Communication process audit: how long material takes to travel from need to publication, and where it stalls

Before we change anything in the communication process, we need to know how it really works, not how it should. The audit is a few weeks of observation and conversations, after which you receive a description of the current process, a list of bottlenecks and a plan of changes in the order that will bring the fastest results.

What do we check in the audit?

Material that takes two days to create and two weeks to get approved does not need a faster designer. It needs a different process.

The audit tracks specific pieces of material from the moment someone submits a need to publication or dispatch. For each step we record who performs it, how long it takes and how long it waits. From this emerges a picture that cannot be seen from the level of daily work:

• lead time: how long the path from need to publication really takes and what part of it is waiting,
• number of hands and approvals: how many people touch the material and how many of them actually contribute something,
• bottlenecks: the places where work stalls most often and for the longest,
• repeats: materials made from scratch because nobody knew they already existed,
• cost: how much of the team's time the current process consumes per month.

How do we run the audit?

1. We choose the materials to track. A few typical ones: a proposal, a post, a catalogue, an internal announcement. Ones that are created regularly and whose path is representative.
2. We talk to the participants. The people who submit needs, create, approve and publish. We ask what holds them up and what they would do differently.
3. We write down the process as it is. Step by step, with times and people. Without judgement, with numbers. Often it is the first time anyone sees the whole process on one page.
4. We propose changes in order. Every change has an estimated impact and implementation cost. We start with those that deliver the most for the least effort.

What do you get?

• a description of the current communication process with times, people and costs,
• a list of bottlenecks with an explanation of where they come from,
• a plan of changes ordered by impact and effort,
• a recommendation of what to do in-house and where we can help.

When is it worth doing an audit?

• when materials take a long time to produce and nobody can say why,
• when the marketing team is overloaded but results are not growing,
• when the company plans to implement a tool and wants to know what it should fix,
• when the board asks what communication costs and nobody knows the answer.

Frequently asked questions