CRM and
the six-stage pipeline.

The pipeline is the bloodstream of the Studio. Everything else — finance, capacity planning, lead-gen retro — reads off it.

Build it once at Day 0. After that, the only changes should be (a) adding a new outreach pattern, (b) tweaking the qualification rubric in §04, or (c) adding a new view for a new question you keep asking. Resist schema sprawl — new fields are a tax on every future row.

The order matters — Leads before Engagements (an Engagement links to a Lead), Engagements before Outreach (Outreach references the active Engagement, if any), Outreach before Touchpoints (Touchpoints belong to an Outreach thread). Building tables in this order means every link field has something to link to.

Every Lead and Engagement lives in exactly one stage. The single-select field is the spine — views, automations, and the Kanban all key off it. From USO-ST-04 §02.

Two terminal states sit outside the spine: Lost (with reason captured) and Nurture (re-evaluate in 90 days). Anything in Nurture for more than 180 days auto-moves to Lost.

Four tables, linked. The base is named Studio · Pipeline and lives under the umbra.group Airtable workspace.

The Leads table is the widest. Every field earns its place by feeding either a view, an automation, or the qualification rubric.

Qualification Score formula

A lightweight numeric rubric to surface the highest-fit leads in any view. Tune the weights as the ICP sharpens.

IF({Headcount}="100-500", 3,
  IF({Headcount}="500-2000", 3,
    IF({Headcount}="2000+", 1, 0)))
+
IF(OR({Industry}="Insurance",
       {Industry}="FinServ",
       {Industry}="Healthcare ops",
       {Industry}="Legal ops",
       {Industry}="Content ops"), 3, 0)
+
IF(LEN({Workflow Hint})>20, 2, 0)
+
IF(OR({Source}="Warm intro", {Source}="Referral"), 2, 0)

Then map the formula output to ICP Tier via a separate single-select that the operator confirms after the qualify call. The formula suggests; the operator decides.

Color coding (single select)

• ▢ Signal — gray. Qualify — blue. Scope — purple. Proposal — yellow. Contract — orange. Active — green. Nurture — teal. Lost — red.

An Engagement is created the moment a contract is countersigned. The corresponding Lead row stays put for historical record but is no longer the source of truth for project status.

The Engagement Code formula gives a stable filename-safe identifier that gets reused on Drive folders, contracts, invoices, and Linear project keys.

One row per outbound thread. A Lead can have multiple Outreach rows over time (e.g. a cold thread that died, then a warm-intro thread six months later). Sequencing logic lives in USI-OPS-OUTREACH; this table is the data spine.

Why a separate table? Because a Lead's relationship with the Studio spans multiple campaigns over years. Pinning everything to the Leads row creates a long-text mess; one Outreach row per thread keeps the history auditable.

The most granular table. One row per individual exchange — a sent email, a received reply, a held call, a Loom shared. Touchpoints are the substrate the rest of the pipeline aggregates against.

Last Touch automation

Set up an Airtable automation that, when a Touchpoint is created with an Outreach link, updates the linked Lead's Last Touch field to {Date} and the Outreach row's Outcome if the Sentiment is decisive.

1. Trigger: When record created on Touchpoints.
2. Condition: {Outreach} is not empty.
3. Action: Update the linked Outreach row's {Last Touchpoint} rollup auto-refreshes; manually update {Outcome} only if sentiment is Positive or Objection.
4. Action: Find the Lead via Outreach → Lead, update its {Last Touch}.
5. Test by manually adding a Touchpoint and confirming both downstream rows update.

Views are the operating UI. Build these eight; resist adding more until a recurring question can't be answered from one of them.

Kanban setup

1. On the Leads table, click + Create view → Kanban.
2. Stack by: Stage.
3. Card fields: Lead Name, Company, ICP Tier, Qualification Score, Next Action, Next Action Date.
4. Hide the Lost and Active stacks (filter, above) — they bloat the board.
5. Drag-to-move enabled. Moving a card updates the Stage field.

Stale view automation

Add an automation: every Monday at 8am, send the operator an email summarizing the Stale view. If a lead has been silent >21 days, decide once: re-engage, move to Nurture, or mark Lost.

The CRM tracks relationships. Linear tracks delivery. The bridge between them is the Engagement Code — identical string in both systems.

Snippets are the operational shortcut that makes outreach sustainable. Each snippet maps to an Outreach Pattern; using it auto-fills the body and inserts the variables.

Snippet authoring rules

• Every snippet has at least one {{personalization}} placeholder. If a snippet sends without an edit, it's not personalized enough.
• No more than 5 sentences. Above that, the read-rate falls off a cliff.
• Always include a one-sentence ask. "Worth a 30-min call next week?" is the right shape.
• Sign with Abe · Umbra Studio · umbrastudio.com — full signature lives in Superhuman default, snippets sign off with this short form.
• Source the canonical text from umbra-studio-outreach-emails.docx; snippets are mirrors, not divergent copies.

Setup

1. In Superhuman: Settings → Snippets → New Snippet.
2. For each row in the table above, paste the canonical body from the outreach docx.
3. Mark the placeholder spans with Superhuman's variable syntax so the cursor lands on each one in turn.
4. Add the trigger string. Test by typing it in a new email and confirming the body fills.
5. Re-export the snippet pack to studio-shared Drive every quarter so a new device can re-import.

Daily · 15 min

1. Open the This Week view. Clear or reschedule any Next Actions due today.
2. Log every Touchpoint from the past 24h with sentiment.
3. Process inbox — any positive reply triggers a Stage update before noon.

Weekly · 30 min · Monday morning

1. Open the Pipeline Kanban. Walk every column left to right; each card needs a Next Action with a date.
2. Open the Stale view. For each lead, decide once: re-engage, Nurture, or Lost.
3. Open the Outreach Queue. Send any 5-day follow-ups due this week.
4. Open the Active Engagements view. Confirm each engagement has a current Linear sprint.

Monthly · 60 min

1. Audit field discipline: any Lead missing ICP Tier, Source, or Industry? Backfill.
2. Review Lost Reasons pivot. If >40% of losses are Budget, the pricing conversation is happening too late in the sequence.
3. Review Pattern Frequency pivot. Patterns that haven't been used in two engagements may be ripe for retirement; patterns used in >5 are candidates for productization.
4. Confirm Snippet pack hasn't drifted from the canonical outreach doc.

Quarterly · 90 min

1. Re-tune the Qualification Score weights based on which leads converted.
2. Archive Engagements that completed this quarter. Move them to a Status = Complete view; don't delete.
3. Run a base-wide audit for orphan rows (Outreach without Lead, Touchpoint without parent). Fix.
4. Export a CSV snapshot of all four tables to studio-shared/Pipeline/Snapshots/. This is the rollback point if a schema change goes sideways.