Video content is powerful—but producing it at scale can overwhelm even the most organized teams.

We recently worked with a client whose production process was eating up more than an hour per video just to handle foundational tasks: creating folders, writing titles and descriptions, generating wireframes, adding transcription links, and producing thumbnail copy. Multiply that by 15 videos in a single shoot, and you’re staring at nearly a full workweek spent purely on setup.

To tackle this, we built an automation system that now reduces that hour-long process per video down to about one minute.

Here’s how we did it.

The Problem: Setup Was the Bottleneck

Our client’s team would shoot 15 short-form videos in a day. Imagine capturing all that creative material—only to face an uphill slog of manual folder creation and administrative tasks immediately afterward:

• Uploading each video manually to their respected folders

• Writing titles, summaries, headlines, and descriptions

• Transcribing each clip

• Creating Asana tasks with subtasks for each creative role

• Logging everything into spreadsheets for stakeholders to track

It was a repeatable but heavily manual process that drained energy before the actual editing even began.

The Transformation: One Form + Smart Automation

We rebuilt the workflow around a single trigger: dropping raw video files into a Google Drive folder.

Once that happens, our automation stack follows this sequence:

• Captures the file's upload time using Zapier Formatter

• Converts video to MP3 for processing

• Creates a transcription using ChatGPT

• Summarizes the transcript with ChatGPT for quicker context

• Generates a short internal name using ChatGPT

• Increments a unique ID using Zapier Storage to track assets

• Creates a project folder for each video

• Generates a Google Doc with the full transcript for reference

• Creates 5 thumbnail copy variations using Claude AI

• Creates 5 description copy variations using Claude AI

• Renames and moves the raw video file into the project folder

• Generates a wireframe in a Google Doc including: Titles, Descriptions, Transcript link, Creative briefs.

• Creates an Asana task, linking all necessary materials and metadata

• Creates Asana subtasks for: Copywriter revision, Video editing, Thumbnail design (Each subtask includes relevant brief and wireframe links).

• Adds a new row to a stakeholder-facing spreadsheet, containing the transcript link, wireframe, Asana task, project name and ID, creation date, and real-time production status.

As the team completes their tasks in Asana, the spreadsheet updates automatically.

What used to be a one-hour slog per video now takes under one minute—error-free and production-ready.

The Tech Stack

The core assets produced by the automation:

• A stakeholder-facing Google Sheet to visualize project status in real-time

• A generated wireframe document for each video, containing a structured brief

• A look inside the Asana task setup and subtasks structure

Asana was chosen for its flexibility, subtask support, and native integration with Zapier. But the same system could be built using Monday.com, ClickUp, Trello, or Notion—with slight tweaks to how tasks and dependencies are structured.

The Wireframe Document helps align the copywriter, designer, and editor around a shared vision of each video. It includes the transcript summary, headline options, core messaging, and a visual outline.

The Google Sheet provides a simple, real-time dashboard for stakeholders to track production across multiple videos. Because it's auto-updated via Zapier, no one needs to request status updates-it's already there… we just connected the tools smartly and added decision logic to handle variables like content types and task complexity.

Why It Works

• Zero human error: No forgotten tasks or missing links

• Faster output: 15 videos, ready to process, in under 5 minutes total

• Better creative flow: PMs now focus on quality control, not task setup

• Clear visibility: Stakeholders always know what’s done and what’s next

This is what we mean when we say "operational creativity."

Final Thoughts: Build It Once, Reuse Forever

Creative teams don’t need to reinvent their production process every time they make videos. If you’re producing high volumes of video (or any other repeatable media), build a system once and let automation carry the load.

Your team should be refining and elevating—not copy-pasting and uploading.

Want to implement something like this? Let’s talk.