Raising the Bar – Ep. 205

It’s easy to ship a dashboard full of numbers—and still not deliver insight. A KPI without context, ownership, and drivers just becomes another status report nobody acts on.

In Ep. 205, Mike, Tommy, and Seth share a practical metric hierarchy: master metrics with alerting, a one-page metric summary, and drill-through detail views that add sub-metrics (rates, ratios, and contributing factors) so you can explain why performance changed—not just that it changed.

News & Announcements

• Business Metrics, or Raising the Bar on Delivering Insight — A companion article that expands the episode’s approach to turning ‘metrics’ into actionable insight.
• Explicit Measures Podcast — Subscribe and browse the full episode backlog.
• Submit an idea / topic — Send a question or scenario you want the team to break down on a future episode.
• Mike Carlo on LinkedIn — Follow Mike for Power BI modeling and real-world delivery tips.
• Seth Bauer on LinkedIn — Follow Seth for BI engineering and measurement strategy perspectives.
• Tommy Puglia on LinkedIn — Follow Tommy for the latest platform findings and field notes.
• Argus PBI — Friend of PowerBI.tips.

Main Discussion

Topic: Business metrics vs. insight (and how to make metrics actionable)

A lot of reporting stops at ‘here’s the number.’ The crew argues that the real value is in the next layer: defining the metric’s meaning (what ‘good’ and ‘bad’ look like), then building the supporting measurements that explain movement and point to action.

They walk through a simple, repeatable structure: start with a small set of master metrics, add alerts so stakeholders don’t have to ‘hunt’ for problems, and publish a metric summary view that gives a one-page health check across the business. From there, each metric needs a drill path into detail—and the detail view should include the driver metrics (rates, ratios, mix, and contributing factors) that turn volume into understanding.

One of the strongest themes is trust: if a metric is red and nobody knows who owns the definition—or who to call when it looks wrong—you end up with the worst outcome: a dashboard that creates debate instead of decisions.

Key takeaways:

• Treat ‘master metrics’ as shared contracts: define the calculation, grain, refresh cadence, and intended decision(s).
• Always add direction + thresholds (better/worse, above/below) so the metric tells a story without extra narration.
• Pair master metrics with alerts and a summary page to shift from periodic reviews to continuous awareness.
• Design a clean drill path: KPI → summary → detail → segment/transaction context, so teams can answer ‘what changed?’ quickly.
• Use tiered supporting metrics (rates, ratios, drivers) to explain why volume moved—volume alone rarely implies an action.
• Assign ownership and a feedback loop: when numbers don’t reconcile, the process should point to a person and a fix.
• Optimize for action, not aesthetics: every KPI should imply a next step when it’s red (and what to watch when it’s green).

Looking Forward

Audit your top 5 KPIs this week: if any of them can’t answer ‘what should I do next?’, add drivers, thresholds, and an owner until they can.

Episode Transcript

0:02 [Music] foreign

0:32 good morning everyone welcome back to the explicit measures podcast with Tommy Seth and Mike here we go how to get in the right order there or else I was going to mess it up so that was close good morning everyone how’s it going I was discombobulated there for a moment Seth was in the upper right hand corner Tommy was not where he was supposed to be please everyone return to your chairs return to your chairs [Laughter] oh good morning gentlemen how are we doing this morning it’s been a long time since our last chat I know that it has

1:06 since our last chat I know that it has what do we do like this has been like forever ago for those of you who are listening and not understanding the joke there’s a joke going on here we have been super intense recordings and stuff we’ve been we’re planning some new episodes that are coming out in the future here just because people are traveling we won’t be around there’s an MVP Summit people are going on vacations people are moving around so anyways that’s happening therefore there’s actually a number of episodes that are teed up you’ll be able to see them teed up and and join us at our usual times but we’ve been doing a lot of recording here

1:37 we’ve been doing a lot of recording here recently so that’s the inside joke we’ve been like spending a lot of time together it’s been great I’m good I’m good fine just good I’m so happy so happy to be here well some of us will try to still be online for the live chats too like that’s one of the fun parts of this the unexpected consequence of doing the podcast podcast Consequence the consequence the consequences way of hanging out you’re the definition guy consequence is not a

2:07 the definition guy consequence is not a negative negative is that is that a H oh man thought lost sorry nice just nice Seth foreign foreign my thought was back when we were talking the Vatican right like I started making comments you’re like that’s a Vatican word oh yeah you’re saying a lot of people’s words that one of those words Tommy no that was the joke just gone right into it you like is this a Vatican word Tommy you’re well

2:37 word Tommy you’re well like Rome Italy something I gotta walk over here joke’s not working pull the parachute pull a parachute and nobody picked it up for me it’s just awkward silence all right you just die on that tree the key word is infallible infallible right there we go I can’t use that right oh goodness goodness oh oh that’s hilarious so with that let’s we’ll go

3:09 so with that let’s we’ll go through any introductions and we haven’t done any intros I’ve been recording so many items here I haven’t had time to like go through and figure out if there are any intros or things that are new that are that are recently released I do have a bit of a bone to pick unless you guys have something first so there was a Blog announcement on the 10th I believe and maybe this is just things getting settled settled there’s a Blog announcement on the

