Summary
There are 3 levels to consider when it comes to Workflow steps: groups, steps, and step details
Groups are a way to organize steps, either for visual clarity, or to automatically activate/deactivate steps (via group conditions)
You can click into each step to view and edit the step details - for example, to set who the owner is and when the step should occur
Who is this article for?
All Planhat users - to understand Workflow structure and the main principles of using groups
It's especially relevant to Planhat builders, who will be designing the structure of their team's Workflow Templates
Series
This article is part of a series on Workflows:
Workflow structure: groups, steps, and step details ⬅️ You are here
Article contents
Click below to jump to the relevant section:
Introduction
📌 Important to note
This article assumes you are familiar with the basic concepts of Workflows (Projects and Sequences). If you haven't yet read our overview article, start there first before reading this article. You can also learn more about creating Workflow Templates here.
When you're designing and structuring Workflow steps, there are 3 main levels:
Groups - a way to organize steps (e.g. into categories or goals/milestones)
Steps - individual actions (tasks or emails)
Step details - the details of a selected step, such as the email template to be sent or the plan for a meeting task, plus rules for when the step should occur and who the step owner is, etc.
The screenshot examples below highlight the 3 levels. (A Sequence Workflow Template is shown, but the principles are the same in Project Workflows.)
You can click on the images below to view them enlarged.
Task step highlighted
Email step highlighted
Now let's dive a little deeper.
Groups
Groups are a way of organizing steps.
Why use groups?
The main advantages of groups are:
Visual clarity - divide up steps so you can more easily see what category of action is happening, who's responsible, and where you are in the process
To use group conditions to automatically activate (and potentially deactivate) steps in bulk - this is a fantastic way that Workflows can efficiently provide a tailored service to your customers, by responding to changes in data
Group quick facts
You can have as many groups as you like, each containing your choice of steps
You choose the name and color of each group
If you share steps in Portals, the name of the relevant group will show there too
You can optionally set a rule-based condition on each group, determining when that group (and therefore steps within it) are activated. You also set what happens if/when the condition no longer applies - keep or expire any remaining steps
For example, activate the first group of emails when a Decision Maker logs in but hasn't yet carried out a specific action, and cancel them as soon as the action is carried out
You can't set timings on groups (e.g. set a group to start 5 days after the Workflow) - set timings on individual steps instead
Groups don't have to run in the order they are displayed, and multiple groups within a Workflow can run at the same time
You can't directly refer to groups in rule-based conditions - e.g. start group 2 when group 1 is completed - although you can achieve this indirectly by setting conditions based on changes in usage data
📚 Related articles
To learn how to create groups as part of building a Workflow Template, see this article
To learn all about group conditions - why and how to activate/deactivate groups of steps - please refer to this article
When to use groups
There are many scenarios where groups are incredibly useful to organize and/or control steps. To give you some inspiration, here are some typical use cases for groups of steps:
Types of actions / groups of people
E.g. in an Onboarding Project, groups could be:
Sales handover (internal - Sales to CS)
Main setup steps (for your CSM and your customer's Main User)
Tech setup steps (for your TAM and your customer's Tech/Ops contact)
Internal v. external steps
E.g. in an Onboarding Project, groups could be:
Internal actions (e.g. setting up the customer's copy of your software)
Actions with the customer (e.g. meetings)
Actions for the customer to carry out themselves (e.g. configuration for them to do)
Objectives/milestones/goals - typically in a pathway/funnel
E.g. in a Sequence designed to onboard new End Users to a training platform, groups could be:
Not yet logged in
Logged in but not yet started a course
Started a course but not yet finished a course
Finished a course but not yet shared a certificate
These groups would be used in combination with group conditions to activate and deactivate the groups in order, as an End User progresses along the series of actions
Types of customers
E.g. in a Project targeting Companies, a group could be:
Enterprise
E.g. in a Sequence targeting End Users, a group could be:
Main User
These groups would be used in combination with group conditions
In both examples above, the groups could contain extra training for these "special" customers
Alternatively, if there are lots of differences between customer types, you could make them as completely separate Workflows, or if there are minimal differences, you could use step conditions rather than groups
Products/features/modules
E.g. in either a Project or a Sequence, if your product is HR software, groups could be:
Vacations/Holidays Module
Payroll Module
Careers Module
Each group would be activated by a group condition, so the relevant steps (e.g. training sessions or instructional emails) would be applied to each customer
Countries/regions/languages
E.g. in a Sequence where you want to send emails in an End User's preferred language, groups could be:
English
French
German
Spanish
E.g. in a Project where there are steps related to regulations in different countries, groups could be:
EU
US
Canada
Again, the relevant groups would be activated by group conditions
Steps and step details
Steps are the actions - tasks or emails - that occur in the Workflow, and which you can organize in groups.
Sequences and End User Projects can include both task and email steps (although Projects are typically composed of task steps, and Sequences are mainly email steps), and Projects for other models only include task steps.
Task steps are actions for someone to manually carry out. There are many different types of tasks, and they could be either internal (carried out within your organisation) or external (involving customers) - you can even share some tasks in Portals for your customers to complete. You may have a task to send an email using a particular email template, but in a task step the email is not sent automatically.
Email steps can automatically send emails for you, or automatically create emails for you to manually approve. You can use merge tags in email templates, as well as conditions on steps/groups (and the Workflow itself), to ensure that the automated emails are customized for each recipient.
