QBU · August 2026

Our Filing System
Is Two-Thirds Broken

Presented by Ming Song
Where We Are

Our naming convention

Every project folder follows this formula. The folder name is the serial number that links NAS and Google Drive.
YYMMDD-[Client]Project Name_S
YYMMDD
Estimated delivery date
[Client]
Client name in brackets
Project Name
Unique, identifiable name
_X
Project type suffix
Where We Are

The audit results

35.5%
Folders follow our convention
766
Folders audited across both drives
2 drives
that should match — but don't
NAS (Z:\) 285 folders · 44.6% compliant
127
158
Google Drive (Shared) 481 folders · 30.1% compliant
145
336
Real example: same project, two names
NAS (Z:\C_Google)
260609-[Google]Google cloud day
Google Drive
260609[Google]Cloud Day MY KL
Should be (on both)
260609-[Google]Google Cloud Day_L
Where We Are

What's going wrong

01
NAS and Google Drive are out of sync
The same project has a different name on each drive. The serial number link is broken.
02
Google Drive is worse than NAS
30.1% vs 44.6%. Our working drive is the least organised.
03
Biggest client, worst compliance
C_Google — 126 projects on NAS, only 46% correctly named.
04
No way to archive or clean up
51 TB on NAS. Without predictable naming, nothing can be automated.
Real: Google Drive C_Google folder
@BusinessDocs
Itemized Budgets
Strategic slides
Speakers (archive)
NEXT recordings
Webinar Guide
Google Job Archives
03_Google Use Cases_Customers
8 of 23 folders are unfindable by date, client, or type.
Where We Are

NAS compliance by client

Top clients by project volume. Green = follows convention.
C_Google
46%
C_Thales
60%
C_Scalerr
87%
C_Philips
25%
C_STEngineering
44%
C_Halliburton
60%
Why It Matters

This is our competitive advantage

"You somehow have a good knowledge system — you can find things even before the person working on this account."
— Client name · Title, Company
That's not luck. That's the naming convention working.
1.8 hrs
per day — the average time employees spend searching for and gathering information
McKinsey Global Institute, "The Social Economy" (2012)
Why It Matters

You can find projects from before your time

A properly named folder is a time capsule. Search by date, type, and client — find every past project without asking anyone.
With suffixes
Search "_L" inside C_Google → every livestream project appears instantly. Time: 5 seconds.
Without suffixes
Open C_Google → scroll 126 folders → open each one → check contents. Time: 30-45 minutes.
Why It Matters

The serial number links NAS and Google Drive

When names don't match
NAS:  260609-[Google]Google cloud day
GDrive: Google Cloud Day June
When the serial number is consistent
NAS:  260609-[Google]Google Cloud Day_L
GDrive: 260609-[Google]Google Cloud Day_L

Every project we do makes the whole team better. Post-project learnings, case studies, client preferences — all valuable to everyone, not just the person who did it. Consistent naming is what makes our history navigable.

Why It Matters

When we're organised,
AI can actually help us

A well-named folder is structured metadata that machines parse instantly — date, client, project, type, all encoded in the name. A folder called "New folder" is invisible to any tool we build.

The bottom line: Our naming convention isn't a bureaucratic rule. It's the foundation of our knowledge system — the thing clients already notice about us, and the foundation for AI tools that will make everyone faster.

What We Do Next

Three simple steps

1
Use the full formula every time
No shortcuts. No "I'll rename it later." Create the folder correctly from the start on both NAS and Google Drive, with the exact same name.
YYMMDD-[Client]Project Name_X
2
Review and update our suffix codes — together
The suffix system has served us well. But our projects have evolved. Some codes may need retiring or updating. Let's workshop this together.
_C
Corporate
Discuss
_S
Seminar
Discuss
_L
Livestream
Discuss
_H
Highlights
Discuss
_P
Promo
Discuss
_D
Documentary
Discuss
_T
Training
Discuss
_R
Raw filming
Discuss
_M
Multimedia
Discuss
_CC
Content Choreo
Discuss
For campaign projects with multiple deliverable types: use the primary deliverable as the suffix, and sub-folders inside for each type.
3
If you see a wrong name, flag it
Don't rename on your own — it can break Premiere Pro links. Flag it and we rename across NAS and Google Drive together.
Don't do this
Google cloud day
260609[Google]Cloud day
260609-[Google]Cloud Day
New folder
Do this
260609-[Google]Google Cloud Day_L
260609-[Google]Google Cloud Day_S
260609-[Google]Google Cloud Day_H
(same name on both drives)
What We Do Next

Two more things

A
Multi-country campaigns
One master folder at the client level (using "APAC" or the primary market), then regional sub-folders inside. Never separate root-level folders for each country of the same campaign.
B
Next phase: file naming
The same discipline will apply to files inside the project folder — edited videos, Google Slides decks, design working files, final exports. Folder naming is the foundation; file naming is the next layer.

Starting now: Every new project folder follows the full convention. We'll fix old folders together over the coming weeks.

What We Do Next

Try it now:
Mediashock Project Navigator

A prototype AI assistant on Google Gemini Gems. You can use it today.
"I need to create a folder for a Google livestream project delivering on 20 September 2026" — it walks you through the naming and gives you the exact folder name for both drives.
"Is this folder name correct: AWS Promo Video 2026?" — it catches the mistakes and shows the correct version.
"We have a campaign for Thales across Singapore and Indonesia" — it explains the master folder + regional sub-folder approach.