yes, so we are trying this route for now, b/c we like the “board view” that you get with deals and stages. the problem with lifecycle stages is that you don’t really get this view as far as i can tell, so it’s not as intuitive that you are moving them “down the path” so to speak. deal view makes perfect sense, but it is kindof annoying to have to create ANOTHER record just to track basic prospecting and outreach.
custom list views are also nice, but it can get awfully cluttered awfully easily IMHO.