The 3 Excel Superpowers
The 3 Excel Superpowers
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Articles topics
The 3 Excel Superpowers
New features in Excel! XLOOKUP, dynamic array formulae and this year … LAMBDA. For some people, these ‘change the game’. Or, at least, that’s what they claim …
“Everybody is saying these formulae are amazing! I’ve seen it on LinkedIn. They’ll give me Excel superpowers. Quick, where can I learn them?”
Well … not on the Tiger channel. At least not yet.
Without wishing to spoil the party, I’m inviting you, today, to reflect on your perspective and, possibly, to change it.
You see, the Excel Superpowers, despite what you might read / watch online are about more than just new formulae …
The superpowers work on a higher level; they are transcendental; they make everything easier, or more difficult. You might have heard me referring to them as ‘metaskills’ previously. I’ve rebranded them for this video! And to help you make the shift in mindset.
00:00 INTRODUCTION
02:17 SUPERPOWER 1
I recommend drawing (with pen and paper or using software) a structural diagram to help you. This acts as a blueprint for the project and a roadmap to guide development. It is easier to adhere to principles such as not fragmenting datasets (which is what our YouTube commentor did wrong) when in design mode, not the cut-and-thrust of ‘development’ mode. A sound design means simple formula building and no need for elaborate solutions with VBA or =LAMBDA. Yes, we’re aiming for fewer fancy formulae, not more.
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03:31 SUPERPOWER 2
The second superpower, which commentors in the second scenario are lacking, is the ability to debug. This could mean in Excel VBA but, more often, it’s worksheet formulae that cause problems. I love the quote ‘Intelligence is knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do’, and this is a case in point. The formula is returning an error – what should I do?
For me, it’s simple, and I’ve actually grown to enjoy debugging – because I know I’ll get there in the end … and, often, I’ll learn something new! The first step is to ‘click into’ the formula. Excel highlights dependent / precedent cells – a great starting point for your investigations. More sophisticated tools are available, including the facility to ‘evaluate’ the formula and ‘step through’ the calculations. Time invested in this ‘metaskill’ (learning HOW to debug formulae, NOT debugging a single formula – get it?) will reap huge rewards, which is why debugging is our second Excel Superpower.
04:54 SUPERPOWER 3
You might have noticed I’m not keen on people learning new formulae, which might sound strange for an Excel trainer! So, what techniques should you learn? Great question and I love answering it. In fact, I built a whole Excel training course around this question – Tiger Excel Basics. My approach is simple – your Excel toolkit should be driven by real-world need, not by the latest formula releases. Last year I set out to identifying those real-world needs by trying to answer the question: what are people actually doing in Excel?
So, I reviewed 30 of my real-world projects, sifted through them all, and tried to draw conclusions. What I found is that people are only ever trying to do 1 of 4 things in Excel: (1) data input (2) modelling (3) data analysis (4) automation. This applies to all Excel users, including you. But, do you know which one you’re trying to do, at any given time? Our third superpower is understanding these applications as they drive the techniques you use … and learn.
06:11 BONUS SUPERPOWER
Finally, a bonus superpower that’s pertinent to anybody who consumes content on YouTube, LinkedIn or similar. You HAVE to be a critical consumer, including for my content. Yes, you should not ‘believe’ what I say; rather, take it on board, reflect on it, and work out if it works for you. Argue for it, against it – form a view. Yes, consume! But only critically. There’s a kind of bizarre social pressure around Excel content creation these days and I’m criticized by some on YouTube for not promoting the new stuff in Excel more enthusiastically. That’s why I’ll never be an Excel MVP! I don’t ‘toe the line’ - and nor should you.
So, there you have it – our Excel superpowers! Finally, back to Cristiano – how would he go about Excel learning? I think in some way he’d embody the approach I’ve tried to outline here - long-term and incremental process over temporary, piecemeal gains. If you can view yourself as a ‘practitioner’ rather than a problem-solver, something of an Excel athlete, you’ll achieve an important change in mindset: to view Excel as a skill and yourself as somebody on a journey towards Excel success.