Strategic Research – Ep. 281

It’s easy to treat BI as a build queue: someone asks for a dashboard, we deliver a dashboard. But when discovery is skipped, you end up optimizing for the loudest request instead of the highest-value business outcome.

In Ep. 281, the team walks through Microsoft’s Power BI implementation planning guidance (Strategic Planning, Step 2) and breaks down what ‘strategic research’ really means: designing workshops, doing independent discovery with the right people, and capturing the context you’ll use to build a durable roadmap.

News & Announcements

• Project Sophia: An AI-Powered Business Research Canvas — Chris Webb’s write-up on Microsoft’s experiment for exploring small datasets (CSV/Excel/PDF) in a canvas-style, question-driven workflow.
• DAX Query View introduces new INFO DAX functions — INFO.* functions surface model metadata (like measures and columns) directly in Desktop, making documentation and model audits easier.
• Power BI implementation planning: plan workshops and conduct research — The core reference for building a structured discovery process (working team, research topics, and how to turn findings into priorities).
• Submit a topic idea (Explicit Measures Podcast) — Send your questions and scenarios for future episodes.
• PowerBI.tips Podcast — Subscribe and browse the full back catalog.
• Power BI Theme Generator (Tips+) — Build consistent report themes quickly (and stop hand-tuning hex codes).

Main Discussion

‘Strategic research’ sounds formal, but the point is practical: before you build, you need a shared understanding of business context and the current state of analytics. That means talking to the people doing the work today, documenting what you learn, and using that evidence to drive priorities.

A key theme in Step 2 is that discovery isn’t an IT-only activity. Microsoft’s guidance pushes toward a working team that includes business subject matter experts who can explain goals, processes, and pain points—plus the existing solutions that have grown up across departments.

Key takeaways:

• Define business context first: capture business goals, strategic objectives, and the decisions each team is trying to improve—not just a list of requested visuals.
• Design workshops intentionally: pick stakeholders who can speak for the work (and make decisions); the wrong mix creates misalignment that shows up later as rework.
• Assess the current state honestly: inventory existing BI solutions, spreadsheets, and ‘shadow’ data stores so you understand what people trust today and where duplication is happening.
• Treat documentation as an output: discovery notes should land in a central place (Confluence/Teams/etc.) and become the input to governance, prioritization, and future onboarding.
• Plan for uneven maturity: different departments will be at different levels (skills, expectations, self-service readiness). Your strategy has to account for that gap.
• Rank opportunities and commit to a roadmap: curate the list of business needs, prioritize by impact, and build a realistic 12–18 month plan that can evolve as engagement changes.
• Make it recurring: workshops and research aren’t just for ‘new to Power BI’ orgs—re-run the cycle as priorities and teams shift.

Looking Forward

If you want BI to scale, keep discovery on a cadence and maintain a living, ranked backlog of business needs—so your roadmap stays aligned to outcomes instead of requests.

Episode Transcript

0:31 n good morning and welcome back to the explicit measures podcast with Tommy Seth and Seth and Mike hello everyone happy Tuesday gentlemen welcome back from the break the holidays how were your holidays holidays gentlemen for the new year 2024 we surprised our kids with a trip to Florida for Christmas this year so we went to do a travel vacation wasn’t too bad other than the fact that I picked up a little bit of a throat cold

1:02 picked up a little bit of a throat cold so I’m that’s why I sound like a frog this morning but overall it was very relaxing got to see family hang out relax it’s good how about you Tommy had a week off we had some Transformations because man we finally moved all of the children’s toys into the basement our living room was just getting a little condensed they don’t have a ton of toys But like after Christmas I’m just up there it’s like the where all their stuff is is also

1:32 the where all their stuff is is also where the living room is and I basically went to I’m getting trapped so we finally now opened up the living room and all of a sudden the TV seemed a little little smaller so after years and years of skimping on TVs I always would get the size but I would get the two stars get the cheap one yep I’m like what what it’s actually quiet up here I’m actually getting what is this thing called a smart TV yes and the

2:02 this thing called a smart TV yes and the Color Wow and it’s amazing okay what kind did you get what smart TV did you get we got a Samsung 75 in nice which is insane it sounds ridiculous but the prices for them I remember two years ago Dr significantly yeah yeah it’s absolutely incredible and they were like hey maybe we should do this and oh maybe we should get a sound system like all right let’s just hold our hores Slow Down slow down it is insane that’s awesome awesome well that is exciting very exciting

2:32 well that is exciting very exciting actually work has been good for 2023 for Tommy happy happy holiday happy birthday holiday for for me exactly exactly right we got a couple introductions of some articles today to go through so let’s hit a couple of those as we as we jump in here but before we get to our introductions our news essentially let’s do our main topic today our main topic today is we’re actually jumping back into more of the Microsoft documentation around

3:03 the Microsoft documentation around just their implementation planning we haven’t really gone through this before but it’s talking through their implementation planning pieces and we’re going through strategic planning and we’re going to go through this for a couple Tuesdays here just to jump in learn what this is doing and and talk about it a bit more so today we’re going to talk about step two planning your workshops and conducting research for your powerbi implementation this are the very beginning stages of implementing stuff okay with that let’s jump over to

3:33 okay with that let’s jump over to some news articles before we jump into our main topic and Tommy you want to kick us off with something you found from Chris Webb man I don’t know how I missed this too but Chris Webb wrote an interesting new article that really is not to do with powerbi still data and it’s called project sopia by Microsoft they announced it at ignite and what it is what is they’re calling it is an AI high powered business research canvas simply allows users to upload data or

4:06 simply allows users to upload data or PDF and just generate some questions to basically say hey what’s going on here and what’s really cool about how it works and what I’m really been testing out enjoying with it is it will basically say hey I uploaded my biking activity like every bike ride all this data that comes from straa I said hey how does my average speed look and it gave me a few charts a few texts and then it gives me all these suggested next steps and then you can basically

