Two ClickUp automation proposals from the consultant team were reviewed and rejected in favor of manual, human-reviewed workflows. The core concern in both cases was the same: automations that act without human review introduce risk of errors that are harder to catch and fix than the time they save.
Proposal: When a new client is added in ClickUp, automatically create a corresponding Google Drive folder.
Decision: Rejected. Manual folder creation with a checklist instead.
Rationale:
- The automated folder structure would not match the established Google Drive organization.
- Changing the folder structure later would require hunting down and updating the automation.
- The trigger event (adding a new client in ClickUp) is already performed manually by a team member, so the time savings are minimal — the person creating the task already knows a folder is needed.
- Risk of structural drift outweighs the convenience.
Implementation:
- Isalia to inform consultants that the Drive automation is not moving forward.
- ClickUp will be updated to notify Melissa when a new client folder needs to be created manually.
- Melissa to create a new client onboarding checklist in ClickUp that covers both automated and manual steps, so nothing falls through the cracks.
"I think it's going to be more trouble than it's worth to automate it. And then what's going to happen is we're going to change our file structure and we're going to have to go try to find the automation and change it." — Mark
Proposal: When a new hire is added in ClickUp, automatically send an offer letter to the candidate from Mark's email.
Decision: Rejected (in its direct-send form). Automation will generate a draft for Mark's review instead.
Rationale:
- Offer terms vary per candidate — salary, equipment (e.g., laptop), and other perks are negotiated individually.
- Sending a standardized letter without review risks committing to incorrect or unintended terms.
- A draft workflow preserves the time savings of auto-generation while keeping a human in the loop before anything goes to the candidate.
Implementation:
- Isalia to configure the ClickUp automation to send offer letter drafts to Mark for review rather than sending directly to candidates.
- Prerequisite: Mark's email must be active in ClickUp's email integration (resolved during this meeting — Mark re-authenticated his integration).
During the same discussion, a Make.com access issue was resolved. Mark had signed up for a separate Make.com account rather than joining the existing company account. The fix:
These decisions reflect a broader ops principle worth documenting:
Automate the notification, not the action — when an action requires judgment or carries meaningful risk if wrong, automation should surface the task to a human rather than execute it directly.