Creative projects can be challenging to manage, especially in regulated industries where there is often a need for compliance and regulatory approval. Multi-stage reviews can be an effective way to manage these projects and ensure that they meet all necessary requirements while still achieving the desired creative goals. Plus, having a clear audit trail and log of changes will help reduce the risk of missing a step and facing costly fines.
What are multi-stage reviews?
Multi-stage reviews involve breaking down the review and approval process into several stages, each with its own set of reviewers and approvers. This approach allows for greater control over the project and ensures that each reviewer can move quickly through their process, without distraction from other reviewers and conflicting interests. Plus, it allows reviewers at subsequent rounds to view the already revised version of a project, reducing the overall number of revisions needed.
For example, in the financial industry, a multi-stage review process might include the following stages:
Phase I: Project Requester & Peer Reviewer
To get initial feedback on whether the project is close to the mark, the original requester(s) can weigh in on the project, as well as get early feedback from a creative director or someone who maintains alignment with brand standards.
Phase II: Creative Review
After the changes from phase I have been made, the review is passed to the creative director, CMO, or whoever else is required to sign off on the final design of your project.
Phase III: Compliance Review
This phase allows the compliance manager (or team) to weigh in on the collateral in question to make sure all of the important disclaimers and terminology are correct.
How Multi-Stage Reviews Help Your Team:
There are several benefits to using a multi-stage review process to manage creative projects in regulated industries.
✅ Ensures compliance: By including a compliance review stage, the multi-stage review process helps to ensure that the project meets all necessary regulatory and legal requirements.
✅ Improves quality: By breaking the reviews down into smaller stages–each with its own goal–the multi-stage review process allows for greater attention to detail and a higher level of quality control.
✅ Reduces errors: By catching errors and issues early in the process, the multi-stage review process can help prevent costly mistakes and rework.
✅ Improves communication: By requiring multiple rounds of review and approval, the multi-stage review process encourages better communication and collaboration between team members. It also allows commenters at each state to collaborate, while separating conversations and criticism from reviewers at other stages of the process.
✅ Increases efficiency: While the multi-stage review process may seem time-consuming, it can actually help to improve efficiency by catching issues early and preventing delays further down the line.
Tips for implementing a multi-stage review process
If you’re considering implementing a multi-stage review process for creative projects in the financial industry, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
💥Set clear expectations: Make sure that everyone involved in the project understands the review process and their role in it.
💥 Define the stages: Clearly define each stage of the review process and the specific review criteria for each stage.
💥 Use technology: Consider using project management software or other tools to help manage the review process and keep everyone on track. RoboHead makes it easy to break out your review process to easily include anyone at your desired stage in the process!
💥 Assign responsibilities: Clearly assign responsibilities for each stage of the review process and make sure that team members understand their role.
💥 Be flexible: While it’s important to have a defined review process, be open to making changes or adjustments as needed to improve efficiency and quality.
Multi-stage reviews can be an effective way to manage creative projects with many stakeholders. By breaking the approval process down into smaller stages, each with its own stakeholders, the multi-stage review process helps to ensure compliance, improve quality, reduce errors, improve communication, and increase efficiency. With clear expectations, defined stages, and the right tools, the multi-stage review process can be a valuable tool for managing creative projects in the financial industry.
Put RoboHead to work for you.
RoboHead is a project management tool loved by the creative and marketing industry. Get the tool that empowers your team to plan projects, overcome roadblocks, and deliver great results.