4:36 next steps and then you can basically Branch out from each of the visuals or each of the questions which actually makes it really neat something I’ve been really enjoying so far so it’s interesting so it’s an AI powered visualization tool with some next steps or actions incorporated into it seems like an interesting project but this is what we’ve been prois promised for years from powerbi a couple things that Chris notes here as well this was an announcement came at

5:06 well this was an announcement came at ignite this year there was there’s a full session around it and with this you can only upload two types of files CSV Excel actually three types relatively small Excel CSV and PDF files so it’s not really ready for like large data sets you’re not going to throw this at your organization it sounds to me more like this is an experiment that Microsoft is producing that they think might take off and maybe this will turn into something else that they use inside the the product what are your thoughts Seth have

5:37 product what are your thoughts Seth have you seen this before did you hear about this at all I have not some catch up on so basically if you actually test it out again take a data set that you have and it’ll basically say hey what’s my average speed in 2023 I get a trending a relationship between average speed and the time I moved next steps but if I hold alt and C on my keyboard I can actually choose a particular data point on anything on that canvas and then ask another

6:08 that canvas and then ask another question about that or basically so it’s really neat in terms of the you could call it the linear view or the journ the more in a sense story version of this where it looks like a mind map it actually looks like Miro when you’re actually generating things off of it which is actually something that I have a feeling this is going to be in powerbi at some point if it can’t handle large data sets this this does make a lot of sense between what

6:38 does make a lot of sense between what Sophia is doing and what parbi is doing when you build like a visual right there’s there’s a large data set multi-million rows of data potentially under the hood and the visual is aggregating that data to a certain level you’re picking a couple Dimensions you’re picking a couple measures so you’re having hopefully a couple hundred rows of data which would make sense and so so sending this project Sophia here’s a data frame here’s a a visual worth of data okay now do some analysis on that and see what it comes back with it’ll be

7:08 and see what it comes back with it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out I’m I’m I’m cautiously optimistic I guess I would say I’ve not been very thrilled with any of the AI based solutions that Microsoft is producing around powerbi they’re very like oo look at this flashy Bell and whistle but very rarely do I ever if I think about my daily workflow in parbi I’m not spending a ton of time using of all the AI features let’s be honest maybe I’m using the decomposition tree the most but other than that there’s not really much other

7:38 than that there’s not really much other AI things I’m using from the powerbi space yet sweet with that let’s move over to our other topic we have another kind our other topic we have another opener here as well that was Chris of opener here as well that was Chris web talking about that one so let’s talk about there’s a new I think it’s a new a new 50 set of Dax functions yeah I think they were in public preview maybe but Zoe had a a post on December 21st talking about the Dax query view

8:09 talking about the Dax query view introducing new info Dax functions this one’s interesting just from the standpoint that it it it it’s a much easier path into much of the back end of the model right I I would I would imagine a lot of the tool sets that are out there that are describing the model things that are are very useful to understand related to like here are all your measures here’s the calculations Etc like the this is like that easy path into there now in in

8:39 that easy path into there now in in Dax Dax functions does this seem I feel like this solves a problem that came not not solv a problem it this is this seems to me to be a solution that comes from now that we have the Dax query view inside desktop right to me this makes a lot of of sense now to have these additional 50 functions because I can just now evaluate these different functions so evalue evaluate info. measures lets you

9:09 evalue evaluate info. measures lets you just run a quick query and see all the measures in the model in a list format which I think is amazing and then you can copy and or export that table of data data out out of the model now because of that Dax query view so it feels like these I don’t know maybe I’m maybe I’m reading between the lines here too much but feels like someone said hey there’s no easy way to get at the DMV information we need people to be able to see this and easily access the model data the DMV

9:39 and easily access the model data the DMV level information let’s make 50 new Dax formulas that just expose those tables for you automatically which I think actually was a very smart move so this means you can now set up a powerbi file with a handful of Dax queries that have list of columns list of measures list of whatever you want you can list out the things that you need and you can have just a results sheet of all the data of the model and that could start becoming part of your

10:10 that could start becoming part of your data Ops or your data checking as you build models and stuff moving forward forward interesting so I think these are going

10:18 interesting so I think these are going to be very helpful moving forward there’s actually some more elaborate functions they’ve had here one around creating the measures creating tables and then combining the left outer drawing between tables and measures and returning the result tax syntax there’s actually some really interesting code that they put in the blog article here as well so let me just throw the blog article as well this is really cool I think this is going to be a neat feature and I I’m excited to see people blog about this to figure out what

10:48 blog about this to figure out what they’re going to do with the new Dax quore quore review all right agreed before we kick into the actual main topic today normally on the first of New Year’s we’re pretty excited but and and there is a lot of room to be excited but I I did want to call out that Leila resa’s wife passed away on December

11:18 December 31st she had cancer which she was very transparent about online and our thoughts and prayers go out to Resa as he deals with obviously this traumatic loss but Reza and Lila are two of the most Unique Individuals that have been part of the MVP community and have had a big impact I think on all of us and are are those Unique Individuals that just make a room shine with joy so for for those of you who are listening

11:49 for for those of you who are listening Breza is has posted several posts on LinkedIn they are actually streaming the funeral so if you’re interested in attending that it’s on Thursday go check out his post on LinkedIn but I did want to take a moment with you guys just to share some fond memories if you have any alela I know that Avid conference goer ran into her all the time and just a very unique personality yeah also I’ll say the same thing I’ve always I I’ve met Leila I

