The research pipeline

What does the research pipeline do?

The pipeline is organized into 8 phases of 9 steps each. The ninth step of every phase is a summary step that pulls together the eight before it. The strategy document is built from those 8 phase summaries.

The 8 strategy phases are: Product decomposition, ICP definition, Market sizing, Competitor analysis, Channel analysis, Messaging & offer, Objections & proof, and Execution plan.

Before the first phase, LeadPilot fetches recent market signals once for the strategy: news headlines from the last 30 days (from Google News) and, where available, company funding and headcount signals from Apollo. They are labelled as headlines to check, not facts to quote. If this fetch fails, the pipeline continues without them.

The pipeline runs once per strategy. It does not run again for each prospect.

Why do some strategies have 72 steps and others 144?

It depends on your answer to "Do you have any past clients for this?" when you create the strategy.

The GTM pipeline's 8 phases are: Positioning, Pricing, Launch sequencing, Channel budget, Content plan, Partnerships, Sales motion, and Funnel metrics. When both run, the strategy pipeline runs first and the GTM pipeline second.

How long does it take?

There is no fixed duration; it depends on the AI service's response times. The research runs on LeadPilot's servers, so you can close the browser tab. The strategy page shows one progress card for each pipeline (the strategy pipeline, and the GTM pipeline when it runs) with the steps done out of the total, and under it each of the 8 phases by name with its own steps done out of the total. When verification finishes, LeadPilot sends a push notification ("Your strategy is ready" or "Strategy needs review") to devices registered for notifications.

Each pipeline run has a time limit of 2 hours. If a run is interrupted, for example by that limit or a temporary error, LeadPilot retries it automatically up to 3 times, 30 seconds apart, and each retry continues from the last finished step. If the error cannot succeed on retry, or the retries run out, the strategy is marked failed and the reason is shown on the strategy page.

What do the strategy statuses mean?

What is a strategy budget?

Every strategy has a dollar budget for the AI spending of its research and verification. Writing outreach messages later does not count against it. Before each AI call, LeadPilot checks whether the call could take the run past its budget, assuming the worst case. If it could, the call is not made and the strategy stops as budget_exhausted. Nothing is spent on the refused call.

• The default budget is $15. Through the API you can choose any amount from $0.50 up to the server's ceiling, which is $50 by default. The New strategy form uses the default.
• If the budget cannot cover the full pipeline, LeadPilot plans a shorter run instead of stopping partway: it always keeps each phase's summary step and runs fewer of the supporting research steps (between 2 and 8 steps per phase, instead of the full 9). A shorter run also gets at most 2 attempts per verification check.
• If the budget cannot cover even 2 steps per phase, LeadPilot refuses to create the strategy and tells you the minimum needed.

What is the daily AI limit?

Separately from each strategy's budget, every plan has a limit on how much AI spending your whole account can run up per day. The day resets at 00:00 UTC.

These are the amounts in the current release. They have not been finalized and may change.

All AI use on your account counts toward the day's total. The limit is enforced on research, verification and lead scoring. Message writing, meeting briefs and call analysis are not stopped partway when the limit is reached.

When the limit is used up:

• Starting a new strategy is refused with a message like "Your Free plan's daily AI limit ($10.00) is used up. It resets at 00:00 UTC."
• A strategy that is already running stops as budget_exhausted. Resume it after the reset, or upgrade your plan.
• Resuming (and re-verifying) is refused until the reset, with the same message.

How do I resume a strategy that stopped?

Press Resume on the strategy page. It appears when the status is pending, researching, verifying, failed or budget_exhausted. Then press Confirm resume.

• The run continues from the last finished step. Finished steps are not repeated or paid for again.
• If the status is pending, researching or verifying, only resume if progress has really stopped. Resuming a run that is still working can duplicate work.
• For a budget_exhausted strategy you can enter a New budget $. It must be more than what the strategy has already spent.
• Resume is refused for verified and needs_human_review strategies. For needs_human_review, use Re-verify instead (see the verification article).

Are there limits on how many strategies I can start?

Yes. By default you can start at most 2 strategies per hour; this is a deployment setting. Your plan also limits the total number of strategies you can have: 3 on Free, 10 on Starter and on Pay per meeting, 25 on Growth, and no limit on Scale, Pro and Enterprise.

Can I read the research?

You can read the finished documents. The outputs of individual research steps are not shown on the strategy page; they are compiled into the documents. When the documents are ready, View documents opens the strategy document (and the GTM document for 144-step strategies).

Related

• Getting started
• Strategy verification
• Plans, limits and billing
• Troubleshooting
• Glossary

Related

• All help articles
• LeadPilot FAQ