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# The spreadsheet that outlived three tools
- URL: https://azimuth.aftertype.studio/the-spreadsheet-that-outlived-three-tools/
- Published: 2026-09-24T12:24:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T10:44:14.000Z
- Description: We bought three products to replace one spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is still here, and it finally explained why.
- Author: Sam Okafor
- Tags: Tools, #Import 2026-10-06 19:29

In four years we bought three different tools to replace the same spreadsheet. Each one was better at what the spreadsheet did. Each one was gone within a year. The spreadsheet is still open on my second screen.

The reason, once we looked, was simple: the spreadsheet did something none of the tools were sold for. Anyone could add a column. When a new question came up, someone added a column, and the answer lived right next to everything else.

We stopped trying to replace it. Instead we write down, once a quarter, which columns nobody has touched - and delete them. It is the cheapest tool decision we have ever made.