12:19 thing I’ve always I I’ve met Leila I was actually able to speak at one of their conferences they came to powerbi Summit in Chicago ilila and re and and Rea were just amazingly welcoming super Open Hearts very positive and just wanted to see the community continue to grow so I in general I felt I had a very wonderful experience working with them to help bring the event to Chicago I was happy to promote it and they were always super helpful about anything I needed to make sure our preons and our sessions

12:49 make sure our preons and our sessions ran well they were super smiley all the time so I had nothing but a wonderful experience and was really drawn in and Lea was a was very incredible she was a two time MVP I believe she had an AI MVP as well as a powerbi MVP as well so she was able to do two MVP two different tracks yeah two different tracks so one it’s hard enough to keeping up with one track let alone two tracks so she was immensely smart anytime I asked her any AI questions even I would ping her randomly on teams or U via

13:21 randomly on teams or U via maybe via LinkedIn hey I had a question about this and she’d have an example of here’s here’s something I tried here’s some code here’s a Blog that I did check this out over here so she’s always always willing to help and provide help to people as well so I hope as a community we continue to strive to be like ilila and to continue to help encourage people and to help them grow in their data career as well so she definitely impacted me as I had random Ai and High higher end Machine level questions and she was very happy

13:51 level questions and she was very happy to just jump in and provide a helping hand so best wishes Reza and and our hearts are with you as you are dealing with your loss and we are thinking about you as well and we’re going to miss Leela as well we’ve had the honor yeah Mike to your point and like I said I I’ll just touch on this briefly she’s done so much she’s been writing actually a lot of the Articles on ricat as well so just

14:21 Articles on ricat as well so just it’s been a great example I know she a ton of the work with the conferences and traveling so I think for all us the cool thing about what we get to do is we get to have a lot of that community that you just would never really expect and we really have an awesome time not just doing powerbi but getting to talk to people and actually getting to know people and starting to care about them too for sure I think to Mike’s Point

14:51 too for sure I think to Mike’s Point what a shining example of what it is to be a true Community leader that she was it it takes a a unique type of person to be able to balance the way they had with like running conferences right completely and being technical experts and jumping into a presentation or multiple I just don’t know how they did at all every time and everywhere and and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them stressed like they never presented that and what huge

15:23 presented that and what huge impact she had a huge impact on the community obviously and and all of us and we we’ll keep her in our hearts forever for sure all right with that we’re going to transition again so we we’ll jump into our main topic today so our main topic and I’ll throw the blog link here as well so let me go copy that link here as well and throw that here to our main chat window our main chat today is we’re going to talk more about implementation particularly around the bi strategic planning and focusing

15:54 the bi strategic planning and focusing really on the step two plan planning workshops and conducting research talking through this section of Microsoft documentation so I’ll just start there Tommy maybe give us a a little bit of your maybe initial impression maybe a bit of an overview of step two planning workshops and conducting research what are we doing here what is this part of this strategic planning thing look like I’m curious going to see even how far we go today so yeah this is a as we go through this implementation today our

16:24 go through this implementation today our first implementation Tuesday we same article but we really just focus on the step one you’ll see how the documentation outlined and that was about the team the overall idea of what the strategy mean today we’re really GNA be focusing on in the document step two three and four which is the ability really the planning workshops and research and conducting research running workshops and then taking that information and seeing where the goals and priorities are to me this is

16:55 and priorities are to me this is something I’m so glad to see this in a official Microsoft doc this is something that I’ve always pushed for and something I’ve always seen the need in my in my own experiences in my own adoptions getting powerbi to the next level and I’m amazed that the I don’t want to say the push back that I get but this is definitely the if we get to if we get to this great but the most lowest priority in terms of usually with a

17:28 priority in terms of usually with a lot of organizations think they need to do research is if you’re not doing it right if you not not know what to ask and who to ask it can be just a very ambiguous Tas the people that are going to be assessed they’re not going to know why there’s a lot that need to be in place and I think this is probably out of everything in the implementation planning guide and what a lot of people do by far the one that’s skipped over either either not even

17:59 skipped over either either not even thought about or considered as to do and then seeing it here it’s we’ll get to that if we can there’s actually a number of really good diagrams that are in this one as well so I it feels like again this is like a very CT thing to do there’s a labeled diagram halfway down here and again Peter Myers is the last one noted on the documentation my guess is this is probably Kurt and Peter was the last one in to touch and refine the documentation so Peter Myers has got his name on the documentation as well so I know Peter’s doing things here

18:30 well so I know Peter’s doing things here but as I look at the diagrams and the images here again this feels very much like a Curt influenced thing as well and I really like his topics addressed with independent research in this section so talking about there’s a working team around researching and documenting what are the needs of the company and making sure we write these down because I think these inform behaviors that you do in the subsequent steps right there’s there’s this whole area around business context and there’s whole around what are the ex existing bi

19:03 whole around what are the ex existing bi initiatives and solutions today I think these are really good points so I agree with that like the the launch of of the that particular area right business context it is it is so let’s catch I want to catch up my own head here first right we we’ve discussed about like the working team right so this is these are the multiple different types of individuals from different business units and the centralized bi team or Coe

19:34 units and the centralized bi team or Coe right like well they Define that they Define that in the bullet points below so they have a little label number one next to it so the working team as they defined it is researching the business context and understanding the business strategy is a team defined by that the research is led by business subject matter experts for each of their respective departments and or business units so it’s it’s like a it sounds like it’s not an it based function this sounds like this is a collaborative team smemes and again I I place

20:05 smemes and again I I place smmes subject matter experts well it’s in in departments yeah it’s it’s above though like in in the in the dep diagram depicted earlier right you have the center executive sponsor Center of Excellence outside the working team which is Coe business me master data team data engineering team security team it team and I think we talked about like yes those being roles in larger organizations they could be individuals themselves that that own the responsible areas but it could be somebody

