The Crave

Common pitfalls in report, white paper, and eBook production

First, it’s important to understand a couple of things. Namely: what turns a seemingly simple deliverable into That Report?

I will use my own personal anecdote as an example. The task at hand was to create a horizontal industry report based on third-party research. Our final product would be a gated lead generation magnet. I was the Content Manager leading the content team, and we had one key stakeholder owning the project.

1. Lack of clear expectations: We received the research from the agency we were working with. It was neatly organized into findings and content suggestions. The key stakeholder passed it off to the content team and told us we had full creative freedom.

2. Not planning feedback at the right points in the process: After the research got passed on to my team, the key stakeholder was off for three weeks. The plan was that we would produce the report while the stakeholder was away, and she would give her final feedback when she returned.

This turned out to be a very bad plan.

She returned, and the finished report was the complete opposite of what she’d envisioned. The deadline was approaching, and we had precious little time to make adjustments. We were so far off the mark that she would not publish the report without an overhaul.

3. The creators ran with their own vision: We created this report in a vacuum. The copywriter read the research and had another interpretation of the findings, so she wrote the report from that angle. Then it was passed off to the designer, who, also excited to be given complete creative freedom, designed to her heart’s content. Both creators poured so much time and creativity into creating something they loved, but ultimately, it wasn’t what the stakeholder had envisioned. In the end, it was a waste of time, energy, and creativity, which was completely demotivating.

4. Poorly defined scope: It was a whale of a report, which made it tedious to give and process feedback. We received a ton of research from the agency we were working with, so the report grew and grew. More stats, more takeaways. It was enough information for a few reports, honestly. And by the time it was finished, it was just too much to process. We’d created a monster.

What happened next?

Well, In a wave of utter desperation, I pulled the creators off of the project, rewrote it myself, and got someone else to do the design. 😬 I know.

Instead of sitting down with my team, processing the feedback, and coming up with a solution together, I took matters into my own hands.

Did it get the project done? Yes. Did it damage the confidence of my team and their relationship with me and the stakeholders involved in the project? Yes. Would I do it all differently today? Hell to the yes.

Ditch That Report 😭 for the best report of your career 🤩

Rarely does any large project go perfectly from start to finish. When people are involved, there will be errors — and that’s ok! The important thing is that we learn (ideally collectively) from our mistakes and optimize for next time. I hope you can learn from some of my mistakes and start out a few steps ahead of the game when you dive into your next big content deliverable.