3:39 there’s a Blog announcement on the the deployment pipelines where you can view an item’s code changes before deploying it I was very excited about the feature in the article halfway down it says right before you get to the main section it says Change review is already available give it a try today I go into my tenant not working I can’t find it you’re set on on what was that don’t you have to have a preview feature set on in your service oh I didn’t even think of that I’m literally winding to Microsoft saying I can’t find it like I didn’t say anything

4:09 can’t find it like I didn’t say anything about it as a flag I don’t think it’s a it’s a flag I don’t know I didn’t think about that let me I’m gonna go look for it so that and so the other bone I have to pick here is my powerba. com environment looks totally different the icons are all screwed up oh they’re screwed up oh they’re for sure they’re screwed up so it’s it’s messing with my head that’s for sure so the bone I’m picking here is previously on a happier more adjusted power

4:41 on a happier more adjusted power bi. com experience there was colors with each of the icons so each icon for report for dataset had a different color so each thing had like a it was a blue it was like a purple it’s like a light blue for like data sets or apps or things right so each each type of asset inside powerbay. com had a new color well I go to the workspaces now there’s no color on any of the icons for a report or a data set and the data set looks like a calendar it doesn’t look like a data set it looks like a calendar that they produce icons

5:11 like a calendar that they produce icons have changed yep so all the icons have no color they’re all that look similar to me and if they’re not large enough so now I’m looking through stuff I’m going is this a data set or is this a report I can’t see it it’s very hard to distinguish now so I think we had a regression here someone did some someone was making it look prettier I did it does look cleaner and regress yeah you mean an implementation that was not announced I don’t know that’s also and the data regression regression implies that it used to be an old way and now we’re back

5:42 used to be an old way and now we’re back to the old way foreign foreign that’s not the word I want I want I wanna it does it’s not better what’s the word for not better it’s a demotion we got a demotion it’s worser yeah I don’t like it good morning I don’t know I do not like the data center settings settings okay I’m gonna check it out now Mike that’s a calendar it is a calendar it’s a calendar They just added calendars for data sets so data sets are now our only

6:13 data sets so data sets are now our only calendars in the power bi service so what what the heck yes they just stole Source control for the data flow data flow one it’s Source control it’s a branch oh my goodness what creating used data flows what are you talking about the icon oh yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly the icon it’s just different so I don’t don’t really love the new icons I missed the color that I had there previously because it’s much harder to see what is a report and

6:44 harder to see what is a report and versus a data set I don’t like the calendar icon no thank you and take take the data flow icon make it horizontal that’s the lineage yes yes and and workspace and I will say I do like the workspace settings new menu that just popped out hey is it out I actually got a pop-up that says introducing a clean new layout update your default view from here anytime anytime so what does chat GPT think of these icons

7:14 icons yeah right anyways back hey share your feedback notifications are awesome yeah so the workspace settings is much better improved I like that one a lot but I I’m again the feature’s been released in deployment pipelines again so This Is Where It’s Tricky you look at the this is where I’m thinking things are a little bit weird my deployment pipelines icons are the old icons my workspace icons are the new icons so now I have two layered sets of icons between

7:44 I have two layered sets of icons between deployment pipelines and my workspaces and I think when you look at the blog article the blog article is showing code compare with the new icons and not the old ones so I think once my deployment pipeline I don’t know updates rolls out the change I don’t know what it’s doing but when those icons change to the net new thing then it maybe will have my code deployment so it looks like my deployment pipelines is on an old version but my workspace is on a new version version it just seems the roulette was very

8:14 it just seems the roulette was very disconnected sounds like Microsoft should have watched episode 204 on Source control because I yeah yeah I think they we will give them a lesson in GitHub I think on this one so let’s let’s use some more commits and branching I think we need more commits more commits add more commits commits anyway or or they just adopted the style of every other report author out there shoot it to prod yeah ship it ship it ship it get it out the door anyways that’s been my beef I’m very excited about the feature

8:45 I’m very excited about the feature but I can’t use it I can’t demo it I’m I’m annoyed that I can’t get out

8:49 I’m annoyed that I can’t get out and take a look at it so and and also other news the April 2023 on the 12th that’s what would be yesterday April’s Power bi desktop was just released a couple new features there added there as well you get the dynamic format strings on measures I think this is an underrated feature that people are really going to like so I think that’s one worthwhile reading reading checking out the dynamic format strings on the measures themselves that was a long time coming in my opinion

9:19 was a long time coming in my opinion so and this is the point too where so I’ll let you speak to the dynamic for my strings I just wanted to highlight for those who are trying to avoid on object interaction good luck this is something I think we’re going to see in every update moving forward major announcements to the on object interactions and that’s because I bet they’re going to roll it out by the end of the year where it’s going to be the default way oh yeah totally it’s like I’ve had I’ve just I’ve told my team I said look we need to get used to this let’s just use

9:49 need to get used to this let’s just use it relearn just relearn it just like we’re gonna figure out how to go this way but it’s in some ways it’s a little disappointing to me because now like everyone in power bi has just been reset to Ground Zero like this is this is like did you guys ever watch Ready Player one no yeah okay so at the end of the at the end of the movie I shouldn’t say this because this is giving away for people who haven’t watched the end player and ready player one I make at some point in time everyone gets reset to zero Okay and like I feel like that’s what’s happened like the whole world’s

