How do you manage “ready for dev” designs when requirements keep changing?

I’m the first and only Product Designer at a ~30-person B2B SaaS startup. We have about 12 engineers, one PM, and a BA who writes the tickets. I’ve been here about a year, and the company had never worked with a dedicated designer before.

We’ve made a lot of progress. Engineering is using Dev Mode now, I work with them much more directly, and collaboration has improved a lot.

The part I’m still struggling with is handoff and version control.

Our process is very iterative, but also pretty messy. The PM runs the show and is reluctant to lock decisions, so requirements often keep changing after tickets are written and sometimes after development has started. He also has separate conversations with Engineering that I’m not always included in, so changes sometimes filter back to me later or not everyone is working from the same information.

The biggest issue is that I’ll think a ticket is ready, link the final mockups, and then the PM comes back with more changes after previously indicating it was good to go.

An engineer recently told me it can be hard to tell what is actually approved and what has changed since the last version. Version history helps, and I’m using Figma’s Ready for Dev feature, but I feel like I need a clearer system on my side.

I have limited influence over the broader process, so I’m mostly trying to keep my side of the street as clean as possible.

How do other teams handle this? Do you require explicit PM approval before marking something ready for dev?

How do you communicate changes after development has started?

For what it’s worth I report directly to the PM and our working relationship is strained, so I’m trying to protect myself and give Engineering more clarity without introducing a formal approval process that would feel out of place or provoke him bc he is already resistant to pressure from me.

Thank you!