One reusable SQL query that replaced days of engineering turnaround

Problem

Enterprise merchants with analytical needs regularly asked for data the default UI couldn’t hand them in usable form — for example, a per-affiliate list of referred customers with Stripe customer IDs, conversion data, and emails. The UI could export it, but only as an everything-included dump the merchant then had to clean up themselves.

Finding

A standardized, reusable query — not a bespoke one per request — could serve the whole class of “custom data the UI won’t shape for you” asks.

Resolution

I wrote reusable PostgreSQL queries (run through Metabase) that return the requested data pre-shaped, delivered to the merchant as a clean CSV via the helpdesk or email.

Impact

The same request routed to Engineering took 24–48 hours; self-served through Metabase it takes about 10 minutes, with complex requests handled within the day. These come in 5–10 times a week from enterprise customers.