10:20 what’s happened like the whole world’s been obliterated and then everyone’s back to zero we’re like okay we all have to learn the same thing again we have to figure out how to make one visual editing work for us this is this has got to be at least the second or third time right the first one yes I think was where they restyled the desktop

10:56 and there’s a lot of revamping to do well micro think of the trainers because I I have two versions of power oh yeah all your dream documentation is crap done yeah start over or yeah start over game over if you’re ready ready player one that’s a game over moment right there yeah insert another quarter here yeah I’m actually the most excited for the tool tip Auto scale

11:26 the most excitement comes from just that one feature I I under I do understand most words so yes all of them is this is this a purple is this a purple moment whatever forget it listen there’s only one so I didn’t understand this feature at first I didn’t understand what Auto scale is doing like it it just basically means so but previously on a future if previous episode of Power bi desktop you would

11:56 episode of Power bi desktop you would use a tooltip the page size would scale down to a certain size like 50 right they had a little slider in the right hand corner that could make the report scale to a smaller size right okay and then when you would hover a tool tip the tooltip was still full size so the tooltip did not scale proportionally to the rest of the canvas so my understanding of this feature and is that what your your interpretation this time so if I now scale the report down to 75 percent when I hover something that has a tool tip the tooltip also scales down to the right

12:28 tooltip also scales down to the right appropriate size as 75 percent of its normal size instead of being 100 because it was almost like crazy where where it would like obliterate everything and you couldn’t see anything at that point in time it would be nice if they could give you a little bit of was that it was annoying oh yeah totally agree I feel like it would be nice if they would let you do on the tool tips I don’t know can you do a transparent background on a tooltip so you can see what’s behind it or is it always a solid color I don’t think you can do a transparent background on tool tip because it’d be nice to put a couple

12:59 because it’d be nice to put a couple numbers or a key point of information there and have a little bit of transparity to see what’s behind it I don’t think you can do that yeah I don’t think we’ve done an episode on tool tips tool tips do you care about that I wouldn’t I don’t like betting you things because you’re very good at remembering everything yeah you might be right I it might have been it might have been part of bookmarks or something might have been it’s going in the backlog we’ll vote I just wanna I just want to point out Mike you’re just just so you didn’t miss this okay your favorite addition to the April

13:32 okay your favorite addition to the April release which was the new styling option in storytelling and PowerPoint yeah yep love it just favorite no it’s in there the most everything everything PowerPoint I’m just gonna win when you when you upload the latest version of PowerPoint because it’s probably five years old by now oh yeah or you don’t even have it I don’t even have it’s not even installed did you just take it out of the installs yeah of the office tools I saw I’ll install all other tools and delete the other PowerPoint why does

14:04 and delete the other PowerPoint why does the registry Powershell script to remove it just removes remember his PowerPoint no matter what for for those of you who may not be aware Mike Mike is not an Avid user PowerPoint he awaited our PowerPoints in Microsoft power bi he never uses yeah yeah and I’m also very opposed to the term that Microsoft uses power bi the PowerPoint for data I’m like no powerpoint’s not a great program so let’s not compare a great tool to a very mediocre one let’s let’s just go after

14:34 mediocre one let’s let’s just go after like okay Power bi is the home for data let’s go let’s go something like that as opposed to power bi as the PowerPoint for data because I just saw our feelings about PowerPoint and power bi but that’s some strong words saying it’s strong words man it’s a great product I bet you there’s better products out there than PowerPoint in terms of most used applications out there well it’s got to be yeah consolidate and present a a story without the need for data sounds like a prime business tool

15:04 like a prime business tool [Laughter] and that might be Mike why you absolutely always use power bi because there’s always data behind the things that you’re telling everything I’m presenting on has data in it dogs on it like I don’t I don’t need thumbnails I don’t need clip art to make my points so much trouble I’d rather justify my data and use that as my justification for what’s reporting I don’t I I just want to I just want to State I use PowerPoint

15:35 to I just want to State I use PowerPoint all the time yeah you have to All Right Moving on ah so you must not use any data in your presentations I see how data driven you are this is my smiley face for my project status this is this is my yeah yeah this is my this is my cup of coffee image that I’m gonna put on the left-hand side here and make a couple bullet points so we can talk through exactly what I’m trying to talk to my part might have two slides how are we doing slide next great thank you my every time a company every time I do

16:05 my every time a company every time I do a presentation for someplace it’s like okay we need you to add your slides and put it into a PowerPoint presentation here’s the slide template great I’ll put my face on one this is me next slide demo I’m done closing closing that’s it that’s all you get I don’t do and then everything I go right to power bi and then we do everything there so yeah do we have anything to talk about today or was this we’re just gonna bash on PowerPoint for an entire 45 minutes that’s that’s what we’re gonna do I wasn’t passion I was pointing out a new feature really sorry oh you’re so full of it yeah you’re just egging your mind

16:36 of it yeah you’re just egging your mind this is bad I’m gonna move on let’s go to the to the topic for today let’s talk about something else that’s actually relevant let’s move on to our topic for today I believe our topic for today is business metrics raising the bar or delivering oh sorry raising the bar on delivering insights and this is an article written by help me out here guys it’s over at data Lineo I think he’s a senior director but also a power bi

