monday CRM data import

TL;DR

Only 40% of users finished importing their data, and we were losing large deals because of it. I led a cross-functional redesign that raised completion to 92% and improved overall user experience by 22%.

Context

About 60% of monday.com users arrive from spreadsheets. Completing import strongly correlated with converting to paid. For mid-market and enterprise accounts, some with hundreds of thousands of contacts, import was a deal breaker.

Problem

• Only 40% of users completed the flow
• Low satisfaction, confusing UI and microcopy, slow performance
• No clear preview of the outcome before importing
• Heavy reliance on customer support

Role

I led Product, Engineering, and Customer Success through research, vision, and delivery. I ran interviews with enterprise users, benchmarked competitors, validated prototypes with real users, and aligned leadership on scope.

What we learned

1. Column mapping was the biggest friction point
2. Users wanted a preview of the outcome
3. Most competitors’ flows were overly complex

What didn’t work

Our first version, released to 10% of users, focused on auto-mapping with animations plus a file preview. The preview looked like monday.com, not like a spreadsheet, and confused people. Completion did not move.

Solution

• A clearer entry point and less clutter
• A spreadsheet-style preview with a stepper
• Smarter auto-mapping, plus custom mapping per column with visual context
• Mapping that handles very large tables
• Rewritten microcopy
• Background processing, with a notification when the import finishes

Impact

Metric	Before	After
Completion rate	40%	92%
Overall user experience	Baseline	+22%

Validated with an A/B test and released gradually to 100% of users.

Takeaways

• Gradual release gives you the data to get it right
• The right words reduce stress more than any animation
• Delight that distracts is not delight