Approval workflows that move work forward, not sideways.

The common failure is not missing feedback — it is feedback that lands somewhere without changing anything. Comments in three places, an approval given verbally, a file that is still sitting in the reviewer's hands while the owner assumes it moved on.

The second failure is quieter: a reviewer becomes a de facto owner because the tool moved the work to them and never moved it back.

A review round in Relay can only end in a way that names the next person. That is what stops work sitting in a reviewed-but-unmoved state.

Marketing and creative work often needs more than one sign-off: brand, then legal, then a stakeholder. Because a review never transfers ownership, each of those rounds can happen without the owner changing and without anyone having to reclaim the work afterwards.

The owner keeps it in Waiting on someone else while a reviewer has it, so the queue of sign-offs is visible rather than remembered.

A good approval workflow is less about the number of steps and more about every step ending in a clear next move.

A designer owns a paid social asset that needs brand and then legal approval. She sends it to the brand reviewer, who requests a change; it comes back to her with the note attached. She revises and resends, and brand approves.

She then sends it to legal. Throughout, the asset stays hers, it sits in her Waiting while a reviewer has it, and each outcome is recorded — so anyone checking the project sees where the asset is without asking.