GTM workflow specification template
A practical specification for turning a GTM decision into work: outcome, trigger, preconditions, steps, owners, handoffs, exits, SLA, and evidence of completion.
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A workflow is finished when the business outcome is recorded, not when an automation tool reports success. This template gives the team one place to define that contract before configuring Flow, Workflows, or an external job.
Copy this skeleton
workflow: inbound-follow-through-v1
outcome: A qualified request receives an owned next step
subject: person
trigger: decision.final_outcome changes to route-to-seller
preconditions:
- consent.sales_contact_allowed == true
- owner_id is present
steps:
- id: create-task
owner: sales-ops
input: [person_id, decision_id, due_at]
- id: accept-handoff
owner: assigned-seller
input: [person_id, task_id, reason]
exits:
completed: seller_acceptance_at is present
suppressed: consent.sales_contact_allowed == false
expired: acceptance_at is missing after sla
sla: 4 business hours
failure_path: retry twice, then queue for operations
completion_evidence: [task_id, seller_acceptance_at, final_outcome]The fields that prevent vague automation
| Field | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Outcome | What changed for the business? |
| Trigger | Which observable event starts the work? |
| Preconditions | What must be true before a step runs? |
| Owner | Who is responsible while the item waits? |
| Handoff | What does the next owner need to act? |
| Exit | What proves the workflow is over? |
| Suppression | When should the work stop or never start? |
| SLA | How long may it wait before escalation? |
| Failure path | What happens after a timeout or error? |
If a field cannot be filled in plain language, the workflow is still a request, not a specification.
Platform translation comes after the contract
In Salesforce, the trigger and decision path may become a record-triggered Flow. In HubSpot, they may become enrollment criteria and workflow actions. Keep the YAML or table as the review artifact. The platform configuration is an implementation of it and should carry a version or link back to the specification.
Completion is evidence
“The task was created” is an intermediate event. Define the business completion event, such as the seller accepting the handoff or the customer receiving a permitted response. Store timestamps for trigger, ownership, acceptance, completion, suppression, and failure. That history supports both operations and reporting.
Specify each step as a contract
For every step, write the input, output, owner, allowed action, timeout, and failure path. A step called “enrich the contact” is incomplete. State which fields may change, which source can supply them, how confidence or freshness is handled, and whether a person must approve the write. This turns a diagram into something an implementer and business owner can test together.
Review every boundary where ownership, system, or authority changes. Those are the places where work is most likely to disappear. A CRM task handed to a seller needs acceptance evidence. A value sent to an external tool needs an acknowledgement and reconciliation rule. An AI-generated message needs a preview and a named sender.
Approval checklist
The specification is ready when the process owner can explain the happy path and exceptions, the implementer can configure it without inventing policy, and reporting can identify every run's current state. Approve the population query, authority level, limits, exits, completion evidence, and rollback path. Version the specification when any of those contracts change.
Related: Triggers, preconditions, and eligibility, Exit, suppression, and completion rules, and Turn the Decision Into a Workflow.
Related guides
FAQ
- What belongs in a workflow specification?
- Name the business outcome, trigger, subject, preconditions, steps, owner at each step, handoff payload, exit and suppression rules, SLA, failure path, and evidence that the work finished. The specification describes behavior before it describes a platform.
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