Softline Creative Intake
Every request for Softline Creative now starts in one place: Main Creative. Pick the way that fits how you work, add a few details, and the right team picks it up. No chasing, no guessing where it went.
For Softline teams and outside partners alike. Internal teams get the fastest paths; partners get simple, guided ones.
Main Creative (MC) is the all-seeing eye. Every request, from every source, lands here first as its own MC ticket. That ticket is how we see the full picture of what has been asked for and where it stands.
Here is the important part: no work happens on an MC ticket. MC tickets do not get designed, written, or built on. They exist only to link and oversee. The actual work happens on the connected team tickets, and the MC ticket watches over all of them.
How routing works
When a request comes in, its Work Type and other metadata decide where it goes. You describe the work; the system routes it.
The Work Type field (plus fields like brand, channel, and due date) tells us which Creative Vertical owns the request.
Within that vertical, the same details map the request to the correct Pod, and each Pod maps to its own Jira project and board.
If a request needs more than one Pod or vertical, the automations create linked tickets on each board, all tied back to the one MC parent.
The MC ticket links to every team ticket it spawned, so status, ownership, and progress stay visible in one place.
Either way below creates one MC ticket.
Work Type + metadata map it to a Vertical and Pod.
Linked team tickets are created where work will happen.
MC links and tracks every ticket to done.
Two ways to submit
Every one of these lands in Main Creative. Choose based on who you are and how you like to work.
A guided web form powered by Zapier. Answer a few questions and it creates the MC ticket for you. The simplest path if you are outside the Creative team or just want a form to fill in.
Describe the request in plain language and the intake skill builds the ticket with the right fields. Built in for Softline teams, and available as a downloadable skill for outside collaborators who use Claude.
However it starts, the result is the same: one MC ticket that oversees the work from request to done.
After you submit
Triage is a gate, not a queue. A complete brief moves forward; an incomplete one comes straight back with exactly what is missing.
Form, Claude, or a Main Creative ticket.
Is this brief ready for a team to work?
Moves forward to team assignment, kickoff, and scheduling.
Sent back with what is missing. The clock restarts on resubmission.
We confirm the brief is complete, scope it, and decide which team owns it.
The owning team commits to a date and puts the work into a sprint.
Use this when you set expectations with a stakeholder or client. A complete submission is what keeps it real — incomplete requests restart the clock.
In triage we confirm the brief, the scope, and whether it is ready. Nothing is committed yet, and no delivery date exists. If something is missing, we tell you exactly what we need.
A team committed to a date and put the work in a sprint. That date is what we report on, and it holds — changes get documented, never edited silently.
Please do not plan a launch against a request that has not been scheduled.
Kickoffs & feedback
No exceptions, no matter how small the ask. The kickoff is where the brief becomes a plan.
Nothing goes into a sprint without one. It is how we confirm scope before anyone starts building.
The team can revisit what was said, and anyone who missed it can catch up.
We schedule and send it, never the client. You get it from us with the agenda attached.
Every kickoff, every time. Decisions made in the room are ones the team can build against.
Three days before sprint planning, the ticket closes to changes. Unconfirmed changes push the work to the next sprint.
On every deliverable, from every reviewer in the loop. Sprints are two weeks — a day of silence is the difference between shipping this sprint and the next. If we do not hear back, we follow up once, then the date moves. One consolidated response beats five separate ones.
Statuses & visibility
Every handoff is a status change. Read left to right, the work moves back and forth between us — each status says whose court the ball is in.
Holding status. We need something from you before it can move.
Holding status. Something is stopping the ticket from moving forward.
Steps 08 and 09 loop — review and revision repeat until you approve. Revision time is tracked separately.
You get a Client Dashboard in Jira plus access to Main Creative. Between them you can see every request you have made, where it stands, and what is next. Comment freely on either — that is how change requests get documented.
The production boards where teams plan sprints are not client-visible — teams working in Agile control their own tasks. Nothing is hidden: status, owner, and committed date all surface on the dashboard and Main Creative.
Received, scheduled, in review, delivered. Slack works too.
Where the work happens
Once routed, work runs on a Pod's own Jira board. Core verticals move on synchronized two-week sprints; service verticals and production studios run Kanban, pulled in as needed.
Core verticals: 2-week synchronized sprints
Service verticals & production studios: Kanban
Legacy boards (HOI Creative, Brio Creative, Wholesale & Tradeshows) are being sunset after July 2026. Do not open new work there, use Main Creative.
Common questions
No. You only start the request in Main Creative. If the work needs a team board, the automations create and link those tickets for you.
MC is the oversight layer. Keeping it work-free means it always reflects the true, linked status of every request across every team, without competing as a place where things get built.
That is expected. One MC ticket can fan out into linked tickets on several Pods or verticals, and MC keeps them connected so nothing falls through the cracks.
Use the Intake Form. It is guided and needs no Jira access. If you use Claude, you can also download the intake skill.
Make your best choice and submit. Routing can be adjusted on the MC ticket, and the intake form and skill help you choose as you go.
No, this has been disabled. It is important that teams working in Agile control their own tasks, and that status updates flow back to you through the process outlined here. You can always reach the team in Slack or leave comments on the ticket.
You will not have to chase one. Your Client Dashboard in Jira and the Main Creative ticket both show where every request stands, and we email you proactively at each stage that changes your plans: received, scheduled, in review, and delivered. Slack works too.
Submitting is not starting. Every request first goes through triage, where we confirm the brief and decide who owns it. Plan on 5–10 business days from a complete submission to a scheduled date — and no delivery date exists until it is scheduled. Please do not plan a launch against a request that has not been scheduled.
Yes, no matter how small. The kickoff is where the brief becomes a plan and scope gets confirmed before anyone builds. Softline schedules and sends the invite, it is recorded, and a creative director is always in the room.
Within 24 hours of any review request, on every deliverable. If we do not hear back, we follow up once and then the deliverable moves to delayed and the date shifts. One consolidated response from your side beats several separate ones.
The two levers you control are a complete brief and fast feedback. A complete submission avoids the triage bounce that restarts the clock, and turning reviews around within 24 hours keeps the work in the current sprint. If something is genuinely urgent, flag it at submission and we will tell you what is realistic — triage still applies, but we can advise on sequencing.
If something looks wrong, email a Creative Director or message the support channel as soon as possible, and we will make sure it is set up correctly.
Support & help
Reach the Creative Request Support channel and someone will help you get it in.
Send your question to the #creative-request-support Slack channel by email. Works from anywhere, no Slack access needed.
Email #creative-request-support ↗Jump straight into #creative-request-support and post your question there.
Open the channel in Slack ↗