To view the details of any step in a Sequence or Project, click on its name. (If you put your mouse over a step name, it will appear underlined to show it's a link you can click on.)
Click the image to view it enlarged
Let's take a look at step details for these two step types.
Task step details
Here is an example of what task steps may look like:
Task step components
Conversation Type (colored icon in the top left)
You can optionally select a Conversation Type for each step
You'll see these elsewhere in Planhat associated with tasks - see this article for a general overview of Conversation Types
They make it easier to identify particular categories of actions in a Workflow or when you view actions in Company and End User Profiles
They can be saved as time-series data; Conversation Types give you a way to analyze how time is spent by your team
Conversation Types can act as templates, so selecting one for a step can automatically bring in your notes on associated meeting structure, for instance, which you can then customize for the step
Task owner (initial in top right)
Here you select who should own the step and be responsible for the task being completed
This can be a dynamic reference, such as "Account Owner" or "Technical Account Manager" (in which case, the actual person will be filled in when the Workflow Template is applied), or a specific named person (e.g. the Enablement Manager if it's a Sequence promoting a new training course)
Email template
It's quite common for a task to be associated with an email - for example, you may have a task to email multiple people at a Company to set up a QBR, or after running a training session you might have a task to send a follow-up email
In this dropdown menu you can select an email template
However, remember that in task steps, emails are not automatically sent to End Users - this is only possible in email steps
Shared in portal
If you toggle this on, this step will be visible in the Portal, if you then add the Workflow to a customer's Portal. (The relevant group name will also be visible)
Start after (days)
This is used for determining when the task should begin (its Start Date)
To learn more about Task "Start Date" and "Due Date" fields, see here, and to read about how to schedule when steps occur, see this article
Duration (days)
This is used to determine the "Due Date" of the task, counting from the Start Date
0 means that the task is expected to start and finish on the same day. If you leave this as blank, it will count as 0
Only Workdays
If you enable this toggle switch (set it to true), the task won't be scheduled for weekends (Saturdays/Sundays)
Description
A rich text area where you can add further detail to the task, including bullet points, images, links, and so on. Make it clear what the person completing the task should do
If you share the task to a Portal, this will be visible to your customer, so make sure the instructions are aimed at them
Checklists
You can add checklist items for the task completer to check (tick) off within the task. For example, if the task is to hold a kick-off call, you might have subtasks to book the meeting, do different things to prepare, run it, and then send a follow-up email
Using checklists is a great way to simplify Workflows and therefore your team's task, as you don't need every single subtask to be listed as a separate individual task
Attachments
Here you can add files, images and videos to add extra context to the task
For example, you can embed a video into the step by clicking on the "+" button and then "Add a URL", for the following use cases:
User training - add a video for your customers to view (e.g. a welcome video or an instructional video)
Turn on the "Shared in portal" toggle for the step in the step details
Click on the ellipsis symbol (3 dots) for the video itself, and click "Share on Portal" (see screenshot below)
Internal training - add a video to explain to your co-workers what they should do to complete the task
Email step details
Let's go through email step details. Remember that email steps are for sending emails automatically, so they have different step details to tasks.
Here's what an email step may look like:
Email step components
Send when
This can either be "As soon as possible" (i.e. send as soon as the step is activated, which may be when the Workflow Template is applied, or when another condition is met), "After manual approval", or "Custom"
If you select "Custom", you can choose the number of calendar days (or workdays) between when the step is activated and when the email is sent, and specify a time and timezone. You can learn more about step timings in this article
Email template
You can select an existing email template from your library (see here for more on how to create them), and edit it here if necessary
Alternatively, you could write an email from scratch in the step
You can use merge tags in your email to automatically customize your email for each End User
From
Set who the email should be sent from. Like you've just seen for task owner, this could be a dynamic reference, such as "Account Owner" if you'd like the email to be sent from the relevant CSM (so this will be assigned when the Workflow Template is applied), or a specific named person every time, such as your organisation's Training Manager if it's about training
Time and Timezone
This can be helpful if you will be sending emails to specific countries or regions
Subject
You specify the email subject here. Note that this can be different to the name/title of the email step in the step list
This can be populated automatically when you select an email template, but you could still edit it here in that case
Cc
Here you can copy in Planhat Users (Team Members)
This is a dynamic reference in the Workflow Template that will be populated with the correct email address in the actual Workflow
You could use a default Team Member field such as "Account Owner", or a custom Team Member field such as "Technical Account Manager"
This means you can, for example, automatically cc the customer's CSM when an automated renewal email is sent from Finance
To End Users matching filter
You'll see this in email steps in Sequences targeting the Company model
This is how you specify which End User(s) the email is sent to: choose an existing End User filter here
End Users will automatically be filtered by the Workflow's Company - e.g. if you have a Company Sequence and it is applied to Microsoft, the email will only be sent to End Users in your chosen filter who belong to Microsoft in Planhat
A single email will be sent to all recipients in Company Sequences
Cc End Users matching filter
You'll see this in email steps in Sequences targeting the Company model
Similar to "To End Users matching filter" we just described above, here you can select a different End User filter to specify which End User(s) from the Company you would like to be copied into the email (if any)
Further reading
If you would like to learn more about ...
... building Workflow Templates, see this article
... scheduling Workflows (conditions etc.), see here
... viewing and using Workflows, see here