Excel Multi-Level Challenges: An Explainer

What Are Multi-Level Excel Challenges?

Multi-level Excel challenges are designed to simulate real-life business scenarios where spreadsheet solutions must evolve to meet growing and changing requirements. Unlike single-level challenges, which often focus on solving a narrow, isolated problem, multi-level challenges introduce a progression of complexity that mirrors the dynamic nature of business processes.

Why Multi-Level Challenges?

Single-level challenges are often simple and can be solved with straightforward techniques. However, these solutions frequently lack scalability or adaptability, creating significant problems when applied to larger, enterprise-wide contexts. Spreadsheets designed with a narrow focus often fail when business needs expand, leading to inefficiencies and ‘Excel hell.’

Multi-level challenges address this gap by encouraging participants to:

1. Start with an initial, straightforward solution (Level 1).
2. Revisit, adapt, and scale their design as new requirements emerge (Levels 2, 3, and beyond).

This mirrors the real-world evolution of spreadsheets in businesses, where initial designs must eventually handle larger datasets, additional departments, and more complex processes.

How Do Multi-Level Challenges Work?

The structure is inspired by multi-level computer games, where initial levels are simple, but advancing to higher levels requires revisiting and refining earlier strategies. In these challenges, participants must:

1. Solve an entry-level problem using basic tools and techniques.
2. Progress through more advanced levels, where scalability and enterprise-wide requirements become critical.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of their original approach and adapt it to meet new demands.

For example, a consolidation task at Level 1 may involve a small number of units. At higher levels, the task expands to include an entire organization, requiring participants to rethink and redesign their solutions.

Key Learning Objectives

• Recognizing the Bigger Picture: Participants learn that spreadsheets are rarely static. Business requirements evolve, and solutions must anticipate future needs.
• Evaluating Scalability: The challenges reveal whether initial designs can adapt to broader demands.
• Practical Insights: By studying successful and unsuccessful approaches, both participants and management can understand what works and what doesn’t in real-world scenarios.

Why Are Multi-Level Challenges Important?

Real-life business processes are rarely confined to the narrow scope of a single-level challenge. As organizations grow and processes become more complex, spreadsheet solutions must scale and integrate across departments, products, and geographies. Multi-level challenges prepare participants to think beyond immediate solutions and design for sustainability and flexibility.

The Nelson Mwangi Teaching Model Pilot

The current pilot challenge focuses on a simple teaching model where participants use different approaches to solve the same problem:

• Level 1: Basic copy-paste methods.
• Level 2: Dynamic arrays (e.g., VSTACK).
• Level 3: Power Query for ETL tasks.
• Advanced Levels: Techniques like VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, and database integration for scalability.

Participants evaluate their solutions against enterprise-level requirements, learning how to build spreadsheets that are not just functional but also scalable and adaptable.

Addressing Pushback

Some critics argue that expanding the problem scope in challenges is akin to “moving the goalposts.” However, this reflects the reality of business, where requirements frequently shift. The goal of multi-level challenges is to equip participants to handle these changes effectively, rather than resorting to temporary fixes that create long-term problems.

Summary

Multi-level Excel challenges are a teaching tool designed to bridge the gap between simple spreadsheet solutions and scalable, enterprise-ready designs. They encourage participants to think strategically, anticipate future needs, and evaluate their work in the context of evolving business processes. By tackling these challenges, participants develop the skills necessary to create robust and flexible spreadsheets that add real value to organizations.

This is a podcast by Hiran de Silva. Narrated by Charlie.