Do Spreadsheets Make Your ❤️ Swoon?

Excel is magic.

There’s no other tool that’s been as profound for businesses than the humble spreadsheet. Even as a custom software developer, I love me an interesting spreadsheet!

In fact, I go as far as to say that every custom system should start life as a small spreadsheet. Feed it a healthy supply of duct tape and chewing gum and it’s anyones guess into what it might grow up into.

What I find interesting is that modern “no code” tools like Retool and Bubble are putting so much emphasis on user interface, but still have rudimentary data modelling tools. Excel usually has no emphasis on user interface, but puts extensive emphasis on data modelling.

This is one of the reasons I love seeing spreadsheets as a prototyping tool. If we can work out the math in a spreadsheet, we can certainly port that to a different platform or custom code if needed, and still create a great user interface on top of it.

So next time you are thinking about how to build out your system, don’t overlook our hard working friend the spreadsheet. They’ve been finely tuned for work like this for over 45 years!

Tune in tomorrow for a few tips on how to really make your spreadsheets sing