Year in Review – Ep. 282

A year in Power BI isn’t just a list of features—it’s what actually changed your day-to-day: what sped up delivery, what broke muscle memory, and what opened new architectural options. In this Year in Review episode, Mike, Tommy, and Seth look back at 2023 with a practical lens: Fabric’s arrival, the shifting Desktop authoring experience (on-object + formatting changes), and the steady march toward more developer-friendly workflows and reuse.

News & Announcements

• Power BI Blog — Track the official monthly releases and previews so you can separate ‘shipping now’ from ‘coming soon.’

• Power BI Theme Generator (Tips+) — Standardize styling fast (colors, fonts, layout defaults) so teams spend more time modeling and less time formatting.

• Submit a topic idea — Send the crew your scenarios and questions for a future episode.

Main Discussion

This conversation uses Microsoft’s release plans as the backbone, then filters them through a simple question: what would you actually notice in your work?

• Power BI Release Plan: 2023 wave 1 — Early-year focus, plus the context around what entered preview.

• Power BI Release Plan: 2023 wave 2 — Second-half momentum and the ‘platform’ direction that accelerated as Fabric showed up.

Key takeaways (and a few opinions):

• 2023 was the year Fabric put engineering next to reporting. The big shift wasn’t a single Desktop feature—it was the platform story: storage + notebooks + pipelines + governance sitting closer to the BI workflow.

• Data marts are a good example of ‘outpaced by the next platform move.’ Useful idea, lots of early noise, then attention dropped as the Fabric roadmap became the clearer long-term destination.

• UI changes have a real adoption cost. On-object interaction and the evolving formatting experience can reduce friction once learned, but they also break training materials and slow down teams mid-transition.

• Extensibility kept compounding. Themes, external tools, and the broader ecosystem continued to expand what ‘Power BI’ can mean in practice—especially for teams building repeatable delivery systems.

• PBIP is an important signal. Treating reports/models more like source-controlled projects is a prerequisite for mature deployment patterns (and for the community to build better tooling on top).

• The next frontier is reuse. As the platform adds more helper capabilities (metadata exploration, DAX query tooling, templates), the obvious ask is: let teams save, share, and apply these patterns across projects without friction.

• Year-in-review is about choosing what to ignore, too. Not every feature needs immediate adoption; the team’s through-line is to prioritize what improves reliability, reuse, and clarity for the business.

Looking Forward

If you’re planning for 2024, pick one workflow (authoring, deployment, training, or governance) and intentionally productize it—because the release pace won’t slow down.

Episode Transcript

0:31 n good morning everyone and welcome back to the explicit measures podcast with Tommy Seth and Mike there’s hello hello hello Mike hello Tommy that’s your opportunity when I when I’m done with that that’s your opportunity to jump in and say some noise oh okay say some say some noise yeah exactly I’m great at that so today’s episode is going to be all about the 2023 year in review we decided to just talk talk about things that we observe throughout the year a

1:02 we observe throughout the year a list of what features came out maybe what were impactful for us this year this last year just talk about a couple features there and then maybe we’ll poke on or pick on some things that we think are coming up in the next new year and where you can find more information about all the features that are coming out for powerbi January is typically a light month there’s almost no updates in January ever because the Microsoft team takes off for for December most of the development work occurs for January instead December and those prior months so you won’t see any updates this month

1:32 so you won’t see any updates this month however usually you’ll see updates start happening in February I think some well I I I think in in some detail you have a clickbaity title right we’re four days into 2024 and it’s it’s it’s the 2023 year in review that we’re talking about not days 2024 that we’re like giving hey we’re talking about the rest of the year yeah this is it we’re talking about the first four days of January and of 2024 and that’s all we’re talking about today yeah it’s going to be pretty much

2:04 today yeah it’s going to be pretty much crickets dude like how much we’ve talked about data March this last year oh my gosh real quick before we Dive Right into that you guys really need to try this project Sophia I know we talked about it we introduced it on Tuesday I’ve been testing a bunch of things out I actually took all my cycling data took some of the metrics we’ve done and just started creating these work flowed and you’re looking at this going oh this is totally getting

