Preserve Decisions and History

Decide what gets appended and what gets replaced, and tag every entry with what caused it.

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 question the current record cannot answer

Keep current values readable while retaining who changed what, when, and whether a recommendation differed.

Question asked: "What did we think about this deal in March?"
Current rationale: Present, detailed, and current
Prior rationales: Overwritten on every run
Runs since March: Many
Answer in the current record: Not available after the prior value was overwritten
Possible recovery source: A versioned snapshot or independent archive, if one exists

Your task

Place the events in the current view or history. Keep the original decision when a later update arrives.

Need a little guidance?

You’re done when: The latest answer is readable without deleting the previous recommendation, override, or reason.

History is necessary for debugging, reporting, and learning.

Need a reminder? Reopen the worked example

Watch one example first

At 08:00 automation recommends in conversation. At 10:00 Jo corrects it to waiting on owner. The current view shows Jo’s state; history preserves both events and their sources.

Why this follows from the evidence

Current state answers “what now?” History answers “what was known then?” Retain enough evidence to reconstruct the earlier state without implying the later correction always existed.

GTM Lab

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Case evidence

A question the current record cannot answer

Question asked: "What did we think about this deal in March?"
Current rationale: Present, detailed, and current
Prior rationales: Overwritten on every run
Runs since March: Many
Answer in the current record: Not available after the prior value was overwritten
Possible recovery source: A versioned snapshot or independent archive, if one exists

The current field no longer shows the original recommendation in this system. Check what history is actually retained, then decide what should be preserved going forward.

Build a current view and a readable history

The present status should be quick to read. A later review needs evidence of how it changed. Sort each item by how it should be stored in this reporting design.

Items to store

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

Prepared sequence: system recommendation, then human correction

08:00 · Scheduled run recommends “in conversation.” Source: reporting workflow.
10:25 · An owner changes the status to “waiting on owner.” Source: manual review.

Write full state or only changed fields?Keep the trigger/source tag?Preserve both recommendation and human decision?Keep the current numbers view separate from narrative history?

Restoring your saved work…

Your place saves as you go.

Chapter 4 of 80 complete