17:07 a senior director but also a power bi MVP as well great article Ben so we’re going to go through the article here and I’ll put the oh Tom you already got it thanks the article is in the chat window right now it’ll also be in the description if you want to read through if you’re listening to this or watching this after the fact and for those of you who are watching it on 2. 5 speed this is the article from data Lineo because I know a couple of you catch up and so that was for you catching up sorry I’m very punching this morning I was really worried something happened to my internet I was like

17:38 it must be really funny when we laugh together and it’s on 2. 5 or one or two two x because it’s like we sound like Chipmunks at that point so pretty fun so let’s jump into the article article Tommy maybe give us a quick like a little run through here let’s what are we talking about this is something we we’ve touched on more than once but it goes back to the idea of when we were creating our reports that they one should live in a vacuum of just random numbers total sales but having this idea of either Global or business level Master metrics

18:10 Global or business level Master metrics and existing in more than one place so rather than creating a report again by in a siled fashion which a lot of times is a lot of reports that we do but where does it connect to the rest of the ecosystem but I think more important one thing I took out of this too is this idea of the metric summary of really focusing on not not just the volume of data but these metrics focusing on that the context of those metrics and defining the the positive the negative

18:41 defining the the positive the negative the increase or decrease the above or below and then making that the story so there’s there’s three concepts here introduced that I think you pointed on Tommy that I think make a lot of sense here I’m trying to unpack what this means in reporting there’s a process to Monitor and action and I like I really like the fact that we’re doing I think a lot of people focus on the monitoring side of our power B reporting yeah and not a lot of people focus on the action side of things and it’s not wrong I just feel like that’s what we maybe tend to do initially so with this

19:12 maybe tend to do initially so with this there is three concepts that’s introduced the process is introducing a master metric alerts this alerts us to something that needs attention right so we have a lot of metrics or kpis which one of those are out of Tolerance which ones are important for me to look like look at so the master metric gives me something to really quickly to look at you’re welcome Dan that was a Slowdown for you earlier so you’re you’re very welcome so I’ll put that in there for the for the podcast the metric summary which is another

19:42 the metric summary which is another one I thought was a really good one it’s a one pager of every single metric foreign and their their threshold so what is the metric and what was the tolerance to be good or bad I thought that was really good as well so giving you a summary of this kpi and what are its bounds upper and lower I think that’s also something that people aren’t doing enough of and then lastly is a detail so something to drill through specifically for that metric right and you can dive into okay this metric is

20:13 you can dive into okay this metric is bad or we’ve indicated this is a red or it’s it’s it’s not performing they’re probably makes sense to have a visual or two around one single kpi or metric and say okay sales is down here’s some charts that show you which part of the business is down by the most and then you can start diving into deeper areas to say okay these metrics are now wrong or right does that make sense yes do you like those designations is there something you would add to those

20:43 there something you would add to those Master summary and detail metrics for me I I feel like I want to focus on the tiered approach or release the that the second Point here where we have our Master metric but one thing I want to want to introduced to you guys or at least maybe it’s a hot take but I have been leaning more and more on introducing measurement to a stakeholder or to a

21:13 measurement to a stakeholder or to a report that previously did not exist and let me expand on that a little for a little more context so a lot of times there are there are metrics either whether or not they are actually contextual where there’s a targeted approach that’s art we’re trying to get to 80 percent of x y and Z’s maybe just call volume or is total sales or it’s Pro products sold and a lot of times those numbers have no context one thing I’ve been introducing more and more is the idea of throwing basically

21:46 more is the idea of throwing basically some idea of throwing in some what I’m calling submetrics where they are rates they’re more targeted approaches it’s nothing the client necessarily came up with but it’s introducing them to the client saying are these more relevant do these help you indicate things they are not something from the business there’s something from the bi team that’s been introduced but it’s trying to help in a sense provide those gauges yeah some are thrown away some are included but they try to get Incorporated help them see you wanted to look at volume but volume

22:18 you wanted to look at volume but volume doesn’t tell you anything there is no uncovering insights there is no action here if you were to look at some especially numbers when you get into the thousands how much does that help you over month over month basis have you got 1200 to compared to 1300 like what actions that possibly going to derive so trying to basically create something underneath that again depending on whatever the model is depending on what the business is but trying to create more things around rates and ratios that help indicate that and that’s what I’ve

22:49 help indicate that and that’s what I’ve been doing more on in that tiered Approach at least when it comes to the the submetric idea so okay like I like some of the thoughts that you’re throwing out here and and overall I think what this article and Ben is outlining is a very specific use case where they’re on not a specific use case a an area where the business is requires that these metrics be there which I think is like an important distinction to make why we don’t

23:19 distinction to make why we don’t not why we don’t do this every time because it makes a lot of sense but in this case it’s because there’s significant financial impact to this report and this data not being accurate and pipelines working super efficiently right so tracking tracking the different points within each of these tolerance levels is extremely important for the success of the business that’s his use case taking it where you are which is also I think

23:51 it where you are which is also I think there’s General applications we can make across the board and I really like your point that you made in the summary here where I think you said introducing a stakeholder on a metric yes right because because in in general we’ve talked about generating a report and then having a page that identifies some breakdowns but I think this thought takes it a step further from the standpoint that maybe some of our reports where it’s applicable

24:22 applicable actually generate these types of views into things and in that summary where we’re talking about particular metrics we slap stakeholders on there yeah right because if we if we think about a lot of the challenges we have within certain reporting there are different Source systems and different owners to that data and if something breaks down in that Source system where do where do people go automatically the bi team right it’s the report team right it’s a degradation of my

