KENYA · GUIDE 0629 · EDITION 4.7
Spreadsheet lessons in Kenya: Customers and Market Demand
The buyer and the buying decision
Shop owners, administrators and learners who need everyday spreadsheet confidence. The offer to test is: Teach spreadsheet skills by building a small, transparent workbook from fictional records.
Teach spreadsheets through a defined learner task, covering data structure, formulas, references, checking, and saving, with examples relevant to the learner's work or studies.
Separate interest from an accepted order
Use a sample sales table and one lesson covering entries, totals and a useful filter.
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 learner tasks, formula choices, reference errors, validation attempts, independently corrected mistakes, and follow-up topics that will make the spreadsheet useful in actual daily work.
| Question to resolve | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| What exactly will the buyer accept? | Ask learners to modify the example independently and detect a deliberately incorrect formula, checking understanding of references rather than the ability to reproduce a demonstration. |
| What is included in the first trial? | Teach spreadsheets through a defined learner task, covering data structure, formulas, references, checking, and saving, with examples relevant to the learner's work or studies. |
| How will a prospect see the offer? | Demonstrate a simple working sheet to employers and business groups using fictional figures. |
| What must happen before repeating the trial? | The learner can enter data and inspect a formula, rather than relying on unexplained automation. |
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. Training fails when learners produce an attractive table but extend formulas incorrectly or treat calculated results as trustworthy without checking the source data and logic.
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 XLS-129 teaches a four-row sales sheet: quantities 2,3,1,4 and unit prices 50,20,80,25. Columns A item, B quantity, C price, D line total; D2=B2*C2 copied through D5. Expected totals 100,60,80,100 and SUM(D2:D5)=340. This is a practice workbook, not accounting advice.
| Buyer discussion | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| Specification to confirm | Numbers are not stored as currency text. |
| Output to inspect | Learner saves and reopens own copy. |
| Failure that can defeat acceptance | Total stays unchanged |
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 calculation mode/formulas.. 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.