Paradime Marketplace — Krunal Prajapati

Brief

Paradime makes a cloud code editor for dbt, the SQL framework analytics teams use to model data. The editor had no help in context, and no place for users to share their work.

The brief: help analytics engineers get guidance, publish their work and find extensions inside the editor, in as few clicks as possible.

Slogs

Snippets that span several files, and use dbt’s folder layout to apply themselves.

Extensions

Integrations and plugins, such as error detection like Intellisense.

Q&A

Questions about code, answered by the community, like Stack Overflow.

Threads

Open discussion, like Twitter, to bring more users and contributors in.

Dimes

A currency for contributing. Earn them with slogs and plugins, or buy more.

Users

We read through the dbt Slack community and talked to people who had built pipelines with dbt. Three groups came out of it.

Career switchers

Product analysts and data scientists moving into analytics engineering

Frustrations

Reading dbt and building pipelines
Debugging with no help in context
Little feedback from the community

Goals

Upskill, and move into data engineering roles
A forum that answers quickly
Demo projects across use cases

Experienced engineers

35 and over, fluent in dbt modelling

Frustrations

Compliance and data security rules
Coordinating analysts, engineers and consultants
Few tools that integrate well

Goals

Bring dbt into their company’s stack
Pipelines that stay compliant
Talk about what’s new in dbt

New engineers

18 to 25, recent graduates

Frustrations

Onboarding to SQL after Python
Debugging across many files
Finding help, and use cases in other domains

Goals

A setup with no roadblocks
A forum for code questions
Learn how pipelines fit together

Most of them valued data integrity and security above all. Many were also uneasy with version control, though dbt projects rely on it.

Help today

Help for dbt lives outside Paradime, in dbt’s Slack, its forum and Stack Overflow. An engineer leaves the editor, finds a snippet, then edits each file by hand. The goal was to reverse that flow.

The PRD’s main shift: help starts inside the editor, and the dbt community comes to Paradime.

15,000

People in the dbt Slack community in mid-2021

100,000

dbt Community members by 2024

30,000

Companies using dbt every week, 2024

Figures reported by dbt Labs: Series C coverage, 2021, and a 2024 job posting. Added for this page.

Goals

Help in context

Snippets, extensions and answers inside the Code IDE, with no setup.

A place to show work

Share and find slogs, extensions, templates and projects, and talk with peers.

Reverse the flow

Make Paradime the first stop for dbt users, instead of the dbt communities.

MVP 1: the community

Four parts, each reachable from the editor and from a community page.

Overview

Slogs and extensions help inside the editor. Forums and projects hold everything people share.

The marketplace and what sits under each part.

Slogs

A slog is an executable snippet whose change spans several files. Like a notebook, it mixes code with text. It follows dbt’s folder layout, so it knows which file each change belongs in.

Play mode opens each file in turn and highlights where the change goes, in the right order. View mode opens the .slog file itself.

1
Header
Name, description and author. The library shows these, with ratings and runs.
2
Text
Plain sentences between changes explain the why, as in a notebook.
3
Instructions
Each one names a folder, a file and the change. Their order is the order play mode follows.

A library

Paradime’s own slogs and the community’s, searchable from the editor.

Tested first

Every slog is tested before it joins the library, so it can’t change a project in ways nobody expected.

Made for dbt

Slogs work with dbt’s own parts: models, macros and the YAML files that tie them together.

Code help

One hotkey opens code help from anywhere in the editor. A question returns slogs and community answers together.

Code IDE main jaffle_shop Ask for code help⌘K 1,249 KP

1how do I switch from development to productionesc

Slogs 3 of 12

Switch to a production target

Jacob Jones3 files · 4 steps★ 4.8

ViewPlay

Separate dev and prod schemas

Jenny Wilson2 files · 2 steps★ 4.5

ViewPlay

Toggle the target with an environment variable

Arlene McCoy2 files · 3 steps★ 3.9

ViewPlay

Q&A 3 of 41

Run only against prod in CI, but dev locally?

Answered6 answerstargetsci

124votes

Different materialization per environment

Answered3 answersconfig

58votes

Prod schema names get a dbt_ prefix

2 answersmacros

17votes

↑↓move↵play⌘↵viewAsk the community4

1
One hotkeyOpens over any file. No click needed.
2
View or playRead the slog first, or run it straight away.
3
Answers from peopleQ&A results sit under slogs, with votes and tags.
4
AskIf nothing fits, the question goes to the community.

Where help comes from in the editor, from the PRD’s user flow.

Extensions

Integrations bring the tools Paradime already connects to into the editor. Plugins change the editor itself. The best are on by default: syntax highlighting, auto-indent, autocomplete like Copilot and documentation pop-ups like Intellisense.

Community plugins can be switched on in settings, at the user’s own risk. Tags tell integrations, interface changes and features like auto-indent apart.

