Iconik Review Process

Iconik is the shared review tool for all image and video assets - on both boards. This page is specifically the NPI product-image review cycle on the Product Planning board: decisions here flip Monday subitem statuses. It is a different process from the MCR approval chain (which signs off creative deliverables) - even though that can also happen in Iconik.

You set your status - the board moves it through the chain

When your part is done, you don’t move the task to the next person or work out which review stage comes next - the board handles that. You set one status that records what you decided, and the board moves the work forward from there. Which status you set depends on whether you reviewed the work or made it:

Reviewers say

• Approved - this passes my review; it moves on to the next reviewer.
• Revisions Needed - this needs changes; it goes back to whoever’s fixing it.
• For James Review - I’d rather James make this call; it goes to him instead.

Assignees say

• Revisions Done - I’ve addressed the feedback; it goes back to the reviewer who flagged it.

The cycle at a glance

A review starts by itself when the work lands - uploading the asset is the “ready for review” signal. For each image subitem:

1. The asset lands in Iconik; a share link pushes to Monday and the task enters its first review stage automatically. No one announces “ready for review.”
2. The reviewer gives a green thumbs-up ( ) per angle, then sets Approved. The board immediately moves the task to the next reviewer in the chain.
3. For changes, the reviewer red-thumbs ( ) the failing assets and sets Revisions Needed.
4. After the last reviewer approves, the task rests at Approved and the automations unlock the next stage.

Re-pasting or refreshing a link on a task that is already mid-review, in revisions, or finished does nothing - completed work can’t be pulled back into review by a link update.

Who reviews what

Each task type has a fixed reviewer sequence. The reviewer just sets Approved; the board advances the stage.

Stage	Reviewer(s)	Checking
Concept image	Lead, otherwise Brand Manager †	creative concept & brand aesthetic
App shot	PMM → PM †	styled composite + product application
Originals	Product Manager	angle selection (RAW)
Versions	Brand Manager → Product Manager	brand compliance, then edited quality
Renders	PM → Brand Manager → PM	structural integrity, brand compliance, finish
PPID images	Product Manager	website tagging + order only

† The Lead seat is optional, and concept images have a fallback. With a Lead assigned, the Lead reviews first - the concept image goes to the Lead, and the app shot takes a Lead pass before PMM. With no Lead (the usual case): the app shot goes straight to PMM → PM; the concept image falls to the Brand Manager, unless the BM is the task’s assignee (you don’t review your own work) or there’s no BM, in which case it self-approves. A blank assignee defaults to BM Review.

Brand-compliance review (the Brand Manager pass) now happens earlier in the chains - on versions, renders, and light_expression - rather than as a first pass on the PPID images. By the time images reach PPID prep, brand compliance is already signed off, so the PPID review is purely the PM’s tagging pass.

The full reviewer sequence for every task type is in the reference table below.

Three refinements worth knowing:

• Empty seats are skipped. If a SKU has no Lead assigned, the Lead stage is skipped and the work goes to the next reviewer. A chain where every seat is empty resolves immediately.
• The James escape hatch. Any reviewer, at any stage, can set For James Review instead of approving. James’s Approved then counts for that stage and the chain continues normally.

Photography review

Photography assets have a RAW phase. The full step-by-step lives on Capture & PM selection:

• photography_originals - PM selects which angles to edit (approve only chosen angles; default-reject the rest). Reshoot exception → Revisions Needed + /originals/_rejected.
• photography_versions - BM → PM chain: the Brand Manager clears brand compliance, then the PM reviews edited images and approves the angles to carry forward as PPID candidates. No rejections at this stage.

Renders review

Unlike photography, rendered (CG) images are already post-processed and have no RAW phase. renders are the CG’d images.

PM review - angle selection

1. The Product Manager ensures product structural integrity is correct.
2. Approve only suitable angles in Iconik with a green thumbs up - this identifies which angles should become PPID images.
3. No website tagging or renaming happens at this stage.

When revisions are needed

If revisions are needed due to incorrect STEP files or production parts not matching:

• Reject all images (red thumbs down).
• Update the renders subitem status on Monday to Revisions Needed.

Once the artist re-uploads fixed files to the same task folder with the next version suffix (_v02, _v03, …), the board brings the task back by itself: as soon as every red-thumbed asset has a replacement, the subitem flips from Revisions Needed straight back to the reviewer who rejected it. No one has to remember to restore the status. (Shoot folders - photography_originals, videography - are the exception and stay manual; see the revisions detail below.)

The PM reviews feedback related to structural integrity, finish accuracy, and presentation. Write all notes/comments directly in Iconik; tag @Jude Li to direct a revision to him (Monday and Iconik notify the team regardless).

• Cosmetic revisions are handled by Jude and team.
• Structural changes that require a new STEP file are handled by Alex and team.

Renders run a PM → Brand Manager → PM chain: each reviewer just sets Approved when satisfied and the board advances the stage. Once angle selection is complete and images are structurally correct, set Approved - the board moves it to the next reviewer, or to the next production stage after the final pass.

PPID image review

ppid_images are the final images used on the website. Only images with a green thumbs up in photography_versions or renders are eligible to enter this stage. When the ppid_images subitem is flipped to Ready to start, the assignee (Jude, his team, or the designer) is notified automatically.

