challenge
4x the work —
same number of people
As Mercy Housing’s in-house marketing and creative services team evolved, we were increasingly relied upon to serve a growing number of internal clients — more than 20 departments across the organization.
The demand for creative work was high, but the intake process was fragmented, timelines were unclear, and resource planning was reactive. Without a centralized system or process, requests frequently bypassed strategy, resulting in inefficiencies, rushed work, and burnout.
objective
To scale creative operations in a way that:
01
Centralized and standardized creative requests
02
Ensured visibility and alignment across teams
03
Improved on-time delivery and team workload balance
04
Enabled us to measure performance and plan proactively
approach
People, process, & platforms
We implemented a phased, organization-wide transformation focused on people, process, and platforms
Centralized Intake System
-
Rolled out Wrike as our end-to-end creative project management platform
-
Designed a unified request form with custom fields to support clarity, prioritization, and workload forecasting
Defined Service Levels
-
Created and communicated a tiered service model to guide turnaround times, scope expectations, and approval workflows
-
Developed training guides and office hours to support adoption
Template and Brand Governance
-
Expanded access to Canva Enterprise, with branded templates and user permissions to empower teams while protecting brand integrity
-
Connected Canva to our Canto DAM, ensuring approved assets were accessible and up-to-date
Performance Measurement
-
Began tracking key performance indicators including project volume, delivery timelines, and stakeholder satisfaction
-
Conducted quarterly retrospectives to refine the process and evolve based on data
takeaways
Systems that support quality, efficiency, and brand integrity at scale
Scaling creative services is not just about doing more work — it's about building systems that support quality, efficiency, and brand integrity at scale. By approaching this transformation through a lens of both operational rigor and creative enablement, we built a sustainable model that allows our team to deliver real value across the organization.