Storytelling Program Automation — Stories Team Guide

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What the System Does

The automation stack handles four things that the Stories team currently does by hand:

1. Cal.com bookings create database records automatically. When a prospective storyteller books an intake interview through Cal.com, a new record appears in Airtable immediately — no manual entry needed.
2. OpenSign release forms are tracked automatically, with SMS reminders. When you send a release form, the system watches for it to be signed. If it is not signed within three days, the system automatically texts the storyteller a reminder. When it is signed, the record updates instantly.
3. Granola interview notes are processed and stored automatically. After you finish an intake interview, Granola saves your notes to a designated Google Drive folder. The system picks them up, checks them for sensitive information, and creates an Airtable record with the Drive link attached — without you having to copy anything.
4. Critical Mentions surfaces new storyteller leads automatically. The system checks your Critical Mentions keyword feeds every hour. Relevant mentions are analyzed by AI and high- and medium-potential leads are added to Airtable's sourcing pipeline, with a summary posted to Slack.

All four automations run on their own once set up. The Stories team manages the Airtable database — the automation fills it.

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Before Go-Live: Your Setup Checklist

The following items are yours to complete before acceptance testing begins.

Airtable

• Confirm you have been added as a user on the Team plan. You should receive an email invitation from Airtable.
• Confirm you can see the base called "Storytelling Program" after accepting the invitation.
• Familiarize yourself with the nine tables: Storytellers, Sourcing Pipeline, Vetting Log, Partner Requests, Press Pipeline, Products & Lands, Retention Check-ins, PII Review Queue, and Config.
• Set up the PII approval automation — when a PII Review Queue record is approved, Airtable should automatically create a Storyteller stub. Steps below.

PII Approval Automation — Setup Steps

This is a one-time configuration inside Airtable. It takes about five minutes.

1. In the Storytelling Program base, click Automations in the top toolbar.
2. Click + New automation.
3. Set the trigger to "When a record matches conditions", table: PII Review Queue, condition: Review Status is approved.
4. Add action: "Create record", table: Storytellers. Map fields:
   • Intake Notes Drive URL → Source Identifier (the Drive file ID from the queue record)
   • Vetting Status → set to pending
   • Release Status → set to unsigned
5. Optionally add a second action: "Update record" on the PII Review Queue record — set Reviewed At to the current time.
6. Name the automation "PII Approved → Create Storyteller" and turn it on.

After approval, the new Storyteller stub will appear in seconds. Open it and fill in the storyteller's name, phone, issue areas, and other details from the Granola notes in Drive.

Cal.com

• Create or confirm the intake interview event type at cal.com/cap-storytelling/intake — this is the link you will send to prospective storytellers.
• Confirm with Shar that the Cal.com webhook is connected and active.

OpenSign

• Create your standard release form template in OpenSign — the document you send every storyteller before they can be used in any external capacity.
• Send a test document to yourself to confirm the account is active and delivery works.
• Confirm with Shar that the OpenSign webhook is connected and active.

Granola

• Install Granola on the computer(s) the Stories team uses for intake interviews.
• Configure Granola to save notes to the designated Google Drive folder. In Granola settings, look for "Save to Google Drive" and point it to that folder.
• Make sure everyone knows to inform storytellers at the start of every call that it is being recorded and transcribed for internal use only. This is required.

Critical Mentions

• Build and save your keyword searches in Critical Mentions — these should cover the issue areas and geographic terms most relevant to the storyteller program.
• Confirm with Shar that your RSS feeds are connected to the system.

Slack

• Confirm you are in #storytelling-ops. This is where all system activity notifications will appear.
• Ping Shar if the channel does not exist — they will create it.

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Seeding the Database

Already done. All storyteller records from the Stories team's existing Airtable tables have been synced into this base as of June 6, 2026. You do not need to add initial records manually — your real data is already here.

Going forward — adding new records

For any new storyteller who comes in outside of the automated flows, just create a record directly in Airtable:

1. Open Airtable and go to the Storytellers table.
2. Click the + at the bottom of the table to add a new row.
3. Fill in at minimum: first name, last name, phone number (in the format +12025551234), state, issue areas, and set SMS opt-in to checked.
4. Set Release Status to unsigned and Vetting Status to pending.

The automated flows (Cal.com, Granola, Critical Mentions) will continue adding new records on their own — manual entry is only needed for one-off additions.

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Acceptance Testing

Run these tests in order. Each test tells you exactly what to do, what you should see if it is working, and what to note if it is not.

During POC testing: Text messages will not actually be delivered to phones — they will appear as log entries. Slack messages will appear with a [POC] label. This is intentional and expected.

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Test 1 — Cal.com Intake Booking

What this tests: When a prospective storyteller books an intake interview, a new record automatically appears in Airtable and a Slack notification fires.

Steps:

1. Open cal.com/cap-storytelling/intake in a browser.
2. Book a time slot using a test name (e.g., "Acceptance Test Booking") and a real or fake email address.
3. Complete the booking all the way through to the confirmation page.

What you should see within 60 seconds:

• In Airtable → Sourcing Pipeline: a new record with Lead Source = cal.com, the name you used, and the scheduled time filled in.
• In #storytelling-ops Slack: a message like [POC] 📅 New intake booking: Acceptance Test Booking followed by the scheduled time and Airtable record ID on separate lines.

