If you manage marketing and communications in the ‘for good’ sector, you’ll know this sinking feeling all too well: You’ve planned the project meticulously. The creative’s on track, the messaging’s sharp, and the finish line is in sight. Then, at the final approval stage, a senior leader swoops in with feedback that changes the project’s whole direction.
Suddenly, your team is stressed, your agency’s working overtime, the budget’s under threat and the launch date is slipping.
From our conversations with comms directors across the sector, this scenario is happening ever more frequently. But how do we solve a problem that’s often caused by the people at the top?
Why does late feedback happen?
Many senior leaders simply struggle to visualise a concept in its early stages. They genuinely need to see a polished, near-finished product before they can articulate what they like or dislike about it.
The root of the problem is the disconnect between their creative process and your production reality. Do they understand the ripple effects of their late input? Often, no.
They don’t see the stretched budgets, the strained agency relationships, or the reality that sudden, reactive changes usually water down a great campaign into something safe and forgettable.
Reducing the impact of last-minute feedback
As a creative agency, we’ve developed tight project management systems to protect our clients (and ourselves) from the 11th-hour swoop. Here are a few tactics we consistently use to encourage early engagement:
- We consider key stakeholders from the off: At the very start of a project, we always ask: Who else needs to see this? Whose opinion will matter at the end? We map out levels of responsibility immediately so no stakeholder is a surprise.
- We build in strategic buffers: We often build internal deadlines that sit weeks ahead of the actual delivery date. This creates the necessary urgency for leadership to review the work, while giving us a leeway to fix any late-stage curveballs.
- We set clear boundaries: To safeguard your budget, we clearly outline how many rounds of amendments are included, and what the financial implications will be for moving the goalposts late in the game. When feedback suddenly costs money, leaders tend to provide it much earlier.
What works for you? We’d love to know
While tight agency-side project management helps, you’re battling this in the trenches, and we’d love to know what actually works for you.
How do you train your leadership team to engage early? How do you say "no" to a CEO's late-stage idea without derailing your career?
Tell us how you handle the 11th-hour executive. We want to gather the best (and most brutally honest) tactics, hacks, and boundaries from comms directors across the sector. Don’t worry, we’ll keep all the data completely anonymous so be as honest as you like!
Then we’ll compile the best strategies and share our insights with everyone who participates, creating a shared playbook for all of us to learn from.