- We actually built our own query layer called Dataset to make sure that the dataset is materialized. This way if you put it in your BI tool, you can always go back to the dataset which points direct to the activity stream.
Single Source of truth. & traceability - 100%. We really aim to have activities be actually different. Each activity is modeled via SQL and often done by a data engineer or analyst. You cannot just create 1000 activities. 90% of our customers have between 20-40. This enables your activities to be unique. Also unlike tables, activities are building block so they map to something real (i.e. "paid invoice", "sent contract").
So far we haven't seen many people struggling with activities being too similar.
Also the modeling of the activity helps clear up the Garbage in -> Garbage out problem that often happens with CDPs (mixpanel, segment, etc..).
In terms of analysis. We did build a tool called Narrative (actionable analysis in a story format). This is designed to get users to write their analysis with CONTEXt built in vs just numbers on a screen. With context + the ability to click to see the activities and relationship people can quickly know what data powers the source. Does this solve the problem 100%? Nope, but it does take us huge steps in the right direction.
Coherent Model - I think our tool Dataset helps with this problem. We started as a consultancy and answered 1000s of questions over 3 years till our tool was able to answer any question. I usually demo by asking the customer to ask any question they have and I try to answer it live. So far, we have been able to answer them all so I am SUPER excited to find the limit of our tools.
Yeah, for data EL via Stitch, Fivetran then this is easy. Dirty data that is a bunch of JSONS etc... take a bit more effort but that building of the activity is done once. You also don't have to deal with how concepts relate or identity resolution or a lot of other things that make SQL complex.
Overall, I love this conversation and would like to continue. I am excited to hear some of your edge cases. Maybe we can even setup some time and talk face to face: https://calendly.com/ahmed-narrator/30min-1
The main thing this product strikes me as is "The ETL tool that understands your business". Whereas the domain language of most ETL tools is at the level of DW technologies (rows, columns, schemas, facts, dimensions, indexes, join algos, views, dags, orchestration schedules), the domain language of Narrator is at the level of the business (activities, customers, relationships, spend, etc). In a way it's sort of similar to the old convention over configuration religious war. I could see companies using Narrator for the 80% of ETL that is just plain table stakes in order to compete nowadays and offloading most of the definition and minor customization of this ETL to less technical folks. And maybe in parallel the data engineers would use plain old code to do the last 20% of ETL that is truly proprietary and specific to the business.
Not sure if my biased initial reading of your pitch was off but it seemed like you were focusing heavily on addressing the pain points of the star schema. I've found that most people fall into two camps: either they don't care at all about the kimball star schema world and they're just loading tables however they see fit into their warehouse or they are willing to go to their grave defending the star schema and its variants. In either case, I don't think you gain much by positioning yourself as the antidote to the star schema. I think you could capture customers in both camps by focusing instead on the fact that your ETL tool has a deep understanding of how companies that rely heavily on a web presence work. I think this would also better align you with the ability to increase your customers' revenue as opposed to optimizing engineering/infrastructure concerns which is an easier sell.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. I'm going to shoot you a short email in case you want to connect.
It's the backlinks that allow it to rank. Getting them requires a lot of knowledge & work, like publishing articles on Medium or receiving links on HN.
Unsurprisingly, it looks like the creator is an SEO-expert with years of experience and dozens of projects.