (30% from bad briefs) | 1.8 avg (<10% from bad briefs) | Asana task revision count |
| Invoice error rate | Finance | 15% | <5% | Correction count / total invoices |
| Month-end close time | Finance | 3 days (24 hrs) | 1 day (8 hrs) | Calendar days to close |
| Single-point-of-failure processes | All | 2 (Traffic Mgr, AP/AR) | 0 | Process documentation audit |
| Tool redundancy | All | 2 redundant tools | 0 | Tool inventory count |
| Project status visibility | PM & Ops | No single view | Single Asana dashboard | Team survey / standup time |