We Built an AI Ops Engine for Relay in 90 Days. Here’s the Playbook.
TL;DR: We shipped a custom Next.js + Cloudflare Workers platform that enriches creator and business profiles with AI, auto-matches both sides, runs the entire collaboration flow with a clean, gamified UI, and tracks deliverables + performance over time. It’s already saving thousands of manual hours. If your team spends its days in spreadsheets, email chains, and “just bumping this,” you don’t need another SaaS—you need a small, sharp tool that fits your workflow like a glove.
The problem (a familiar one)
Great outcomes were getting throttled by busywork:
Sourcing + vetting creators took forever
Coordination lived across docs, DMs, forms, and guesswork
Deliverables and metrics were scattered and hard to trust
No momentum view—just scattered snapshots
This is exactly the type of Factory problem we love: critical, tedious, and measurable.
What we built (in plain English)
AI-enriched profiles: We synthesize public signals + first-party data to build rich profiles for creators and businesses.
Auto-matching: The system scores fit on objectives, audience, format, budget, geography, and brand guardrails—then recommends the best pairings for both parties.
Collab in one flow: A simple digital experience replaces the email treadmill—briefs, approvals, deadlines, and submissions live in one place.
Playful incentives: Creators and clients get rewarded for tight execution and standout content via a lightweight, gamified UI.
Proof with receipts: Every deliverable is captured, linked, and tracked. Performance rolls up into momentum views for each creator and brand.
Stack: Next.js on Cloudflare Workers to run fast at the edge, API-first services, and an analytics layer that speaks in outcomes—not vanity charts.
Timeline: MVP from zero → live in 90 days. (Think “walking skeleton,” not “cathedral.”)
Why custom vs. off-the-shelf?
Fit beats features. Generic tools force your process to conform. We designed the process we actually wanted, then built only that.
Speed at the edge. Workers keep interaction loops snappy, which matters when creators are on phones, in the field, and moving fast.
AI as a co-pilot, not a bolt-on. Enrichment and matching are native to the flow, not a separate “export → import → pray” step.
Proof over politics. The platform doesn’t argue; it logs. Deliverables, timestamps, and performance sit in one source of truth.
The results that matter
Hours saved: The team stopped playing calendar Tetris and chasing links.
Higher hit-rate matches: AI pre-screens alignment and surfaces best options.
Cleaner execution: One flow, fewer misses.
Compounding insight: Momentum over time > one-off screenshots.
(We’re not throwing vanity percentages here. You’ll see the delta when your inbox chills out and campaigns close cleaner.)
How we got it done (the 90-day blueprint)
Phase 0: Strategy → Architecture → Intelligence → Storytelling
Agree on the job to be done, the system of record, the minimum viable data model, and the 2–3 KPIs that actually prove value.
Phase 1: Map the “golden path” (1 week)
Sketch the fastest path from brief → match → approve → deliver → measure. Everything else can wait.
Phase 2: Walking skeleton (3–4 weeks)
Auth, roles, single project flow
Basic profile ingestion + AI enrichment
First pass of match scoring
One clean submission flow
Simple dashboard with “what’s due” and “what shipped”
Phase 3: Automate the boring parts (3–4 weeks)
Deadlines → nudges
Brief updates → versioned logs
Submissions → auto-validation checks
Links → verified, tracked
Phase 4: Prove it (2–3 weeks)
Momentum view (rollups over time)
“What changed this week?” digest
Guardrails + audit log
UX polish + small dopamine hits for good behavior
Ship weekly. Kill scope that doesn’t move the KPIs. Repeat.
A simple matching spine (don’t overthink it)
We used a weighted scorecard with AI-assisted enrichment and a few hard guardrails.
Hard rules: compliance, geography, format constraints
Weighted factors: audience overlap, content style, historical performance, budget fit, brand tone match
Tie-breakers: freshness, capacity, diversity goals
If you can’t explain your matching logic on a napkin, it’s too cute.
Should you build your own tool?
You probably should if three or more are true:
Your team lives in spreadsheets that pretend to be software
20–40% of a role is status-chasing and copy-pasting
The process is core to outcomes (not “nice to have”)
Off-the-shelf forces ugly workarounds
You can name 2–3 KPIs that will move in 90 days
You probably shouldn’t if:
You want a dashboard, not a workflow
You can’t staff an owner (no owner = no outcome)
Compliance requirements dictate a specific vendor
Pilot scope template (steal this)
Objective: e.g., “Cut time to launch a creator collab from 14 days to 5.”
Inputs: where data lives today; what’s trustworthy.
Automations: top 5 repeat steps to replace.
Outputs: the one view the team will actually use daily.
Guardrails: legal/brand rules that must never break.
KPIs: two outcome metrics and one adoption metric.
If your pilot doesn’t fit on one page, it’s not a pilot—it’s a fantasy novel.
Team you need (lean and mean)
Product owner (decides, not observes)
Full-stack engineer (Next.js/Workers)
Automation/AI generalist (data ingestion + enrichment + scoring)
UX designer (one flow, zero friction)
Data/analytics (define momentum, wire the truth)
This is a 3–5 person squad, not a parade.
Risks & how we handle them
Data quality: AI can’t fix junk. Start with strict input requirements + validation.
Change resistance: Make the “right way” the fastest way with micro-wins.
Scope creep: Tie roadmap to KPI movement; postpone everything else.
Compliance: Build audit trails and approval steps in from day one.
The bigger point
“Digital transformation” isn’t a 300-page deck. It’s eliminating the bottlenecks that throttle your growth. The fastest way there is a custom, boring-on-purpose tool that removes 80% of the tedium and makes the 20% of human work shine.
We built that for Relay in 90 days. You can do the same for the repetitive core of your business—sales ops, partner onboarding, field service, claims, you name it.
If you’re ready to try
We’ll help you pick one process, define a 90-day target, and ship a provable, usable tool:
Week 1: Diagnose + define KPIs
Week 4: Walking skeleton live
Week 8: Automations + guardrails
Week 12: Momentum view + decision: scale or kill
No fluff, no theater—just outcomes.
Want to explore what your “tedious → inevitable” build looks like? Send us the one process your team hates the most. We’ll turn that into your first win.
