Beginners Guide to Pipelines

What are Pipelines?

Pipelines are a systematic tool to help organizations guide people through a process toward a certain goal.  This tool was designed in partnership with organizations to guide people step by step through a process to equip and prepare them for missions and long term service.  We now see organizations using this for leadership development, long term missionary preparation, and many other creative ideas.  Anywhere that you might be guiding people through a process that you want to track... this is the tool for you.  

Step 1. Where to Start

• Mission Control - your first step is to locate Mission Control from your top right drop down menu.  This will bring you to the area where you will find your most common actions.

• Pipelines Block - look for the block to the middle left for managing your pipelines.  You will see three key options.  

  • Manage Current Pipelines

  • Create a New Pipelines

  • Manage Coaches

Step 2. Create a New Pipeline

From the Pipeline directory page you can select the "New Pipeline" button in the top right of the screen to create a new pipeline.  You can also clone a previous pipeline you've already created.  Start with a title that makes since but also intuitive as you may be building multiple pipelines.  

TIP: Have you ever heard the phrase "you can't think on a computer"?  Well, it's true.  Don't start building a pipeline by using this tool.  Start on a white board by mapping out the key progress stages you want to guide someone through and then build it online.

Step 3. Build Stages

Pipelines are powerful tools for managing progress but they are also a clean slate of design.  You will need to have a plan for your stages.  For example, if you are preparing people for long term missionary service then you might have the following stages: Application, Assessment, Orientation, Selection, Preparation, Placement, 90 Day Review, etc.  Think of these in progress terms.

NOTE: You can also auto assign new individuals in a certain stage to a specific Track.  More on this in the Tracks Quick Start Guide.

Understand Terminology

Many of these terms may be new for you.  That's okay, but let's clarify quickly so you feel more assured.  

Pipeline - the entire process of walking someone from the beginning to the end (image above).

Stage - a single phase of a pipeline.  Pipelines are made up of stages.  These are the vertical columns in the image above.

Step 4. Managing People

Once you have built your stages then you can start adding people to the pipeline and much more.  Let's explore all that you can do once you have your pipeline established.

• Last Activity - look for the colored bar on the side of an individual's card to see green for active in the last 30 days, yellow for active in last 90 days, and red for inactive for over 90 days.  
• Move Members - you can move individuals up and down on a stage or from stage to stage.
• Member Modal - by clicking on the individual you can open a member modal that displays quick stats, contact information, admin notes, coaches and more.
• Auto Assign to Track - you can choose to link a certain Track to a certain stage in your pipeline.  This allows you to create tasks for each stage and auto-assign members to those tasks.  
• Coaches - you can assign each individual a coach and give access to coaches of the pipeline but only visuality to those they are coaching.  
• Admin Notes - in the member modal you can write internal notes about members to record conversations and more.
• Positions - you can assign a member to a specific position and view their associated position from the member modal.  

Now, most of us won't be using all of these tools but it's good to know the features that are here.  This tool is a powerful way to help guide people toward certain goals.

Well done!

This is some advanced information and you're doing great.  Here's what we know... while this is more complex, it's also only for organizations who have a high desire and degree of maturity for mobilizing, equipping, and stewarding people toward a greater goal.  If this is you then this tool will revolutionize how you prepare your members for global impact.