DA-250
Dashboards People Actually Use
Design reporting that changes a decision instead of decorating a wall.
Intermediate with Yasmin Halloran
Spreadsheet Analysis for Decision Makers
Turn a messy export into an answer you can defend in a meeting, without learning to code.
- Level
- Beginner
- Duration
- 6 weeks
- Price
- $329
- Course code
- DA-130
Overview
You do not need a statistics degree to answer most of the questions your organization actually asks. You need to get a messy export into a usable shape, choose a comparison that means something, and know which of the obvious conclusions are traps.
This course works entirely in a spreadsheet, with genuinely untidy data: duplicate rows, three date formats in one column, a category field where somebody typed the value freehand. Clean sample files teach the wrong instincts, so we do not use them. There is no coding and no specialist software.
Each week ends with a short written answer to a question, defended to the cohort. The most common feedback students give is that the hardest part was not the arithmetic, it was stating a conclusion clearly enough to be argued with.
Who this is for
- Managers who receive reports and want to check them
- Operations, finance and marketing staff who analyze their own numbers
- People asked for the numbers who are not sure which numbers to give
- Anyone who has been handed a spreadsheet and a deadline
Next Cohort
Applications open- Q4 2026Monday 5 October 2026
- Q1 2027Monday 11 January 2027
- Q2 2027Monday 12 April 2027
- Q3 2027Monday 5 July 2027
Applications for the Q4 2026 cohort close on Friday 18 September 2026. We reply to every application within two business days.
Yasmin Halloran
Analysis and reporting for people who are not analysts
We work with genuinely messy data, including the duplicate rows and the inconsistent dates, because clean sample files teach the wrong instincts.
Beginner, no prior training assumed. One live session of ninety minutes each week, plus about three hours applying it to your own work. Sixteen seats. Full details on how enrollment works.
Module plan
6 modules across 6 weeks.
Each module has one live session and one piece of practice applied to your own work.
- Week 1
Asking a Question the Data Can Answer
Turning a vague request into a question with a definite shape, and noticing early when the data you have cannot answer it.
- Week 2
Cleaning Real Data
Duplicates, inconsistent dates, freehand category fields and missing values, plus keeping a record of every change you made.
- Week 3
Comparisons That Mean Something
Choosing the right baseline, comparing like with like, and handling a period where something unusual happened.
- Week 4
Summarizing Without Misleading
Averages that hide the story, the times a median is more honest, and showing spread rather than just the middle.
- Week 5
The Traps You Will Meet
Survivorship, seasonality, changing definitions and the correlation everybody in the meeting will jump to.
- Week 6
Presenting a Defensible Answer
Writing the one page answer, stating your assumptions, and holding your ground when the number is unwelcome.
Outcomes
What you will be able to do.
By the last session of Spreadsheet Analysis for Decision Makers you will have practised each of these on your own work, not on a case study.
- Restate a vague request as a question the available data can answer
- Clean an untidy export and document every change you made to it
- Choose a comparison and baseline you can justify to a skeptical reader
- Recognize when an average is hiding the thing that matters
- Name the common traps in your own analysis before someone else does
- Write a one page answer with the assumptions stated on it
Same field
Also in Data and Analytics
Getting an honest answer out of the numbers you already have, and reporting it so it counts.