From talking to customers, we know that product copy often isn't final until it's been reviewed and approved by multiple stakeholders. But managing that process — making sure the right people see the right information at the right time — can be inefficient and frustrating.
‍

Today, we're announcing workspace user permissions and comment-only accounts as part of our ongoing effort to make collaborating on copy with stakeholders from design to production easier in Ditto. You can now invite teammates to view and comment on projects in Ditto, without giving them direct edit access. With role-based permissions, you can get feedback on changes without worrying that existing copy might unintentionally get updated.

Many teams have asked for comment-only seats to bring in stakeholders like:

• Product managers, so they can regularly check on the status of copy in a project and leave feedback via comments
• Developers, so they can get notified when copy in a project has been finalized, and hop into Ditto to start a discussion or view implementation notes
• Legal team members, so they can get tagged on copy that needs legal review and mark text as approved (which will automatically get added to edit history, ensuring trackability)
• Brand and marketing, so they can join discussions about copy voice, tone, and brand consistency and view Figma previews and notes to immediately understand how and where copy is being used
• External clients, so they can get added to projects to review and ask questions about the latest copy, without fear of accidentally making changes

The current state of teams' copy workflows

Since starting Ditto, we've had the chance to chat with 100+ product, content, and design teams about how they approach collaborating on copy. From these conversations, we learned that every team does it slightly differently. We did, however, hear one common theme: when it comes to managing copy, most teams are strapped for resources, whether that's in terms of tooling, people, time, or all of the above. As a result:

1. too much time is spent on wrangling stakeholders for copy review — whether that's manually updating progress in a spreadsheet, or messaging each teammate separately in their preferred communication tool
2. there isn't a centralized place for copy discussions and feedback — it's often ad-hoc and scattered across various tools like Slack, email, Jira, mockups, spreadsheets, etc.
3. there isn't a consistent process from project to project — every new project means adapting to new stakeholders' preferences and tools, causing delays and bottlenecks

These workflow challenges can and often do have significant consequences, such as incorrect copy ending up in production and engineering time and resources wasted on correcting those mistakes.

How it works

‍

When you invite teammates with comment-only access to Ditto, you'll be able to:

1. Prevent accidental edits

Because comment-only users are only able to edit text status (and not the text itself, notes, or tags), you can rest easy knowing that your copy updates won't accidentally get changed.

2. Manage and centralize stakeholder feedback

Any teammate with comment-only access in your workspace will be able to leave, respond to, and resolve comments. They'll also be able to view the text in the project, in addition to notes, tags, comments, character count, mockup previews, and any organizational Blocks that have been created, decreasing the amount of time required to to get them up-to-speed with the context they need.

3. Streamline your review process

You'll be able to @mention teammates with comment-only access in Ditto when you need their review. They'll get a notification that you've tagged them via email with a link to the project you want them to look at. When they're finished reviewing, they'll be able to update text status themselves and reply with any suggestions.

An status changes or comments they make will show in the edit history, automatically creating an audit trail of who changed what and when.

‍

Where Ditto fits in

Here at Ditto, we've been especially focused on tackling copy workflow issues these past few months. So far, we've released:

• Blocks (a way to organize copy in a table format to share with stakeholders)
• at-mentioning teammates in comments
• notifications in-app and via email on comment threads you're involved in

With the launch of comment-only users on the Team Plan, we hope to make it even easier to collaborate in Ditto with stakeholders across your company and speed up your copy review process, consolidate copy-related discussions to a single platform, and keep everyone on the same page.

‍

Get started

You can invite teammate(s) to your workspace with "Can comment" permission by visiting your workspace settings or by sharing a project. Visit our dedicated guides on on workspace permissions and comment-only access for a full overview.

‍

Special thanks to all the teams who took the time to chat with us about their copy workflows!