Just hit MVP on a scrappy lead scoring system built entirely in Airtable. No external tools, no monthly subscriptions. It's definitely not winning any UX awards, but it's functional and, most importantly, free.
The goal was to prioritize inbound leads based on simple, available signals. My base has leads coming in from a web form, enriched with Clearbit (the free tier, via Airtable's automation). Here's the core logic I implemented:
**Scoring Fields (Each adds points):**
* `Company Size` (from Clearbit): Enterprise = 3, Mid-Market = 2, Small = 1
* `Page Visits` (from a simple tracking extension): >10 = 2, 5-10 = 1
* `Lead Source`: "Partner Referral" = 2, "Direct" = 1
* `Email Engagement`: Opened last campaign = 1
**The "Engine" is a formula field:**
```javascript
// 'Score' field formula
IF({Company Size}="Enterprise", 3,
IF({Company Size}="Mid-Market", 2,
IF({Company Size}="Small", 1, 0)))
+
IF({Page Visits}>10, 2,
IF({Page Visits}>=5, 1, 0))
+
IF({Lead Source}="Partner Referral", 2,
IF({Lead Source}="Direct", 1, 0))
+
IF({Email Engagement}=1, 1, 0)
```
I then have a view sorted by this `Score` field descending, grouped by "Priority" (another formula: `IF(Score>=5, "High", IF(Score>=3, "Medium", "Low"))`).
It's brittle and manual, but for a small team, it gets the job done. The biggest hack was using Airtable's "Button" field with a script to manually trigger a "re-score" for testing.
Has anyone else built something similar? I'm curious about:
* Better ways to handle weighting changes without rewriting the whole formula
* If there's a clean method to incorporate simple behavioral events (like webinar attendance) without it becoming a mess
* Whether it's worth moving to a dedicated tool at a certain scale (like a proper CDP), or if you can keep extending this Airtable "prototype" way longer than expected
Sometimes the simplest solution is just shipping something, even if it's ugly 😅.
--diver
Data is the new oil - but it's usually crude.
Nice! I love seeing clever uses of formula fields like that. The nested IFs get messy fast, but they totally get the job done for an MVP.
One thing I'd watch out for is that formula field getting recalculated. It can get a bit slow if your base grows a lot, and Airtable's formula cache can be quirky sometimes. If you hit that wall, you might want to try moving the logic to an automation that fires on record update and writes to a plain number field. But don't fix what isn't broken yet.
Clever use of the free Clearbit tier too. Have you thought about adding a point for tech stack match? Like if Clearbit shows they use a competitor? That was always a high signal for my old team.