PPID review is the PM’s tagging pass only

PPID review has a single stage: the Product Manager. Brand compliance is no longer checked here - the Brand Manager already signed it off upstream on versions, renders, and light_expression. So by the time images reach PPID, the PM’s only job is website tagging.

1. Confirm the images have already passed Brand Manager review and brand compliance.
2. Thumbnail tagging - use letter-based tags (T, H, V, S, C). If the thumbnail is also the first website image, assign the lowest number starting at 1 (e.g. T 1, or T S 1 if the same image is also a spec + thumbnail).
3. Image-order tagging - assign numerical tags to define website order (1, 2, 3, …; 2-digit format where applicable).
4. Update the ppid_images subitem status to Approved. This confirms the image selection and ordering are finalized, and automatically wakes the web-export tasks - see PPID & web export.

Note

No resizing, cropping, or brand decisions occur during PM tagging - that role is strictly website tagging and order definition. This step does not indicate approval of image quality, color, color grading, or any cosmetic attributes; those were finalized in earlier stages and are out of scope here.

See the naming conventions for the full PPID type- code and order-token table, and PPID & web export for how approved images are published to the website.

What happens on a rejection

The rejection loop is a closed circuit for versioned deliverables:

1. Reviewer rejects. Red-thumb ( ) each failing asset in Iconik and set the subitem to Revisions Needed on Monday. The thumbs are what the automation counts; the status is the gate. Do both.
2. Artist fixes and re-uploads. Replacement files go into the same task folder with the next version suffix (_v02, _v03, …).
3. The board returns the work by itself. Once every rejected asset has a replacement, the subitem flips from Revisions Needed straight back to the reviewer who rejected it.

What makes it safe:

• Replacing one of three rejected assets does nothing yet - the task returns only when all three are replaced.
• Green-thumbing or deleting a previously rejected asset removes it from the outstanding list; if it was the last one, the task returns to review.
• A late sendback (rejecting work that already finished its cycle) returns to the final reviewer of the chain, not the first.
• The automation only restores a task still sitting at Revisions Needed. If a human already moved it, the automation stays out of the way.

Shoot folders need a manual trigger. photography_originals, videography_amc, and videography_usa are camera dumps with no version suffix for the automation above to match a “replacement” by. Once the reshoot is uploaded, the assignee (not the reviewer) sets the subitem status to Revisions Done. The board reads the reviewer stage that was pending when Revisions Needed was set and restores it automatically.

Revisions Done: let the board pick the reviewer

Every reviewed subitem accepts a fourth human-set status: Revisions Done. When the assignee finishes addressing feedback, they set this - the board restores whichever reviewer stage was pending (Lead, PMM, PM, or BM) from the same chain position that was frozen when Revisions Needed was set. This works on every task type, including the shoot-folder exceptions above, and alongside the automatic replacement-matching for versioned deliverables.

Only the assignee sets Revisions Done. PM, BM, Lead, etc. never touch it - it’s not a review decision, it’s “I’m done fixing this.” If a task-doer instead guesses and sets a reviewer’s own stage label directly (PM Review, BM Review, …), the automation has nothing to act on: the hand-off can silently stall or skip the intended reviewer.

Reviewer sequence by task

The plain-language summary is in Who reviews what; this is the full sequence for every reviewed task. The reviewer sets Approved at each stage and the board advances to the next.

Task	Review sequence	After the last approval
concept_image	Lead, or BM if no Lead	Completed
app_shot	Lead → PMM → PM	Approved
photography_originals	PM	Approved
photography_versions	BM → PM	Approved
videography_amc / videography_usa	PM	Approved
renders	PM → BM → PM	Approved
light_expression	BM → PM	Approved
cam_solve	BM	Completed
ppid_images	PM	Approved, then auto-Completed once both web exports land
web_unfiltered / web_filtered	no review	Completed the moment the link lands

The sequence shows the full reviewer order. The board reviews only the seats assigned on that SKU and skips the rest, keeping the same order - so a chain can be shorter than shown, and a chain with every seat empty resolves on its own. The concept_image and app_shot rows ship as app shots; see App shots & PPID images.

Schonbek exception

When the SKU’s Brand is any Schonbek line and Photography (USA) = Yes, photography_originals skips its PM review entirely: the Iconik link landing writes Completed directly and editing (photography_versions) starts at the same moment. This is the only brand-based exception, and it applies only to photography_originals - every other task on a Schonbek SKU reviews normally.

Troubleshooting

Assets will occasionally fail to transcode in Iconik. A failed item is missing its thumbnail preview and instead shows just the file extension (JPEG, PNG, MOV, MP4, etc.).

The most straightforward fix is to re-transcode the failed item, which resolves the vast majority of cases.

1. Log in to Iconik and click Admin (locate Failed Jobs on the right).

   

2. Locate the failed item(s) and select the option to re-transcode them.

If re-transcoding does not fix the asset, delete it from Iconik and then purge the Recycle Bin. The purge step is essential: it lets Iconik process the asset fresh from the beginning.

1. Select the asset(s) to delete, right-click, choose Delete, and confirm.

   

2. Click Admin : Recycle Bin : Purge All Assets.

   

If the asset still fails after a purge and re-transcode, the file is likely corrupt and must be re-exported from the source application (Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, etc.).