I run creative reviews differently now. After years of slow, threaded comments and approvals that stretched over days (sometimes weeks), I built a tightly structured, two-hour creative review sprint in Figma that routinely halves feedback loops and accelerates publisher approvals. The idea is simple: create a high-intensity, low-friction session that forces decisions, captures clear direction, and hands off illustrator-ready assets in one go.
Why a two-hour sprint?
Long review cycles are expensive: time-to-publish slips, momentum dies, and small changes accumulate into scope creep. A two-hour sprint gives reviewers a focused window to make choices while the creative team is present to interpret, iterate and lock down assets. It's not about rushing quality — it's about removing avoidable delays and ambiguity.
I picked two hours because it hits a sweet spot: enough time to review multiple screens or ad variants, test quick iterations in Figma, and leave with a clear action list. Anything shorter and you risk missing nuance; anything longer and attention wanes.
Core roles and who to invite
Keep the attendee list tight. Bring the people who can make decisions or provide essential input.
Anyone who can’t make the session should be asked to delegate a decision-maker. That single constraint alone eliminates dozens of follow-up emails.
Pre-sprint prep (what I do before the two-hour block)
Preparation is where this process wins or loses. I spend about 30–60 minutes prepping, and I expect stakeholders to have skimmed the material before the sprint.
Session structure — a reliable two-hour agenda
Here's the run-sheet I use. It keeps the meeting rhythmic and prevents digressions.
| Time | Activity | Outcome |
| 0–10 min | Kick-off: goals, ground rules, highlight decision points | Shared frame of reference |
| 10–80 min | Item reviews: 6–8 screens/ads at 10 minutes each (5 min review, 5 min decision) | Approve, iterate live, or mark for revision |
| 80–100 min | Live iterate: designer implements agreed changes in Figma | New versions ready for quick validation |
| 100–110 min | Final validation: quick run-through of updated items | Sign-offs captured in file |
| 110–120 min | Handoff & next steps: assign owners, export specs, schedule publisher submission | Handoff checklist completed |
As you can see, you don’t need to review 50 items. Prioritise the ones that block publishing. For publishers, that’s usually hero imagery, headline variation, CTA copy and meta descriptions.
How I run the review in Figma
Figma is perfect for this because everyone can see live edits and leave precise comments. Here’s my working method inside the file.
I also use Figma plugins to speed things up: Content Reel for copy variants, Unsplash or Pexels plugins for placeholder hero imagery, and Able for accessibility checks. For exports, I rely on Figma's built-in export settings and a tiny utility like Zeplin or Avocode when engineers need more detailed specs.
Enforcing decisions without creating bottlenecks
Two traps can derail the sprint: undecided stakeholders and scope creep. I solve these proactively.
How to capture and enforce approvals
Approval is enforcement. I do three things to make approvals actionable.
These small rituals remove the infamous "I thought we had approved that" exchange. The final Figma version and approvals are the single source of truth.
Measuring impact and iterating the process
Run this sprint a few times and measure three metrics:
When I first ran this, time-to-submission dropped by ~50% and publisher rejections became far more predictable. Use those numbers to tweak the agenda: fewer items per sprint, different invite list, or more pre-reads.
Common pitfalls I've learned to avoid
Quick checklist to start your first sprint
This approach won’t fix poor briefs or unclear brand direction, but it will strip away much of the administrative overhead in creative reviews. Run this sprint within your creative studio, adapt the cadence to your workload, and you’ll be surprised how quickly approvals start to feel like an operational process instead of an emotional negotiation.
