Turning a conversation into a project

Promoting a thread, the three decisions on the form, and linking to a project that already exists.

A conversation that turns out to be work becomes a project. There are two ways there, and which one you want depends on whether the project exists yet.

If the project does not exist yet

Promote to project on the conversation opens a short form beside the message. It is three decisions.

1. The project

Project title, prefilled from the subject. Change it to something you will recognize in three months, because the subject line of an inquiry rarely is that.

2. The contact (required)

Three options:

Use suggested match. Steerd found an existing contact whose email matches the sender. This is the common case and usually correct.
Link existing. Search your contacts and pick one, for when the sender writes from a different address than the one you have on file.
Create new. First name, last name, email.

There is no "no contact" option. An inquiry came from a person, and a project without one is a project you cannot follow up.

3. The organization (optional)

Same three options plus No organization, and a role for the organization on the project.

Optional because plenty of inquiries genuinely come from an individual. You can add the organization later when you learn who they actually are.

A project, with the contact attached and the organization attached if you chose one. The conversation is linked to it, so the thread is readable from the project page and the project is named on the conversation.

The project lands in your pipeline like any other, which means it is now subject to attention warnings. An inquiry you confirmed and then ignored will tell you so.

If the project already exists

Link it instead of making a second one. You can do this from either side:

from the conversation, pick the project it belongs to
from the project's Conversations section, pick the thread

Moving a conversation to a different project is the same action, and both projects record it in their history, so the one that lost the thread does not simply appear to have lost it.

Unlinking leaves the conversation in the inbox under Not linked. Nothing is deleted.

Getting it wrong

Nothing here is irreversible. The project is an ordinary project: rename it, repoint it, or delete it. The conversation stays where it is either way.