20:35 areas but it could be somebody wearing multiple hats right but I don’t

20:37 wearing multiple hats right but I don’t I don’t I see their working team being part of the executive sponsor is participating in this but they’re more of a do we approve and we move on and there any but not to this level not to not to the independent conducted research level I think that’s where the working team is so all I’m saying is there’s probably a couple people people right to to be hacking through this together yes or these steps together oh okay I understand that so like the

21:07 okay I understand that so like the reason I I I I I want to hang and talk about business context is W without this this is the central pillar I think of of any engagement or anything you’re trying to do with bi don’t get stuck in the realm of going and just building all this stuff on your own right if anything the working team shows that you need a subject matter expert from that particular area but the important aspects that you want to knock out right away when you’re starting to do this research is to understand the business context right defining the data needs

21:40 context right defining the data needs based on business objectives right Smee lead the efforts to own the business context but the intent of that working group is all of you share that knowledge as you’re going through these exercises to to Define where where should we be spending our time that’s going to make the most the most business create the most business value right yeah and I I think to me there I I spend time on these things but

22:10 mean I I spend time on these things but it’s going to be these are things that I would I would probably document them research them and put them down on part of your central portal whatever your central portal looks like Confluence teams wherever that may be but there’s there is a business goals the goal of our team is to do these things whatever that make better decisions based on data write them down here are our strategic objectives right what what do those things what are those aligned data

22:41 things what are those aligned data elements or data things that you’re going to do to align the business right we’re going to increase our data Culture by educating people with quarterly meetings something like that or we’re going to use powerbi to be more data Centric here’s how we’re going to implement that so those are there’s some strategic pieces here that I think helps your your company align here and then when I get down to like the other areas of this business business context like business processes business data needs I think it’s very relevant to write these down because

23:13 relevant to write these down because this will determine what solution you provide to the business or what you what areas of powerbi do you need to work harder on to educate around what by this is if if you expect everything to come out of a powerbi report and that’s all you need you’re probably missing some of the functionality of power. com there is this whole self-discovery and exploration and this idea of the the model the the models of datas are very important and

23:43 models of datas are very important and so incorporating that with analyzing Excel ping reports data hubs now in power. com what is Fabric and how does all that fit into all of this I think there’s a lot of other things now that powerbi is bringing to the business business that it’s going to now to be more important for you to understand what are the business data needs because those needs Define what part of the tool will be most effective for them does that make that make sense and maybe I’m reading into a bit

24:14 sense and maybe I’m reading into a bit too much Seth I I wonder you you’ve been one of the Champions about the okr framework and I’m looking at the business context and doing the independent research I’ve seen this a ton and I don’t know if this becomes a deal breaker or maybe one of the biggest stop gaps in the reason why people don’t do the research looking at the topics to address independent research and steps one

24:44 independent research and steps one through five each one of them is talking about understanding the business business strategy for each of those teams in the sneeze if you have a department or a team that doesn’t have that defined well where do you go from there if they’re just like yeah we’re just doing sales and we have some campaigns running or whatever that case may be if they’re not having these clear objectives of being topped down and I I wish this was something that was more uncommon than

25:16 something that was more uncommon than I’ve seen it common where it’s like well what are you doing we’ve just been doing these reports or looking at these numbers because that’s what we’ve always done there’s a weird there’s a delicate way you have to do research where you’re not going into to say what are you not measuring what are you not doing right do you guys see that political side of this as well there there there’s always relationship building in initial engagement with business units

25:48 initial engagement with business units you you do bring bring up a good point that I made a note on like the the diagram is easy to to show but it it seems like it’s missing a tiar or or the tier would be you go through this independent research on the higher level of the organization first and then this breakout actually happens within I would think in within each department or business unit because they are they they can be radically different

26:18 are they they can be radically different as it pertains to how far along they’re they are along any data Journey are they even like what of reporting are they doing are they doing everything manually in Excel do they have a third party tool that they’re plugging into that serves their business needs right like it so many different variations of that Engagement that they are they are different you’re going to engage with them differently how you

26:48 engage with them differently how you define their particular needs are going to be different than a different than a different business unit but all of that should funnel up to the the same spot the same place which is organizational oks right just because a a department has responsibilities to produce an output outcome for a business doesn’t mean that the business doesn’t want all departments to be at a certain level right it just means some have further Journeys to go which is why I think

27:20 Journeys to go which is why I think Microsoft even in this documentation has done a great representation of typically like you’re doing this on a department level you can’t do Broad Strokes when you’re doing data culture and adoption because there’s unique variations of how areas are managed how people view data how things you need to teach them right if anything I think one of the challenges with this framework that I’ve seen or or experienced is you you look at all of the conversations we’re

27:51 look at all of the conversations we’re having now and it’s predicated on the resourcing right like you can’t dive into this stuff like so so I think one of the largest challenges I’ve seen recently recently is we as business intelligence professionals know and understand that there are so many opportunities within the business and we use these matrixes and to to look at adoption and data culture and like identify where we are at organizationally and innately because

28:22 at organizationally and innately because of our experience we know that there is just a massive opportunity for the business in many different areas but we won’t know that specifically until we get into this type of researching and Diving down in details well that requires initiatives and people and resources to to to Define and go do that stuff and and that is sometimes backwards with the way the business wants to work which is well clearly defined for me what it is you’re going

28:53 defined for me what it is you’re going to go solve and it’s like well the strategies here but we don’t know what we’re going to solve yet because we have to dive in with these business units and and figure out where they’re at and there’s I think a balance of oh hey you can not only get these one or two things that this department may know but there’s 10 other things because we’ve engaged with them that are huge opportunities for for the business and that could mainly mean cost

