Custom Lead Convert Scenario Options - Sample

This page should be updated each time the scenario is presented to record other options.

Be sure to include the Makeunder options.

Use a pre-defined lead conversion plugin along with Flow - see the sample Flow that is in every org.
Use Rakesh Gupta's great ideas in this post - Auto Convert - Process Builder.
Use Object Converter (powerful but a lot of setup involved)
Use Process Builder to update fields on the Opp after Lead Conversion. See Rakesh Gupta's post here.
Use Global Picklists so at least the two sets of Picklists on Opps and Contacts are kept in sync.

Why are the same fields used on Contact and Opportunity?
Why are they updated differently after the opportunity is created?
Can it be a formula field on the Opportunity to display the data from the Contact? (will probably need a flow to update the Primary Contact onto the Opp after Lead Conversion though).

Try this free app for a bit and see if it works for you Dlvrd - Convert Lead - Custom Lead Conversion Process - App Exchange
This one may work too, but it looks a little confusing for the end users App Shark - Customized Lead Conversion - Apexchange
Create duplicate fields on the Lead, update them with Workflows and set those fields to convert to the Opportunity. I've used this with good success, and it's a doddle to set up.

Presented at

People were aghast that the business wanted to keep two copies of the same data, one on the transactional record of the Opportunity, one on the longer term static object of Contact - so they all emphatically said send it back to the business to "improve" or challenge them on that requirement.
- I have had one scenario where this was needed though - We wanted to know what the "type" was at the time the Opp was created, but wanted to have a "type" field on the Account that may change as that business matured and grew with doing business with us. In this case the Type on the opp was for reporting purposes, and should be not updated after the Opp is closed.
- If you want to be really good, then you probably want to keep it in sync with the Account until the Opp was closed, then take it off the page layout of the Opp after it is closed. Then after that the Account is the single source of the truth for the "type" value. It depends on the value of this information and what would go wrong if it did not report correctly. Eg if it is a compliance issue or for government reporting, you may need to add all the bells and whistles to it. If it's just for interest sake, then just doing the lead conversion is enough.
No one wanted to code - which is good.
Global picklists was a nice idea - so I've added it to the options.