Most automation advice is too abstract. Here's a practical filter.
The bottleneck filter
What's the one thing that, if fixed, would unlock everything else?
- Lead follow-up that never happens
- Status updates that take 30 minutes
- Customer replies that get delayed
- Content repurposing on the backlog forever
The proof target rule
Before building: What metric moves? By how much? In what timeframe?
The speed-to-test check
If you can't validate in 2 days, it's too complex. Start smaller.