A year of helping families before and after a death – my top 5 reflections

A year after launching After A Death I've helped hundreds of families around the world through some of life's toughest moments. Here are my top 5 reflections, including my worst moment.

Tom Hiskey

In January 2025, after many months of planning and preparation, I launched After A Death.

A year on and I've made over 1,000 sales, received 60+ 5 star reviews, and, best of all, I've helped hundreds of families around the world through some of life's toughest moments.

Here are my top reflections from the last year, including my worst moment.

1 – I've been humbled by the wonderful feedback

After A Death is a proper passion project, not a way to make a quick buck. I've poured hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours into making the spreadsheets and guides as clear and helpful as possible.

Even so, when I launched, I didn't know for sure how they would be received.

So it's been immensely rewarding to hear how I've helped people around the world through tough times.

Some comments from customers include:

Made easy work of recording assets, debts, costs and financial details as an Executor following the death of my Mother recently. Took some of the pain out of keeping records for probate, inheritance tax and accounting purposes.

We genuinely had no idea where to start and this spreadsheet has been a godsend

This little kit changed my life. It look all the information swirling around in my head and put it into one easy to use location. Thanks SO much for sharing your expertise and providing something so affordable and easy to use!

I know what I do is a relatively small part of end of life planning, arranging a funeral or dealing with a death – there's so much on people's shoulders that a spreadsheet can't solve. But I'm proud that I've taken away some of the pain and complexity for families.

Every time I get a positive review it makes all the time and effort worthwhile.

2 – Listening to customers makes better products

Gathering and acting on customer feedback is not a new idea for me – I've been a product designer for 10 years, and user research is a vital part of my role.

Over the last year, acting on customer feedback has been super important.

I've released a number of updates to the spreadsheets, all based on learnings from users.

For example:

Early on, some purchasers of the Google Sheets version were confused by the process for creating their copy. I worked hard to simplify the process and I improved the step-by-step guidance in the Get Started guide.
A number of customers requested a sheet for distributions, to track gifts and transfers to beneficiaries. I already had a sense that this was a useful feature, and the comments from customers confirmed it. So I designed the new sheet and added it to the next version.
When I launched the Before Death spreadsheet for end of life planning, some visitors to the shop were confused by the difference between that spreadsheet and the After Death spreadsheet. I listened to the comments and clarified the purpose of the spreadsheets and the wording of the listing.

3 – My worst moment: a temporary 1 star review

Early in 2025, when the shop had just a handful of reviews, I woke up one morning to see a customer had left a 1 star rating. I was gutted. I read it carefully. The customer was upset that the structure of the spreadsheet wasn't editable – the sheets were locked down, which meant they couldn't move them around, change the names and add their own sheets.

I had done this because I assumed customers wouldn't want to make those kind of changes, and if I locked it down it would prevent users from accidentally deleting a sheet.

I was wrong, and the customer was right. I got in touch and thanked them for the review, listened to their thoughts, and provided them with an unlocked version of the spreadsheet. I then removed the restrictions for all future customers.

I didn't ask them to change their rating, but, luckily for me, they were so pleased with my helpful follow-up that they changed their review to 5 stars. Their amended review read:

The best customer service experience I have had with any company. I highly recommend.

One bad review isn't the end of the world, but I was so pleased that I could learn from the mistake and help the customer make the most of the spreadsheet.

4 – Helping families with probate, funerals and end-of-life planning has been hugely rewarding

I'd thought about doing something like After A Death for years.

Having worked as a lawyer in wills and probate, and a designer in legal tech, I had a strong feeling that simple, low cost solutions could make a huge difference to people who need a helping hand before or after a death.

But I'd never done anything quite like this, so I was unsure…

Could I make spreadsheets that are genuinely helpful?
How could I sell them?
Would anyone buy them?
How would I find dealing with customers?

Bit by bit, I tackled the challenges. I've worked hard and made mistakes.

I've had customers around the world (the US, Canada, UK, New Zealand, Australia and beyond). I've had 60+ 5 star reviews and many heartwarming comments.

A year on, I can look back and say that it has been an immensely rewarding experience.

5 – Probate and estate planning tools for professionals – just getting started!

As well as helping families direct over the last year, I've been super pleased to provide my professional license to a handful of legal professionals.

This has proved to be yet another helpful learning curve – hearing comments and questions from professionals has helped me improve the offering. Being able to help families through their trusted advisers is a wonderful opportunity to support more people before or after a death.

On a related note, a number of customers have told me that they used the spreadsheet to get their affairs in order before handing over to a legal professional – and when the professional saw the spreadsheet, they were amazed and impressed! It's a confidence boost to gain validation from professionals who are dealing with estate planning and probate every day.

Dealing with death – plans for 2026 and beyond

After A Death doesn't stop here! I have plans to improve the spreadsheets and launch new products in 2026, so I can help more families during life's toughest moments.

To all my customers so far, thank you so much for your support, feedback and positive feedback – I'm humbled that I've been able to help so many people around the world in some small way.