How can I better deal with constant changes to my projects?

Question

There are so many changes in the pipeline for my projects every single day - Everyone can bring in what they want to change and what they want to update.

I work on the front-end, and a lot of the time I'll get mocks, start building them out, and then get a big change in assets/copy a few days later. I also present to leadership sometimes and get pretty much feedback that warps the look and feel of the product after I've built most of it out.

How can I make this overall situation smoother?

Alex Chiou · Accepted Answer

Make sure that all your projects have concrete planning phases where the product requirements and designs are fleshed out. This time is for the team to think proactively, so they don't come up with surprise changes later on down the road. In particular, you want dates on when the product requirements are finalized with a PRD and when the designs will be locked in. Make it clear that everyone understands what the dates mean, which is: If you're going to propose changes past these dates, we are going to go through them as a team and you need to make a very strong case to get it accepted. If change proposals come in, don't just accept them. Make sure the friction is there, and the proposer shoulders the burden of winning over the team with the change. If a project has a bunch of last minute changes, always have a retro where you as a team can look back and understand why this wasn't all caught earlier.

How can I better deal with constant changes to my projects?

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