Build the first workflow narrow and reliable, not broad and clever. This is the pattern that works:
- Define the output first. Example: "contacts with verified work email + firmographics, written to HubSpot company record". Everything else is in service of that sentence.
- Prepare the input. 100–500 rows with a stable dedupe key. Fix obvious input problems (blank domains, inconsistent country codes) before enriching — garbage input bills the same as clean input.
- Enrich in a waterfall. Highest-match-rate provider first, fallbacks after. Add a validation column before anything reaches a CRM.
- Pilot at 50–100 rows. Manually review output. Measure match rate, validity, cost per usable record. Adjust provider order before scaling.
- Set monitoring. Error alerts on the workflow. A run that fails silently is worse than one that fails loudly.
- Write back with provenance. Source, timestamp, workflow name on each written field. Pilot the CRM write on a sandbox or small segment first.
- Document. What each column does, why each provider is in the waterfall, what to do when X fails.
Cost caution: every enrichment call is an Action; marketplace data is credits. Re-running full tables to "test" bills every attempt — pilot on samples.
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