24:52 right it’s a degradation of my confidence and Trust in the report whether it’s in reality reality maybe the first step here should be okay if you if you see a problem in the report go look at this page where we have this lineage of metrics and the owners behind them and if you see a large number and it’s like if you conditionally format this card and it says total failure go reach out to this person right like

25:22 go reach out to this person right like why my report’s not accurate and you can who to go contact because you’re trying to use this report and it doesn’t work that’s another great point I really like that point as well because I feel like a lot of times as the bi practitioner the bi developer report developer we are an intermediary person between what the data is doing and what the data is showing right like we I don’t own your metrics I don’t own your sales numbers I don’t own any of your data like I my my

25:54 don’t own any of your data like I my my action items are not tied to making sure your sales number is at a certain percentage your job or your your role is around making sure that your sales you’re doing enough sales so these numbers match so I think a lot of times just the fact that I’m building this report for people the responsibility comes back to me like well your number’s wrong or the number’s not high enough or but that’s a mismatch in their mind as to We are the middlemen or women like we’re we are the people in the media in the middle here grabbing the ends of the spectrum we’re picking up data we’re

26:25 spectrum we’re picking up data we’re doing something to it and we’re helping

26:26 doing something to it and we’re helping you indicate okay we’re just trying to highlight what’s in the information and I really like on the the data Lineo article there’s a little embedded power bi report which these are great I love it when people build a an article and they have a sample data set or sample report that they’re embedding right in the article makes a ton of sense so here there’s an iframe embedded you can see that there’s tier one tier two and tier three and I also think to your point Seth not every kpi or metric is created equal equal there are probably certain metrics that

26:56 there are probably certain metrics that are tier one really important things like if those things go wrong we we need to take immediate action to resolve or remedy those data points and then there may be some supplemental tier two or tier three metrics that we’re looking at we’re interested in right I think I think having a realistic lens of this right if you think about how many kpis or metrics you should be looking at there should be a handful 5 10 at the top level and then maybe you can add a couple more in tier two and

27:27 can add a couple more in tier two and tier three if you rank them right so a few hot takes there Seth that you said that spinning a little fire where this requires data culture to be alive and well because it is funny there’s there’s a lot of times where if you introduce a report and things look bad where do they go first they go to the bi team team and and I don’t trust your data it’s wrong it’s incredible the how much that happens and I I to me I think that’s an issue where the bi team has just seen

27:59 issue where the bi team has just seen unless the bi team has a level of leadership at the organization and has been elevated to a point of honestly from a leadership role from a trust point of view there you spit out data if it’s good that’s on us and if it’s bad you probably did something wrong and there has to be this level of accountability where a lot of times I think the bi teams need to I don’t want to say they need to force feed some of these kpis or they

28:30 force feed some of these kpis or they need a force feed those indicators but maybe we do where it’s like yeah you want all these General reports but that’s not what we’re here for we can provide data but we’re here from helping you understand your performance helping the business understand the performance and I think if you’re going to introduce those sub metrics if you’re going to introduce those rates or what you said those indicators there is going to there has to be accountability on not just the

29:02 has to be accountability on not just the bi team on the user the stakeholder that they there has to be that Acceptance in a sense almost like a not necessarily a written contract but there has to be an agreement an understanding well it I I love all those points and there’s lots of them but the primary the prime the primary thought here was completely selfish completely because it one of the major directives in in it’s got to be this way in other organizations as well right but as as a leader in an org

29:33 leader in an org one of the biggest challenges that you have to overcome as a team is if you are swamped with bugs or issues data issues that you have to solve then you’re not innovating then you’re not enhancing you’re not building better better things for the organization so one of the the best things you can do is solve the bug problem right reduce the amount of tickets that are going to coming in to your team to solve issues and one of the ways you can do that is using something

30:04 ways you can do that is using something like this like this right I’ve solved it in different ways but I really like this article because it’s like oh man like what I’ve talked about this in like anecdotal ways like I should really we should have a page that outlines you have a page that outlines the the checks and balances of data know the the checks and balances of data to some degree but I love this article from the standpoint that it’s like no you take this to the next level right have these have specific metrics that are like defining key areas of

30:35 are like defining key areas of importance to ensure that the data that’s coming through the report is accurate and and complete every day and then simplify this for the end user so it’s almost like an addition to or maybe it’s a separate report that references the same model yeah but it’s purely selfish because what this would allow me to do is say here’s this report if something doesn’t look right validate on this page and then people know exactly who to go to because a lot more often than not it isn’t something that’s

31:06 often than not it isn’t something that’s the report problem right so then the ticket goes to the the location where the fix is going to to take place I think you make some really good points as well whereby a bi team a bi team what I’ve discovered is actually in a really unique position to dictate change within an organization right like often your challenge to like we we have to work cross collaboratively and I’m not suggesting that we try to start we try

31:37 suggesting that we try to start we try to pick fights with reporting however it is really insightful if all of the sudden we produce something like this of value where we’re we’re producing an accuracy page right our you can trust our report because of XYZ and something like this that is so well thought out in summary and showing where you can go drive action to go fix a problem is is really solid right and I think it like

