Before you begin the data migration process, it’s essential to understand the data you will be exporting from Intercom. Familiarize yourself with the types of data available (e.g., user data, conversation data, tags) and how they are structured. This understanding will help you efficiently plan the export and transformation process.

Intercom allows you to export data manually through its data export feature. Login to your Intercom account, navigate to the reporting section or data export tools, and select the specific datasets you want to export. Choose a suitable format for export, such as CSV or JSON, since these are commonly used and easy to work with in data transformation.

To utilize DuckDB for storing and querying your data, ensure it is installed on your system. You can install DuckDB by downloading the appropriate binary for your operating system from the [DuckDB website](https://duckdb.org/), or you can use package managers like `pip` for Python environments by running `pip install duckdb`.

Once you have exported the data from Intercom, inspect the files to ensure they are complete and accurate. Depending on the format (CSV/JSON), you may need to clean or transform the data. For CSV files, ensure that they have proper headers and consistent data types. For JSON files, ensure they are well-structured and can be navigated or flattened if necessary.

Open a DuckDB session and create tables that match the structure of the data you exported from Intercom. Use SQL commands to define the tables with appropriate column names and data types. This step ensures that the data will fit into the DuckDB schema without issues. Example:
```sql
CREATE TABLE users (
user_id INTEGER,
name VARCHAR,
email VARCHAR,
created_at TIMESTAMP
);
```

Load the exported and prepared data into DuckDB. For CSV files, you can use the `COPY` command in DuckDB to import data directly:
```sql
COPY users FROM 'path/to/users.csv' (AUTO_DETECT TRUE);
```
For JSON files, you may need to write a script in Python or another language to parse the JSON and insert it into DuckDB using SQL commands, as direct JSON import may not be natively supported.

After importing the data into DuckDB, run queries to validate that the data has been imported correctly. Check for consistency, completeness, and accuracy by comparing a sample of the imported data against the original data from Intercom. This step ensures that no data was lost or corrupted during the migration process.

By following these steps, you can effectively move data from Intercom to DuckDB without relying on third-party connectors or integrations.