gtmjosh | Prevent Duplicate Work | Turn It Into a Workflow

Prevent Duplicate Work

Guarantee one active instance per human, and decide what happens when the same work arrives twice.

Two things that look like the same problem and are not.

The first is duplicate records. The same human exists twice in your CRM, under two record types or two email addresses, and both copies are eligible. That is a data problem, and the data quality guide covers it.

The second is duplicate work. One human, one record, and two workflow instances running against them, because two triggers fired, or because a workflow was re-enrolled while it was still going, or because two different workflows both decided this person was theirs. Both produce the same experience for the person on the other end, which is why they get confused. Only the second one is fixable here.

One active instance

The rule is simple to state and takes real work to hold: exactly one active instance of this workflow per human.

Note per human, not per record. Those diverge exactly when it hurts most. The same person can exist as a lead record that came in through a form and as a contact record on an existing account, and both can be eligible, and both can enrol. From the system's side that is two different subjects. From the person's side it is being contacted twice by the same company saying two different things.

When you find them, collapse to one. Which one is the question, and the answer is worth getting right: keep the most progressed, not the newest. The newest record is usually the emptier one, and keeping it throws away the history that made the other one useful. The most-progressed record is the one that knows what has already happened.

When two triggers fire

Separately from duplicate humans, the same human can legitimately trigger the same workflow twice. Priya submits a second request three weeks after the first one, while the first follow-through is still running. There are three defensible answers and you have to pick one.

Ignore the second trigger. The workflow is already running; let it run. Simple, and it quietly discards a real signal: she asked again, which means something. Restart. Cancel the running instance and begin again with fresh information. Honest about the new signal, and it throws away everything the first instance had done, including any steps the owner completed. Update in place. Keep the running instance, record the new event on it, and let the owner see both. The most work to build and usually the right answer.

The point is not which one you pick. It is that this happens, it happens more often than teams expect, and the tool's default is almost always the first one.

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One human, one instance

Two records, one person, both eligible, both enrolled within an hour. Write the rule that makes that impossible.

Fixture: same-human-twice

Two records, one person, both eligible

FIXTURE-SAME-HUMAN-TWICE

Record A: Lead from the form, created today, three fields populated
Record B: Contact on the existing account, two years of history
Match: Same email address
Both enrolled: Yes, within an hour of each other
What the person sees: Two approaches from one company, saying different things

What is the workflow unique on?

One active instance per human, recognised by matched email or a verified match to the same person on the same account.
Per human, not per record. Those two diverge exactly when it hurts most, which is when the same person exists as a form lead and as a contact on an existing account.One active instance per record.
What every workflow tool enforces natively, at no cost, with no ambiguity about identity.One active instance per account.
Guarantees a company never receives two approaches at once, which is a real complaint.

You find two. Which one survives?

The most progressed one, and the other is folded into it.
The most-progressed record is the one that knows what has already happened. This is the same reasoning 1b applied to a merge, arriving at the same answer from the other direction.The newest one, since it reflects the most recent intent.
The newest record carries the freshest signal about what the person wants right now.The oldest one, since it has the longest history.
Age usually correlates with history, and the older record is normally the system of record.

The same person legitimately triggers again while the first instance is still running.

Keep the running instance, record the new event on it, and show the owner both.
The most work to build and usually the right answer, because it is the only one that keeps the new signal and the completed work at the same time.Ignore it. The workflow is already running.
No new behavior to build, and the person is already being worked.Cancel the running instance and start again with the newer information.
Guarantees the workflow is always acting on the most recent request.

Chapter 7 of 80 complete