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Views are where the Attio data model meets daily rep work. The right views make adoption automatic. The wrong views — 18 columns wide, no filters, no group — push reps back to spreadsheets within a month. Here is the discipline that holds up.
Who this is forOps leads building the first set of working views — or anyone whose reps are saying 'I can't find anything in Attio.' If your sales team has rebuilt the same filter five times in three weeks, this tutorial is the unlock.
What you'll need
Step 1
Attio has Table, Kanban, Calendar, and Timeline views. Each answers a different question. Mismatch the view to the question and reps stop using it.
Table view: best for "scan and edit a lot of records at once" — daily prospect lists, lead inbox, account review meetings. Default view type.
Kanban view: best for "where is everything in a pipeline?" — Deal stage, Lead status, Onboarding stage. Requires a Status attribute as the group.
Calendar view: best for "what is happening on what date?" — scheduled demos, renewal dates, contract end dates. Requires a Date attribute.
Timeline view: best for "what is happening across a time range?" — quarterly close plans, campaign launches, onboarding milestones. Requires a Date range.
Rule: build the view in the type that matches the question being asked. Forcing pipeline review into a Table view (because someone is used to spreadsheets) misses the point of Attio.
Step 2
Start with 5-7 views covering the questions reps ask every day. Resist the urge to build 30 views on day one — most will go stale.
Open the object you are working with (Companies, People, or Deals) → click the views tab at the top.
For Deals, build these core views first: "My open pipeline" (filter: Owner = me, Stage ≠ Closed Won / Closed Lost), "Stuck deals" (filter: Last activity > 14 days ago, Stage ≠ Closed), "Closing this month" (filter: Expected close date this month), "Closed Won this quarter" (filter: Stage = Closed Won, Close date this quarter).
For People, build: "My recent contacts" (filter: Owner = me, Created date last 7 days), "MQLs to call" (filter: Lifecycle stage = MQL, Last contacted = null).
For Companies, build: "My accounts" (filter: Owner = me), "Target account list" (filter: ICP = true, Owner = me).
Save each view with a clear name that says what the view does — "Open pipeline" not "Pipeline view 3." Save as "Shared with workspace" for views the whole team uses, "Personal" for individual reps.
Step 3
Eight columns max. Sort by the field reps care about most (usually Last activity or Close date). Group by Status for Kanban.
In a view, click Columns → drag to reorder, click the eye icon to show/hide. Show only 8 columns max for table views — past 8, reps stop scanning and start scrolling horizontally.
Always include: the primary name attribute, Owner, Status, Last interaction, plus the 3-4 attributes most relevant to the question.
Click Sort → pick the attribute that matches the question. For "Stuck deals," sort by Last activity ascending. For "Closing this month," sort by Expected close date ascending.
For Kanban views, click Group by → pick the Status attribute. Cards group into columns; drag to update.
Set the column widths once for the whole team. The default auto-width often makes one column 800px wide and pushes everything else off screen.
Step 4
A view of 'all open Deals' is useless if you have 4,000 of them. A view of 'my open Deals stuck for >14 days' is something a rep acts on every day.
Click Filter → Add filter. Combine multiple filters with AND / OR logic.
Best filter patterns: Owner = me, Status = X, Date < Y, Last activity > Z days ago.
Avoid filters that produce 0 results on most days (those views never get opened) or filters that return 10,000+ records (those views are noise).
Sweet spot: 10-100 records per view. Few enough to scan, enough to feel like work is happening.
For shared views, use "Owner = current user" as a filter so each rep sees their own slice without building a personal copy.
Step 5
Lists in Attio are static or dynamic cohorts that act like a sub-view of an object. Use them for campaign segments, ABM lists, onboarding cohorts.
Sidebar → Lists → New list → pick the object (People, Companies, Deals).
Dynamic list: rules-based, auto-updates ("All Companies with ARR > $50K and Industry = Fintech").
Static list: manual, you add and remove records ("Q2 ABM target list — 50 accounts").
Lists have their own attributes — you can add list-specific attributes that only apply when a record is on that list (e.g. "Sequenced date" on a sales sequence list).
Use lists when you need a persistent cohort that lives outside the main object view. Useful for sales sequences, marketing handoff, customer success motion. See the lists + pipelines tutorial for deeper patterns.
