I never let someone wave me into traffic.

A few years back, I was turning left out of a parking lot and preparing to cross three lanes of traffic. While waiting for a stoplight, someone driving a large SUV kindly waved to allow me on my way. Meanwhile, hidden from sight by the SUV, a sedan in the next lane was speedily approaching. As I pulled around the SUV, the sedan made its best attempt to occupy the same space and time as my vehicle, which is generally a bad idea.

As someone once told me, it’s not the things you don’t know that cause the biggest headaches. Rather, it’s the things you don’t know that you don’t know.

In publishing, whether print or digital, it’s these unknowns that tend to create problems. Anyone can make a list of questions and start checking off the boxes as they find the answers. The trouble begins months later, when they suddenly realize that there should have been a check box for “that question I never knew existed.”

Sometimes these are small details; other times they’re major strategic decisions. Over the years as production manager at Journey, I’ve learned plenty that I never knew I didn’t know.

For example, a standard press-sheet is usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 29” x 41”. So yes, that beautiful 65” roll-fold brochure has to be rethought. Or, how about the fact that the post office charges extra postage for not having a barcode on a reply envelope, even if it’s not pre-paid?

In the digital realm, I’ve learned the difference between “front-end” and “back-end” development, and that there are three different skillsets involved in setting up a content-management system (CMS), designing a website and connecting the CMS to the design so it becomes a functioning site. I’ve also learned to ask things like, “OK, you have a beautiful new content-managed site – now who’s going to manage the CMS? And your hosting? And the content itself?”

This is the type of information I process every day. In doing so, I’ve learned to help our clients avoid the potholes, find efficiencies and increase quality without increasing costs. The trick isn’t to know everything, desirable as that may be. Instead, it’s to acknowledge ahead of time that you don’t. So slow down, don’t make assumptions and start asking the right questions. Or, better yet, let us ask them for you. We’ll never wave you into traffic.