3 ms·

You may not like Excel but most people who "NEED A QUICK ANALYSIS FOR YOUR BUSINESS" (to quote your copy from https://www.jigdev.com https://www.jigdev.com) rel

You may not like Excel but most people who "NEED A QUICK ANALYSIS FOR YOUR BUSINESS" (to quote your copy from https://www.jigdev.com https://www.jigdev.com) rely on it. I think you have a solution in search of problem. Showing it to more people is not the answer. Adding features only helps when you have someone who has a clear point of dissatisfaction with Excel. Who is so dissatisfied with Excel that they will take the time to install and learn a new tool. Excel has a lot of debugging checks built in to catch mistakes and if they make a mistake in an Excel sheet they can ask many people to double check their work. If they are the only Jig user in the firm they are completely on their own.

gpapilion 6y ago
I look at this and think about hours I generally do this work in Jupyter.
- happyconcepts 6y ago
  Me too. Jupyter notebook which I believe is open source.
d--b 6y ago
Ah, I myself am what they call an Excel wiz. I’ve been building all kinds of tools with excel since I started working in finance in 2007. Excel has been both a miracle and a curse. We could make super complex apps in hours, but these were insanely unsafe. People would leave typos all over the place, and there was zero way to audit changes. This is THE major reason for this tool to exist.
- skmurphy 6y ago
  Then you should consider writing two tools: 1. A detailed audit and change control / diff tool for Excel Here are some alternatives: https://www.spreadsheetdetective.com/ https://www.spreadsheetdetective.com/ https://www.themodelanswer.com/ https://www.themodelanswer.com/ List at https://sites.google.com/a/usfca.edu/business-analytics/development-management/checking-auditing https://sites.google.com/a/usfca.edu/business-analytics/deve... 2. A translator that maps an existing Excel file into Jig.
- lubujackson 6y ago
  If that is THE reason for the product to exist, you are marketing this all wrong. You list features and say what it can do, but you are really selling robustness, stability and clarity. Don't sell the product, sell the problem. Spaghetti code in Excel. Untouchable formulas created by some ex-employee. Replacing a magic variable in 30,000 cells, etc. At the end, show how your product solves it. You need some sample before and afters. This is what the formula looked like before, here's how it was abstracted and this is what that change enables. Ideally your product would be a service that a company pays for where you come in a help clean up their files. If possible, I would see if you could find a company willing to let to try and use them as a case study. That would be 1000% more effective than worrying about marketing details.

gpapilion 6y ago

I look at this and think about hours I generally do this work in Jupyter.

happyconcepts 6y ago
Me too. Jupyter notebook which I believe is open source.

d--b 6y ago

Ah, I myself am what they call an Excel wiz. I’ve been building all kinds of tools with excel since I started working in finance in 2007. Excel has been both a miracle and a curse. We could make super complex apps in hours, but these were insanely unsafe. People would leave typos all over the place, and there was zero way to audit changes. This is THE major reason for this tool to exist.

skmurphy 6y ago
Then you should consider writing two tools: 1. A detailed audit and change control / diff tool for Excel Here are some alternatives: https://www.spreadsheetdetective.com/ https://www.spreadsheetdetective.com/ https://www.themodelanswer.com/ https://www.themodelanswer.com/ List at https://sites.google.com/a/usfca.edu/business-analytics/development-management/checking-auditing https://sites.google.com/a/usfca.edu/business-analytics/deve... 2. A translator that maps an existing Excel file into Jig.
lubujackson 6y ago
If that is THE reason for the product to exist, you are marketing this all wrong. You list features and say what it can do, but you are really selling robustness, stability and clarity. Don't sell the product, sell the problem. Spaghetti code in Excel. Untouchable formulas created by some ex-employee. Replacing a magic variable in 30,000 cells, etc. At the end, show how your product solves it. You need some sample before and afters. This is what the formula looked like before, here's how it was abstracted and this is what that change enables. Ideally your product would be a service that a company pays for where you come in a help clean up their files. If possible, I would see if you could find a company willing to let to try and use them as a case study. That would be 1000% more effective than worrying about marketing details.