“Hi, amazing platform, kudos on a job well done.

Nothing came close until I found you guys! “

I loved the way MailChimp did their file uploads and had been looking for something similar for a project I am doing. “You need to do some more marketing by the way. I have worked in SaaS for long enough and built this mapping functionality so many times.

It was a hit! People started chatting in just to let us know how much they loved what they were seeing. I showed them to a few friends who saw the value immediately, so I built a prototype, threw together a simple SaaS backend, put up a website, and launched a Google ad targeting people looking for a CSV importer. Users immediately see and fix any problems with their upload, without having to pour over the entire document. Quickly column match between different files? Yes, please!Īn easy way for users to see and fix issues without having to re-upload a file or wait for an asynchronous error report. I used these problems as inspiration for my first set of design goals:Īn elegant and simple mapping experience to connect the incoming data to the right fields so users don’t have to download a template. When it came to error solving, things only got worse, with unhelpful errors, emailed reports that arrive hours after importing data, and straight-up rejection of nearly perfect data sets. What I discovered was the world’s most boring adult puzzle, with 30 step guides, and a labor-intensive process - all for people who are probably still evaluating your app. I began exploring major SaaS apps to see how they built their “Bulk Import” flow. After all, there are core features to build, why invest time into a feature that’s often used once or twice by each customer? Users already expect data import it’s not differentiating. But on every product I’ve ever worked on, it’s always been an afterthought. I’ve built and re-built a file importer dozens of times over the past 15 years. “What would a data import experience look like if it got all the attention of a full product?'įrustration played no small part in this experiment. 2 years ago, I decided to explore a design experiment as a passion project that centered around answering one question.

Flat file io