How to Write a Hurdle That Gets Noticed by AI Specialists

What AI specialists look for

Before writing your Hurdle it helps to understand what an AI specialist sees when they browse the platform. They see your industry your state the hours per week your team spends on the task the number of team members affected and a preview of your description. Based on those details they decide whether to pay the $55 unlock fee to access your full contact details. A specialist is looking for three things. First is this a problem I can actually solve? Second is the ROI clear enough that the business will be motivated to proceed? Third does this business understand what they need well enough that the project will run smoothly? Your Hurdle description answers all three of those questions.

The four elements of a great Hurdle

Element 1 — The current situation

Start by describing exactly what is happening right now. Be specific about the task the systems involved and the people affected. Weak example: We have issues with our admin processes. Strong example: Every Monday morning two team members spend a combined four hours manually copying customer details from our website enquiry form into HubSpot and then into Xero. They match purchase orders check for duplicates and flag any discrepancies manually. The strong example tells a specialist exactly what is happening which systems are involved and how many people and hours are affected.

Element 2 — The cost and impact

Include the hours per week the number of people affected and if possible the downstream impact of the problem. Example: This process takes approximately four hours per week across two team members. Errors occur roughly twice a month requiring an additional hour to identify and correct. When the team is short staffed the process gets skipped entirely causing delays in order fulfilment.

Element 3 — The ideal outcome

Describe what success looks like. You do not need to know the technical solution — describe the business outcome you want. Example: We want this entire process to run automatically the moment a new enquiry is submitted. Zero manual data entry. Data should appear correctly in HubSpot and Xero within minutes of the form being completed.

Element 4 — Your current tech stack

List the tools and systems you currently use that are relevant to the problem. This helps specialists immediately assess whether the solution is within their expertise. Example: We use HubSpot for CRM Xero for accounting Typeform for customer enquiries and Asana for project management.

What to avoid

Keep your Hurdle focused on one specific process. Hurdles that try to describe multiple problems at once are harder to assess and attract fewer specialist unlocks. Avoid technical jargon or attempting to describe the solution. Your job is to describe the problem. The specialist's job is to design the solution. Do not worry about your Hurdle being too simple or too complex. Specialists on BizCollab work across a wide range of project sizes.

A complete example Hurdle

Title: Manual Invoice Follow-Up Taking 5 Hours Per Week. Description: Our accounts team currently spends approximately five hours every week manually following up on overdue client invoices. The process involves logging into Xero identifying invoices at 7 14 and 30 days overdue and then manually drafting and sending individual follow-up emails from Gmail. We have around 40 active clients at any given time with 15 to 20 invoices outstanding each week. The manual nature of this process means follow-ups are inconsistent — some clients receive them late or not at all when the team is busy — which directly impacts our cash flow. We need an automated solution that monitors our Xero account daily identifies overdue invoices by age and automatically sends personalised follow-up emails from our Gmail account at the correct intervals. We use Xero for accounting and Gmail for email. Ideal outcome: A fully automated invoice follow-up workflow that runs daily without manual input ensuring every overdue invoice receives a consistent and timely follow-up every time.

Ready to post?

Post your first Hurdle for free at bizcollab.com.au. If you want to calculate what your current manual process is costing your business before you post try our free Business Automation Health Check at bizcollab.com.au/business-automation-health-check.