Step 6
Without ownership, every workspace accumulates 30-50+ stale views in the first year. Schedule a quarterly cleanup or the view list becomes garbage.
Open each object → click the views tab → review every shared view.
For each: is anyone actually using it? Attio shows last opened date on each view (Pro tier).
Delete views that have not been opened in 60+ days, AFTER asking the owner if it is still needed.
For views that are slightly broken (wrong sort, missing filter) — fix in place rather than creating a duplicate. Duplicates are how view sprawl starts.
Document the canonical shared views in a Notion / Linear / wiki doc — 'these are the 8 views every rep uses.' Anything outside this list is personal or experimental.
Common mistakes
Building 20+ shared views on day one
What goes wrong: Reps cannot find the view they actually need in the cluttered list. They build their own personal copies. Within three months you have 60 views, no clear canonical set, and view sprawl is permanent. Cleanup later costs a 1-2 day specialist engagement ($300-600) plus weeks of re-training reps on the canonical set.
How to avoid: Start with 5-7 shared views per object. Add new shared views only when 3+ reps ask for the same thing. Personal views are fine and unlimited.
Using Table view for everything (including pipeline)
What goes wrong: Pipeline review meetings happen on a table view sorted by close date. Reps scroll a 14-column table looking for stuck deals. The visual signal that Kanban provides ('that column is too full, that column is empty') is lost.
How to avoid: Use Kanban for any view answering "where is everything in this pipeline." Use Calendar for date-based views. Reserve Table for ad-hoc inspection and bulk edits.
14 columns wide because "we might need it"
What goes wrong: Reps scroll horizontally to find the column they need, then forget what they were looking at. The view stops being useful at a glance. Adoption craters.
How to avoid: 8 columns max per view. If you need more fields, add them to the record sidebar (visible when a record is clicked open), not the view columns.
No filter on "Owner = current user" for shared rep views
What goes wrong: Every rep sees every other rep's pipeline in a shared 'open deals' view. They cannot find their own work. They build a personal copy. The shared view is abandoned. On a 10-rep team this wastes ~15 min/day per rep navigating noise — at $80-150/hr loaded cost, $4K-7K/month of avoidable friction.
How to avoid: For any shared view a rep uses for their own daily work, include "Owner = current user" as a baseline filter. Each rep sees their own slice automatically.
No view hygiene — every view added, none removed
What goes wrong: Year one: 12 useful views. Year two: 47 views, half stale, nobody knows which to use. View list becomes garbage. New hires take weeks instead of days to find anything — at a $4-6K loaded onboarding cost per rep, that ramp delay adds up fast across hires.
How to avoid: Quarterly: open the views list per object. Delete anything not opened in 60+ days. Document the canonical set externally. Treat views like code.
Recap
Done — what's next
How to set up the Attio data model without making a mess
Read the next tutorial
Hand it off
Views are where most Attio adoption goes to die — not because the data is wrong but because reps cannot find their work. A specialist will design a focused view library in 1-2 days, train your team on it, and set up the hygiene cadence. EverestX Attio specialists run $400-1,200/month at $14-16/hr.
See specialist rates
5-7 shared views per object is healthy for the first year. Plus a handful of personal views per rep. Past 15 shared views per object, you have view sprawl and rep adoption suffers. If you feel you need more, the answer is usually a saved Filter or a List, not another view.
Yes — on Plus and Pro tiers. When saving a view, choose 'Shared with specific people' or 'Shared with a team.' Use this for views relevant only to one team (e.g. 'Customer Success pipeline' shared only with CS, not the whole company).
A view is a filtered + sorted + grouped lens onto an object's data — it lives inside that object. A list is a persistent cohort that often spans use cases (campaign segment, ABM target list, sales sequence enrollees). Lists can have their own attributes and workflows; views cannot.
Yes. Click Sort → Add sort. Attio supports multi-level sort (first by Status ascending, then by Last activity descending). Useful for views like 'open pipeline grouped by stage, then by deal value.'
All Attio views are real-time by default — filters re-evaluate as records are updated. No manual refresh needed. The only exception is calculated/aggregate values in Reports, which may have a brief sync delay (usually under 30 seconds).
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