01 / SCOPEBound the assignment
A useful brief names the target market, buyer responsibility, exclusions, result limit, and required evidence. “Find leads” is not a method. “Find twenty North American security software companies with an observable enterprise motion and identify the likely revenue operations owner” is testable.
02 / PROVENANCEKeep fields attached to sources
Company attributes, contacts, email status, and intent observations have different origins and confidence levels. Preserve those distinctions. If providers disagree, surface the conflict instead of turning it into a neat but unsupported record.
03 / RELEVANCESeparate fit from reachability
A reachable mailbox is not necessarily a sales-qualified lead. Fit depends on the business problem, authority, timing, and the operator's reasoning. Verification can support list hygiene, but it cannot establish a lawful basis or guarantee inbox placement.
04 / CONTROLPut people at consequential gates
The agent can research, normalize, draft, and organize. A person should approve the target, message, sending domain, regional policy, and actual transmission. Human-in-the-loop is an operational control, not a decorative disclaimer.
05 / PORTABILITYMake the handoff understandable
Results should travel with the brief, applied filters, evidence notes, unknown fields, and review status. That makes a CRM import or SDR queue easier to audit and helps RevOps reproduce a decision without replaying every browser tab.
06 / MEASUREMENTMeasure your own environment
Provider coverage, match rate, bounce rate, enrichment latency, and cost vary by segment and configuration. Establish a representative test set and report measured ranges. Do not substitute marketing totals for fitness in your market.