# Analyze a spreadsheet by asking questions in plain English Useful findings, anomalies, and follow-up questions from a spreadsheet, without needing to know formulas or pivot tables. **Time:** 12 minutes **What you'll have when you're done:** Useful findings, anomalies, and follow-up questions without needing formulas. ---A spreadsheet full of real answers and no formula to pull them out. You don't need to learn pivot tables for a question you'll only ask once. You need the answer, in plain language, with enough transparency to trust it. --- ## Handle the data safely first If the sheet has customer names, employee details, or financial specifics you wouldn't want exposed, strip or replace them before pasting anything into a chat tool: swap real names for "Customer A, Customer B," round or generalize sensitive numbers, and remove anything that identifies a specific person. The structure and patterns are almost always what you need; the identifying details usually aren't. --- ## Do this 1. **Say what you're trying to learn**, specifically. "What's going on with this data" is too broad; "which product lines lost money in Q2" is answerable. 2. **Paste the relevant columns**, not the whole workbook, and describe what each column means if it's not obvious from the header. 3. **Ask for findings, anomalies, and follow-ups**, using the prompt below. 4. **Ask it to show its work** for any specific number it states, not just the conclusion. ``` Here's the data (columns: [describe each column briefly]): [paste the relevant rows/columns, with identifying details removed or replaced] What I'm trying to learn: [specific question] Give me: 1. The direct answer, with the specific numbers behind it 2. Anything unusual or unexpected in the data, even if I didn't ask about it 3. Follow-up questions this raises that the data alone can't answer Show your work: if you calculate a total, average, or trend, state which rows or values it came from. ``` --- ## Check this before you trust it - **Every specific number against the raw data.** Spot-check two or three claimed figures by hand or in the actual spreadsheet before trusting the rest. - **Whether it actually used all the rows you gave it.** A large paste can get partially processed; ask directly how many rows it analyzed. - **Any anomaly it flags**, before acting on it. An "unusual" pattern is sometimes a real finding and sometimes a data entry quirk you already know about. --- ## If it goes wrong **A stated number doesn't match the spreadsheet when you check it.** Ask it to show the exact rows and math behind that number. If it can't reconstruct its own answer, don't trust the original figure. **It only analyzed part of what you pasted.** Very large pastes sometimes get truncated silently. Split the data into smaller chunks and ask the same question of each, then combine the answers yourself. **The findings are technically correct but not actually useful.** That usually means the question in step 1 was still too broad. Narrow it to the specific decision the analysis needs to support. **You're not sure whether something counts as sensitive enough to strip out.** Default to removing it. A generic label costs you nothing; a real name or account number in a chat log is not easily undone. ---

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