Guide

Personal CRM for friends without making friendship feel like work

If “personal CRM” sounds too cold, use a relationship memory system instead: small notes, context before the next interaction, and follow-ups you approve yourself.

What to track

Where you met or last caught up.
The conversation thread you would want to continue.
Open loops, promises, and recommendations.
Important timing: a move, event, visit, project, or check-in.

What not to track

Private messages copied into a database.
Scores, tiers, or sales-style pipeline stages for friends.
Speculation, gossip, or sensitive details you do not need.
Automated messages that go out without your review.

A better test than “do I need a CRM?”

Ask whether you repeatedly lose useful context before normal interactions. If the answer is yes, the tool should bring back the thread, not ask you to manage people like accounts.

Why now

Former coworker, now planning a Berlin move.

Last interaction

She was stressed about visa paperwork and asked if you knew anyone who had done the move recently.

Open loop

You said you would ask a friend about a lawyer recommendation.

Before you meet

Ask how the visa process is going before jumping into work updates.

Optional opener

"How's the visa process going? Did you find the lawyer recommendation?"

Related resources

Keep relationship memory lightweight

Start with a small contact note and sample brief before deciding whether you need a heavier system.

Template Contact notes template

A practical field list for saving the context you will need before the next interaction.

Examples Sample relationship briefs

See the output PeopleBrief is testing: context, open loops, and one warm next move.

Events For event-heavy weeks

A page for people who meet new contacts at dinners, meetups, community events, and intros.

New city For rebuilding a network

A page for people trying to keep track of new friends, groups, and loose plans after moving.

A private brief, not a social sales pipeline

PeopleBrief is testing lightweight relationship memory for general users with busy social graphs.

Join early access See sample brief