u/matchaconsulting

Don't: think in terms of cells.

Do: think in terms of records and fields.

In Airtable, a record is one line item in a table. It represents one of those "things" that live in your table. So if you have a table called "Projects", each record is a Project.

The fields of that table are the attributes of the project. The primary field, most simply, the name of the project, is like the noun. All the additional fields are like adjectives.

For instance, a record with primary field "Website Upgrade" might have fields like "Due Date" and "Status".

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Don't: make random tables like "tabs" in a spreadsheet

Do: link related tables to model real-world relationships

In spreadsheets, sometimes tabs are made for new projects, or new years, or basically anything. In Airtable, tables have a real purpose.

They're home for one kind of data. Like a folder in a filing cabinet.

A "Projects" table should have records and fields for attributes on your projects.

A "Tasks" table should have records and fields for attributes of tasks.

Then, use a Linked Record field to link them together. When each Project record is linked to its children Task records, now you've created a relationship between those tables that reflects the actual relationship between projects and tasks.

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Don't: treat the data layer as a UI to "do the work"

Do: use Interfaces to support your actual workflows

In the world of spreadsheets, there's really no UI on there. You create a table or a list of rows/columns and trust everyone to fill stuff out correctly.

Even with a variety of Views in the Airtable Data layer, we can still do better with Interfaces.

Interfaces is where you can show specific fields, to specific people, in a specific order, to better support the step 1, step 2,...Step n of your actual workflows.

For instance: click on a project, see its children tasks, update the completion status on a task, right there from within the project. This is instead of having to click around from table to table finding the right task. It actually supports the workflow.

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I hope this quick overview was helpful! Feel free to comment or DM with any questions.

- Jonathan

Hey everyone, I wanted to introduce myself to the community. Spent the last 4.5 years at Airtable, first as an Implementation Specialist (now called Delivery Consultant) and then as a founding member of the Forward Deployed Engineer team. I worked with our largest enterprise customers, like Amazon, Cisco, Warner Bros, Nike, and more.

Before that, I spent almost eight years at Hulu where I became a massive Airtable fan, nerd, and power user.

If you've ever come to one of the Airtable AI accelerators or in-person events, you may even have met me or seen me present.

In the past, I've lurked here and even posted here and there under my other username(s), but now that I've started my own agency, Matcha Consulting, I wanted to re-introduce myself formally.

Looking forward to connecting with you all here and participating in the threads.

You can always DM me if you have any questions as well. I'm LA-based but my clients are global.

Happy building!

Hey everyone, I wanted to introduce myself to the community. Spent the last 4.5 years at Airtable, first as an Implementation Specialist (now called Delivery Consultant) and then as a founding member of the Forward Deployed Engineer team. I worked with our largest enterprise customers, like Amazon, Cisco, Warner Bros, Nike, and more.

Before that, I spent almost eight years at Hulu where I became a massive Airtable fan, nerd, and power user.

If you've ever come to one of the Airtable AI accelerators or in-person events, you may even have met me or seen me present.

In the past, I've lurked here and even posted here and there under my other username(s), but now that I've started my own agency, Matcha Consulting, I wanted to re-introduce myself formally.

Looking forward to connecting with you all here and participating in the threads.

You can always DM me if you have any questions as well. I'm LA-based but my clients are global.

Happy building!