Landing to issue funnel

landing-to-issue-funnel

Purpose — Replace the traditional "landing page → waitlist form → spreadsheet" funnel with "landing page → pre-filled GitHub Issue Form → labeled, searchable, public lead DB". Invented by products like YouMind; applicable to any developer-flavored B2B.

Triggers — "design a lead-capture funnel", "cold email → landing → capture flow", "build a waitlist alternative"

Why this beats a waitlist

• Public issues = social proof (others can see real user pain)
• Pre-filled URL = near-zero submission friction (1 click from email)
• GitHub-native = free hosting, auth, search, API, and a labeling system
• Rich fields (dropdowns, textareas) > email-only waitlist capture
• Agents can triage / reply automatically via GitHub Actions

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Inputs

• Repo to host the funnel — ideally your product's public repo, or a dedicated community repo
• Funnel intent — 1 sentence on what you want submitters to do (share pain / submit a workflow / request feature)
• Existing issue-tracker constraints — does the target repo already use issue labels for engineering triage? (Yes → plan for label namespacing)

Outputs

• .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/<slug>.yml — the form definition
• .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/config.yml — routes blank issues + adds external contact links
• Personalized URL generator — script that takes a CSV (handle, quote, source) → outputs a pre-filled URL per recipient
• Triage workflow — .github/workflows/lead-triage.yml that auto-labels, auto-replies, and routes to a Slack/Feishu channel

Steps

1. Pick the hosting repo — Public product repo (max social proof) or dedicated community repo (max hygiene). Don't create a new repo just for this unless strictly necessary.
2. Define form fields — Dropdowns beat free-text. Default set:
   • current-tool (dropdown of competitors they might use)
   • pain (textarea, pre-fillable)
   • team-size (dropdown)
   • contact-preference (checkboxes: GitHub reply / email / X DM)
3. Write YAML form — Use GitHub Issue Forms spec. Include title, labels, body array.
4. Label discipline — Use a unique prefix like inbound-pain or lead-capture so engineering triage bots can exclude these issues.
5. Config file — Set blank_issues_enabled: false + add contact links for private / X channels.
6. Pre-filled URL generator — For each recipient:

   https://github.com/<org>/<repo>/issues/new?
     template=<slug>.yml
     &title=<url-encoded specific title>
     &<field_id>=<url-encoded value>
     &labels=<comma-separated>
   

7. Triage workflow — GitHub Action on issues.opened that:
   • Verifies the inbound-pain label
   • Posts a welcome reply ("Thanks! We'll respond within 24h")
   • Pings founder(s) via webhook
   • (Optional) Auto-opens a private Linear / Notion mirror for CRM
8. Dual-track for sensitive cases — Add a private form option (Tally / Typeform / email) in config.yml contact links, for users who don't want public issues.
9. Land page CTA — Any landing page (product README counts) should have 2–3 buttons linking to pre-filled URLs for different use cases.

Quality bar

• Every form field is either required or has a sensible default
• Labels are clearly separable from engineering labels (visually and namespace-wise)
• Pre-filled URL fits under 2000 characters (most mail clients' URL limit)
• Triage workflow replies within 60 seconds of submission
• At least one private fallback exists (email or Tally form)

Anti-patterns

• Don't mix inbound-pain issues with engineering bug tracker without label namespacing — it contaminates GFI / dupe-detection bots
• Don't require login to submit — GitHub does, and that's the known trade-off; mitigate with a one-click OAuth or a fallback Tally form
• Don't make the form >8 fields — abandonment goes up steeply after 5
• Don't auto-close stale issues with a bot — these are leads, not engineering backlog

Example form shape

name: 🔥 Share an agent-workspace pain
description: Tell us what breaks your workflow. We'll reply with a 3-min Loom within 24h.
title: "[Pain] <short headline>"
labels: ["inbound-pain", "needs-triage"]
body:
  - type: dropdown
    id: current-tool
    attributes:
      label: What are you using today?
      options: ['Claude Code alone', 'Slack + bots', 'Competitor A', 'Competitor B', 'Other']
    validations:
      required: true
  - type: textarea
    id: pain
    attributes:
      label: What specifically breaks?
    validations:
      required: true
  - type: checkboxes
    id: contact
    attributes:
      label: How should we reach you?
      options:
        - label: Reply on this issue
        - label: Email (leave yours below)
        - label: X DM

Related

• Upstream skill: personalized-cold-outreach — produces the pre-filled URL per recipient
• Template: templates/issue-forms/ — ready-to-paste YAML templates
• Playbook: 02-github-issue-as-lead-capture