32:08 really solid right and I think it like it would be where my mind goes is I I’d love I’m going to go spend some time in seeing if I can create templates that would allow me to easily apply something like this that makes a lot of sense in in reporting where it’s applicable because it’s not applicable everywhere A lot of times it’s a single data source I own that it’s my problem if the report doesn’t show up but at least it would be indicative of of Me Maybe it does make sense and that’s a use case I’m talking in circles

32:38 that’s a use case I’m talking in circles here but no no ultimately ultimately these reports are designed and we would hope that they’re solving some of the the problems and driving the organization towards achieving objectives so it’s a It’s always important right and that’s the point in which I don’t think you need to sign off completely throughout the organization albeit it it may be a driver for the bi team to say hey we’re adding this cross-collaboration between the teams hey so and so over here know I put your name in here because if there’s an issue

33:09 name in here because if there’s an issue with this report people are going to start asking you about it so this is another good point because I’m actually working with a client that was trying to understand where metric scorecards or metrics were living right so there’s a lot of different teams in this company and the executives are looking for summarization or details across many different reports and I’m working on things that I don’t control like literally the report I do not control but someone is producing a report and sharing it across the organization so we were using

33:39 the organization so we were using metrics to actually bring accountability to that team because I could be given view only access to an app or view only access to a report I could pluck and pick certain metrics from their report that they’re already owning and bring it to a metric scorecard so now you can actually have underlining data teams subject matter area experts that are owning their data okay I’m not going to tell you how to build your report you need to produce a report with this card or kpi in it or tell me

34:12 with this card or kpi in it or tell me what is important to you now we then apply that to a metric scorecard and now every time they refresh their data set I don’t care what you do it’s manual you’re you’re literally fat fingering data into a spreadsheet I don’t care but when that number changes and it goes below a certain threshold people are alerted above you about what’s going on in your scorecard so it actually really pushed ownership back to individual teams by using this type of technique and and to your point Seth also here as well I I’m really loving this report so that

34:43 I I’m really loving this report so that the report is really interesting here the tier one each one of the kpi metrics in tier one has a little forward Arrow so there’s a single page for each of those metrics you click on the Arrow it takes you directly to the page so for example one of the ones that are talking about here is customers with 20 sales drop is the is the title of the kpi you click the kpi and it takes you to another page and it says these are the customers that dropped twenty percent twenty percent quarter over quarter so it gives you a very clear like it again

35:13 it gives you a very clear like it again there’s a lot of data in this model it’s

35:16 there’s a lot of data in this model it’s highlighting you or narrowing your focus down to here’s the here’s the five that you need to pay attention to look at these first because we said this is important important also with this report which I think is very very well defined here in the upper right hand corner there’s a little items for a home button the definitions like literally defining each kpi there’s a table table customers 20 sales drop is now in the table and it says this identifies a strategic top 100

35:46 this identifies a strategic top 100 customers who has had a revenue drop of 20 or more in the last two quarters very clear again business terminology business language and on this definitions page there’s a great little selectable item that says which is the accountable team if I want to look at customer success team you click that these are all the kpis that are for that team this is what we’re measuring that and it’s immediately to your point Seth brings the link back to who’s responsible for

36:17 the link back to who’s responsible for that information and then also you have the ability of going into the support area and they have a power app built in there and so on the support tab there’s like this is how we handle this if you have a problem with the data or if there’s an issue with this report here’s a common regular way of reporting back issues or or items you can go funnel back into the team so I really again I feel like the whole ecosystem of presenting the kpis the details behind the kpi and then support for the kpi is all included in

36:48 support for the kpi is all included in this report and I think that’s really strong I would be curious and to both your points some things that I wrote down that make a lot of sense to this is and I would be curious to the how the report was developed if this was the stakeholder saying This Is How They want the report developed or this is the bi team I think in order for a bi team to be able to provide this and not only to be able to create I think I know you’re going on so more important for this to get integrated into the organization yeah I think we there’s two things one

37:19 yeah I think we there’s two things one to be consistently proactive rather than just reacting to a ticket and doing the ticket but the other word and I hate saying this because it’s very silicon valley-esque but at the same time I think it’s relevant is disruptive where I think the bi team has to be willing to introduce Concepts like this where there is accountability and cause maybe a few waves because again that’s part of our role I don’t know if that’s we’re regarding Mike but I I saw those two areas of what a bi team can

37:50 those two areas of what a bi team can really do to and again get this ingrained in part of the culture so I think what you described as where I was going okay I think there’s a part of this where I ca as a bi practitioner I’m not the one defining what is tier one what is tier two and what is tier three metrics I’m not defining which metrics are important I’m also not defining which team is responsible for which kpis that has to come from someone and typically that’s from executive

38:20 and typically that’s from executive sponsors it’s from executive leadership they should be the ones deciding what is important for us to look at now the data teams or the the various teams that are in charge of these metrics there needs to be a communication so I feel like I’m part of that conversation but I’m not the one making those decisions the the business needs to come up with these core metrics or core points and I need to help facilitate that discussion so the business is saying well just give me a table of data no that’s not what we’re going to do here that’s a table of

38:50 we’re going to do here that’s a table of data is not going to support leadership knowing where to put their resources and effort towards to make something more impactful right so we need to facilitate what is most important to the company where do we is it is it is it number of subscribers is it number of interactions with our app is it the amount of spend per month per customer right so there’s there’s there are things that are going to have leadership make decisions does the leadership need to go talk to a particular customer their spend is down or they’re not

