Overview/How the system works
How the system works
Slate models your agency as one continuous journey. A lead becomes a client; a client receives a monthly cycle; a cycle produces four videos; each video passes through nine controlled stages. This page explains that journey end to end.
The full journey
There are five pillars in the playbook, and they run in sequence. Each pillar hands work to the next one through an explicit, accepted handover — nothing drifts across a boundary.
| Pillar | Purpose | Owned by | Hands off to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Marketing | Generate qualified leads and book meetings. | Sales and content, jointly | Sales |
| 2. Sales | Convert a qualified lead into a signed, paying client. | Sales Chief, with April in support | Operations |
| 3. Operations | Onboard the client safely and completely. | Operations Manager | Content Operations |
| 4. Content Operations | Deliver four high-quality videos every month. | Creative Director and Content Ops | Posting and reporting |
| 5. Post and report | Publish the work and measure what it achieved. | Social Accounts Manager | Back to strategy for next month |
The monthly content cycle
Once a client is activated, their work is organised as a Monthly Content Cycle. This is the most important object in Slate, and it is deliberately repetitive: every active client gets exactly one cycle per month, and every cycle carries four videos.
A cycle is not a folder. It is a generated plan: choosing the monthly template creates the plan, the approval window, the four shoot slots, and the tasks that follow them. Nobody rebuilds this by hand each month.
The nine stages of a video
Within a cycle, every video — called a content item — moves through nine stages. Only the permitted next step is offered at any time; if a step is unavailable, Slate names the missing precondition and its owner.
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Strategy meeting
The Creative Director and Content Operations lead meet with the client to settle brand positioning, content pillars, tone, and the competitive landscape. The outcome is the input to the plan.
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Content plan and client approval
The plan is built and formatted, then signed off internally by the Creative Director. Only after that sign-off can it be sent to the client, where a 48-hour review window opens. The client approves it, or it auto-approves when the window expires.
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Shoot scheduling
Once the plan is approved, Slate provisions the four shoot slots for the month and notifies Content Operations, the client, and the videographer. Content Operations gives final confirmation. No shoot can be scheduled before the plan is approved.
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Shoots
The videographer executes against the checklist and shot list, uploads the footage to Slate, and files a post-shoot report. The footage is organised per planned video so the editor receives exactly what belongs to their edit.
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Editing
The edit is assigned in Slate with a two-day service level, the eight baseline quality standards, and a required thumbnail. The editor works from one brief and one consolidated set of feedback.
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Internal quality control
Content Operations reviews in daily batches, leaving timestamped comments against the timeline. The Creative Director then gives the final approval, which is recorded as a decision rather than assumed. No video reaches a client before both are complete.
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Client review
The version is delivered to the client with a 48-hour window. The client may request changes — but only production errors count against the revision entitlement. See revisions below.
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Approval and lock
The client approves, or the window expires and the video auto-approves. The version is then locked: it can no longer be silently overwritten, and the approved asset becomes the source for posting. Once locked, the video is considered good to post.
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Posting and reporting
The Social Accounts Manager receives the locked asset with its thumbnail, caption, and hashtags, and publishes it — scheduling is handled in Buffer. Performance is recorded per post and rolled up into the monthly report, which closes the loop and feeds the next strategy meeting.
Revisions: how the two-revision rule actually works
“Maximum two revisions per video” is often misunderstood inside agencies, because not every change request is equal. Slate makes the distinction explicit, and the distinction is what makes the rule fair.
| Classification | What it means | Does it use a revision? |
|---|---|---|
| Production error | We made a mistake. The video does not match the approved brief, an audio sync is off, a logo is wrong, an export is faulty. | No. Fixed as our responsibility, without limit. It does count against internal quality metrics. |
| Preference change | A genuine change of mind. Different music, a different take, a reordered sequence. | Yes. Consumes one of the two included revisions. |
| New request | Work that was never in scope — an extra cut, a new aspect ratio, an additional platform version. | Not automatically. Routed as a scope conversation rather than absorbed silently. |
This matters commercially. Without classification, every preference change erodes margin and every production error looks like the client being difficult. With it, the two-revision limit becomes something you can explain calmly and enforce consistently.
The 48-hour review window
Every decision that requires the client's sign-off uses the same mechanism — the content plan, each video version, and any future client-facing approval. One policy, applied everywhere, so nobody has to remember which rule applies where.
The window can be paused or extended, but only deliberately and with a recorded reason. Auto-approval is enabled and contractually accepted; the audit trail always distinguishes a client's own decision from an automatic one, because that difference matters when revision entitlement is calculated.
Urgent shoots: the controlled exception
Sometimes a client calls and a shoot has to happen immediately — the plan is agreed on the spot, during the shoot itself. Rather than weakening the plan-approval rule for everyone, Slate handles this as an explicit exception.
Who can do it
Rights sit with the Creative Director role, and can be granted to other roles by configuration. Performing an override requires a server-validated override code, a reason, and the specific shoot it applies to.
What it produces
An exception record, a visible plan pending flag on the cycle, and an obligation to upload the agreed plan into Slate. The uploaded plan is marked approved — no 48-hour window — because approval genuinely happened in person.
Where the client fits in
The client is not a passive recipient. They have their own portal, and they are pulled in at exactly four moments: approving the content plan, reviewing each video, receiving the monthly report, and any conversation they choose to start. Everything else stays internal, which is why clients experience the agency as calm rather than chaotic.
They reach that portal through a link the agency sends them — there is no username and no password to forget. The link is specific to one client, so opening it can only ever show that client's work.