Start building - Docs

Now that you understand Faraday's flow, it's time to get started on your first project.

The most helpful question to ask yourself is: if I could predict customer behavior, what would I have my systems do differently, and where?

Example: lead scoring

Let's say you wanted to have sales reps call the best leads first (leads with the highest likelihood to close). You'd want those predictions to live inside your CRM, like Salesforce, so you could incorporate them into your sales automation workflows.

You could use the recipe builder to assemble a recipe for you. This guides you step by step through the various parts of the flow you'll need to deliver this use case.

Or you could use the How to → Use cases section in the nav at the left to find our lead scoring docs. These docs help you determine if you have the necessary dependencies, with links to configure anything missing along the way.

Start with CSV

We find it's generally easier to start with CSV files on both ends:

Connect your data to Faraday using CSV files
Deploy your predictions to CSV files

Then, once you've got your configuration completed, replace the CSV dataset and CSV deployment with new ones that connect directly to your systems via connections.

Shortcut: sample data

If you just want to kick the tires, consider using our sample data CSV files, which contain real behavioral patterns exhibited by representative—but synthetic—people living in the imaginary 51st U.S. state of Farazona.

Build how you want

All of Faraday's documentation gives you the option of building with our API or using our Dashboard UI: They both work the same way: nearly everything you can do in the API is available in the Dashboard, and vice versa. (The Dashboard runs on top of the API.)

Especially at first, some users find it easier to get started with the Dashboard, uploading CSV files with drag-and-drop, using helpful dropdowns to map identity columns, etc. Every screen on the Dashboard gives you equivalent API queries, so you can dabble with point-and-click and then move the API to scale without missing a beat.

Now onto the final section of our getting started guide.