39:21 their spend is down or they’re not spending as much money or the sales contract is not complete yet or whatever those things are right I don’t know what you’re going to be needing but those data points need to be presented in a way that leadership understands what is expected the business understands what we’re trying to deliver and we’re joining those two conversations together and what I’m doing is trying to present it in a way that’s easy to discover when we’re off the rails and when we’re not and maybe that’s the point I’m trying to make so and I agree with that right but

39:52 make so and I agree with that right but even even in the beginning of their article he’s not he’s describing these as not kpis right like this isn’t a high level leadership thing I think what this is is the in between where I’m the business owner right and I have these reports that are generating value right and to me this almost goes into these business metric tracking mechanisms should be the the things that go off the rails with the questions that we’re trying to answer

40:22 questions that we’re trying to answer right yeah so it I think drives directly into what is the intent of the report right if we’re creating a report for you to show you these things what is the what is it when we’re good and what is it when we’re bad and the bad parts are these specific business metrics that we can start to track for that leader whereby when they’re analyzing something business metric Central for this report or this model would be something that they tap into daily to just see if like

40:53 they tap into daily to just see if like Bing I got six things where 20 sales drop oh that’s bad for my bottom line I gotta go figure out why that is happening right because the next step for me is communication up to leadership that we got a problem like and and it’s being identified we gotta I’m gonna try to solve it and we’re gonna do these initiatives etc etc so it’s a dashboard but not really and that’s where I think he’s going with this and why I’m excited about it because I like it because I see it also as something that as we’re as a report

41:26 as something that as we’re as a report author it’s not just data quality right it’s the next level of I have this data in a report obviously the quality is important but if something happens in here from either a breakdown perspective which I I think was where my mind initially went to oh my goodness we’re tracking we’re actually providing value in this business metric validation above and beyond what you could decipher in the report for yourself but that’s everything you just said is I

41:58 but that’s everything you just said is I think in a healthy data culture take this report and imagine this in an unhealthy data culture and let’s play a game called who’s getting angry and getting angry I love it sounds angry think about this right but think about an unhealthy data culture you’re introducing this because I get I I would feel confident that this came from the bi team to develop that 20 sales drop to show that that wasn’t the be the the business interesting this is how we want the flow of the report and

42:29 how we want the flow of the report and oh totally but the point is if it’s bad that’s there’s a team department or person they’re pissed yes right and they don’t want to show that oh no forget a culture so this is to me where that disruptive comes in if something is yeah this is also a leadership thing too Tommy like I agree with you like it’s a leadership thing too it’s like it’s the idea of like okay your number’s down we’re not going to come in and be like throw fire and brimstone on people and like he calls on them and be like okay you guys are the most evil

42:59 like okay you guys are the most evil people ever your number’s down like it has to be more of a culture of like okay team like we’re down in this area let’s let’s all rally behind this let’s let’s let’s have a team mentality let’s figure out where is the problem coming from is there anything we can do to address it how can I help you enable to remove barriers and blockers to fix this number we all agree this is the right way to go because if you have it to your point Tommy if the data culture is so accusatory and well sales is a bunch of idiots because they don’t know what the heck they’re doing well then you defeat the purpose of this report because now

43:30 the purpose of this report because now everyone’s pointing fingers and getting angry as opposed to Let’s rally behind this information and make it better and I I’m gonna further contend I think the bi team and especially moving forward has more of a leadership role to play obviously you have to have the support of your chief a chief officer or an executive sponsor to be able to do this but I I’m further more on the side that bi has a leadership role to play and should be consistently proactive in

44:02 should be consistently proactive in being able to introduce Concepts like

44:04 being able to introduce Concepts like these these I agree I I I agree I agree the but there are challenges in that right and you pointing them out depending on data culture right the I think think foreign foreign business intelligence teams have the capability to make significant improvements within an organization and if executive teams leverage that business intelligencing to do so yes that speaks to the fact that you’re

44:34 that speaks to the fact that you’re increasing the data literacy and culture within your organization because those data-driven insights are automatically require that Source systems have good data yes that Executives and teams are driving off of the same data sets which is important because ultimately in order for an organization to operate at Peak efficiency we need to be on the same metrics we need to be driving towards the same

45:04 need to be driving towards the same objectives and this isn’t a a bi team pointing out the failings of an organizational unit 100 it just means the organizational unit is failing and the organization needs to know that yes yes right but again it’s not a bad thing it just can be hidden yes it’s more detrimental to the business than some team pointing out like creating a report that generates visibility in how you go solve that problem right and there’s a distinct difference here where yeah there could be a lot of infighting but

45:34 there could be a lot of infighting but my goodness right like are do you that’s dysfunctional do you want to be in a place where like you’re bashed for like generating something of value in an organization where hard decisions could be made to break the ship like I would agree right let’s look for new jobs like that’s that’s time to move on guys like this is not a good healthy culture it doesn’t necessarily have to move jobs like this is part about jobs oh it does it totally means that you just get out like you’re done yeah

46:05 set your resumes to resumes at powerbi. tips and we’ll help you get a new job we need a tech for the podcast is that our new third-party offering if you also like to be if you also like to be an internship please please email us at intern at Power bi tips and we’ll we’ll get you an internship Summer’s I don’t know summer’s coming to be hey like honestly I don’t mean to be flipping right this is not the market to be joking about this but at the same time like a lot I think frustration builds you a lot I think frustration builds business intelligence teams win know business intelligence teams win those types of actions aren’t

