After publishing my first JetBrains plugin, I expected the main challenge to be getting users.
It wasn’t.
The Real Problem Wasn’t Features
Within the first few days, the plugin got ~80 installs.
But something felt off.
No feedback.
No reviews.
No real engagement.
Turns out, the issue wasn’t missing features.
It was something much simpler:
👉 The tool window wasn’t showing after installation.
Which meant users installed the plugin…
…and couldn’t actually use it.
Fixing One Small Issue Changed Everything
After fixing that (v1.0.3), things immediately improved.
People could finally:
- open the tool
- load datasets
- actually try the features
It was a reminder that:
The first-use experience matters more than feature depth.
What I Built (Quick Context)
The plugin is a small tool for preprocessing data directly inside JetBrains IDEs.
Instead of:
- jumping to Excel or Jupyter
- writing quick pandas scripts
- switching back to the IDE
You can:
- load CSV, Excel, or JSON files
- inspect and clean data visually
- generate pandas code from your steps
Early Feedback
Once people could actually use it, I started getting real feedback.
One suggestion stood out:
👉 “Add Excel-style sorting and filtering to the preview”
It makes sense.
A lot of the workflow is just:
- exploring the dataset
- spotting issues
- understanding structure
Improving that part would make the tool much more useful.
What Changed Next
Based on feedback, I’ve already:
- fixed the onboarding issue (tool window visibility)
- added Excel (.xlsx) and JSON support (v1.1.0)
And next up:
- improving the data preview experience
What I Learned
A few takeaways from this:
1. Installs don’t mean usage
People can install your tool and never actually use it.
2. Small UX issues can block everything
A missing UI element completely stopped users from getting value.
3. Feedback is everything early on
One good user can give you direction for your next version.
Still Early
This is still an early version, and I’m actively improving it.
If you work with data preprocessing, ETL pipelines, or just deal with messy datasets regularly, I’d really appreciate your thoughts.
👉 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/31226-data-preprocessor/
Even small feedback helps at this stage.
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