Turn data into a decision
Build a spreadsheet dashboard that answers a real work or money question and can be handed to someone else.
Summarize clean data with pivots or equivalent tools.
Design a restrained decision dashboard.
Audit formulas and document refresh steps.
Make the example fit your situation.
Choose a practice context. This choice does not ask for or save your age.
Use de-identified work or money data to build a dashboard someone else could refresh. Explain the decision, limits, and checks.
Test whether spreadsheet procedures transfer to a usable work product. A fresh-copy walkthrough reveals usability and documentation problems that routine self-review can miss.
Reuse your lesson work in the project. Optional videos and extended activities add time; these are planning estimates.
25 reading + 117 practice/checks + 80 additional project work + 25 weekly review
Do the work in this order
- 01
Write the decision question and define one row, one field, and one unique key before building.
- 02
Clean and validate a synthetic or de-identified dataset, preserving the raw source separately.
- 03
Create the analysis and a restrained dashboard with labels, dates, units, and control totals.
- 04
Open a fresh copy and follow only the written refresh steps—or ask a trusted person to try—and record every point of confusion.
A fresh-copy walkthrough can refresh the workbook without extra instructions, calculations reconcile to control totals, and the dashboard answers the stated decision question.
Complete the lesson sequence
Pass each lesson check and your lesson progress saves automatically. Return here to see your progress and work on the weekly project.
- 1spreadsheetAnalyze with pivot tablesStart
Why this lesson is here: Build three views of the same clean dataset to answer the decision question for your Week 7 workbook, and reconcile a result to the source.
- 2spreadsheetDesign a decision dashboardStart
Why this lesson is here: Arrange those views into a readable dashboard with the labels, dates, units, definitions, and limits needed to interpret the decision.
- 3spreadsheetAudit and hand offStart
Why this lesson is here: Check the workbook’s calculations and write refresh instructions, then follow them from a fresh copy and record any change you needed.
- 4businessChoose a problem using customer evidenceStart
Why this lesson is here: Analyze the supplied fictional café notes to practice identifying a concrete need and separating evidence from assumptions. Apply that method to your Week 8 money, employment, training, or income goal. No customer interviews are required.
- 5businessDesign an offer people understandStart
Why this lesson is here: Practice defining a clear result, scope, time limit, and cost before choosing your Week 8 action. For a job or training goal, apply this to the skill or work you want to demonstrate.
Repeat the refresh test from a fresh copy. If possible, ask a trusted person to try it and record where the written steps are unclear.
Decision-ready spreadsheet
A working workbook with clean data, an analysis, a dashboard, checks, and a read-me.
State the decision your workbook supports, the source and limits of the data, the three most important views, the control checks, and what another person must do to refresh it.
- Build one workbook around a named decision and state the limits of the source data.
- Keep a clean source table, 3 useful analytical views, and a labeled decision dashboard.
- Include control checks for totals, missing values, duplicate IDs, and formulas.
- Add a read-me and record a refresh from a fresh copy. Use the problem and offer lessons to frame your next action; a business launch is not required.
Answers one explicit decision
Calculations are auditable
Visuals use labels and honest scales
A new user can refresh the file