Ian Littlejohn

I specialise in training business users to learn powerful methods and techniques to transform data into useful information and intelligence as well as learning strong data analysis methodology.

I completed my university degree in economics and emerged keen and eager to change the world. I spent the first half of my career working for multinational companies, on projects of various sizes, in different sectors, all revolving around analysing data of some sort and working with different software products, including Microsoft Excel.

I found that so many Excel users had a very basic understanding of how Excel works, and instead of using Excel to do the work for them, were doing all the work themselves, using old spreadsheet technology like macros instead of embracing technology like Pivot Tables. Pivot Tables were actually introduced into Excel in 1994 but many Excel users have avoided using them because they seem complicated and difficult to use.

In 2008 I decided to start my own training company and this was borne out of the passion I had to teach Excel users how to work smarter, not harder. As technology evolved, and new systems developed, I continuously expanded my training to include Power BI, Amazon QuickSight, Looker Studio, and most recently Copilot in Excel and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

I recorded my first Udemy course in 2013. There are now 16 of them, taken by more than 450,000 students, with more than 139,000 reviews and an average rating of 4.6.

The tools keep changing. The questions a business asks do not. That is why I do not teach a feature list. Every lesson starts with a question you are actually asked at work - why did the region miss, which customers are worth keeping, what changed since last quarter - and then shows you how to answer it.

What has always made my training unique is that I enable you to move beyond spreadsheets without the need to learn new, technical processes and programming languages like SQL.

Instead, I teach you a variety of analysis techniques and show you how to create sophisticated dashboards and reports using simple, yet powerful tools and methods, making data easier to understand and empowering you to make better business decisions in less time.

I still teach live, now online, running workshops for teams who want to get more back from software they already pay for. My courses here are open to anyone. Between the two, the aim is the same.