The gap between "done" and "live"

Insights
The gap between "done" and "live"

Most tools focus on creation. Writing, designing, building—the part where ideas turn into drafts.

But there's another step that quietly slows teams down: the space between "done" and "live."

This is where:

  • Drafts sit waiting for approval

  • Links get checked one last time

  • Someone asks "Did we update the metadata?"

  • Timezones make coordination harder than it should be

We call this the publishing gap, and it's surprisingly expensive.

What causes the publishing gap

The publishing gap isn't about laziness or bad process. It's usually caused by:

  1. Unclear ownership — No one's sure who has final say

  2. Missing context — Reviewers don't know what changed or why

  3. Tool friction — Approvals happen in email, Slack, or another system entirely

  4. Anxiety — Fear of breaking something live

Meridian's content team was stuck in a loop: drafts lived in Google Docs, feedback lived in Slack, and no one knew when something was actually ready to ship.

They switched to a workflow where:

  • All edits happened in one place

  • Reviewers could see changes inline

  • Publishing was a single click (with the option to schedule)

Result: What used to take 3–5 days now takes hours.