How do you manage the sign off process for specific positioning and messaging for a campaign, use case or feature launch?

Step 1: Create a DACI

DACI stands for:

Driver
Approver
Contributor
Informed

You can grab a free template: https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/daci

The Driver is responsible for making sure all stakeholders are aware of what’s happening, gathering information, getting questions answered and action items completed.

The Approver is the one person who has the final say in approving the decision.

The Contributors are people who have knowledge that will inform the decision-making process.

The Informed are people and teams who may need to change their work as a result of the decision made and will need to know the outcome.

If there's a hierarchy of approvers, that should be noted as part of the DACI and the overall review timeline. Build in review milestones for each relevant decision-maker, and note the type of feedback you're seeking from them.

For example, the final approver might just give it a check that it's good to go, while earlier approvers might give feedback on nitty gritty grammar or word choice.

My team manages the sign off process by putting key reviewers and stakeholders names at the top of the brief to check off after they have reviewed the content. Make sure your key stakeholders are already aligned with your high level messaging framework and then other projects should flow nicely through the approval process.

• Include positioning and messaging in every brief - whether it’s for a campaign, GTM, or case study.

• Everyone should be aligned with the positioning and messaging before the copy is crafted.

• The messaging for a specific campaign or feature launch should align to your high level positioning and messaging.

• Show examples of how specific messaging could come to life on a webpage or in an email. This is especially helpful for stakeholders who are not in marketing.

We have a Go To Market Strategy document and template that we use as a forcing function to gain alignment across Product, Marketing and Revenue teams. One part of that strategy doc is the positioning and messaging but it also includes the customer problem, the technical solution and why we chose that solution, competitive benchmarking and the channel marketing strategy among other topics. It's a holistic view of the product being launched and how we'll bring it to market.

We typically start on the strategy doc while the product is still being built, and after we've done things like user testing, to help inform messaging and positioning. We socialize the strategy prior to beta launch and use the beta period to work with marketing channel partners to execute the strategy.

This likely differs based on how your company and teams are structured. In my experience PMM. creates messaging with the input of key stakeholders such as product. However final sign-off sits with Marketing (if that is where the PMM team is situated) meaning Head of PMM and/or CMO (depending on the magnitude of the project) are final approvers.

Identify the key internal stakeholders from the start. Make sure everyone is aligned on that to avoid last-minute blockers.

Context is also key. When I'm presenting to execs, I have the full picture ready. Never show copy without the imagery that will accompany it and the details of how it will be presented.

I don’t have a magic bullet for this, because it can be a real challenge to align all your stakeholders ahead of a launch. At the end of the day, there are few habits you can learn to make things run smoothly:

1. Make sure you have a clear DACI framework with an executive sponsor to back you up. Ideally, product marketing is empowered to drive and own messaging. Oftentimes your head of marketing will be the approver, but keep in mind every organization will be different.

2. Decide who is consulted and informed in the approval chain. Oftentimes PMs, designers, and other stakeholders will be consulted, but those folks should not have veto power on the messaging unless something about it is inaccurate or far off from the brand message. Your CMO or head of marketing will likely be curious about it and may want to give detailed feedback. At some organizations, the CEO will want just an inform, at others they'll want approval sign off. 

3. Create clear expectations for the order of review and sign off and set "review by" deadlines. I like to put mini checklists at the top of messaging docs and let stakeholders check their name off when they have signed off ahead of their due date. Once the doc is good to go, I write a note at the top of the page saying that the messaging is in a “locked” state, and I add a timestamp. I disable comments at this time. 

I’m sure there are numerous other ways to use more sophisticated tools for this process, but you can typically steer the ship quite well with a focus on role clarity, clear comms around the sequencing of approvals, checklists, and deadlines.