Art Review Stumble

Working on a design project it’s best to make sure all of the people involved are on the same page when it comes to the final review of t he artwork. I recently ran into a situation where 5 days after the creative was handed off and the project was about to go live, the VP of the department asked for changes. This pretty much caught me off guard because up to this point I was told that all approvals were in. So I let the client know that I would be able to make the change because I knew the change was not a deal breaker however by doing so, I opened myself up to a possible train wreck. Thank the Lord it didn’t go any further than the small creative change. So what did I learn from my little fire drill?

1. Make sure that all responsible parties sign off on the creative. That way I have legs in the event I need to push back a bit when changes are being requested at the last minute.
2. Review the changes and determine if the request is business critical. If not, let the client know that the project will move forward as is and the changes will be made and properly tested before going live.