Hybrid workflows

6 min

Note

This feature is currently only available for Cutting Edge.

Hybrid workflows in Optimizely Content Marketing Platform (CMP) let organizations balance agile content creation with governance and compliance requirements. You can maintain flexible workflows while ensuring critical steps adhere to strict controls.

Hybrid workflows combine adaptable workflow steps—where users can modify dates, assignees, and tasks—with rigid governance at crucial stages, such as compliance reviews. You can achieve this with per-step policies, including the following:

Step Lock – Locks specific aspects of a workflow step.

Assignee Lock – Restricts step completion to designated individuals. Administrators can still override and complete steps when needed, such as when the assignee is away.

Asset Lock – Controls modifications to assets during specific workflow phases.

Benefits

Preserves speed and adaptability in creative execution, letting users work efficiently without unnecessary constraints.

Establishes protected gates that users cannot bypass, ensuring regulatory adherence and brand safety.

Enforces governance at critical points, minimizing the need for rework and reducing the risk associated with content audits.

Key capabilities

The Hybrid Workflow introduces the following capabilities:

Step Lock – Administrators can lock specific attributes of a workflow step, such as its name, order, due dates, and assignees. This ensures stability and predictability for critical stages.

Assignee Lock (sub-step of Step Lock) – Only users explicitly assigned to a step can mark it as complete. This ensures accountability. Administrators retain the ability to override this restriction in emergencies, with a mandatory reason capture for audit purposes.

Asset Lock – This feature prevents unauthorized actions on assets (adding, deleting, replacing, or editing metadata) while a step is in a locked phase. Depending on tenant policies, users can still view, download, and generate public links for these assets.

Visibility and Audit – The system provides clear indicators, such as lock badges within the Workflow and Content interfaces, to show when a step or asset is locked. The system records all lock activations, overrides, and state changes in the content history, triggering notifications to relevant users and ensuring full transparency and traceability.

Hybrid workflow logic

Step Lock behavior

Step Lock = On – Users cannot rename or delete the step.

Step Lock = On and Assignee Lock = On – Users cannot rename, delete, or reassign the step (except by Administrators). The system also locks the due date.

Workflow templates

Users cannot change or remove the workflow for tasks created with a hybrid workflow (containing locked steps). If you create a task with a flexible workflow and later update it to a hybrid workflow, the workflow locks, and only Admins can change it back to a flexible workflow or remove the template.

Asset Lock behavior

Asset Lock acts as a barrier. Steps cannot cross from one side of the gate to the other, and you cannot alter the past by adding new steps.

Scenario – Imagine a workflow with 10 steps. Step 7 is the Asset Lock step.

Execution

Rule – You cannot start or complete Step 7 (locking the assets) until you mark all Steps 1 through 6 as Completed or Skipped.

Revert restriction – Once Step 7 is locked, you cannot undo any prior steps (Steps 1-6).

Solution – To modify a prior step, you must unlock the assets by un-completing Step 7.

Reordering restrictions

Rule – The Asset Lock step acts as a permanent wall. You cannot move steps across this barrier.

Pre-Gate (Zone A) – You can reorder Steps 1–6, but you cannot move them after Step 7.

Post-Gate (Zone B) – You can reorder Steps 8–10, but you cannot move them before Step 7.

Logic – This ensures the "pre-compliance" and "post-compliance" phases remain distinct.

Insertion restrictions (adding new steps)

Rule – You cannot add new steps before the Asset Lock step (Step 7) at any time.

Logic – The scope of work leading up to the compliance check must remain fixed; you cannot add new tasks.

Exception – You can add new steps after Step 7, as the workflow returns to flexible behavior once it passes the gate.

Deletion and edit restrictions

Rule – You cannot edit or delete steps prior to the Asset Lock gate. If you do not enable Step Lock, users can still edit these steps, but they cannot remove them from the workflow.

Logic – This ensures that users cannot bypass or remove mandatory steps up to the compliance gate. The structure of the workflow prior to the gate is fixed to preserve the integrity of the process.

Multi-action granularity (sub-steps) – Since you can enable Asset Lock for only one step per workflow, you cannot create a sequence of multiple independent "locked" steps.

Solution – If a process requires multiple actions or checks within the locked phase, use sub-steps inside the Asset Lock step.

Configuration – You should configure the Asset Lock trigger to Lock on step complete.

Behavior – This lets the assignee work through the sub-steps and applies the permanent lock once they finalize the entire step.

Summary

Feature	Condition	Behavior
Step deletion	Step Lock = On	Blocked. Users cannot delete the step to bypass assignee rules.
	Before Asset Lock gate	Blocked. This prevents deleting the step to bypass assignee rules.
Assignee modification	Assignee Lock = On	Blocked. Step Lock must be On first.
Workflow removal	Task is part of a hybrid workflow	Blocked. Option unavailable.
Workflow change	Flexible workflow changed to hybrid	Blocked. Only Admins can revert to flexible.
Asset Lock count	Per workflow	Allowed. A maximum of one step is allowed.
Step execution	Step = Asset Lock step	Users cannot lock assets until all previous steps are Completed or Skipped.
Undo step	Before Asset Lock	Blocked if the Asset Lock step is currently active or completed.
Add new step	Target step is after the Asset Lock	Blocked. No new steps are allowed before the gate.
	Target step is before the Asset Lock	Allowed.
Step reordering	Crossing the gate	Blocked. You cannot move steps from before the gate to after (or vice versa).
	Within the zone (like steps 1-6)	Allowed, unless users complete specific steps, per standard flexible rules.