When planning the goals for a project it might seem like splitting hairs to layout wants vs needs, but it can be amazingly helpful later in production. Workflow is about creating a plan of getting to a final product. You can think of it like a literal map, showing you how to get somewhere. Setting goals identifies where you want to go on this map, and then you craft a way to get there.

So why should you even think about wants? If in a project you’re only “need” is to get to that goal on the map, why bother with wants? Because they are the method for achieving the “needs”.

A weak workflow only focuses on where you are in production and the final destination, with a single path leading between the two. There are thousands of ways to do something, some ways are better than others, and others might yield different products. Having a good workflow is not about laying out the single best path to get you from point A to point B, or the fastest path from point A to point B. Rather a good workflow is laying out a collection of possible paths, each with their own advantages.

To go back to the map analogy a bad workflow is a list of direction, go for 3 miles, take a right, go until you cross a river, then 2 miles from there is a gas station, etc. It only gives you one way to do something. A good workflow is a full map, so you can see where you are and all of the paths you can take.

Before you render another pass stop and think if you need one, or is there another option?