Email a user from another list in a workflow

Question

I want to email a department manager as a step in a workflow. In my form I make them specify which department the request is coming from and as a step in my workflow I need the department manager's approval.

I'm drawing a blank on how to get the dept manager's email dynamically in my workflow? If I set up a custom list with each department and their respective managers, could I grab the manager based on what department they said?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Answer 1

If the other table has the users set as people picker values as well as a department name, you can. You just query the other table's people picker value with the department as a filter (department either hard coded in the workflow or at the item level based on some other choice) when you're selecting the user.