KENYA · GUIDE 0589 · EDITION 4.2
Spreadsheet dashboard building in Kenya: Customers and Market Demand
The buyer and the buying decision
Owners needing a repeatable operational summary. The offer to test is: Build an explainable spreadsheet dashboard from defined business records.
Build the dashboard around decisions the owner makes, identifying approved data sources, metric definitions, refresh responsibilities, and how missing periods should appear.
Separate interest from an accepted order
Create a small dashboard from fictional or authorized sample data.
The purpose of this test is to establish whether the buyer accepts the specified result, delivery arrangement and payment terms. An encouraging interview does not establish repeat demand. Ask what the buyer currently uses, what would make them change supplier and who has authority to approve the first order. Record a refusal as carefully as an enquiry so that unsuccessful offers do not disappear from the evidence.
Collect evidence specific to this offer
Record metric definitions, source versions, reconciliation results, filter tests, missing periods, owner questions, and independent refresh attempts before accepting the completed dashboard.
| Question to resolve | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| What exactly will the buyer accept? | Ask the owner to trace selected figures to source records and explain the chart, checking filters, date boundaries, duplicates, and missing-data signals. |
| What is included in the first trial? | Build the dashboard around decisions the owner makes, identifying approved data sources, metric definitions, refresh responsibilities, and how missing periods should appear. |
| How will a prospect see the offer? | Offer owners a reconciled sample with visible calculation steps. |
| What must happen before repeating the trial? | Headline totals reconcile and missing data is not disguised as zero. |
Decide whether to continue
Review the specification with the buyer before committing to tools or stock. A trial is commercially useful only if actual costs, rejected work, time spent and cash collected can be reconciled. A colourful dashboard fails when revenue means invoiced sales on one page and cash received elsewhere, leading the owner to compare incompatible figures.
If a buyer changes the required output, record a new scope and re-cost the test. Do not count a request for a different product as proof of demand for the original one. Keep personal contact details in your private records and use customer statements publicly only with permission.
Turn the example into a buyer test
Fictional dashboard DSH-89 summarises an owner-approved sales table using four fixture rows: confirmed 500, confirmed 700, cancelled 300 and refund 200. The example definitions yield confirmed sales 1,200, refunds 200 and net 1,000; cancelled 300 is excluded. These are invented test values, not audited accounts. Output is source table, metric dictionary, three KPI cells, one monthly chart and refresh instructions. Forecasting, tax reporting, accounting assurance and live-system integration are excluded.
| Buyer discussion | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| Specification to confirm | Order value, cash received and revenue are not assumed interchangeable. |
| Output to inspect | Chart period/units and last refresh are visible; owner signs off definitions before live use. |
| Failure that can defeat acceptance | New month missing |
Ask the buyer to describe one acceptable and one unacceptable result. Record the decision maker, price basis, quantity, handover point and payment date privately. A sample request, an encouraging conversation and an accepted order are different evidence. Keep the first commitment within your demonstrated capacity; no customer interview or successful trial is asserted here.
What a failed test should change
Check source-table expansion and chart range.. If the offer cannot meet that check, revise the specification or process before promising a repeat. Keep rejected offers and reasons in the same register as positive replies so that your record does not exaggerate demand.