Ben DixonHomepage

Operations / CRM

Lead Intake System

Structured capture, AI qualification, routing, and review

Next.jsTypeScriptPostgreSQLAutomation

A system-level build for businesses that need lead capture, qualification, routing, and operator review to work as one product instead of separate tools.

Technical narrative

This is where the archive goes deeper than the homepage: architecture choices, operating constraints, and the decisions that make the product maintainable over time.

System goal

The core problem was not simply collecting inquiries. It was preserving structure from the moment a lead entered the system so routing, qualification, notification, and follow-up could happen quickly without losing context. The product had to behave like an operating layer, not like an email inbox with a nicer coat of paint.

Capture and data shape

The intake form collects structured information about scope, urgency, business type, and timeline rather than relying on a single open text field. That structure gives the downstream workflow cleaner signals for assignment rules and review states. The database model is shaped around a lead record that can accumulate enrichment, notes, ownership, and activity history without splitting that information across disconnected tables.

Qualification pipeline

Incoming leads move through an enrichment step that summarizes the inquiry, assigns a category, and estimates urgency. The important decision was to expose the reasoning alongside the score. The model assists the first pass, but operators can inspect why the lead landed in a certain tier before they accept or override the recommendation.

Routing and notifications

Routing rules evaluate the structured payload and the qualification output together. Assignment, email acknowledgement, Slack notification, duplicate hints, and follow-up scheduling all belong to the same event chain, which makes the handoff trail visible and debuggable. That visibility matters because operations teams need confidence that the automation actually did what it claimed to do.

Operations and review surfaces

The ops layer compresses intake volume, queue health, and ownership into fast-reading dashboard views. The review surface keeps the lead record, notes, status controls, and manual overrides close together so the system stays accountable to human operators. That combination is what turns the workflow from an automation demo into a reliable internal tool.