What you will be able to do
- Clean a raw export into a tidy table with documented, repeatable steps
- Build summaries with pivot tables, lookups and the handful of functions that cover most analysis
- Use AI assistants to write formulas, explain data and draft analysis, with checks that catch their errors
- Run cohort, funnel and trend analyses that answer real operational questions
- Present findings as a one-page memo and a dashboard that decision-makers actually read
- Avoid eight common analytical mistakes that lead to confident wrong conclusions
Who it is for
- Operations, marketing, finance and product people who answer data questions without a data team
- Founders and managers who receive dashboards and want to check them
- Analysts moving from ad hoc spreadsheets to a repeatable method
Before you start
- Comfort with basic spreadsheet use: formulas, sorting, filtering
- Google Sheets or Excel 2021 or later
- Access to an AI assistant such as a general chat model or the one built into your spreadsheet
Curriculum
4 modules · 12 lessons · 2h 49m
Module 1From Question to Clean Data3 lessons · 42 min
Frame the question precisely, get the data, and make it trustworthy before any analysis starts.
- Framing a question that data can answerTurn “why are sales down?” into a specific, measurable question with a decision attached.12 min · free preview · worked example · exercise
- Tidy data: one row per thing, one column per attributeThe structure that makes pivot tables, lookups and charts work, and how to recognise data that breaks it.14 min · worked example
- Cleaning data with AI assistance, safelyWhere AI assistants speed up cleaning, the prompts that work, and the checks that catch their mistakes.16 min · worked example · exercise
- Module quiz4 questions with explanations
Module 2Core Analysis Techniques3 lessons · 42 min
The small toolkit of functions, pivots and joins that answers most business questions.
- Pivot tables as your primary instrumentSummarise any tidy table by any dimension in seconds, and read the results correctly.15 min · worked example
- Lookups and joining tablesBring data from one table into another with XLOOKUP, INDEX-MATCH and the rules that stop silent mismatches.14 min · worked example · exercise
- The fifteen functions that cover most analysisA short vocabulary of functions, with the pattern each one solves and the trap each one hides.13 min · worked example
- Module quiz4 questions with explanations
Module 3Answering Real Questions3 lessons · 46 min
Trend, cohort and funnel analyses applied to typical operational questions, with AI as a drafting partner.
- Trends, seasonality and what counts as a changeSeparate real movement from noise and seasonality before anyone reacts to a chart.15 min · worked example · exercise
- Cohort analysis for retention and repeat behaviourGroup customers by when they started and track what each group does over time, in a spreadsheet.17 min · worked example
- Funnel analysis and finding the leakMeasure step-by-step conversion through a process and locate where the largest, cheapest improvement sits.14 min · worked example · exercise
- Module quiz4 questions with explanations
Module 4Communicating Results and Avoiding Mistakes3 lessons · 39 min
Turn analysis into decisions with a one-page memo and a dashboard, and avoid the errors that undermine trust.
- The one-page analysis memoA structure that puts the answer first, shows the evidence, and states the recommendation and its uncertainty.12 min · worked example
- Dashboards that get readA small set of principles for spreadsheet dashboards that people open every week instead of once.13 min · worked example · exercise
- Eight mistakes that produce confident wrong answersThe errors that experienced analysts still make, and a pre-publication checklist that catches them.14 min · worked example
- Module quiz4 questions with explanations
