After onboarding hundreds of customers at Tines, we’ve learned a few things about helping others build their very first automated workflows. We know that getting started with a new automation platform can be overwhelming - but we’re here to help!
As a part of your onboarding at Tines, we offer a series of dedicated build sessions where we coach you through designing and building your first automations. During build sessions, you'll be joined by a Customer Success Engineer (CSE) and Customer Success Manager (CSM) who'll guide you in real time.
These sessions help you do a few things:
Get familiar with Tines
Learn from an experienced builder
Implement best practices
Troubleshoot technical hurdles
Realize value quickly by getting workflows production-ready
What to expect from your Tines co-building sessions
During your build call, you’ll have an opportunity to meet with an expert Tines builder, your CSE.
Expect to share your screen while the engineer guides you through developing your specific automation.
Here are some of the ways that CSEs can help:
Recommending actions to add to the story board
Developing trigger logic and/or data manipulation
Introducing error handling, looping, pagination, and other best practices
Teaching you how to use tools like Pages, Resources, Records, and Cases
Sharing experience-driven insights on automation best practices and design
8 best practices for Tines co-building sessions
To help you get the most out of your build sessions, we’re sharing some of our top recommendations.
Before your co-building session:
1. Identify who will be responsible for the workflow. Assigning a specific builder (or two!) will streamline communications and allow builders to take ownership of automating a use case from end-to-end.
2. Frame your use case. Clearly describe the workflow that needs to be automated, step by step. We even provide resources to help you frame your use case. You can also check out our library and search for a similar use cases.
3. Get comfortable with the UI. Import a story from the library, drag an action onto the story board, or describe your workflow using Notes. If you’re struggling with where to start, try attending one of our bootcamps!
4. Set Up Credentials: To start testing a story, Tines needs to connect to your other tools using Credentials. Credentials should be set up in advance - keep in mind: the initial set up can take time, and may depend on other teams to approve access. To make the most of our time together, we prefer to handle troubleshooting the initial set up outside of your build sessions.
5. Note down any questions that arise. Feel free to share your questions in advance and discuss with your CSE during the call.
During and after your co-building session:
6. Get clarity on next steps. Don't be afraid to ask questions, and get your CSE's recommendations for the tasks you need to complete next.
7. Get building! The more time you spend building between calls, the more workflows the Tines team can help you develop.
8. Get in touch. When questions or challenges arise, you can always reach out to Tines for help. Your CSM and CSE should be available via slack or email. Technical support is also available via support@tines.io or in product chat.
We hope you enjoy your onboarding experience and can use some of these tips to get off to a great start. Happy building!