Productivity
The post that never ships
Three weeks to approve a graphic that takes two hours to make. The problem is not the person drawing it: it is the person who has to say yes.
Making a piece of content hardly ever takes long. What makes it late is the approval loop: too many people, no deadline, changes without end. Three rules, written down once, cut it from weeks to days.
A social graphic takes a couple of hours to design. Then the real work starts: it goes to the owner, who forwards it to sales, who shows it to the owner's wife, who has a doubt about the colour. Three weeks go by. By the time it goes out, the occasion it was made for is long gone.
The content takes two hours. The approval takes three weeks.
Where the time goes
Not in the making. It goes in three places, always the same three.
- Nobody knows who decides. If five people can have their say, none of the five feels responsible for the yes.
- Changes arrive in instalments. First the colour, then the copy, then «shall we add the consortium logo as well?». Every round puts the job back in the queue.
- There is no date. With no deadline, an approval slides underneath the urgent things forever.
Three rules that shorten everything
One person decides. The others advise, one approves. Settle it in advance, in writing, and tell the people who are left out too: half the delays come from people who did not know they were not supposed to reply.
Two rounds, then it goes out. First round: all the comments together, in one go. Second round: check they have been applied. There is no third round, and that has to be said up front, not when the third batch of corrections turns up.
A date in the calendar. «We reply by Thursday, otherwise it goes out as it is» sounds brutal. In practice it is the only sentence that gets answers in on Wednesday!
The real sum
Take the last thing you published late. How many people looked at it before it went out? How many rounds of changes? Multiply everyone's hours by their hourly cost. Nearly always the approval costs more than the production, and it appears on no quote anywhere.
And when the delay is on us
It works the other way round too, and it is only fair to say so: half a supplier's delays come from material the client never sends. The product photos, the copy to review, the logo in decent quality. Ask for it all at the start, in one go, with a date. Asking in instalments stretches the job exactly as much as approving in instalments does. We put it in writing at the start: see Social Video Club. The answer-quickly rule applies here as well.
- One person approves. The others advise, and they know it up front.
- Two rounds of changes, then it goes out. Say so at the start.
- Every approval has a date, and a rule for what happens when that date passes.
Frequently asked questions
How many people should approve a piece of content?
One. The others can give an opinion, but the yes comes from one person, chosen in advance. When five people can decide, none of the five takes responsibility and the content sits still.
How do you avoid endless rounds of changes?
You agree up front that there are two rounds: in the first all the comments come together, in the second you check they have been applied. The rule has to be stated at the start, not when the third batch of corrections turns up.
What do you do if the client does not reply?
Set a date and say what happens when it passes: «if we get no comments by Thursday, we publish this version». It sounds blunt, but it is the sentence that gets answers in on time.