Code IDE main jaffle_shop Ask for code help⌘K 1,249 KP

PluginsIntegrationsThemes

Search plugins

Installed by Paradime, on by default

Syntax highlighting

20/moLight★ 4.93.3M

Docs on hover

30/moMedium★ 4.72.1M

Autocomplete

40/moHeavy★ 4.61.8M

Recommended for this project

Auto-indent

20/moLight★ 4.82.9M

SQL lint rules

20/moCommunity · Experimental

Midnight theme

5 onceTheme★ 4.4

Dimes this month90 of 100 free

with customers as (
selec * from {{ ref('stg_customers') }} Quick fix: select
),
orders as (
select * from {{ ref('stg_orders') }}
),
customer_orders as (
select
customer_id,
min(order_date) as first_order,
max(order_date) as most_recent_order,
count(order_id) as number_of_orders
from orders
group by customer_id
)
select
customers.customer_id,
customers.first_name,
customers.last_name,
customer_orders.first_order,
customer_orders.most_recent_order,
coalesce(customer_orders.number_of_orders, 0) as number_of_orders
from customers
left join customer_orders using (customer_id)

Install or remove plugins to see the monthly dimes change.

Plugin costs are the PRD’s estimates: 20 dimes a month for a light plugin, 30 for a medium one, 40 for a heavy one, and 5 for a theme.

Community

The community page holds threads, Q&A, blogs, slogs, extensions and projects. It is one click from the home page and from the editor.

Q&A

Code questions with specific answers, improved over time, like Stack Overflow.

Threads

Talk about pipelines, dbt events and practice. Not for how-to questions.

Blogs

Paradime already wrote these. Now the community can too, for dimes.

Projects

Share a repository. Others can clone it and build something better.

Community Search slogs, extensions and questions⌘K 1,249+1 KP

Community challenge · 9 days left

Incremental models, done right

Publish a slog that sets up an incremental model with a merge strategy. The top three verified slogs share 3,000 dimes.

Join challenge214 joined2

Threads

182

How do you structure staging models for 40+ sources?

JWJenny WilsonExpert462h

Talk ideas for Coalesce this year

DRDevon LaneBuilder235h

Snapshots or incremental models for slowly changing dimensions?

AMArlene McCoyMentor311d

QuestionsAsk a question

A unique test fails only on the prod target

Answeredteststargets4 answers

Pass a var from dbt_project.yml into a macro

No answers yetmacrosjinja

Trending slogs

Switch to a production target★ 4.82.1k runs

Add surrogate keys with dbt_utils★ 4.71.6k runs

Incremental model with merge★ 4.6980 runs

Top contributorsMarch

1JW

Jenny WilsonExpert · 14 slogs

2,140

2JJ

Jacob JonesExpert · 9 plugins

1,870

3AM

Arlene McCoyMentor · 212 answers

1,315

1
Dime balanceAlways in view, one click from buying or earning more.
2
ChallengesParadime, partners or developers set a task and a prize.
3
Votes and ranksRanks come from what people publish, the votes they get and the help they give.
4
Straight to the editorA slog plays in the editor from the community page.

MVP 2: incentives

Rewards that keep people contributing, built on a currency called dimes.

Incentives

We borrowed from game design, with rewards that make taking up Paradime more fun. We grouped them into three kinds and called it ACE.

A · Activity

Ranks for what you make

Ranks come from slogs and extensions published, votes and help given. Top plugins move into the editor, and their makers earn dimes. At launch, the highest rank goes to known dbt voices.

C · Community

Rewards for helping others

Challenges and bug bounties from Paradime, partners and developers. Votes on feature requests. Dimes for tutorials and for referrals.

E · Expertise

Help with careers

Passes to Coalesce, the dbt Labs conference, for active members. Workshops and webinars with known dbt instructors.

Dimes

Dimes measure the compute an extension uses. Every user gets 100 a month. Contributions earn more, and more can be bought.

The dimes loop, from the PRD’s MVP 2 user flow.

Dimes a monthOne dime = US$0.10

ThemeOnce per theme100 free5$0.50

Light plugine.g. syntax highlighting20$2.00

Medium plugine.g. Intellisense pop-ups30$3.00

Heavy plugine.g. Copilot-like autocomplete40$4.00

One of each pluginLight, medium and heavy90$9.00

Estimated monthly use per seat, from the PRD. One of each kind of plugin fits inside the free 100.

Pricing

Past the free 100, users can build and earn: templates, projects, extensions and forum help all pay in dimes. Or they can pay. Subscriptions buy dimes in bulk at a lower rate, pay as you go has no commitment, and teams can share what they buy.

Settings Search settings 1,249 KP

Dimes

One dime is ten cents of compute. Your plan renews on April 1.

Share with teamBuy dimes

Balance

1,249

Worth US$124.90

80 left in plan1,169 earned

UltimateCurrent plan

400 dimes a month

$32/month

Used this month320 of 400

Extensions use your plan’s dimes first, then the ones you earned.

