At Humanizing Work, we all love a well-crafted spreadsheet. Formulas, conditional formatting, beautiful charts. The whole thing. There’s something deeply satisfying about seeing complex data transformed into clear, actionable insights right before your eyes.
But as useful as spreadsheets can be, it’s tempting to try to make them do jobs they’re just not equipped to handle. Not every problem is a spreadsheet problem.
What’s a “Spreadsheet Problem”?
A spreadsheet problem is one where the data needed to solve the issue exists and where the right analysis tools can produce a definitive answer. For example, analyzing past financials or scaling up a recipe.
Now, this doesn’t mean it’s simple. It doesn’t mean *anyone* can create the spreadsheet that provides the answer. Skill and expertise may be required. But, given the right expertise, a clear answer can be produced.
When Spreadsheets Fall Short
A classic example of a problem that looks like a spreadsheet problem—but isn’t—is prioritization. It’s oh so tempting to try to create a spreadsheet that will answer once and for all, “which one of all these competing things is the real top priority item?” If only we could avoid all those pesky stakeholder negotiations, all that uncertainty and debate, and just wave our spreadsheet. “Here. Here is the clear answer about what’s most important.”
Alas, prioritization involves predicting an uncertain future.
Peter shared this story from one of his early agile teams:
We had built out a spreadsheet that had columns for internal and external stakeholders, a row used to weight each stakeholder by importance, and a backlog full of features. We meticulously filled out the spreadsheet feature by feature, stakeholder by stakeholder, then sorted the backlog by the weighted importance. The item at the top made intuitive sense, so we started working on it. Then at the first Sprint Review, we showed the first slice of that feature to a few stakeholders. Stakeholders that had a heavily weighted column on our spreadsheet. And their feedback, to a person, was “why is this the first feature? There are others that are clearly more important on your backlog.” Ugh. With all the math we were doing, we’d failed to engage these stakeholders in any meaningful conversations!
Another area where spreadsheets often fall short is in how you treat employees. While you can certainly track metrics and performance indicators in a spreadsheet, the human element of management and employee satisfaction often defies quantification.
We were working with a leadership team who wanted to set a baseline metric they could use to measure the effectiveness of a new engagement initiative they were about to kick off. For years, they had measured something called E-NPS, or Employee Net Promoter Score. They decided to use this as the baseline, and predicted that E-NPS would go up by several percentage points as a result of their new program.
A quarter later, they were excited to see the improvements from the program. Many employees had shared how much they appreciated the positive improvements and a focus on autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Unfortunately, when they measured E-NPS again, the numbers dropped by 12%!
As we dug into the historic trends of E-NPS at the company, we realized that the strongest correlation we could find for that metric moving up or down was “did we pay bonuses before measuring?” Turns out, while they’d done some good work to improve engagement, they’d also hit a tough economic downturn and missed their numbers. Bonuses didn’t pay out that quarter.
Beyond the Spreadsheet: Intuition and Values
So if these aren’t spreadsheet problems, how do we approach them? The key lies in recognizing the role of intuition and values in decision-making. While these can’t be easily quantified, they can be honed and clarified to help you make better non-spreadsheet decisions.
Here are a few strategies to help you navigate non-spreadsheet problems:
- Embrace uncertainty: Recognize that not all decisions can be made with 100% certainty. Sometimes, you need to make the best choice with the information available.
- Cultivate diverse perspectives: Engage with a variety of stakeholders to get a more comprehensive view of complex issues.
- Develop your intuition: While it can’t be quantified, intuition often draws on years of experience and pattern recognition. Trust it, but also examine it critically. Here’s a list of patterns you can use for better intuitive prioritization.
- Clarify your values: Understanding your core values can guide decision-making when data alone isn’t sufficient. Better yet, model those values as tradeoffs (”I value X over this other good thing.”). Check out our episode on culture signals for more about this.
- Use scenario planning: Instead of trying to predict a single outcome, consider multiple possible futures and how you might respond to each. Then, move forward. Don’t get frozen by analysis paralysis.
Remember, spreadsheets are powerful tools, but they’re just that—tools. They’re not a substitute for human judgment, especially in complex, nuanced situations. By recognizing when a problem isn’t a spreadsheet problem, you can approach it with the right mindset and strategies, leading to better outcomes for your team and organization.
So the next time you’re tempted to fire up Excel to solve a thorny issue, take a moment to consider: Is this really a spreadsheet problem? Or is it time to lean into those hard-earned intuitions and values? Your future self (and your team) will thank you for it.
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