4.3 · Manage opportunities
Work the backlog one decision at a time: accept it into a brief, hold it, or dismiss it confidently.
A scored backlog is only useful if someone decides. Triage is that decision, made one opportunity (a page worth writing or rewriting, proposed by an agent) at a time: accept it and it becomes a Page Brief, the working record a page gets built in and where you spend stage 5; dismiss it and it stays dismissed. The system is built so decisions stick, which means you can move fast without re-litigating the same ideas next month.
Aim for roughly 20 accepted opportunities as your first working plan. That is enough to keep production moving while staying small enough that every acceptance was a real choice.
The views
The Opportunities list opens on Backlog, with Considering beside it and Accepted, Dismissed, and Archived behind the Other menu. Backlog is where new research lands; Considering is your shortlist. Open any opportunity and the sidebar carries the actions, all with single-key shortcuts: Accept (a), move to considering (c), dismiss (d).
Watch for the warning badges on rows: "Brand already ranks" and "May overlap an existing page" are the system telling you a page might cannibalize what you already have. Those deserve a skeptical read before accepting.
The 3 decisions
Accepting is the only action that starts production.
| Decision | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Accept | The page is worth having and fits a backed territory | A Page Brief is created and the agent starts on it immediately |
| Dismiss | Not this page, not for us | Durable: it will not resurface, and future research dedupes against it |
| Consider | Worth it, but not sure yet | Parks it on your shortlist for the next pass |
One habit that separates good triage from keyword-list thinking: judge the search intent, not the literal keyword. An awkwardly-phrased opportunity backed by a question your buyers really ask beats a clean-looking keyword nobody means.
Accepting well
Accept opens a short dialog, and it is worth the extra 30 seconds because everything in it shapes the page:
Check the title and intent
Both are editable. If the framing is close but not quite your angle, fix it here rather than in review later.
Confirm the personas
The personas are the buyers this page is for. Required, because Quality gets judged per persona.
Confirm the content template
The format comes pre-selected as your best chance of winning this opportunity, based on what actually ranks for it. You can override it (pick a listicle, a how-to, whatever you prefer), but treat the pre-selection as advice from the research.
Click Accept and you see it confirmed: the brief is created, it is now in Page Creation under In Production, and generation has already started. You stay on the list, so triage keeps its rhythm.
Keep the backlog clean
2 tools keep a growing backlog decision-ready:
- Combine similar opportunities (in the overflow menu): an agent sweeps the backlog for overlaps and proposes merge groups. Nothing merges automatically; you review each suggestion and Combine or Skip. You can also select rows yourself and use Combine into one.
- Refine: when an opportunity is right in spirit but wrong in framing, refine it with a direction instead of dismissing it.
You are done when roughly 20 opportunities sit in Accepted, each one a page you would defend, and the Backlog holds nothing you have already mentally rejected. That is a working plan, and production is already moving on it.
Common questions
What if I accept something and regret it? The brief can be archived in Page Creation. But the cheaper fix is upstream: most regretted accepts trace back to a cluster (a group of related opportunities worked as a set) that does not belong in Now.
Does dismissing hurt anything? No, and it helps: every dismissal teaches research what not to bring you again. Dismiss freely and honestly.
20 accepted feels like a lot. It is a queue, not a promise to publish everything this month. Production pulls from it at your pace, and a healthy queue is what makes the weekly rhythm in stage 6 possible.
Last updated at August 13, 2026