Ephemeral by default: designing a product that forgets

Trying a dashboard should not require a setup call, a connector, or an account wall. Upload a spreadsheet and begin exploring it right away.

Guest sessions are ephemeral: they expire after 30 minutes of inactivity. When you are ready to return to a dashboard, create an account to save it privately as a Project.

The distinction keeps experimentation lightweight while preserving a clear path for work that needs to persist.

Two very different kinds of upload

Most tools ask you to commit before you’ve seen any value: create an account, connect a data source, wait for a sync. Sheet2Chart splits the decision in two.

Guest sessions are for trying something out. Upload a file, get a dashboard, ask it questions — no account, no commitment. If you walk away, the session and the file expire on their own after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Projects are for work you want back. Create an account, and the same dashboard is saved privately until you delete it.

Why “forgetting” is a feature

A guest upload that lingered forever would be a liability with no upside — data sitting on a server nobody asked to keep. Expiring it by default means trying the product carries none of the usual weight of “what happens to my file now?”

The account wall only shows up once you’ve decided the dashboard is worth keeping — not before.