Pick the Right Sources

Turn a real workflow into a small, stable schema.

Bad sources create bad pages. Start with reality. Then simplify.

A quick method

1

List the nouns

Write the nouns in your workflow.

Example (task tracking):

• Task

• Project

• Person

• Comment

2

Pick the “thing you manage”

Choose the noun people create and edit.

That’s your first source.

Example: Tasks.

3

Split when rules differ

Split into a new source when:

• The fields don’t apply to every row.

• The lifecycle is different.

• You need many rows per parent.

Example:

• Comments should not be a text field on Tasks.

4

Keep the first version narrow

Avoid modeling everything.

Make the smallest schema that supports the core loop.

You can expand later.