Do not ask for a fix — nail the structure down

A hands-on run that follows all the way through the work of nailing down, as files, a structure that removes the need to ask for a fix every time. The structure has six parts: a standards document setting down tone and design hierarchy; a rules document tying together the overall order, the approval points and the output paths; skills split stage by stage; approval points where a person looks and passes it on; automated checks where a machine measures numbers such as margins; and fixed save paths. What stands out in the design of the order is that the expensive stage is pushed back: a cheap preview is placed ahead of the final output stage, which consumes a lot, so that the content is settled there before anything moves on. Running it for real, the research report, the plan and the preview did come out, but the final output came out with only the layout tidied, no components or styling applied — which the author admits as well.

This is a note: my own write-up after reading several sources. It has no source link; events checked against a source are kept as records.