Definitely agree: come from a position of empathy for why the PM chose excel.
Spreadsheets offer a lot to PMs that tools like GitHub, JIRA simply can't:
- Bulk editing quickly
- Very high information density for getting a "bird's eye view"
- Excellent keyboard command support for fast navigation
- Formatting capabilities to add metadata (using colors, bolds, etc.)
- Flexibility to easily add columns for ad-hoc analysis
- Control over what information to show (via hidden columns & row filters)
- It's a 'least common denominator' product that can be shared with others across departments without fuss
- Ability to make things "look pretty" to enhance the perception of your work
- Editorial control -- to shift dates & language based on the intended audience
In short, the data governance you get from systems like GitHub and Jira are fantastic for keeping things from getting disorderly. But with all due respect to them (GitHub CEO Nat Friedman is an investor of ours), people working with data in these apps need speed & flexibility that only a spreadsheet can offer.
It was for this reason that my company pivoted. We discovered that users preferred working in spreadsheets, but they tried (and failed) to integrate data from Jira, Salesforce, HubSpot, and others.
We set out to build the world's first spreadsheet that was designed from the ground-up for working with integrated data. We wanted to cut out the third-party integrations & field mapping headaches.
If you'll pardon a little self promotion, check out our product: https://visor.us
Or (newly) here on the Atlassian marketplace:
https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1226209/visor-flexibl...
Your data could ultimately live in Jira, but the PM could get the spreadsheet capabilities they need. Feedback and ideas welcome.