Insights · Quality
The journey QA checklist we run before every launch.
Most journey bugs are not in the emails. They are in who enters, how often, and at what time. This is the list we go through before anything goes live.
A journey that sends the right email to the wrong person, twice, at 3 a.m. is still a broken journey. These are the checks we run on every build, grouped by where things usually go wrong.
1. Entry: who gets in, and how many times
Journey Builder offers three contact entry modes. Picking the wrong one is the most common cause of duplicate sends.
No re-entryWelcome, onboarding
× blocked
Re-entry only after exitingRenewals, seasonal
Re-entry anytimePost-purchase
- The entry mode matches the use case: welcome journeys never allow re-entry.
- The entry source has one row per Subscriber Key, so nobody enters twice in the same batch.
- Entry filters exclude contacts without valid consent for every channel used.
2. Exclusions and exits
- Every email has exclusion scripts or suppression lists for unsubscribed and held contacts.
- A goal is set, so contacts leave as soon as they convert, wherever they are in the journey.
- Exit criteria remove contacts who unsubscribe or no longer qualify mid-journey.
3. Time
- Wait activities use the right time zone for the audience, not the account default.
- Send windows avoid nights and, where required, weekends and public holidays.
- Decision splits come after a wait long enough for real behaviour, at least a day for clicks.
4. Content and data
- Every personalisation field has a fallback for empty values.
- Test sends cover each language, brand and split path, on real devices.
- Links are tracked and parameters are consistent with the analytics setup.
Our rule
Nobody tests their own journey. The person who built it walks a colleague through it, path by path, with real test contacts.
Key takeaways
- Choose the entry mode on purpose: it decides how often people can receive the journey.
- Goals and exit criteria matter as much as the emails.
- Time zones and waits are where most silent bugs hide.
- Sources: Trailhead, Build a journey campaign
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