29:24 that could mainly mean cost efficiencies right or in particular we’re always for Revenue drivers as well I think I think there’s a and Tommy to point to you directly to your question right do you find push back is there a political game that’s happening here when you talk about these things I think people are very willing to talk about their business goals or objectives and if you aren’t I think that’s a that’s a cultural problem inside your organization right there should be each department should understand why they exist and what they’re trying to do to

29:55 exist and what they’re trying to do to move the business forward at some some level right Finance is trying to keep the finances under under Reign make sure that auditing and legal things are taking care of you have engineering trying to build net new products or improve existing products you have marketing and sales they have their objectives to increase sales and keep things money flowing in the door so I think at a high level a lot of people agree on the big level objectives I think when you start getting into like what is your business

30:25 getting into like what is your business process or how do you do the work that you you do that’s where I think you see a lot more variety and how people accomplish their daily work and I think that’s where things get interesting to me in the parbi ecosystem is because there’s a there’s a conversation that’s very hard to it’s hard to quantify how much time you you spend to be able to do your work do your data data work people I don’t think consider how

30:54 work people I don’t think consider how long it takes you to load all that data export it get it done and analyze it and and spit it out for a report or the risks that are associated with doing things inside Excel documents all the time and so where I think most organizations struggle here is we can figure out goals at the business level that everyone aligns to when it comes down to what are the skills and what are we doing in our daily workflows for our business business processes I think we find there’s a lot of wide range of experience some people

31:24 of wide range of experience some people are are or some teams are really strong and Excel some teams are not some teams have just give me the report that I need to see other teams will say just give me the data I’ll figure out my own report right I think each department has hired a little bit differently based on what their needs are and so you’ll find there needs to be more of a broader strategic education about how do we get the entire organization to think about data and a lot of times these Cobble together Excel Solutions are because

31:55 together Excel Solutions are because there’s not enough information coming from wherever that single source of truth comes from and I think we’re getting an increase in this based on third party cloud-based tools Salesforce all these other fancy like there’s all these programs that do a very specific thing which are good in of in and of them own their own right but it doesn’t let you join their data with everything else that you have internal to your company and so what happens is you start falling into this trap of well I’m going to go buy this third party data I’m going to go use this third party tool

32:26 going to go use this third party tool therefore I had to collect all this data and start dumping it down and you start building these manyi databases on people’s computers in a department that it shouldn’t you you want that to be more sharable and I think this is where thinking about those needs and documenting them helps you actually come together with a better strategy does that make sense no this is honestly that really goes into for me everything you’re saying here is you realize from top down we always

32:58 realize from top down we always focus focus on the executive sponsor and we’re always focusing on the bi team I I’ve seen this and it’s been a great confirmation reading this that to me I’m immediately going to this idea of the key stakeholders and this is the first time I’m seeing a lot more information and a lot more content on what is the recipe for the people

33:28 on what is the recipe for the people that need to be involved in this right where this goes really back to the people but you needing the people with not just certain qualities and we’ve talked about someone who knows their business someone who’s a type of leadership but it’s also someone who’s going to be involved successfully if you go through the Articles it actually goes through the notes on hey just so you actually may go through and find that the wrong key stakeholders could really

34:00 the wrong key stakeholders could really hurt the idea of just trying to do your the goals here so this is from the section two or step three the top initiatives that we’ve talked about yeah so I’m not even going to step step three right now I’m just I’m slowly focusing on the map around the working team and the existing bi Sol BI Solutions documentation piece I think there’s just so much here already yeah if I had to look at the the points here they make step number

34:30 points here they make step number seven right identifying your business users and solutions under step seven it talks about the working team investigates strategically important BI Solutions and understands how the the organization currently addresses their business data needs this is where this is a this is an activity where you go in and say show me how you’re doing your work what are you doing right because to your point Seth earlier there is probably a lot of data that is needed that we’re not getting today the business is pulling it from some random Place data or like to to this point your

35:03 Place data or like to to this point your processes are completely different yes how how people get insight or to your point data do are they just looking at data are they do they actually have some rudimentary reporting are they using a third party tool for reporting is reporting part of their third party tool is the data accessible right like to your point Mike like one of the the biggest things that we’ve talked in the past with like leveling up in data culture would be we don’t buy third party tools that don’t allow data

35:33 third party tools that don’t allow data access easily correct right like whereas this gets you into that position where yeah there might be some challenges actually accessing the data at which point we’re our hands are tied a little bit yep and I like to your to your note there as well and I thought Tommy you would jump on this point a lot earlier than this Step number 10 talks about the important kpis and master data and I know Tommy you’ve been all about what is

36:04 you’ve been all about what is sales what is a customer right a lot of this stuff is not defined or it’s defined differently between each department and again our whole goal here is not to take away your definition of what you think a customer is our whole goal here is to say how do you define a customer and what can we do to Define that either you have to have I don’t know how to say this the right way you can have many definitions for a similar type kpi or metric right as long as you

36:35 type kpi or metric right as long as you quantify the differences in those calculations right total sales what does that mean and then if you have another calculation say a department will be like well we we count total sales but we exclude XYZ things from that that total sales calcul I see this all the time and I’m saying it it’s the same again as I’m thinking about like the measures I’m I’m trying to take the business language overlay it to what a measure is doing and think about how I write the Dax to do it all the same time so I hear let’s

37:06 do it all the same time so I hear let’s talk about total sales okay what column is sales okay that’s this column we’re going to do a sum on that column well this business unit wants to Define it slightly different they want to exclude certain categories of sales from that calculation fine that’s a calculate wrapped inside another measure and we’re adding a filter to that to filter out some data from the data tables no problem you just can’t call it total sales it has to be total sales excluding whatever the things are so you can be flexible in with what you calculate it’s

