Getting them moved in.
WHY IT MATTERS MORE THAN IT SEEMS
Existing data elsewhere is the largest barrier to adoption.
WHAT TO SUPPORT
Spreadsheet upload, always Direct import from common competitors, where volume justifies
WHAT THE PROCESS SHOULD BE
Upload Map columns to fields Validate and report problems Preview Import Report the result
WHY A PREVIEW
Importing thousands of wrong rows is worse than not importing.
WHAT VALIDATION SHOULD CATCH
Missing required values Wrong formats Duplicates References that do not resolve
WHAT TO DO WITH PROBLEM ROWS
Report them specifically, with the row number and the reason.
WHY SPECIFICALLY
A message saying the import failed is useless.
WHAT TO ALLOW
Importing the valid rows and fixing the rest.
WHAT TO BUILD FOR LARGE IMPORTS
Background processing Progress Notification on completion
WHAT TO PROVIDE AFTERWARDS
The ability to undo an import.
WHY
Mistakes happen, and manual cleanup of thousands of records is not feasible.
WHAT TO DO FOR EARLY CUSTOMERS
Import it for them.
WHY
It removes the barrier entirely and teaches you what the tool must handle.
WHAT TO WATCH
Character encoding, which corrupts names silently.
