Define Clear Statuses

Every record gets exactly one status, and every status means one thing.

See the situation

Start with the situation below. Next, we will work through an example together before you try the activity.

Elena · Reporting lead

The case

A record that could honestly be either

Define status values within one dimension so their meanings and boundaries can be inspected.

Status A: Working
Status B: In progress
Which one it gets: Depends who touched it last
What the report is counting: The habits of individual people
What the report claims to count: The state of the work

Your task

Use each record’s evidence to choose its process status. Keep owner and next action in separate fields.

Need a little guidance?

You’re done when: Every record has one value for the same process dimension.

Statuses become unusable when they mix several kinds of state.

Need a reminder? Reopen the worked example

Watch one example first

For this example, a qualified request with no contact belongs in awaiting first contact even if an owner and next-action date exist. Those fields describe responsibility and scheduling, not a completed contact.

Why this follows from the evidence

Define one primary process dimension and explain exceptional unresolved states. A missing status should route to data review rather than being silently treated as a normal process phase.

GTM Lab

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Case evidence

A record that could honestly be either

Status A: Working
Status B: In progress
Which one it gets: Depends who touched it last
What the report is counting: The habits of individual people
What the report claims to count: The state of the work

Two of the candidate statuses overlap and one population does not fit the set at all. Fix both.

Route records using one status dimension

Status labels are useful when they describe the same dimension and have clear boundaries. Here, the main status means process phase. Owner, next action, date and data quality stay in separate fields.

The dimension we are using: Process phase. Use the cases below to apply this definition.
Separate fields: Owner and next-action date describe responsibility and scheduling, not evidence that contact happened.

Records to classify

Drag a card into a bucket, or tap a card and then tap a bucket.

A renewal may pause until a calendar date even when no seller follow-up is due. Keep this example's population scope visible instead of interpreting every quiet record as stalled.

Restoring your saved work…

Your place saves as you go.

Chapter 2 of 80 complete