37:37 flexible in with what you calculate it’s just making sure that you actually document what are those main kpis that you care about yeah the documentation piece is so like throughout here I think is is critical right because the the context that we’re deriving by all this independent research is going to drive the direction and the like the future conversations and I think that’s what people miss a lot especially in data work is when you get into 10 where it’s like okay we have all this context we know how your business processes are

38:07 know how your business processes are working here’s this now we’re going to start building these measures and these are the are the kpis then like if you don’t document that I guarantee you two weeks a month somebody’s going to have a question about something and you’re going to be you’re going to sit there going well well we had this convers oh man was that meeting does anybody remember like why we made that decision right like you don’t have a frame of reference which is why the like always going back to those key critical documentation points helps

38:40 key critical documentation points helps teams exponentially especially when we’re working cross collaboratively right we have multiple teams engaged here that having that Central repository of that critical information is is 100% a a a deal breaker if you’re not doing it I would almost back up into nine here though where the it states the working team identifies past or parallel initiatives to define the bi strategy past initiatives might contain valuable learnings while parallel initiatives could combin to could be combined to

39:11 could combin to could be combined to avoid duplicate effort there’s so much of this stuff man like if you think about the the goal of a central bi team should be an enablement team we’re obviously building reports but those should be in my view more strategic right more compiling data from multiple different areas together creating those Cur data sources if you have an entire data engineering team awesome you you can spend more time on the insight and Reporting side as opposed to cing like putting data together but the the

39:41 putting data together but the the parallel work stream man duplication of effort is something that I I’ve seen rampant right a really good point but and it’s not necessarily a lack of communication it’s just a a the larger the organization gets right somebody’s initiatives somebody’s initiatives or multiple people pick up the same initiative and start running with it and then these are efforts I think where hey having these

40:11 think where hey having these conversations at the right place at the right time allows us to understand that oh you did you did you did all this work already or like can we oh great let’s leverage what you did and let’s build on it and don’t and and stop what you’re doing there and jump over here right or or just finding opportunities where maybe you thought one of the major priorities for that business unit was going to be having to step in and build some reports and maybe that’s not the case because they’re already like

40:42 the case because they’re already like well down that path but there’s a lot of like that point stuck out to me because I’ve seen a lot of that duplicative effort which is just a killer and I think that I think Adrien Adrien makes a great comment here that there’s a natural tendency of people to jump into programming or building the solution without doing proper research beforehand and I would agree with this because I think I think that’s the Easy Button honestly I see a problem I’ll fix

41:12 Button honestly I see a problem I’ll fix it I’ll see a problem I’ll fix it right

41:13 it I’ll see a problem I’ll fix it right boom nail Hammer boom exactly exactly and I think I think there’s a a need or or at least at least initial thoughts that say okay let’s let’s step back let’s really take a high level look at things and then we can go into the weeds right so I think too often we go right after the solution in technical pieces one one impression here as I read through this documentation this feels a lot to me around step two and potentially step three this feels a lot to me like this

41:45 three this feels a lot to me like this is an organization who’s starting to say I want to land powerbi I want to do it but they’re they’re just starting out this does not speak to me in an organization who’s already turned on powerbi has let it build it’s been growing in the business organically and now they’re coming back and say let’s govern it is that how you read this as well I I feel like this is I feel like I’m reading this implementation planning as a and maybe that’s maybe that’s the

42:15 as a and maybe that’s maybe that’s the right way to do about it to go about it is to say look this documentation is intended for organizations that are just starting out with powerbi no I I don’t know necessarily agree with that I I think I think the documentation is laid out in such a way that if you were starting from square one okay here’s how you do that right where you land in here I think is dependent on whether or not you’re using powerbi as the tool or

42:45 you’re using powerbi as the tool or fabric right sure to solve some of these problems and I and the reason I lean towards that is even after this very specific like first you need your working team then here’s how you do your re the research like right under that is the blue box of important where they have the link to the maturity levels so there’s an expectation sure that you’re going to be at different levels at like from an adoption of data and culture data culture reporting

43:15 and culture data culture reporting tooling etc etc and I I I think also Mike to that point your organization could be at a certain level where certain business units are well below that right you’re average like overall you’re at a higher level because you have some of the Strategic things that you need but as you get into it with these working sessions maybe there are at they are at different maturity levels which it I’m not saying I don’t think in my head I’m suggesting like I’m grading each department but to some degree maybe

43:47 each department but to some degree maybe are because you’re gonna have to do different things to level them up agree Honestly though you were talking about the kpis here and Mike to your point this this when an organization just starting up their new to powerbi I I com I would completely disagree with that I think really that step two three and four identifying the key stakeholders conducting that research that need to be

44:17 conducting that research that need to be a reoccurring by anual exercise that bi or the organization should partake in we know how quickly not just the technology changes but we know how flexible and liquid teams are dealing with sales team well now there’s this region and there’s the the different initiatives how are we going to those goals I the idea of the Workshops the ideas of okay is there

44:49 Workshops the ideas of okay is there someone else who’s now taken and send the range that’s going to be a good key stakeholder rather than when we initially started now that we’re a little more into it I think the workshops depending on the size the importance of that team or Department if you have the right group to together I I would push for that to be on a quarterly basis maybe from a high level organization point of view if you’re dedicated to a particular team

45:19 you’re dedicated to a particular team depending on how you’re structured I don’t think this is at all only for a we are new to this and we’re just trying to figure out powerbi one of the things I really do appreciate in the documentation is in the looking at the research is UN understanding like you research is UN understanding like they’re not going from necessarily know they’re not going from necessarily Excel and no data to powerbi there’s probably other teams that were creating reports and other

45:49 that were creating reports and other tools or other systems that they were using so that needs to be part of the conversation as well so I appreciate that going into this but I think the big part here is looking at the objectives understanding the initiatives are we on track are people happy with the results so far and now that we all understand more about what powerbi can do does that change the initiatives because now

