How to Streamline Your Workflow with 17hats Pipelines
- Nicole
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
If you’re anything like most creative entrepreneurs I work with, your client projects can sometimes feel like a juggling act. Between inquiries, follow-ups and actual project fulfillment, it’s easy to lose track of who’s where in your process. That’s why I’m thrilled about one of 17hats’ most visual and powerful features: Pipelines.
Pipelines are like a bird’s-eye view of your client journey. They help you see exactly where every project stands so nothing can slip through the cracks. Even better is that we can color code our pipelines for some extra visual organization!
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What Are 17hats Pipelines?
Pipelines in 17hats are visual boards (in a Kanban look like Trello) that track your projects through a series of customizable phases. Think of them like a digital bulletin board with columns, where each column represents a stage in your workflow.
You can create:
Lead Pipelines for tracking inquiries and/or quotes
Client Pipelines for tracking confirmed projects
Each pipeline can have up to five phases, and you can build five lead pipelines and five client pipelines… which gives you a ton of options and ways to watch your projects progress!
How 17hats Projects Move Through a Pipeline
There are two main ways to move a project from one phase to the next:
By Tags – When a specific tag is applied to a project, it moves into the corresponding pipeline stage.
Example: When a new inquiry comes in, you might automatically tag it “New Lead.” Once you email them back, applying the tag “Lead Contacted” will move them into the next phase.
NOTE: You’ll want to be sure to also remove the previous tag so that the project isn’t sitting in two phases at once.
By Days in a Phase – Projects can also automatically move after a certain number of days have passed since they landed in the previous phase.
Example: If you haven’t heard back five days after “Lead Contacted”, the project can move into a “Follow-Up Needed” phase to remind you to check in.
This combination of tag-based and time-based movement gives you a clear picture of who needs attention and when.
Why Creative Entrepreneurs Love Pipelines
If you operate best with visuals, Pipelines will quickly become your new favorite feature! Here’s why:
Clarity at a glance: Color-coded columns make it easy to see exactly where each lead or client stands.
More timely follow-ups: Time-based movement helps ensure no one gets forgotten.
Customizable to your process: Rename phases and create the exact setup that fits your business.
Sets you up for easy batching: Not only will you see where each lead or client stands in the process, but also how many of them are in any given phase.
Imagine logging in and seeing which leads need follow-ups, who needs quotes and which projects are coming up in the next week. THAT’S the magic of Pipelines.
Getting Started with 17hats Pipelines
If you haven’t explored Pipelines yet, start simple. Create a lead pipeline with these basic stages:
New Lead
Contacted
Follow-Up Needed
Quote Sent
Booked
You’ll also want to set your “completed state” tag so that clients exit the Pipeline and count towards your tally of projects. (Archived projects will also exit the Pipeline.)
When building your Pipeline, don’t forget to customize your phase colors for that easy, at-a-glance look at your projects. Then, integrate your Pipeline tags into your workflows to automate all the goodness!
Integrate your Pipeline tags into your workflows to automated all the goodness!
Final Notes about 17hats Pipelines
The time you spend building your Pipelines is well worth it. With 17hats Pipelines, you can confidently track leads and projects without sticky notes, endless mental checklists or losing sleep trying to remember where that one client stands for their event that’s coming up sometime in the next couple of weeks.
If all this is something you’d like help with, I’d love to guide you through setting up a pipeline that works for your business! View my service offerings here.
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