2023-07-03 team meeting¶

Brent’s update about Mathesar users¶

Brent did an update on what he’s learned from the Mathesar users he’s been talking to.

Brent’s notes (private): https://hackmd.io/4DId5uYKR1icDXZs8Bq9oQ

Notes¶

Brent has been responsible for responding to installation requests through the website (~15 so far)
This means he’s met some potential users
There are some things we can learn
Notes are here: https://hackmd.io/4DId5uYKR1icDXZs8Bq9oQ, Brent won’t go through all the notes in the call, please read if interested.
Users are referred to in general terms (since notes are public)
- Business in Italy, wants to use Mathesar for ERP/CRM
  - Loves data modeling capabilities, he is already familiar with entities relevant to his business
  - Wanted to do it locally
  - Trying it out before committing to it
  - Stuff he wants:
    - Basic UI stuff like color coding cells, etc.
    - Calculations / formulas
  - Tried and didn’t like NocoDB
  - Understands portability and having a standard format for the data set
  - Didn’t need installation help – needed help with some UI confusion
- Real estate office under large conglomerate
  - Use case: more like CRM than ERP
  - Currently using Airtable
  - Wants to integrate with mapping
  - Wants to access DB directly, knows SQL
    - Was frustrated with Airtable’s inability to do this
  - Stuck at installation on existing hosting provider
    - Shared hosting
    - Couldn’t figure out SSH access
    - Wants to use cPanel to install software
- User at large French company
  - SaaS provider
  - Wants to use Mathesar to enable customer support using Postgres
    - Can’t modify schemas
    - Since Mathesar’s install adds schemas, it’s a no-go from the tech team
- User want to use it for project management
  - Was confused about installing it on a web server
  - Seemed to want a SaaS solution, but didn’t express it in so many words
  - Currently using NocoDB
  - Using Windows
- A couple of different users want to use Mathesar instead of a Postgres client or code
  - Currently using: pgweb, pgadmin, command line / Python
Summary:
- We’re attracting interest from business users, not tech users
- We’re not best equipped to help these types of users because of our installation
- These users are not using Mathesar for critical operations, and we wouldn’t suggest they do, because they’re not technical enough to manage it.
  - We can improve Mathesar for these use cases (e.g. offering hosted Mathesar, or hosted DB)
Discussion:
- It’s interesting that some people want us for our capabilities, not just because we’re a “free Airtable”, it proves some of our hypotheses
- It’s good to know there are business users interested in data tools
- Seems like some users are coming from a PoV where running their business on spreadsheets is no longer sustainable
  - Don’t think about things like backups
  - We may need to educate them or make things easier for them
- People who use shared hosting might be satisfied with a SaaS offering (rather than integrate with things like cPanel)
- We might need to have an opinionated flow on how to set up Mathesar for specific use cases (have a hosted database, cost $X per month)
- Ideal customer seems to be customers who need non-technical users to have existing databases (like the SaaS provider)
  - Will pay a bunch of money for Mathesar
- We should keep track of installation requests and users in a database
  - We don’t really have standardized data for this

What should we be working on in the next two weeks?¶

Wrapping up current work.
Cleaning up open PRs.
Organizing our GitHub issues and prioritizing ones for the next release.
Planning out projects for the next cycle.
Discussing goals, priorities, and vision for Mathesar – we should all be on the same page by the time the next cycle ends.

What should our next projects be?¶

Getting user feedback from existing users
Should be focused on increasing user adoption
At least:
- Getting a better picture of Mathesar’s users (maybe personas)
- Having a clear idea what getting to beta and v1.0 looks like
- Simplifying installation
- Making data in Mathesar sharable
- Addressing bugs and features requested by users
- Designing the first experiments towards sustainability
After this cycle, we should aim to have enough information to select the next round of projects.

Projects

Kriti & Ghislaine: Strategy / user research
Rajat: Localization
Brent and Anish: RSQLA1
Mukesh: Simplifying installs
Pavish: Shareable links
Sean & Dom: Improvements for 0.1.3