46:19 that change the initiatives because now those key stakeholders can say oh well now that I’ve seen what power can do here’s where I would like to pivot because I didn’t know that was even possible a couple couple things you threw a lot of things in the in the mix there so I feel like this article still reads very much like it’s a new organization to your point earlier Seth I think you can very much pick up this strategic planning and jump in and say okay we already have powerb implemented let’s just make sure that we have our goals aligned to what

46:49 that we have our goals aligned to what we want to do so yeah but just just because you have powerbi implemented doesn’t mean you’re using it right like like age great we’re using powerbi as a tool everybody in our organ or like the vast majority of people in our organization who need access to build stuff they’re building things we we may or may not be governing it or administering it well sure you’re getting use out of it you’re like there’s value to the business that that doesn’t necessarily equate to the conversations that we’re having here from a strategic perspective you may not

47:20 from a strategic perspective you may not be doing any of this so from that perspective like who cares if you have powerbi implemented then that’s maybe where I was going to go with that more fur further with Tommy’s comments because Tommy was saying like this should be something that is periodically reviewed right so if you haven’t done this you should go through this and then I don’t see a step in here yet but maybe there is a step to go back to your current bi tooling whether PBI or something else and evaluate okay now that we’ve gone through this do we have these tick boxes checked off do we have

47:52 these tick boxes checked off do we have our business goals do we have some strategic objectives that we’re going to deliver here what are our processes that we’re doing today and then looking at okay let’s see how we have either existing powerbi set up and reviewing this and I and I do think over time there should be an alignment and again I’m not sure if I would say quarterly maybe it’s quarterly maybe it’s yearly maybe it’s twice a year I don’t know but there should be some review of this over and over again to make sure that things haven’t changed it’d be interesting to see if we’re just shooting ahead in some of this

48:24 shooting ahead in some of this documentation as far as conversation but one of the things I see missing here and maybe it’s like I said maybe it’s too early but what is the outcome of all of these This research and this discussion to work right they’re they’re it like to me as tomy’s talking about like this cycle man all of a sudden that strikes aord with me of like what is the product life cycle like we have Pro if you’re if you develop software if you’re doing things

48:54 develop software if you’re doing things absolutely it’s a quarterly thing where you have product managers that are defining what things need to be built to solve the problems of the organization by quarter and you’re you’re constantly grooming and you’re figuring out what things need to be built and all these things and I’m looking at this going are we missing some folks in here or a role where it’s like is there a project manager or program like someone to say great the this team the the

49:25 to say great the this team the the centralized team is now engaging with five different business units who’s level setting expectations who’s keeping track of making sure that all these initiatives and these things can be delivered in this time frame or is this just a free-for-all and this is maybe where the conversation takes it an interesting DeTour for me at least mentally is maybe this is where some of the one foot and business one foot and it part comes in where there’s some great things that happen in it in a general fashion as par for the course we

49:57 general fashion as par for the course we create stories we schedule them we we butt them up against resource capacity we tell you what you will get in a quarter or or roughly and and what does that do it defines expectations right there’s a little bit of difference here I think from the standpoint that there’s an expectation that the business units are picking up some of this responsibility but at the sh at the same time I guarantee some of this is shared like there’s a there’s probably data engineering work to access like how do you is there something missing from the

50:28 you is there something missing from the business is there strategic reporting that needs to happen is there teaching learning and training that needs to happen with business users are they going to pick up 70% of the reporting like this whole thing happens in every business unit with the same Central team like ownership of that is very challenging like you you think about the roles and responsibilities of like who owns all of the things to make that keep going and I’m surprised that they don’t

50:58 I’m surprised that they don’t have the the the business well not the business but like the project owner or maybe there there’s one yeah not by Department I’m just like spitballing but like that cycle of we’re going through these exercises business needs change our objectives are changing throughout the year so like what what our initiatives are and what we need to build is an important part I think that we’ve talked about doesn’t happen enough on the business side where

51:28 enough on the business side where there’s just this expectation that it all gets done well that that’s not what

51:33 all gets done well that that’s not what happen not a reasonable expectation should it be right I’d agree with that one and I as I continue to groom through or or SC skim through the the latter part of the article a lot of your points ring true here Seth there’s there’s a lot of aligning goals thinking and strategies I like that I like there’s a lot it’s you read this one and you feel very overwhelmed you’re like oh my gosh there’s so many workshops we should be doing we should be again I don’t want you to feel like you’re getting to a point where you get paralysis by analysis you you shouldn’t

52:04 paralysis by analysis you you shouldn’t you shouldn’t go through this article and say I have to do all these things and I’m thinking about those small to mediumsized organizations where this has not been handled by lots of people there’s one executive sponsor and there’s maybe one person leading their bi initiatives you’ve just got to make some decisions and go you’ve got to you’ve got to hit the ground running you’ve got to start moving Direction doesn’t mean you don’t do it without planning or thinking ahead but I without planning or thinking ahead but the very end of this whole article mean the very end of this whole article it has a very nice checklist I felt like

52:34 it has a very nice checklist I felt like at the very at the end C curate your list of business needs and where you see the biggest opportunities rank them right where’s where’s your biggest need and where’s your largest opportunity decide on your strategic goals I think this right where you were saying Seth you need a 12 to 18 month plan here’s what we’re going to try to deliver over time time to various teams and that may change throughout the year right you may find certain teams are not engaging therefore you can’t solve their problems but

