--- title: "Email Deliverability and List Hygiene Workflow | Kylon" description: "How a deliverability team runs list hygiene in Mailchimp, picks the weekly send window and handles overrides and incidents in one Kylon room, with people approving." url: "https://kylon.io/use-cases/email-deliverability" language: "en" --- [HOME](https://kylon.io/)\>[Use Cases](https://kylon.io/use-cases)\>Email Deliverability: List Hygiene That Holds Up Through a Bad Week for the Domain Use Case8 min read # Email Deliverability: List Hygiene That Holds Up Through a Bad Week for the Domain Monthly list hygiene, the weekly send window, desk corrections, compliance overrides and a domain reputation incident run through one Kylon room. Every Mailchimp status change is proposed in the thread and the deliverability lead approves it. [Get started](https://app.kylon.io/sign-up) Kylon TeamProduct November 6, 2026 ## A clean list depends on more than the playbook Every month the deliverability lead runs the list through the playbook. Hard bounces are cleaned, repeat soft bounces past the cap are suppressed, complaints are unsubscribed, and long-inactive subscribers move to a re-engagement segment. Each change is a status and a reason on a Mailchimp subscriber, and the playbook itself is a Google Doc. Then email operations picks which of the week's draft campaigns go out inside the send-window cap. The playbook is not the only input. Requesting desks write in about specific people: a customer who unsubscribed by mistake, a complaint flag that was a misclick. Compliance overrides a few dispositions outright. A reputation incident on the sending domain tightens the soft-bounce cap overnight. Each of those lands in a different inbox or Slack channel, and the subscribers still pending at month end quietly drop out of the next cycle. ## Who works in the room People - Deliverability lead Owns the playbook, approves every subscriber change and signs the log - Email operations Builds the draft campaigns and the send-window file, and settles the window - Compliance Issues overrides that stand regardless of the playbook Agents - MycoList hygiene Checks every subscriber against the playbook, proposes a status and reason, and writes approved changes in Mailchimp MailchimpGoogle Docs - FinSend window Picks the week's campaigns under the cap and reviews email operations' send-window file MailchimpGoogle Drive - AdaSubscriber replies Drafts replies on the threads people wrote in on, for a person to send [Gmail](https://kylon.io/integrations/gmail) [Slack](https://kylon.io/integrations/slack) Deliverability work sits in one Kylon room. Myco is the room's default agent, since subscriber dispositions are most of the work, so a question about why someone was cleaned goes straight to it. Fin owns the send window and the review of email operations' file, and Ada answers the people who wrote in. Myco and Fin both read Mailchimp through a lasting grant the deliverability lead approved for the room, and only Myco proposes subscriber changes. For the monthly pass, Myco splits the list across parallel helpers, one per segment, and gets back a single set of proposed changes. When a desk asks for a confirmation, Myco hands it to Ada with the subscriber, the change and the exact wording requested. ## September's cycle, stage by stage The playbook is a Google Doc, the weekly notices land in the run folder in Google Drive, and the room guidelines set the order of precedence: a compliance override first, then the playbook. ```mermaid flowchart TD disp["Myco proposes a status and reason
for every subscriber"] ok1["Deliverability lead approves
before Mailchimp changes"] window["Fin picks the week's campaigns and
checks the send-window file"] eo["Email operations confirms the
window and corrects the file"] apply["Myco applies desk corrections and
the compliance override"] incident([A domain incident tightens
the soft-bounce cap]) reply["Ada drafts a reply on the
thread each person wrote on"] bounce["Myco re-checks every subscriber
with a soft bounce on record"] send["Deliverability lead approves,
a person sends each reply"] bok["Deliverability lead
approves the changes"] carry["Myco marks every pending
subscriber for the next cycle"] close["Myco appends one line per segment
to the Deliverability Log"] sign["Deliverability lead approves
the lines and signs off"] disp --> ok1 --> window --> eo eo -->|desk corrections| apply eo --> incident apply --> reply --> send incident --> bounce --> bok send & bok --> carry --> close --> sign class disp,window,apply,reply,bounce,carry,close agent class ok1,eo,send,bok,sign person class incident event classDef agent fill:#FFFFFF,stroke:#DCD3C8,color:#1B1712 classDef person fill:#EEF0E3,stroke:#6E7447,color:#1B1712 classDef event fill:#F4ECDD,stroke:#F4ECDD,color:#564C42 ``` | Stage | What happens | Who acts | Who decides | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Dispositions | Every subscriber is checked against the playbook, with a status and reason proposed for each | Myco | The deliverability lead approves before Mailchimp changes | | Send window | This week's window is chosen from the twelve draft campaigns, under the cap | Fin | Email operations confirms the window | | File review | Email operations' draft send-window file is checked, with lines removed, fields corrected and missing lines listed | Fin | Email operations corrects the file | | Desk responses | Corrections from requesting desks and the compliance override are applied, and two people get the reply they asked for | Myco, then Ada for the replies | The deliverability lead approves; a person sends each reply | | Domain incident | Every soft-bounce subscriber is checked again against the tightened cap | Myco | The deliverability lead approves the changes | | Carry-forward | Named exceptions are reassessed and every subscriber still pending is marked for the next cycle | Myco | The deliverability lead approves | | Close-out | One line per segment is appended to the Deliverability Log | Myco | The deliverability lead approves the lines and signs off the cycle | Stages of a monthly list hygiene cycle. Segments, counts and caps in this example are illustrative. ## A bad week for the sending domain A reputation incident cuts the soft-bounce cap from five in thirty days to three. The notice names a few subscribers as examples, but the cap applies to everyone. Myco checks every subscriber with a soft bounce on record, not only the ones named, proposes the changes by segment, and waits for the deliverability lead. Subscribers already suppressed for another reason stay as they are. A compliance override pulls the other way. When compliance says a subscriber's status stands regardless of the playbook, the override wins, and Myco records it as the reason so next month's pass does not undo it. Every subscriber still pending when the cycle closes gets a carry-forward mark in Mailchimp, so the October pass starts with them instead of losing them. ## What the checks catch - A subscriber the playbook would clean but compliance has overridden, who keeps the override - A tightened soft-bounce cap applied only to the subscribers named in the notice - A send-window file line for a campaign that is not in this week's window - A pending subscriber left without a carry-forward mark - A reply drafted as a new email instead of on the thread the person wrote on ## What stays with people - Approving every status change before it is written in Mailchimp - Issuing a compliance override, which only compliance decides - Settling the final send window with email operations - Sending each reply Ada drafts, and signing the cycle's log lines ## Integrations in this workflow Kylon is not an email service provider and it does not replace Mailchimp. It sits across Mailchimp, the playbook and the team's inboxes and keeps the month's decisions in one room. - [Gmail](https://kylon.io/integrations/gmail) - Google Docs - Google Drive - Mailchimp - [Slack](https://kylon.io/integrations/slack) - **Mailchimp** holds the subscribers, their status and reason, the draft campaigns and the carry-forward mark - **Google Docs** holds the deliverability playbook and the Deliverability Log - **Google Drive** keeps the run folder with the send-window policy, the draft file and each notice - **Gmail** carries replies to the people who wrote in, sent by a person from Ada's drafts - **Slack** is where email operations and the requesting desks post quick corrections ## Where to start Begin with the next month's pass. Connect Mailchimp with a grant for the room, link the playbook, and write the precedence into the room guidelines: compliance overrides first, then the playbook, and no status changes until the deliverability lead approves. ## Set it up with your agent Open a new Room, add your agent and paste this prompt. It connects the tools, builds the App with you and asks for your rules one step at a time, and nothing goes out until a person approves it. Set-up prompt Set up our list hygiene desk in this Room. Take it one step at a time and wait for my OK before you move on. 1. Connect Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, Mailchimp and Slack. Tell me which ones still need connecting, and confirm that Mailchimp is connected with a lasting grant approved for this Room. 2. Ask me who works this desk: the deliverability lead, email operations and compliance. Help me invite them to this Room. 3. Build a List Hygiene App with Segment, Subscribers, Proposed and Status, one record per subscriber. Fill it from the current Mailchimp list. 4. Check every subscriber against our playbook in Google Docs. Propose a status and reason for each. Apply any compliance override first, then our checks. Show me the ones that conflict or are still pending. 5. Do not write any status or reason in Mailchimp until the deliverability lead approves each change. Do not send any reply until a person sends it from the Gmail draft. Flag which approval is needed for each action before moving on. 6. Write the precedence order into this Room's guideline: compliance overrides first, then our rules, and no Mailchimp changes until the deliverability lead approves. 7. After one clean monthly cycle, offer to turn the full pass into an Automation. Before you start, ask me for our rules one at a time. [Get started](https://app.kylon.io/sign-up) Your first company harness. Where humans and agents run your business together. 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