Module 1 Lesson 5: Common Automation Use-Cases

Now that you know How n8n works, let's talk about What to build. Here are 5 "Starter" projects that provide immediate value.

1. CRM & Lead Management

The Flow: New lead from a Website Form -> Add to HubSpot -> Notify the Sales team on Slack -> Send a "Welcome" email via Gmail.
The Value: Response time drops from hours to seconds.

2. Invoicing & Finance

The Flow: New payment in Stripe -> Generate a PDF Invoice (Module 1, Lesson 3) -> Upload to Google Drive -> Email to the Customer.
The Value: No more manual accounting at the end of the month.

3. Social Media Monitoring

The Flow: Search Twitter for "@MyCompany" -> Use AI (Module 10) to determine if it's positive or negative -> If negative, send an urgent alert to the Support team.
The Value: Brand protection and faster community support.

4. IT & DevOps Reporting

The Flow: Check website status every 5 minutes -> If the site is down, trigger an SSH script to restart the server (Module 6) -> Notify the on-call engineer.
The Value: "Self-healing" infrastructure.

5. Content Aggregation

The Flow: Monitor 5 RSS feeds (Tech news) -> Summarize the best articles -> Post the summary to LinkedIn once a day.
The Value: Become a "Thought Leader" on autopilot.

Exercise: The Personal Roadmap

Of the 5 patterns above, which one would save YOU the most time today?
Pick one app you use (e.g., Notion) and one trigger (e.g., "New Page"). What is the very next action that should happen?
Why is "Email" usually the worst trigger for an automation? (Hint: Think about Structure).
Research: What is a "Webhook" and why is it faster than a "Scheduled" trigger?

Summary

You have completed Module 1: Introduction to n8n. You understand the philosophy, the hosting options, the UI, and the real-world value of automation.

Next Module: Let's get technical: Module 2: Self-Hosting n8n (Docker & Cloud).