Intern
What you actually do
Sort sends. Turn off a thief campaign. Path walk. You are assigning jobs, not 'making more campaigns' or 'more flows'.
Library / Compare / Flows vs campaigns: campaigns do not get to impersonate a state
The choice is not 'flows or campaigns'. Both exist. The operating rule is: named states have flows; pulses have campaigns; collisions are bugs. The leak is pausing flows for peak, or never building flows because campaigns feel like work. Choose by the job of the message, then wire suppressions. This is the decision essay for operators who keep asking which to 'focus on'.
The choice is not 'flows or campaigns'. Both exist. The operating rule is: named states have flows; pulses have campaigns; collisions are bugs. The leak is pausing flows for peak, or never building flows because campaigns feel like work. Choose by the job of the message, then wire suppressions. This is the decision essay for operators who keep asking which to 'focus on'.
Flows are right as the always-on layer: welcome, cart, post-purchase, replenishment, finite win-back. They are wrong as 20 tiny flows that stack. Score and ship gaps, do not infinite-build.
Campaigns are right as dated pulses on segments: a drop, a seasonal push, a story with a holdout. They are wrong as the place you hide missing flows, or as 'all subscribers' every Thursday.
Shared leak: stacked messages, paused flows in peak, no holdout, RPR indefensible, discount-first everything.
How to choose for a given message: is this triggered by a state/event, or by a date? Event → flow. Date → campaign. If you want both, they must not say the same coupon in the same window.
Wiring implication: scorecard first, kill impersonator campaigns, exclusion map, peak plan that does not pause cores, holdout on the next big send.
Intern
Sort sends. Turn off a thief campaign. Path walk. You are assigning jobs, not 'making more campaigns' or 'more flows'.
Operator
States vs pulses. Protect core flows. Segments. Holdouts. Peak is not a pause button.
CEO
A calendar is not lifecycle. If campaigns steal state jobs, LTV work is fake. Job assignment is the decision. Until impersonators are off, more creative is more stack.
Flow (state job), campaign (pulse), segment, suppression, peak calendar, holdout, RPR, pause-ban on core flows.
State job → flow; if a campaign is doing it, pause the campaign
Pulse (launch, seasonal, story) → campaign on a segment; flows stay on
Active flow member → excluded from colliding pulse when the job overlaps
Peak → flows remain; campaigns planned in Q-minus-1
Each: flow impersonator or true pulse.
Why: The calendar is the evidence.
Done when: A tagged list. Impersonators named.
If a campaign is welcome/cart/win-back, stop it. Fix the flow.
Why: You cannot 'focus on campaigns' while they steal state jobs.
Done when: Those campaigns off. Flow gaps in the 90.
Purchase excludes cart. Flow members vs pulses.
Why: Choice without exclusions is still a stack.
Done when: Path walk clean.
Write it. Campaigns segment. No pause-core as a plan.
Why: Pausing flows is how you pay twice for the same order.
Done when: Q-minus-1 note includes the rule.
Prove the campaign earned its place.
Why: Without holdout every pulse looks necessary.
Done when: Holdout configured before send.
An event or state should always get this job. Wiring: filters on true events, exclusions, stop rules, RPR watched. Do not pause it for a blast.
A dated pulse, segmented, holdout, not doing a state’s job. Wiring: Q-minus-1, flows still on, collisions excluded.
Thursday impersonating lifecycle. Peak pause. Stacked coupons. No holdout. The list feels worked. The states are unowned.
Event vs date. Sort recent sends. Kill impersonators. Exclusion map. Peak rule. Holdout. You do not 'choose flows or campaigns'. You assign jobs.
Then your flows still do states, or you will discount people in cart during the brand story. Identity is not a reason to impersonate.
Flows are not forget. They are scored. Liking campaigns is not a reason they get to do cart.
Then it is a flow with extra steps. Put it in flows. Date-based is the campaign test.
This week
This week: tag last 10 sends, pause impersonators, exclusion path walk, write the peak rule, set a holdout on the next pulse.
Both can be a filing cabinet. Neither is a system until write-in and stages are jobs.
Read ↗Pretty vs native does not matter if two links both take Discovery.
Read ↗DTC lifecycle and coaching spines are different jobs. Two senders is a tax.
Read ↗Rebuilding from memory every client is how you never productize. Blasting a zip is how you never train.
Read ↗Working notes
Score your Klaviyo and lifecycle system the way an operator would. Request the file. It arrives by email — not a public dump, not a drip of slogans.
Email and WhatsApp stay open. A call is for installing the system — not for a tour of tools.