Map the final approver before feedback begins
Prevent circular review by naming who advises, who consolidates and who decides.
Projects slow down when every stakeholder appears to have equal authority but nobody owns the final call. An approval map does not exclude people; it makes their role in the decision explicit.
Separate input from authority
List subject-matter contributors, reviewers and the final approver. A technical reviewer can validate accuracy without choosing the visual direction.
Ask the client who resolves disagreement and whether any decision requires legal, executive or procurement approval.
- Contributors provide inputs
- Reviewer checks a defined concern
- Approver accepts the deliverable
Choose a consolidation path
Name one person to combine comments before they reach the delivery team. Conflicting annotations should be resolved by the client group, not interpreted by the designer or developer.
Set a feedback window and describe what happens if a reviewer is unavailable. This keeps silence from becoming an accidental approval.
- Single feedback owner
- Review deadline
- Escalation path
Attach approval to the artifact
Record which version was approved, by whom and when. A generic email saying “looks good” is less useful after the file changes.
Gather can keep the approver and status beside the relevant request so the handoff reflects a real decision, not a memory of one.
- Version or link
- Approver name
- Timestamp and conditions
