Overview
A lightweight project intake SOP for agencies, covering stages, roles, notes, review rhythm, and workspace ownership. It turns the project intake workflow into a repeatable operating habit without forcing agencies into a heavyweight process.
Page-specific fit
Why this resource exists
SOP audience: creative agencies, studios, consultants, and client delivery teams.
Workflow object: request intake.
Operating cadence: weekly account review with a client-facing update rhythm.
Trust signal: approval cycle time, waiting items, overdue deliverables, client status prep time, and revision loops.
Purpose of the SOP
This SOP exists to make project intake work repeatable for agencies. The goal is not to document everything. The goal is to reduce the specific failure mode where requests arrive without enough context, priority, owner, or definition of ready.
The SOP should help a teammate understand what stage the work is in, who owns the next move, which note explains the context, and when the next review happens.
Roles and ownership
The workspace should keep a private internal layer while still making client-facing updates easy to prepare and trust. That means every SOP needs clear role boundaries without creating a governance layer nobody wants to maintain.
Use one accountable owner for each active item. Collaborators can contribute, but the workflow should never depend on a vague group owner.
- Workflow owner: maintains stages and review rhythm.
- Card owner: owns the next action and status accuracy.
- Reviewer: approves or requests changes by a visible date.
- Context owner: keeps notes, decisions, and references current.
Procedure
Start with Submitted, Clarify, Accepted, Scheduled, Declined, Done. These stages are enough to describe the work without turning the board into an admin project.
The SOP should state what must be true before work enters each stage and what must be true before it leaves. If the rule cannot be explained in one sentence, simplify it.
- Submitted: define the owner, input, output, and review signal for this stage.
- Clarify: define the owner, input, output, and review signal for this stage.
- Accepted: define the owner, input, output, and review signal for this stage.
- Scheduled: define the owner, input, output, and review signal for this stage.
- Declined: define the owner, input, output, and review signal for this stage.
- Done: define the owner, input, output, and review signal for this stage.
Workspace setup
In Kanvly, the board handles movement and the note layer handles durable context. Requester, goal, urgency, required date, acceptance criteria, dependencies, and owner need to be captured before commitment.
For agencies, this is especially useful because internal production, client approvals, account context, recurring retainers, and status updates all need different visibility. The SOP should tell people where to update status, where to write context, and where to review blockers.
Review and improvement
Review the SOP during weekly account review with a client-facing update rhythm. Use the review to inspect stale work, owner gaps, blocked items, and repeated exceptions.
Measure approval cycle time, waiting items, overdue deliverables, client status prep time, and revision loops. If the SOP reduces those issues, keep it. If it creates extra admin without better decisions, shorten it.
- Name the workflow owner.
- Define stage entry and exit rules.
- Clarify one owner per active item.
- Link the notes that explain decisions.
- Set a review cadence and improvement rule.