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Marketing Ops Blueprint
Designing marketing operations on Adobe Workfront Planning
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Section 2 of 9

Scope it first

The same request — “set up marketing in Planning” — can mean one brand team modeling campaigns for the first time, or a 30-person operations group consolidating 70 spreadsheets. The structure depends on which.

In plain terms

Before building anything, ask three questions: how big and how complex is the team, which job do they want fixed first, and who do they market to. A few follow-up questions matter only in some cases. Five minutes here saves a rebuild later.

Three questions, every time

Marketing operations spans consumer goods, apparel, financial services, healthcare, pharma, media, telecom, automotive, energy, hospitality, higher education, agencies, and nonprofits. The “obvious” B2B software default fits less than a third of real cases. So lead with three questions and branch from the answers.

Three scope questions and where they leadThree questions, asked before building anything. Team and org shape leads to one of six shapes: lightweight for one team's first build, small for an in-house team under 10, mid for 10 to 50 people, large for 50 or more with budget and approval gates, enterprise for multi-brand or multi-region, and agency for teams serving clients. Which workflow first leads to one playbook, most often request intake, campaign management, or creative production. Audience shape leads to a variant: named B2B accounts, consumer segments, both, or a multi-brand portfolio. When in doubt, lean smaller.Team and org shapequestion 1Lightweightone team, a first buildSmallin-house, under 10Mid10 to 50 peopleLarge50+, budget and gatesEnterprisemulti-brand or regionAgencyserving clientsWhich workflow firstquestion 2Request intakethe usual firstCampaign managementone calendarCreative productionbrief to assetSeven moresection 5Audience shapequestion 3Named B2B accountsAccounts, or keep in CRMConsumer segmentsAudiences become centralBoth (B2B2C)connect to eitherMulti-brand portfoliosub-brand record typesWhen in doubt, lean smaller: adding a record type later is easy;splitting one that grew two meanings is not.
Figure 1. The three questions. Grey is the conversation; blue is what each answer becomes in Planning.
Three questions

Press Play, or select any question or answer, to walk through them one at a time.

  1. Team and org shape. A single team, a department under 10, mid-size (10 to 50), large (50 or more), an enterprise with several brands or regions, or an agency running work for clients. This decides the workspace architecture and how many record types — Planning’s word for tables — the build needs.
  2. Which workflow first. Request intake, campaign management, creative production, a content calendar, compliance review, events, budget and ROI, capacity, or something else. Most teams want one of these first, not all of them.
  3. Audience shape. Named B2B accounts, broad consumer segments, both, or a portfolio of brands. This decides whether the taxonomy needs Accounts, Audiences, both, or sub-brand record types.

Section 3 turns these answers into a recommended shape, with a picker that does it for you.

Do not skip this, even when asked to. “Just build it” is the most expensive instruction in this guide. In Planning, a record type cannot be moved to another workspace, and some field types cannot be changed once records exist. A wrong split costs a rebuild, not an edit.

Then branch — only where it matters

These follow-ups change the design in specific cases. Ask the ones that apply; skip the rest.

Follow-up questions and what each one changes.
AskWhy it matters
How is Workfront Workflow used today?Nearly every Planning customer already runs Workflow. The answer says what stays there and what Planning should stop duplicating. Ask specifically whether campaigns are modeled as projects, portfolios and programs, or project custom forms — each has a different migration path.
Which Planning package, bundled or standalone?Cross-workspace connections need Planning Prime or Ultimate. Global record types need Plus, or Prime or Ultimate alongside Workflow. Record caps differ by package — Select tops out at 25,000 records per workspace. Package names differ between the bundled and standalone products, so confirm the actual entitlement.
Is Fusion available?Bundled at Workflow Ultimate or the Automation and Integration bundle, otherwise an add-on. Without it, native Planning automations and Workflow business rules are the whole automation budget.
AEM Assets? GenStudio for Performance Marketing?Both connect to Planning records, and both need their own license plus Admin Console onboarding. They change the whole asset story.
Which marketing automation platform?Marketo Engage, HubSpot, Pardot, Eloqua, Adobe Campaign, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Braze, Klaviyo, and others. Integrate with it — it owns sending, lifecycle automation, and lead scoring. Planning becomes the cross-channel hub above it.
Which CRM?Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics, or none. Integrate through Fusion or the API; never fork the contact database into Planning.
Multiple regions, locales, or sub-brands?Decides the multi-market model and the global-record-type question. Mostly enterprise.
Microsoft or Google office tools?Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint replace Slack and Drive at many enterprises — common in healthcare, automotive, EU enterprise, and government.
Does anyone outside need access?Agencies, external reviewers, partners, clients. Decides public request forms, External user licenses, AEM Brand Portal, or a custom app on the Planning API.
Any rules about which AI vendors are allowed?Adobe-managed AI only, Azure OpenAI, Gemini only, or no third-party models. Decides whether AI Assistant, Planning Designer, Fusion AI modules, or an outside model is usable at all.

Three questions plus the relevant follow-ups usually settle the design in one conversation. Listen before imposing a framework.

Start from a template

Planning ships workspace templates — Basic, Advanced, and Enterprise: Marketing Management, plus Operations Initiative Studio, Communications Planning Studio, Sales Management, and Product Management — each with record types, fields, and connections already grouped into sections. A system administrator can also install a multi-space template that creates several connected workspaces at once.

Creating from a template and trimming is usually faster than building from scratch. Adobe revises the templates, so check the current list before you rely on one.

Don’t do this

A B2B software frame by default

Industry diversity is the rule. Ask about audience shape before you reach for Accounts and funnel stages.

Assuming Marketo

Marketo Engage is common at enterprise scale; HubSpot dominates below it; Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Braze, and Klaviyo all have real share. Ask.

Assuming Slack

Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint are roughly half of enterprise. Ask.

Assuming Fusion, AEM, or GenStudio

Each needs a license or tier. If it is not there, design within what is.

Proposing gated features unchecked

Cross-workspace connections and global record types are gated above Select. Confirm the package before you design around them.

Quoting limits from memory

Package limits, tier gates, and API paths change. Check Adobe’s documentation when you build.

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