Skip to content

Real-World Use Cases

dbt-nexus isn't just about building better dashboards - it's about making your data operationally useful for sales, support, and growth teams. Here are real examples of how we use dbt-nexus at SlideRule Analytics.

Read the full story: Dbt-Nexus - Data Beyond Dashboards

The Problem: Scattered Customer Data

Like most companies, our customer data was spread across many tools:

  • Gmail for email communications
  • Google Calendar for meetings
  • Stripe for payments and subscriptions
  • Our Shopify app for usage data
  • Google Analytics 4 for attribution

When a customer emailed support, we had to manually search across multiple tools just to find out how much they were paying us. This is exactly what dbt-nexus solves.

Complete Customer Timeline

With dbt-nexus, we now have a unified timeline that merges all data sources into a single view showing everything we know about a customer and their company.

For example, for a customer named Lewis from Hollywood Farms, we can see:

  • Emails exchanged with our team (Gmail)
  • Invoices and payment history (Stripe)
  • Meetings and calls (Google Calendar)
  • App usage and setup progress (Custom app data)
  • Website analytics and attribution (Google Analytics 4)

All in chronological order, with proper identity resolution connecting Lewis across all systems.

Operational Applications

1. Timeline App for Support & Sales

We built a lightweight app that reads directly from dbt-nexus tables and shows events by person, group, and data source.

Impact: Support and sales teams can instantly see a customer's complete history instead of searching multiple tools.

2. Daily Updates Email

We get an automated email every day highlighting the most important events that happened at the company.

Impact: Leadership stays informed of key customer activities without manual reporting.

3. Up-to-Date Email Marketing

We push the persons table into Customer.io, ensuring we always have current email lists with proper segmentation.

Impact: Marketing campaigns use up-to-date customer data instead of stale exports.

4. Abandoned Setup Notifications

We automatically detect incomplete app setups and notify our team to reach out personally.

Impact: Improved onboarding completion rates through timely, personalized outreach.

5. AI-Powered Customer Context

We're integrating AI tools with nexus data to provide faster, more personalized customer interactions.

Impact: AI tools have complete customer context for better recommendations and support.

6. Metrics and Dashboards

All our business metrics are built on top of the standardized nexus tables.

Impact: Consistent metrics across all reporting tools, faster dashboard development.

Why the Data Warehouse?

Many tools promise "360-degree customer views" but fail because they require you to use their platform for everything, forever - and nobody does that.

Advantages of the Data Warehouse Approach:

  1. Full Historical Data: Pull complete history from any source, not just future data
  2. No Vendor Lock-in: Your data stays under your control
  3. Universal Integration: Any tool can read from your warehouse
  4. Source Flexibility: Add or change tools without rebuilding integrations

Source-Agnostic Design

dbt-nexus works with any data source because it focuses on structure (events, persons, groups) rather than source.

Adding New Sources is Fast:

  • Gmail: ~1 hour to add email data
  • Google Calendar: ~1 hour for meeting data
  • Stripe: ~1 hour for payment events
  • Custom App Data: ~1 hour per data type

This operational flexibility lets you try new tools without worrying about lengthy integrations.

The "Headless CRM" Concept

dbt-nexus functions as a headless CRM - providing the data structure and intelligence of a CRM without forcing you into a specific interface or workflow.

Your teams can:

  • Use the tools they prefer
  • Access complete customer context anywhere
  • Build custom applications on top of clean, structured data
  • Integrate with AI and automation tools

Key Success Factors

1. Events as the Foundation

Everything becomes an event with a timestamp, making it easy to answer "what happened when?" across any data source.

2. Identity Resolution

Graph-based algorithms stitch together identifiers (email, phone, user ID) across sources to create unified person and group profiles.

3. Timeline-Based Thinking

Focus on when things happened, not just current state. This enables better customer understanding and predictive capabilities.

Getting Started

The fastest way to see value from dbt-nexus:

  1. Start with 2-3 key data sources (email, payments, and your core product)
  2. Build a simple timeline view for your support team
  3. Add sources incrementally as you see value
  4. Integrate with your existing tools rather than replacing them

Results

dbt-nexus has become the central piece of our company's operating system, enabling us to:

  • Provide faster, more informed customer support
  • Close more sales with complete customer context
  • Reduce churn through proactive outreach
  • Build better products using comprehensive usage data

Want help building your own dbt-nexus instance? Contact us for consultation and implementation support.