# Pipeline Review Notes

Use these notes with Method Media’s **The fifteen-minute pipeline review**.

This is a compact editorial companion for observing one review. It does not replace the fuller Method Digital worksheet, a CRM, a sales method, or the legal, privacy, security, professional, and retention decisions required by the real situation. It does not guarantee responses, sales, revenue, or another business result.

Work from one approved source of truth. Do not add speculative contacts, private information you do not need, or people who did not make a genuine inquiry.

## Before the review

- Date:
- Reviewer:
- Source of truth:
- Timer start:
- Number of open inquiries:
- Person accountable for the records:

## Observe the first three minutes

What made the open list difficult or easy to collect?


Which records were duplicated, complete, declined, withdrawn, or no longer active?


Which open commitments existed outside the approved source of truth?


## Observe ownership

List open records without one named human owner.

| Inquiry ID | Current state | Owner needed | Decision |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |

An inbox, group, automation, or software product is not an owner. A person remains responsible for moving each open inquiry to its next honest state.

## Observe next actions

Replace “follow up” with one action that another person could verify.

| Inquiry ID | Specific next action | Owner | Review date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |

Questions:

- Does the action rely on a fact that has not been confirmed?
- Does it make a promise about price, scope, availability, timing, or outcome?
- Is another contact appropriate, permitted, and useful?
- Does an exception need human judgment before anything is sent?

## Observe waiting states and promises

- Records waiting on another person:
- Date each waiting record will be reviewed:
- Existing promises that still need action:
- Promise that needs correction:
- Unusual or sensitive record that needs escalation:

A review date is a decision point, not permission for indefinite contact.

## Observe closure and escalation

Close a record only with a short factual outcome. Escalate work that needs scope, access, privacy, security, legal, professional, moral, or other consequential judgment.

| Inquiry ID | Close / escalate | Factual reason | Responsible person | Next review |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  |  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |  |

## Record the operating finding

- Number of open records at finish:
- Records still missing an owner:
- Records still missing a next action:
- Records still missing a review date:
- First repeated source of friction:
- Evidence supporting that observation:
- Smallest responsible repair:
- Owner of the repair:
- Date to review again:

## If fifteen minutes was not enough

Do not hide the finding by turning the time box into an indefinite meeting. Mark the reason:

- [ ] Several sources had to be reconciled.
- [ ] Required fields were missing.
- [ ] Ownership was unclear.
- [ ] Status labels did not explain what could happen next.
- [ ] Exceptions dominated the ordinary process.
- [ ] Access or retention requirements were not understood.
- [ ] The current tool could not carry the responsibility.
- [ ] Other:

The useful output is a clear operating decision. A person remains accountable for permission, access, records, messages, promises, follow-up decisions, exceptions, retention, and closure. Automation may assist with repeated labor only when the evidence, review boundary, failure signal, and manual fallback are understood.