46:35 those types of actions aren’t supported or pushed within an organization because it is it is the one team I think that can bring together just significant change within an organization and it’s the most exciting part that I love about business intelligence is having a foot in the business and I. T so that I can make these changes right I can connect to all these sources I can create value for you pretty rapidly with the tools that we have being power bi like this is this is big game changing stuff and this is

47:06 big game changing stuff and this is where I think across the board the the greater opportunity that we have to introduce even things like this business metrics tracking on the the reporting that we’re generating shows that there’s more value behind our reports that highlight the importance of them to the organization as opposed to forcing people to like try to figure out these things by themselves right yeah and because everything you do

47:36 right yeah and because everything you do is going to have a ripple effect and when I say leadership role it doesn’t mean you come in guns blazing like here’s your cut but I think this is also part of our ability and part of the skill set to create strategy in terms of going to your expressive sponsors saying hey here’s what we want to do right here’s what we can do so excellent I think this is a really good conversation really like the article a great looking report I think it was the I think the airs it yeah and he shares it like oh grab it like there’s a

48:06 shares it like oh grab it like there’s a pbix template for you to go like yep so there’s a file on GitHub I’ll actually put a link to the file on GitHub here as well just for people in the chat window so here in the chat window here’s link to the file in case you want to go play with it or see what it’s doing I think it’s also really good very well done so really like that thank you very much for the article and again I’m going to go to zoom back up here Ben appreciate it thank you for the time again it takes a lot I will say to have a well-articulated article anyone can burn out an article but to have it like

48:36 out an article but to have it like really be impactful I think it takes a lot of thought and so just I appreciate the community continue investing input and data puts data pieces like this in a way that allows people to engage with power bi and get to a deeper level so really appreciate it great article with that if you like this podcast if you like what you heard here if you got a couple laughs out of it or if you liked living listening to us laugh on 2. 5 x sounding like Chipmunks Chipmunks we’d really appreciate you let us know somewhere else on the social

49:06 know somewhere else on the social media please share with somebody else that’s our only really ask as listeners of the podcast share with someone else who you think may find this valuable or find some relevant input or information around doing this we love power bi we like talking about this kind power bi we like talking about this top like all the time we of top like all the time we definitely have spent way too much time this week talking about all the things but it’s so far so good we probably should end here on our our our our actual ask here so I’ll ask a prompt you guys what should our question

49:36 prompt you guys what should our question be to chat GPT do you have a question here like this this one’s this one’s a little bit more around how do you how do you make metrics impactful for organization what do you what do you think I think it’s more along his second part which is raising the bar on delivering the insights insights maybe see what chat GPT has to say about that let’s say that in power bi reporting how do you raise the bar on delivering insight and I’ll be leaning on my radio show right exactly right so

50:08 on my radio show right exactly right so so the question that I so we asked the question how do I raise the bar on delivering insights and so we’ll see what chat TPT says so rate to raise the bar on delivering insights you can employ the following strategies understand your audience before delivering any insights important understanding your audience and their needs use data effectively ensure that you are using a reliable data source this is the point you made Seth right the data source has to be consistent data visualizations techniques and charging graphs are only good if they represent data from concise

50:39 good if they represent data from concise and clear data sources makes sense be clear and concise when delivering insights it’s important to be clear and concise with your message use Simple language avoid jargon and focus on key takeaways that are most relevant for your audience and I would err on the side of yeah that’s the actionable part we want we want you to think about actions you’re going to do after you see this provide context insights are most valuable when they are provided in the context of a larger picture make sure to provide context for your insights to explain the background

51:10 your insights to explain the background the data sources you use and any other relevant information I think that was also uncovered in the article where there’s like here’s the definitions page that made sense I agree with that one too be proactive don’t wait for the audience to ask for insights be proactive take an approach of anticipating their needs and providing relevant insights before they even ask did they seriously a proactive yeah you did they seriously a proactive yeah what if you as you’re going through know what if you as you’re going through these if you would take the bullets from Chachi PT and build a solution I think that’s what Ben did yeah maybe that’s

51:42 that’s what Ben did yeah maybe that’s what yeah if you think like it’s a really well thought out great great use case and tool I think that people definitely go down read the article download what he created because yeah that is how you make big impacts awesome all right so with that we’re at a wrap that’s chat GPT thank you all very much for listening we appreciate it share it on the social medias let us know if you like this content if you found value from it please let somebody else know as well that you enjoyed the

52:12 else know as well that you enjoyed the content and you found some interesting thinking points and we’d love it share your thoughts like what did you find was interesting about this article share the article as well because Ben deserves some some publicity for this one it’s very well written Tommy where else can you find the podcast you can find the podcast anywhere a podcasts are available apple and Spotify lever rating helps us out a ton also go to Power bi tips slash podcast submit a mailbag and maybe your topic will be at one of our episodes finally join the conversation live every

52:43 finally join the conversation live every Tuesday and Thursday 7 30 a. m Central on all the power bi tips social channels excellent thank you all very much and we’ll catch you next time

Thank You

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the podcast and check out PowerBI.tips for more templates, themes, and BI guidance.