An automated workflow I built on n8n to solve my own lead generation problem for my freelance website selling business. Manual prospecting was eating 3 to 4 hours per city and I needed something better.

How it works:

The workflow takes a city and business niche as input, then uses SerpAPI (on its free tier) to scrape Google Maps for matching businesses. Raw results get cleaned and deduplicated automatically. Then a custom scoring layer ranks each lead based on rating, review count, and category match against my ideal customer profile. Final scored leads land in a structured Google Sheet, ready for outreach.

What it delivers:

Cuts lead research time from around 4 hours per city to under 15 minutes. Generated 200+ scored and enriched leads across multiple cities in early runs. Built to run on free tier tools so cost stays at zero.

Why it matters for product thinking:

The interesting part was not the automation itself. It was figuring out what makes a lead actually worth pursuing. That scoring model went through 3 iterations before it stopped surfacing garbage leads at the top. Very similar to feature prioritization work, just with a different label on it.

Tech: n8n, SerpAPI, Google Sheets, custom scoring logic