Recap: Accelerating Organizational Evolution: Mastering Workflow and Stakeholder Management
Denise Kennedy, Internal Communications & Marketing Operations Coordinator, Clearview Federal Credit Union
Denise Kennedy shared how Clearview Federal Credit Union modernized its marketing and communications workflow to support rapid organizational growth — while strengthening collaboration across departments and meeting strict financial compliance requirements. With 11 years at Clearview, Denise brought a practical, cross-functional perspective on what it takes to manage work that spans marketing, internal communications, training, member communications, and multiple stakeholder groups.
Expansion requires better creative feedback processes
Clearview is based in the Pittsburgh area, serving roughly 120,000 members across 18 locations, and preparing for continued expansion, including a merger and new locations planned within the next year. As the organization grew, Denise emphasized that a structured workflow management system became a key enabler for scaling communications, improving consistency, and reducing risk.
Before Lytho, their review process was entirely manual: printed proofs, routing slips, and red-pen markups that often lacked context. Teams struggled to understand what feedback was required versus optional, and rounds of re-routing created significant delays, especially once compliance entered late in the process.
Creative workflow includes compliance
Denise outlined a repeatable approach Clearview uses both for onboarding and for ongoing campaigns:
- Kickoff and discovery upfront to define targets, channels, and required details (their version of a creative brief)
- Creative and content collaboration to ensure consistent voice and message quality
- Identify subject matter experts (SMEs) early by working with department leaders to confirm who has authority to review and approve
- Bring compliance into the workflow early instead of waiting until the end, reducing bottlenecks and last-minute surprises
A major theme: processes should be re-evaluated regularly. Denise encouraged teams to challenge “we’ve always done it this way,” especially in cultures where change is hard.
Lytho eliminates endless email feedback loops
By standardizing intake and reviews, Clearview improved both internal efficiency and cross-department engagement:
- More proactive stakeholder involvement (for example, departments planning promotions months in advance instead of weeks)
- Better compliance outcomes through earlier visibility, clearer conversations, and fewer late-stage issues
- Centralized communication that prevents “nightmare email strings,” reduces confusion, and keeps feedback visible and actionable
- A reliable paper trail showing who reviewed, when they reviewed, and what was approved, which is critical in a regulated financial environment
Denise highlighted how compliance reviews vary by channel (billboards versus print versus other communications), and why the compliance team’s early involvement helps catch disclosure requirements and “trigger words” before content moves too far downstream.
Lytho streamlines compliance for this credit union
Denise shared real scenarios where routing documents through the workflow protected the organization and improved outcomes:
- Updating member agreements led to additional questions being caught and routed appropriately
- Member letters referencing fees triggered disclosure checks, quickly confirmed by compliance in-thread
- A “simple” promotion disclosure turned into multiple versions as compliance used the opportunity to modernize and align language across products, ultimately reducing risk and improving consistency
She also noted a key lesson learned: when an outside vendor was not brought into the workflow, the process reverted to chaotic email chains and unclear guidance, reinforcing that external partners should be included in the same system whenever possible.
Credit union enables the whole organization about new compliance workflow
Denise emphasized that even the best workflow fails without clear expectations and good feedback habits. Clearview’s best practices include:
- Confirming SMEs and decision-makers before reviews begin
- Building in at least 7 days for review when possible
- Assigning a champion or owner (Denise) to keep multi-channel projects moving, follow up on overdue feedback, and encourage use of annotation tools
- Reinforcing: no side emails or chats, keep all feedback in one place
To support adoption, Clearview also created stakeholder-friendly resources:
- A Quick Start Guide and links saved on the company intranet
- Best-practice documentation and request submission instructions
- Auto-generated stakeholder accounts with limited permissions (requester and reviewer only)
They also developed request forms available broadly across staff, including:
- An intranet article request process
- A staff resource review form used heavily for training and internal communications that require multi-department review
Clearview Credit Union measures impact of better creative workflow
Clearview has seen strong growth in usage since onboarding in late 2020, expanding requests and stakeholder participation over time. Denise shared that reporting is a work in progress, especially when teams do not consistently complete fields, but they are actively using reporting to understand:
- Designer workload
- Volume of projects and tasks completed
- Longer-term goals, including cycle time, start-to-finish performance, and on-time delivery
Lytho helps Clearview Credit Union meet compliance requirements
Denise’s message was clear: a structured workflow isn’t just a marketing improvement, it’s an organizational growth strategy. When intake is clear, SMEs are identified early, compliance is involved from the start, and feedback stays centralized, teams can move faster, reduce risk, and collaborate more effectively across silos without burning out creative teams or creating compliance fire drills.
Learn more about how Lytho supports compliance and governance for financial services or book time to chat with us about your specific needs.