53:04 you can’t solve their problems but halfway through the year they start engaging and you find a whole bunch of new problems that may that’s okay I think that’s okay as long as you’re listening to the business and get engaging them and then at the bottom here aligning with your stakeholders who’s paying the bills right executive sponsor someone needs to own the salary of that Central bi person whoever that may be let’s make sure that their boss is happy with the direction you’re going are you adding value are you getting is the business getting what it needs out of it and then finally aligning with your Executives right what’s what’s the

53:35 your Executives right what’s what’s the main level objec objective this is the okr framework what is the Big Goal that we’re trying to go after and how do we become more efficient at that on these on these Tuesdays where we’re diving into a lot of these topics I think I think man time flies when you’re having fun we’re almost at end of time I do want to I do want to pick up next Tuesday though like wherever we’re at with the stakeholder conversation because I do think that is a critical piece that Tommy pointed out that will instantly derail a lot of these

54:06 derail a lot of these efforts yeah unless you want unless you want me to fly through right now I hear a lot of times from people saying we don’t have a strong executive leader executive sponsor yeah and what do you do then and I think but I I I I I’m I’m talking on like the the stakeholder that you’re engaging with go but but yes that also that also pertains to do can how do you get or can you get the executive sponsor I think can you get that the the levels of where you

54:37 get that the the levels of where you engage are critically important here as well I agree with that as well awesome with that let’s do final thoughts here we’ll do quick final thoughts on this article around strategic planning particularly around section step number two which was really focusing on getting your I’ll see step three is run workshops and completing your assessments but step two was basically planning for and understanding what is the conducting research phase of what your business needs so it’s our main talk

55:08 needs so it’s our main talk talking point today Tom any any final thoughts that you had wrapping up today I think for me it’s again the the Highlight here on two main areas that are so important to all of this is the right key stakeholders in the right mix from the organization but also the doing that research and those assessments that we can agree on the values agree on how are we going to

55:38 values agree on how are we going to communicate what have we gotten from here what are the next steps why are you involved there’s too much sometimes in an emphasis on we’re going to roll out RBI just to reports easy to use when we realize that data is what moves and drives people in their day-to-day so once we’re doing all of the assessments once we’re understanding those workshops why are we doing this why is this important what is going to be the next steps and that communication from the onset are is

56:10 communication from the onset are is going to get people bought in and it’s Le gonna build that trust so is this is something that to me is not only can’t be gloss over but you better have a plan for the two months that you’re going to be doing this or the month that you’re GNA be doing this two months any final thoughts who lets you do things for two months oh man two weeks you got a you get like three days that’s it yeah well I’m joking there’s a lot here there

56:41 well I’m joking there’s a lot here there is a lot here I I think as we go through here right like it’s throwing throwing another shovel full of sand into a bucket right like the foundations for how you go go about approaching these conversations is important and I think they’re doing a a relatively good job so far of outlining that business context and aligning it to the Strategic goals of the organization is critical if you don’t have goals as an organization

57:11 don’t have goals as an organization start there first right like it’s going to make it harder because everybody’s you you can’t prioritize everybody’s wants and needs right corre and when correct when you’re when you as the Central bi person or person responsible for th those initiatives has to prioritize those things it’s it’s Paramount that those organiz you I I rely on those all the time what what like in that conversation does this align to something no okay well you just

57:42 align to something no okay well you just dropped all the way down to like medium priority as opposed to the next conversation point where you’re like okay well this one does you’re at high or critical right like we’re we’re jumping on that right away because there’s a driver behind that that throughout the organization everybody knows is an important part of us achieving something within a year so the context for all this is great I think the bullet points that they have are hitting on a lot of the

58:12 hitting on a lot of the touch points or or hot button issues that I’ve encountered in the past and all of it is very relevant to to walk through on your own to get the base for how you launch into the these kind ation and set up the the architecture for this stuff a lot of this documentation is very high level so I think it’s important to read through this documentation and just get the gist of where it’s going my takeaway from this one really is don’t get bogged down in the details don’t get stuck in you have to do every single one of

58:43 you have to do every single one of these things I I would say a couple of the main things I would I would focus on would be stating your business goals writing out some some strategic objectives assessing a lot of what do we do today how does our current team work with data today and then I think another part of this was really focusing on areas where there is pain points with your data currently what is hard to do solve those problems first if teams have trouble

59:14 problems first if teams have trouble getting access to data figure out how to alleviate those pain points because I think you get more Buy in you get more people to get on board when you start removing pain points from their daily workflow and I I’ve seen it multiple times that’s how I’ve driven adoption before in the past a little bit more organically than maybe most but it really focuses on let’s spend attention and time around making your day easier using powerbi as that Medium to get the work done and if you do that I think you

59:45 work done and if you do that I think you get people to buy in they they like it they want more they want to get a pro license they want to get engaged they want to help you figure things out so I think by doing it that Way by by working with Executives and Bridging the needs of the business bringing those needs forward and saying here’s the biggest issues we have with data that will be your your main success here and I think a lot of this is just setting up to help you do that it’s helping you to do this in an organized way excellent well thank you very much for your time today we appreciate you

60:15 for your time today we appreciate you listening to the exposive measures podcast welcome back to the new year this is oh gosh I can’t believe it’s already 2024 here we go so yet another year of really fun interesting data things we’ll see where this year takes us as well with that we only ask one thing of you as listeners if you like this episode if you like what you were hearing here and we’re getting some value out of this and the article from Microsoft please share it with somebody else on social media at a work function or within your work environment we love it for you to share this podcast

60:46 we love it for you to share this podcast with somebody else it really helps us spread the word Tommy where else can you find the podcast as always you can find us on Apple Spotify or wherever get your podcast make sure to subscribe and leave a rating it helps out a ton do you have a question idea or topic that you want to talk about in a future episode head over to powerbi tips SLP podcast leave your name and a great question and join us live every Tuesday Thursday A. M and join the conversation all powerbi tips social media

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