Uni-Life

Overview

Uni-Life is an ed-tech platform that connects students with events, communities, and opportunities.

Most people see the public-facing features — the event listings, the groups, the announcements. My biggest wins here didn't happen on-screen. They were behind the scenes: automating tedious work, fixing data headaches, and freeing up the team to focus on engaging students.

The Problem

When I joined, the core app was running fine but the ops team was spending hours on:

• Manually entering group data into Firebase (no back office tool existed)
• Exporting and cleaning email lists for the mailing system
• Fixing recurring data inconsistencies between systems

Each batch could take 1–2 hours, slowing everyone down.

My Approach

🛠 Automated CSV Imports

Built a Firebase Cloud Function to take CSV uploads and:

• Validate data
• Map fields automatically
• Handle duplicates

Turned hours of manual entry into minutes.

🔄 Mailing List Sync

Added a trigger to auto-sync user details to our mailing provider — no more manual exports.

🧹 Data Cleanup Scripts

Created internal scripts to batch-update content, reconcile mismatched data, and keep Firebase clean.

The Impact

• 80% less manual work for the ops team
• Fewer human errors
• More time for the team to focus on students instead of admin work

And none of it required adding a single new public-facing feature.

Lessons Learned

This reminded me:

• The most impactful changes aren't always visible to users
• Internal tools can directly boost a product's success
• Automation is a force multiplier. The earlier you add it, the bigger the payoff