Course contents
Spreadsheets and Dashboards
Multi-tab research workbooks with a sources tab, a checks tab, and a dashboard — exported to Google Sheets.
Work builds spreadsheets the way an analyst would: multiple tabs with a purpose each, live formulas, and charts. The commissioning pattern: name the research question, the structure, and the trust apparatus. "Do in-depth research on the growth of Microsoft, Google, and Apple; create a spreadsheet with a strategic comparison tab, lots of charts, and a sources-and-checks tab." That last tab is non-negotiable — it's where every number points to where it came from, and where consistency checks live.
Two upgrades turn a workbook into a tool. First, a dashboard cover sheet: "add a colorful dashboard cover sheet with the key conclusions at a glance" — because most readers of your spreadsheet will only ever see one tab, make it the one that answers the question. Second, interactivity: assumptions cells a reader can change (growth rate, churn, budget) with everything downstream recalculating — a forecast becomes a planning tool.
Finish by meeting your team where they work: "convert this into a Google Sheet" via the Drive plugin, and the workbook lands in shared territory with formulas and charts intact.
An official walkthrough of upgrading a static forecast into an interactive tool — the pattern this lesson generalizes.