On December 5, 2022, Google approved the publishing of my Google Sheets add-on Forecast Method in their Google Workspace Marketplace. Forecast Method is a forecasting tool that automates the calculations needed for forecasting various business KPIs such as visits, leads, sales, etc. It can also help with tracking marketing spend and overall pacing. Since I spend a lot of time forecasting leads, meetings and opportunities, and managing all of this against a marketing budget, the creation of this tool, if anything, would help me save a few hours every month.
Reflecting on the journey to create this app, it took such a considerable amount of time to figure everything out. From the development perspective (in which I had a lot of help) and understanding the whole process of creating a Google Sheets add-on. Let’s just say juggling a busy job, training for a marathon, parenting two little ones and developing an app meant many days going into the wee hours with limited amounts of sleep.
Regardless, it was definitely a fun adventure though since I learned what it took to go from an idea to something tangible. I’ve also learned that just because you created something, your go-live date is basically Day 1 since now you have to figure out how to market and promote your app which isn’t necessarily an easy thing since you’re using your own time & money vs. a company’s resources.
I hope that you all will try my app. It’s free to try and doesn’t require a credit card or anything. Would love any feedback you may all have.