Rush pre-flight
Seven things, together: a print-ready dieline with the structure, final artwork at the correct scale, a real color target (Pantone, measured values, or a swatch), the substrate and material spec, a physical reference of the current pack, the decision the comp serves plus its date, and the quantity. Complete on the first email means the build starts day one.
Because color drives more of the schedule than anything else, and it has to be matched to the real substrate. “We’ll send color later” is the most common reason a ten-day comp becomes a fourteen-day one. Send the color targets in the first message.
Holding the current pack is the fastest way to calibrate weight, finish, and expectation. If your partner can feel where the brand is today, they can match where it is going faster and with fewer questions.
The decision and the date: what this comp has to inform and when it has to be in someone’s hand. That tells your partner the fidelity to build to and the schedule to work back from, which is the whole plan in a sentence.