How ClickUp adopted a FinOps strategy for Snowflake before costs ballooned
ClickUp is a cloud-based project management software with workplace collaboration tools in a single platform, offering tools serving development, human resources, marketing, and business operations. The ClickUp platform is used by organizations such as Spotify, IBM, and Netflix.
Project Management
900 employees
San Diego, California, USA
2017
Michael ReveloManager of data and analytics engineering at ClickUp
Challenges
ClickUp operates Snowflake as their central source of truth, supporting hundreds of users across data engineering, marketing, RevOps, and sales teams. They built homegrown cost monitoring using open-source dbt packages and custom Hex dashboards, which became time-intensive to maintain as scale increased. The team wanted granular visibility down to the dbt model level without dedicating engineering resources to building and maintaining internal dashboards.
Solution
SELECT provided the comprehensive cost visibility that ClickUp's homegrown solution aimed to achieve, with a quick & straightforward setup. The platform's automated insights eliminated the manual legwork of cost analysis while enabling granular monitoring down to individual dbt models. Weekly Slack digests created a macro-to-micro approach for efficient, ongoing cost management which has kept their costs in check ever since.
Results
- Established proactive cost management culture where every data project includes cost evaluation component
- Enabled systematic optimization through automated insights including incrementalizing expensive dbt models and warehouse consolidation
- Reduced time spent on cost management through automated insights and self-service visibility
- Identified and eliminated wasteful patterns like Census live syncs running unnecessarily on batch data
Snowflake became the central source of truth across ClickUp's entire data operation
ClickUp operates a modern data stack with Snowflake serving as the definitive source of truth across the company. The platform supports hundreds of users including data engineers, analysts, and business stakeholders who are able to run direct queries after completing ClickUp's homegrown SQL training course.
Beyond direct query access, Snowflake powers ClickUp's entire operational ecosystem. Census enables reverse ETL to push data from Snowflake to power marketing campaigns, RevOps workflows, and sales operations across tools like Salesforce, Pocus, and various ESP platforms.
“It's viewed as the source of truth across the company and we have a ton of non data team members within Snowflake that actually run queries and schedule jobs.”
Michael Revelo
Manager of data and analytics engineering at ClickUp
This warehouse-first approach means that changes made in Snowflake propagate throughout ClickUp's entire operational infrastructure, making cost management and optimization critical for both data platform stability and business operations.
Homegrown cost monitoring hit maintenance limits as complexity grew
Before SELECT, ClickUp built internal cost monitoring using open-source dbt monitoring packages. Using this metadata, the team built custom cost monitoring dashboards in Tableau and later Hex.
“We were using the open source dbt package heavily and pulling all the metadata into Snowflake and essentially showcasing that in Tableau and then eventually Hex.”
Michael Revelo
Manager of data and analytics engineering at ClickUp
While the homegrown solution provided basic visibility, it became increasingly difficult to maintain as ClickUp's Snowflake usage scaled. The team recognized they needed a more sustainable approach that wouldn't require ongoing engineering investment.
“We were basically trying to build a homegrown SELECT at the time, and then I was like, I don't want to sync engineering resources into this. Let's just go get SELECT”
Michael Revelo
Manager of data and analytics engineering at ClickUp
Proactive philosophy drove SELECT adoption before costs became problematic
ClickUp's adoption of SELECT was driven by a proactive cost management philosophy rather than reactive cost problems. Michael recognized the importance of establishing proper cost monitoring infrastructure before issues emerged.
“I know this is early and we want to run 100 miles an hour, but let's set proper cost monitoring up now so we don't bite ourselves later when costs get out of control.”
Michael Revelo
Manager of data and analytics engineering at ClickUp
This forward-thinking approach aimed to prevent the common scenario where finance suddenly demands cost cuts for critical infrastructure that teams can't afford to eliminate.
Weekly Slack digests enable efficient macro-to-micro cost monitoring
SELECT transformed ClickUp's cost management approach through automated weekly Slack digests that provide high-level cost trending with the ability to drill down when needed.
“One of the most helpful cost rituals we've setup from SELECT is the weekly spend digest sent to Slack. I can start high level and ensure things are in check. If not, I can very quickly drill down into specific workloads which may have driven the cost spike and remediate them before they become a bigger issue.”
Michael Revelo
Manager of data and analytics engineering at ClickUp
This systematic approach prevents wasted time on micro-optimizations while ensuring no significant cost increases go unnoticed. When alerts indicate cost growth, the team can quickly identify whether issues stem from warehouse optimization needs, user behavior, or dbt model inefficiencies.
Automated insights identified multiple optimization opportunities
SELECT's visibility immediately surfaced several cost optimization opportunities that ClickUp's homegrown solution had missed. One major discovery involved Census configurations where marketing teams had set up live syncs for audiences despite ClickUp's batch data processing.
“Census has this concept of live syncs and so they were having these audiences run continuously, even though the upstream data was batch. SELECT surfaced that the jobs were running more frequently than necessary, and we were able to quickly tune the schedule for an immediate, major cost savings win.”
Michael Revelo
Manager of data and analytics engineering at ClickUp
The team also identified users forgetting to switch back from larger warehouses after ad hoc analysis work and opportunities for warehouse consolidation across tools with similar usage patterns.
Additional optimizations included incrementalizing expensive dbt models and switching table types from permanent to transient for appropriate use cases.
Cost awareness became embedded in every data project
Perhaps the most significant cultural change was embedding cost considerations into every data project and decision.
“Every project now has a cost component to it. For example, when we're running AI projects, we have a framework to test the plethora of models. And we're like, okay, what's confidence of this model relative to cost?”
Michael Revelo
Manager of data and analytics engineering at ClickUp
SELECT's visibility created a culture where team members proactively think about how their actions impact costs and feel accountable for their Snowflake usage.
Looking ahead: Managing costs through infrastructure transformation
As ClickUp prepares for major infrastructure changes including real-time data ingestion, Iceberg adoption, and team expansion, SELECT will serve as the foundation for managing cost growth alongside business growth.
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