Your spreadsheet chaos isn’t a sign you need Snowflake. It’s a sign you need clarity on what you’re trying to measure.
I’ve seen 20-person startups running Snowflake, dbt, and Fivetran before they had a second analyst. They didn’t have a tools problem. They had a “what are we actually trying to decide?” problem.
Before you evaluate any stack, answer these:
- What three decisions would better data improve?
- Who needs access to those answers?
- How often do those answers need to refresh?
If you can’t answer these clearly, more tools won’t help. You’ll just have expensive infrastructure generating reports nobody uses.
I got this wrong early in my career. Recommended a full stack when the client needed a simple database and three hours of thinking about what mattered. Looking back, I was solving for the tools, not the problem.
The modern data stack is powerful - but it’s a solution, not a strategy. The strategy is knowing what you’re trying to measure and why.
Start with the problem. The stack follows.
What’s the business question that’s actually blocked by your current setup? That’s the only question that matters.
What was the moment you knew your current data setup wasn’t enough? Curious what triggers the transition.