What to note if it does not work:

• Screenshot the Cal.com confirmation page.
• Note the exact time you completed the booking.
• Check whether the record appeared in Airtable at all — even without the Slack notification.

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Test 2 — OpenSign Release Form

What this tests: When you send a release form, Airtable updates. When it is signed, the record updates again. If it is not signed within three days, an SMS reminder fires.

Part A — Form sent:

1. In Airtable, find one of the test storyteller records you created during seeding.
2. In OpenSign, send your standard release form to a test email address you control.
3. Note the document ID shown in OpenSign after sending.

What you should see within 60 seconds:

• In Airtable → Storytellers: the record's Release Status changes to sent and the OpenSign Document ID field is populated.
• In #storytelling-ops Slack: [POC] Release form sent: [name].

Part B — Form signed:

1. Open the email inbox you sent the test form to.
2. Open the OpenSign signing link and sign the document.

What you should see within 60 seconds:

• In Airtable → Storytellers: Release Status changes to signed and Has Signed Release is now checked.
• In #storytelling-ops Slack: [POC] Release form signed: [name].

Part C — SMS reminder (3-day follow-up):

Ask Shar to trigger the follow-up check manually against a record with Release Status = sent and a sent date older than three days.

What you should see:

• In #storytelling-ops Slack: [POC] Release form follow-up reminders sent: 1.
• No real SMS is sent in POC mode — that is expected.

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Test 3 — Granola Intake Notes

What this tests: After a Granola-captured interview, notes saved to the designated Drive folder automatically become an Airtable record.

1. Start a Zoom or Google Meet call with Granola running in the background. (A call with yourself on two devices is fine.)
2. Speak a few sentences — anything will do, but do not include real personal information.
3. End the call and wait 1–2 minutes for Granola to produce its summary.
4. Review the summary in Granola and click to finalize/save it. Confirm the file appears in the designated Google Drive folder.
5. Wait 2 minutes. Check Airtable → Storytellers for a new record with the Intake Notes Drive URL field populated.

What you should see:

• New record in Airtable Storytellers with Intake Notes Drive URL filled in.
• In #storytelling-ops Slack: [POC] New intake notes processed: [filename].

What if content is flagged for PII review:

• In Airtable → PII Review Queue: a new record with Review Status = pending.
• In #storytelling-ops Slack: [POC] ⚠️ PII review required: [filename].

This is the system working correctly. Open the PII Review Queue record, review what was flagged, and set the status to approved or discarded.

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Test 4 — Critical Mentions Lead Sourcing

What this tests: The system polls your Critical Mentions feeds every hour, classifies mentions with AI, and adds high- and medium-potential leads to Airtable.

1. In Critical Mentions, identify a recent result (from the past 24 hours) that looks like a good storyteller lead. Note the headline.
2. Ask Shar to manually trigger one poll cycle right now.
3. Wait 2–3 minutes, then check Airtable → Sourcing Pipeline for new records with Lead Source = critical_mentions.
4. Check #storytelling-ops Slack for a [POC] notification showing how many leads were added.

What you should see:

• New records in Sourcing Pipeline with Lead Source = critical_mentions, an Issue Area, and a Potential Score (high or medium).
• In Slack: [POC] X new lead(s) added from Critical Mentions.

If the item was scored low: It will not appear in Airtable — that is correct behavior. Note the headline and flag it so the scoring can be tuned.

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Test 5 — PII Review Queue

What this tests: The Stories team's ability to review and resolve flagged content.

1. Open Airtable → PII Review Queue.
2. If there are records with Review Status = pending (from Test 3 or otherwise), open one. Otherwise ask Shar to create a test record.
3. Read the Raw Content Summary field — this describes what was flagged, not the actual sensitive content.
4. Change the Review Status field to one of:
   • approved — the content is fine to use
   • redacted — the content had something removed
   • discarded — do not use this content

What you should see: The record updates immediately. If you set the status to approved, an Airtable automation creates a new stub record in the Storytellers table within seconds — you then fill in the name, phone, and issue areas from the Drive notes. No automation fires for redacted or discarded.

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Acceptance Sign-Off

For each test, record the following and share the results with Shar:

Test	Did it work?	Notes / What you saw
Test 1 — Cal.com intake	Pass / Fail / Partial
Test 2A — OpenSign sent	Pass / Fail / Partial
Test 2B — OpenSign signed	Pass / Fail / Partial
Test 2C — SMS follow-up	Pass / Fail / Partial
Test 3 — Granola notes	Pass / Fail / Partial
Test 4 — Critical Mentions leads	Pass / Fail / Partial
Test 5 — PII review queue	Pass / Fail / Partial

Any Fail or Partial results will be looked into before go-live.

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Something Looks Wrong

Who to contact: Reach out in #storytelling-tech on Slack.

What to include:

1. Which test step you were on
2. The exact time you performed the action
3. A screenshot of what you expected to see
4. A screenshot of what you actually saw

Things that are not errors:

• Slack messages prefixed with [POC] — intentional during POC.
• No SMS received on a phone — SMS is logged only in POC mode.
• A delay of up to 60 seconds before records appear in Airtable — normal.
• No new Critical Mentions leads — correct if there are no relevant new mentions in the feed.

Things that are actual errors:

• No Airtable record after more than 5 minutes.
• No Slack notification after more than 5 minutes.
• An error message appearing in Airtable or Slack.
• Granola notes not appearing in the Drive folder after 5 minutes.