← Back to NorthLab

Workflow Map

A walkthrough for the Workflow Automation Repair & Build Package. It maps the lead-capture process in three states: the broken before, the repaired after, and the brand-new build.

Before Broken workflow

Invalid data enters, leads are saved wrong or duplicated, the team is never notified, no email is sent, and there is no log to debug from.

Lead form
   │
   ▼
Broken webhook  ──(422 / 502 ignored)
   │
   ▼
Missing / duplicate CRM entry   ✗ no validation, no dedupe
   │
   ▼
Failed notification             ✗ fails silently
   ✗  (no confirmation email)
   ✗  (no structured log)
   ✗  manual cleanup required

After Repaired workflow (Repair Package)

Bad data is rejected up front, duplicates are skipped, the webhook retries on failure, and every step is visible in a log.

Lead form
   │
   ▼
Validation          ✓ required name + valid email
   │
   ▼
Duplicate check     ✓ lookup by email before insert
   │
   ▼
CRM / table         ✓ only validated, non-duplicate leads saved
   │
   ▼
Notification        ✓ mock Slack/internal message
   │
   ▼
Email confirmation  ✓ mock confirmation email
   │
   ▼
Log                 ✓ each step timestamped, failures surfaced

Build New automation from scratch (Build Package)

A manual process turned into a single automated workflow.

MANUAL (before automation)              AUTOMATED (after build)
─────────────────────────              ───────────────────────
Watch inbox for submissions     ──►     Lead form (trigger)
Copy lead into spreadsheet      ──►     Validation
Message the team manually       ──►     CRM / table entry
Write & send confirmation       ──►     Internal notification
Hope nothing was missed         ──►     Email confirmation
                                ──►     Workflow log

What this maps to in real tools

This demo uses local mock data. In a real engagement, each step maps to real automation platforms and apps.

Demo step (mock)	Real-world equivalent
Lead form / webhook	Zapier Webhooks, Make Webhook module, n8n Webhook/Form trigger
Validation	Zapier Filter / Formatter, Make filters + tools, n8n IF / Function node
Duplicate check	Zapier "Find Record", Make "Search Rows", n8n lookup — against Google Sheets, Airtable, or HubSpot/CRM
CRM / table entry	Google Sheets "Create Row", Airtable "Create Record", HubSpot/CRM "Create/Update Contact"
Internal notification	Slack "Send Channel Message" (or Teams/Discord)
Email confirmation	Gmail / Outlook / SMTP "Send Email", or transactional email provider
Retry / error handling	Built-in retry settings + error-handling paths in Zapier / Make / n8n
Workflow log	Platform run history, plus an append-only log row in Google Sheets / Airtable

Real implementations require API keys and permissions configured securely on the platform side — never in frontend code.