Embrace Spreadsheets Before Systems

I often joke that modern business apps are just "spreadsheets in the cloud". While this is mostly true, it is a point of leverage that you can use to your advantage as your processes and organization evolve.

Spreadsheets are a democratizing force in any organization, as non-technical teams often have experience working with a spreadsheet, even if it primarily to reference or adjust data.

Building a spreadsheet is also a skill that more people have than building an app or modifying a vendor's platform, which increases potential agility.

The beauty is that a spreadsheet has a lot of the same concepts that a modern app or database has:

• Formatted columns for different types of data

• Validation to ensure data conforms to expected standards

• Sheets to organize different groups of information

• Formulas to perform aggregations

• Pivot tables and charts to express different views

• Reference sheets to control "global" variables in a model

Here's a real-life example of how cyclically spreadsheets become systems:

1. Start tracking your prospects in a Google Sheet

2. Migrate data into a proper CRM tool like Salesforce or HubSpot

3. Start tracking complex pricing calculations in a Google Sheet

4. Buy or build a configure price quote (CPQ) tool into your CRM

5. Start tracking a customer's onboarding journey and relevant milestones in Google Sheets

I bet you know what step 6 is.

With cloud based spreadsheets like Google Sheets and Excel 365, multiple people can work with the same data, have built-in backups and versioning, and natively integrate with other products within Google and Microsoft ecosystems (plus, tons more using tools like Zapier or Make).

Airtable is another popular option if you're looking to blur the lines between spreadsheets and a full-blown "low code" platform. You may get more mileage out of this, although need to weigh the cost of an additional tool and the governance challenges you'll face as users may prefer that platform to your core stack with CRM, ERP, etc.

TLDR: Embrace spreadsheets as prototypes or minimum viable products (MVPs) before you buy or build a system. Repeat that cycle as needed.