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Two State Machines in a Trench Coat

A proposal can be "draft" and "approved" and "sent" at the same time. Managing that isn't a UX problem. It's a state management problem wearing a UX costume.

Every B2B deal has a status. Actually, every B2B deal has two statuses.

The proposal has a status. The account has a pipeline stage. They're related but they're not the same thing. A proposal can be "draft" while the account is in "negotiation." Two entities, two lifecycles, two state machines, all pretending to be one thing in your CRM's dropdown menu.

Most platforms pick one state machine and stuff everything into it. The result is a dropdown with 14 options, six of which mean roughly the same thing, and a rep who picks whichever one is closest to the truth without being technically wrong.

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Two State Machines in a Trench Coat

A proposal can be "draft" and "approved" and "sent" at the same time.

The Architecture Series · 8 minute read · By Ed | Founder & CEO, DealiOS

Every B2B deal has a status. Actually, every B2B deal has two statuses.

The proposal has a status. The account has a pipeline stage. They're related but they're not the same thing. A proposal can be "draft" while the account is in "negotiation." Two entities, two lifecycles, two state machines, all pretending to be one thing in your CRM's dropdown menu.

Most platforms pick one state machine and stuff everything into it. The result is a dropdown with 14 options, six of which mean roughly the same thing, and a rep who picks whichever one is closest to the truth without being technically wrong.

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