Not many things frustrate a team quite like a broken approval process. Endless pings, repeated reminders, and missing reviews can turn what should be a smooth collaboration into workflow chaos. Kodah, Africa’s Diamond ClickUp Partner, has built a UX-first automation strategy that eliminates these choke points — making approvals faster, clearer, and far less annoying.
The Classic Approval Problem
Most approval systems fail for two main reasons:
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They’re too manual.
Approvals depend on follow-ups, email chains, and people remembering to click “approve.” -
They interrupt people’s flow.
Requests for reviews land out of context, forcing users to break focus or rehash what’s already been discussed.
These small inefficiencies — or what Kodah calls micro-friction — compound quickly. In busy marketing, finance, or operations teams, they can quietly drain entire workdays.
Kodah’s UX-First Philosophy: Automation That Works for People
Kodah treats workflow automation as an extension of user experience (UX). The goal isn’t simply to automate, but to design automation that feels natural — so smooth that users barely notice it’s there.
Their approach rests on three people-first design principles:
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Predictability: Every notification has context and relevance. No spam, no noise.
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Role Awareness: Automations route messages to the right person at the right time, avoiding double reminders or confusion.
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Seamless Flow: Once a decision is made — approve, reject, or comment — the workflow moves forward automatically, without extra clicks or back-and-forth.
How Kodah Automates Approvals in ClickUp
Here’s how Kodah turns approval chaos into calm, coordinated progress:
1. Smart Custom Fields
Linked automations are triggered by dropdown options like Awaiting Review, Approved, or Needs Edits.
When a status changes, ClickUp updates tasks, sends notifications, or even generates subtasks — all automatically.
2. One-Click Feedback Loops
Reviewers can approve directly within ClickUp’s comment panel.
All discussions, decisions, and documentation stay in one central place — no more email chains or lost context.
3. Parallel Reviews
Instead of waiting for sequential approvals, multiple reviewers can assess and approve simultaneously.
Kodah uses conditional automations to handle parallel decision-making, cutting approval cycle times dramatically.
4. Automated Escalations
If a reviewer doesn’t act within a set timeframe (say 48 hours), ClickUp automatically escalates the task to another approver.
This ensures projects never stall and accountability remains clear.
5. Built-in Visibility Dashboards
Kodah’s UX team designs dashboards that visualise where every approval stands.
Managers can instantly see bottlenecks and progress — reducing check-ins and unnecessary messages.
The Human Impact: Quiet but Clear
When approval flows are designed for humans first, teams stop viewing automation as an obstacle and start trusting it as a silent partner.
Kodah’s system cuts unnecessary notifications by over 60% while maintaining complete traceability for every decision.
Approvers navigate from mobile or desktop with intuitive task flows and gentle, timed reminders that nudge — not nag.
Case in Point: The Creative Team Fix
A South African media company faced chronic version-control chaos.
Each campaign required multiple sign-offs across marketing, legal, and production — often taking five rounds of revisions.
Kodah’s fix included:
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A centralised approval list
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Role-based automations for each reviewer
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A real-time “Review Status” dashboard
Within 30 days, turnaround times dropped by 45%, and cross-department friction all but disappeared. The process became streamlined without losing oversight.
Why UX-First Automation Wins
Kodah’s approach underscores a crucial truth: successful automation isn’t just technical — it’s emotional.
The best workflows anticipate human behaviour, respect attention, and fit seamlessly into daily routines.
By leading with empathy and refining through analytics, Kodah transforms approval workflows from tedious to effortless — empowering teams to work faster, smarter, and happier.