MYTH: "QA happens at the end."

MYTH: "QA happens at the end."
The correction: end-stage QA finds problems when they're most expensive to fix. Put a small gate at each handoff so defects can't travel downstream.

SOP: Stage-gate QA
Run this whenever work moves between phases (brief to draft, draft to build, build to live).

Stage 1 — Define gates
— ☐ Write a 3-item pass/fail check at each phase boundary. (Owner: process owner)
— ☐ Make each check binary; no "looks good." (Owner: process owner)

Stage 2 — Enforce
— ☐ Work cannot advance until its gate passes. (Owner: phase owner)
— ☐ A failed gate returns work to the same stage, not forward. (Owner: phase owner)

Stage 3 — Trend
— ☐ Log which gate catches the most failures; fix that upstream step. (Owner: process owner)

Owner: process owner. Trigger: work changes phase. Done-when: each boundary has a binary gate that blocks bad work.

Save this. Run it every time.