Steps
- List every tool your team touches for this one job, even the ones nobody thinks about out loud.
- Run each tool through the three tests below.
- Pick the tool that passes the most tests. That tool becomes your system of record, the one place your team trusts for the answer.
- Open
system-of-record-triage-template.csvand mark every other tool as moving in, feeding it, or going. - Before you move any old history into the new system, run the history migration checklist.
- Open
process-write-up-template.csvand write down how the work actually happens today, step by step. Then hand it to the person who does the work every day, or the owner, and ask them to mark it up.
The three tests
Test 1, already paid for and used: is this a tool your team already pays for, and already opens most days? The best tool on paper loses to the one people already use every morning.
Test 2, holds the whole job: can it carry the work from first contact all the way to done, with nothing that has to leave it halfway?
Test 3, sends the message itself: can it send the emails and texts on its own, or will you need another tool just for that?Triaging every other tool
Once you know your system of record, every other tool gets one of three labels. Write it down, don't leave it as a feeling.
MOVES IN: everything this tool used to do now happens inside the system of record. The old tool is retired for this job.
FEEDS IT: this tool keeps doing its own job, but every result it produces also lands in the system of record.
GOES: this tool has no job left once the system of record is running. Cancel it, or stop using it for this process.History migration checklist
1. Move a small test batch first. Every time. Never move everything on day one.
2. Check the test batch for records with no name, no email and no phone. Give them a placeholder name and a tag, so the team can find and fix them later.
3. Run the rest of the history once the test batch looks right.
4. Check the counts after the move. What came in should match what you started with, minus anything you deliberately left out.
5. Price the history move as its own job. It is real work, and it is easy for it to get folded into setup for free by mistake.The process write-up template
One page, one row per step. Fill it in yourself first, from the first contact to the job being done. Then hand it to the owner or the person who does the work every day, and ask them to mark it up.
Columns: step number, what happens, who does it, what tool it happens in, what has to be true before this step can start, what this step hands off and to whom.