Ways to earn

Publish a slog or extensionPaid once it passes testing

Answer questionsWhen your answer is accepted

Challenges and bug bounties2 open now

Refer a friendYou both get dimes

Recent March

Slog verifiedSwitch to a production target

+150

Answer acceptedA unique test fails only on prod

+10

AutocompleteHeavy plugin, March

−40

Docs on hoverMedium plugin, March

−30

Plans

Basic

$19/mo

200 dimes a month

$9.50 per 100

Premium

$28/mo

300 dimes a month

$9.33 per 100

UltimateCurrent

$32/mo

400 dimes a month

$8.00 per 100

Pay as you go

$0.10/dime

No commitment

$10.00 per 100

Price of 100 dimes

Pay as you goNo commitment$10.00

Basic$19 for 200 a month$9.50−5%

Premium$28 for 300 a month$9.33−7%

Ultimate$32 for 400 a month$8.00−20%

Subscription plans for teams and companies, from the PRD. Bigger plans cost less per dime.

The plan

How we checked the design against the brief, and how Paradime could build, staff, measure and launch it.

Validation

The brief asked for as few clicks as possible. We counted them.

Clicks for highlighting, autocomplete and error marks. They are on by default.

Click to apply a quick fix.

0–1

Clicks to reach slogs and Q&A: a hotkey, or one click.

Click from the home page or the editor to the community.

Onboarding

Paradime’s own slogs work as tutorials for new users.

Security

Testing every slog before release protects teams that aren’t comfortable with version control.

A forum that answers

Threads, Q&A and slogs meet the goal all three groups shared.

Fewer errors

Autocomplete and docs on hover catch syntax mistakes as people type.

Roadmap

Phase one adds features to the editor and the community, to bring users in. Phase two adds incentives, to keep them.

Phase 1: acquisitionPhase 2: retention

2023

MarAprMayJun

Better Code IDEIntegrations, themes, plugins, slogs

4 months

MarketplaceShowcase, projects archive, feedback

3 months

Community and forumQ&A, threads, community blogs

1 month

DimesIncentives to contribute

2 months

Grading systemRanks from activity

2 months

Best community workVerified slogs and plugins move into the IDE

1 month

The MVP roadmap. The marketplace launches a month after the first editor features, with the forum alongside it.

Resources

We costed the plan against an estimated US$1.1 million in new annual recurring revenue, at about $300 to acquire each user.

Estimated annual cost, US$

Acquisition and onboarding300k

Skills, capacity and staffing180k

Administration and other100k

Data and technology, with R&D50k

Community marketingIncentives and outreach30k

Total60% of the new ARR660kof 1.1M

Community manager

Runs the community and its relationships.

Technical lead

Owns the tools and data systems behind it.

Member support

Answers questions, fixes issues and keeps the tone friendly.

The infrastructure the plan asked for. A private network links every part.

Metrics

For the experience as a whole we used Google’s HEART framework: one goal per letter, with the signals and metrics that show it.

Area

Goal

Signals

Metrics

HHappiness

Users find the marketplace easy to use, and unlike anything else

Referrals to other developers, positive feedbackNPS, customer effort score, satisfaction rating

EEngagement

Users enjoy it, and contribute

How often they post, upgrades to premium, time on the platformConversion rate, session length, MRR per unit, amplification rate

AAdoption

New users understand the new IDE features

New sign-ups, use of marketplace featuresSign-up rate, utilisation rate, task completion rate

RRetention

Users keep coming back

Repeat dime purchases, longer sessionsMonthly retention, churn rate, share of repeat users

TTask success

The IDE grows with the marketplace

More successful uploads, fewer user errorsSearch exit rate, drop-off, errors per user, payback period

For single features: monthly active users, daily use, time to resolution and bounce rate. Feature tagging records each click, hover and input. Segments group users by behaviour, and surveys go out to each segment, paid in dimes.

Launch

An open beta first, to bring in as many people as possible. Testers are split into groups that get different features in turns, so feedback comes in fast, feature by feature.

For companies

Paradime Aide

A user who brings Paradime into their team, and into their next company when they move. They know how to get past their own company’s barriers better than a sales team.

For individuals

Demo-led marketing

Early users build in public and bring their network, for dimes. Public votes pick the best work. It costs less than ads and reaches beyond developers.

Later versions

Trusted members help test and certify extensions. Developers sell code, themes and plugins, and Paradime takes a fee. The editor supports frameworks beyond dbt.

We also proposed training GPT-4 on the slog library, to write new slogs for questions nobody had answered yet, and to break complex questions into smaller ones.

Paradime has since built DinoAI, an AI co-pilot inside the Code IDE.

Source: Paradime documentation. Added for this page.

Outcome

Gold in the Paradime product challenge

Inter IIT Tech Meet 11.0, hosted by IIT Kanpur. The screens on this page are redrawn for this site from our original wireframes.

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