Is Scope Creep a Weirdo With a Gun : Well, Kinda
One last tweak, right? When it’s your project, that’s natural. Shoot for the stars, spend all the time you want, make it your masterpiece. Hang your hat on it. Top billing on the demo reel from which dreams are made. When you have a person or a team working on your project, it sucks, dude. Can you imagine convincing a room full of random people to go grocery shopping with you to pick up ingredients for some recipe you just invented? Weird, right. Follow me. You go to the grocery store and when you get there, you pick up extra ingredients along the way. Seems kinda strange but the people with you side-eye you a touch. But then you are in the cleaning aisle. You grab some Clorox, and then pop on over to the dog food aisle where you grab a big bag of Purina. I mean, might as well, while we are here. And suddenly the 20-minute trip stretches into an hour or two. And there you are: a simple trip ends up wasting your time and stretching your resources.
At Neon Ghost, we love big ideas and bigger outcomes. You know what we don’t love? Gremlins. Yeah, Mogwai is cute but next thing you know he says he can’t go back to the client with these overages, and BAM. The sneaky little devil called scope creep has entered the building. That’s when a project’s requirements suddenly expand after work starts without extra time, budget, or reprioritization. It shows up as “can we just…” and, left unchecked, turns clean timelines into spaghetti. Which was definitely not on the shopping list AT ALL.
What Scope Creep Looks Like in Creative Work
A 60-second edit becomes 5 social versions, captions, thumbnails, and a last-minute vertical crop.
“Two rounds of feedback” morphs into “one more pass” (three times).
New stakeholders parachute in on final review day with brand-new “must haves.”
Why It Happens
Vague deliverables or missing “out-of-scope” pushback
Unorganized rounds of changes
Discovery reveals unknowns (but there’s no change-order process)
Underestimated complexity or asset delays
People pleasing
The Cost (Even When Everyone’s Nice)
Scope creep burns hours, pushes deadlines, and dilutes creative quality. You either eat the time (painful) or rush the work (worse). Neither is how we roll.
The NeonGhost Playbook (How We Prevent It)
Crystal-clear scope. Objectives, deliverables, milestones, format specs, and “what’s not included.”
Revision caps. We often include two (three if we like you) rounds of consolidated feedback per deliverable. Additional edits are billed at $150/hour.
Change orders. New asks are great… we price them. You approve. Then we build them right.
Named decision-makers + timelines. We lock approval windows so momentum doesn’t die in committee.
The “Parking Lot.” Smart ideas that don’t fit? We bank them for a Phase Two add-on.
Red Flags We Surface Early
“Can we just add a few more versions for Instagram, LinkedIn, the lobby display, my kid’s talent show?”
“I want to help you do it”
“Our VP wants to see a totally different direction… today.”
“The script changed after the shoot.”
We’ll raise the flag, offer options, and keep the project on rails.
What You’ll See From Us (Plain English, No Drama)
“The new request (three extra 20-second cuts and a second shoot day) sits outside the current scope. Two options: A) Add them: $X and +3 days; B) Swap them in by removing [Y deliverable]. Tell us which you prefer and we’ll send a quick change order.”
Quick Math Example
Original scope: one 60-sec edit + 2 revisions
New asks: two extra 20-sec versions + one extra revision round
Time: 2 short cuts ≈ 6 hrs; extra revision ≈ 2 hrs → 8 hrs total
Budget: 8 × $150/hr = $1,200 add-on
Clarity = no surprises.
Why Clients Love This
Predictability. No mystery invoices.
Quality. Focused scope = stronger creative.
Speed. Decisions move faster when the path is obvious.
What’s that Bottom Line again?
Scope creep isn’t a client problem…. it’s a process problem. Our process protects your timeline, your budget, and your brand. Want a project that ships on time and hits like a brick? Set the scope. Guard the scope. Evolve the scope the right way.
Got a project brewing? Let’s map a tight scope, lock your deliverables, and leave the chaos to our edit timeline… your calendar is your problem, but we can help by keeping your project with us on track!