What’s Working, What’s Broken, and What’s Next
A System Under Strain
The way creative teams review and approve video content hasn’t kept up with the speed and complexity of modern production. What was once a straightforward process to send a cut, get feedback, make changes has turned into something much messier. More stakeholders. Tighter timelines. Higher expectations for security and speed. And yet, many of the tools teams rely on still reflect an outdated reality.
After speaking with dozens of post-production professionals, editors, and creative teams, one clear theme emerged. Review and approval is one of the biggest bottlenecks in modern video production. Not because it’s inherently complex, but because the tools meant to support it often create as many problems as they solve.
The Three Jobs of Review & Approve
At its core, every review and approval workflow exists to do three things:
- Make sharing easy and reliable. Creators need to distribute content quickly, without worrying about slow uploads, playback issues, or access problems.
- Ensure control and security. Teams need to know who has access, who has seen what, and ensure that sensitive content stays protected from leaks or unauthorized distribution.
- Gather feedback efficiently. The review process should capture input in a way that’s structured, clear, and actually moves the project forward.
When these jobs are done well, creative teams stay focused on the work instead of fighting the process. When they break down, frustration sets in, deadlines slip, and teams resort to workarounds that only make things worse.
Job 1: Make Sharing Easy and Reliable
At its best: Content reaches the right people without login friction, playback issues, or speed bumps. Sharing and access happen without unnecessary delays.
At its worst: The simple act of sharing a video turns into a technical problem. Uploads stall, links break, playback stutters, and creatives become the de facto IT support for their own projects.
How this job actually gets done:
- Despite all the emphasis on software tools that capture feedback and share iterations, this job (simply getting your content into the hands of external collaborators) is the foundation. If you can’t do this (without problems, snags, or turning yourself into the IT handyman who unsticks the process), everything else stops.
- Speed and reliability matter more than a slick interface. If the tool creates friction in sharing, teams will revert to email and cloud storage workarounds.
Where tools fall short:
- Slow load times and buffering kill momentum. If a video stutters or fails to load, reviewers disengage and feedback slows down.
- Uploads and downloads take too long. One team told us they nearly missed a live event deadline because their existing platform locked them out of a critical file at the last minute.
- Playback isn’t universal. Teams need their content to work across desktop, mobile, and bad WiFi connection without needing re-exports at different quality levels.
Job 2: Ensure Control and Security
At its best: The team knows exactly who has access to what, security settings are intuitive, and no one loses sleep over leaks or unauthorized sharing.
At its worst: Review links get passed around unchecked, high-value content ends up in the wrong hands, and teams don’t know if their work-in-progress has been accessed by the right people.
How this job actually gets done:
- Security is about confidence. Teams need to know that once they share a file, it won’t be accessed by the wrong people or left exposed by default settings.
- Granular control over who can view, download, and share files matters just as much as how fast a video loads. Teams want default settings that ensure security without extra steps, easy ways to manage permissions on the fly, and real-time visibility into who has accessed what.
- Control can also mean visibility – for instance, one customer we talked to deals with over 100+ external distribution partners that get sent dozens of assets before a live telecast. Being able to accurately track who has viewed the assets (and who hasn’t) is vital for getting ahead of broadcast issues (and ensuring SLAs are met).
Where tools fall short:
- Basic security settings locked behind enterprise pricing tiers. Want permission controls, watermarking, or tracking? That’ll cost extra.
- Review links that get forwarded too easily. If content can be accessed by “anyone with the link,” teams lose control over who sees their work-in-progress.
- Limited visibility into who’s watched what. Teams need better insight into whether the right people have accessed their content, not just vague view counts.
Job 3: Gather Feedback Efficiently
At its best: Feedback flows naturally, whether it happens inside the platform or elsewhere. Every note is clear, relevant, and easy to act on.
At its worst: Comments are scattered across emails, Slack messages, and spreadsheets. Reviewers hesitate to leave feedback because the process is too rigid or clunky.
How this job actually gets done:
- Some feedback will always be gathered outside the platform. The higher the seniority of the external stakeholder, the less likely they are to leave comments “in the app.”
- Tools that force a single, rigid review workflow create more problems than they solve. The platforms that embrace flexibility—acknowledging that there is no universal best workflow—stand to win.
Where tools fall short:
- Logins create friction. External clients and executives don’t want to create an account just to leave a comment, so they default to email.
- Feedback tracking is inconsistent. Some tools don’t let reviewers easily pinpoint exact sections of a video, leading to vague, hard-to-follow notes.
- Too much structure slows things down. Teams bypass formal review tools because rigid workflows add unnecessary steps when they just need quick input.
What’s Next for Review & Approve Tools?
The next generation of review & approve workflows won’t just replicate existing processes with better UI. They’ll solve the deeper inefficiencies that frustrate teams today. Based on what we’re hearing, here’s where things are headed:
- Security as a default, not a luxury. Teams shouldn’t have to pay extra just to know who’s watching their content or to ensure content doesn’t get into the wrong hands.
- Feedback that works flexibly inside the app and beyond. The best tools acknowledge that review workflows happen across multiple channels and make it easy to consolidate input.
- More automation that keeps things moving. Teams need tools that don’t just store feedback but actively help progress a project, whether through automated notifications, approval workflows, or smart routing of tasks.
Final Thoughts
After so many conversations with creative teams, one thing is clear: review and approval isn’t just about technology it’s about how work actually gets done. The best tools make sure the parts of the workflow that “just have to work” don’t even need to be thought about, and they acknowledge that different teams get feedback on their work in different ways.
The future of review and approval isn’t about adding more features—it’s about removing friction. The teams getting this right aren’t just adopting new tools; they’re embracing smarter, simpler workflows that help them move faster, stay secure, and focus on the work that matters.
Creative teams using MediaSilo can share, review, and get feedback on their content without friction, ensuring their work reaches the right people, stays secure, and moves forward without unnecessary delays.