2:34 this going oh this is totally getting integrated with powerbi like this the idea here it’s really cool I can see the research team getting very excited about this and just trying to slam this thing into powerbi somewhere I would agree with that one I’m going to try and find the article here Chris Webb was the original one that talked about this one project Sophia I’ll go get the link here for you and put that in the chat window as well for those you who haven’t heard about this this is an announcement that was made at Microsoft ignite it’s an AI based tool that helps you draw some graphs write some descriptions supposed

3:05 graphs write some descriptions supposed to help you build insights on top of your data for you and and bring those together so here’s the blog article it’s in the chat window in case you wanted to check it check it out project sopia apparently it’s open for availability to try right now excellent any other quick announcements before we want to get into the main topic for today Tommy and I were just talking about before we got on the on the the podcast here we’re just talking about the in 2024 I think more people

3:36 about the in 2024 I think more people are going to want to think about enriching their team focusing on the data culture of your team and how does that data culture lens look in lie of powerbi right so maybe you’re just starting adopting powerbi maybe you already have it running and you need a bit more organization around it regardless I feel like many organizations that I’ve been interacting with with are they are either using it or beginning to use it more but there’s this need of additional training that’s

4:06 this need of additional training that’s going to be happening in 2024 for the team Skilling up know giving everyone on the same page thing and I have felt that there’s a pattern or a trend right now at least for me when people or customers ask me about hey can you provide training I’m like yes what do you want it on and I don’t think the people asking me understand the scope or what is possible or what you need for training there’s not a really good gauge to say what training do you need

4:36 to say what training do you need and usually that opens up a very good discussion so if you are someone who’s doing training or working on this how do you handle this and let us know in the chat window Tommy what do you think what’s your opinion on this are you seeing the same thing so we lit I think we found out that just doing training as a stand alone is no longer no longer adequate I don’t think that no longer suffices to say hey we’re going to engage with your organization or we’re going to engage with a group of people we’re going to do three days

5:06 of people we’re going to do three days of powerbi off with you go go out there and be somebody that doesn’t work anymore I think because we’re now dealing with a technology that before I had powerbi desktop and I could really do a lot now where you’re realizing with all the things we’re talking about the implementation planning with all the different systems around and more people getting to it’s like okay it’s one thing to have the idea or be U sufficient in Dax be sufficient in modeling but you’re

5:38 Dax be sufficient in modeling but you’re realizing like what are people really doing with that like what are ways and how is that getting integrated with with a team or a group after they did said training and there’s more I think questions on that understanding of like okay this audience this Persona whoever you are what’s the expect ation of you how do we get integrated with powerbi in your team and I think that’s really now where the focus is obviously you’ll always have skill based training that’s

6:08 always have skill based training that’s never going away yeah it’s not I’m not worried about this I’m not really basically talking about the skills Based training I’m thinking more about do what skills you’re actually looking for right it’s the idea of you now say powerbi are you talking pipelines with synapse in in fabric are you talking let’s talk about notebooks in Python are you talking about any data engineering things you’re trying to produce with data flows then Gen 2 are you talking about lak houses this is all new things that have occurred to us Tommy to your

6:40 that have occurred to us Tommy to your point which I think was a great point when you were saying let me learn powerbi I was focusing on hey let’s just get desktop open open your desktop let’s build we’re going to load some data in we’re going to make a model and we’re going to make a report I feel like the potential for topics have greatly increased this last year and I think a lot a lot of companies are going to find themselves in a place where they know they need more information but managers and leaders are not really sure what information to ask for how do you get that onto your plate

7:11 for how do you get that onto your plate well to your point before when when I started training that person’s like hey you’re gonna be the powerbi person and do it all good luck and you’re gonna learn everything and I think now to your point if we’re integrating lak houses if we’re integrating more of what the semantic model is there’s it’s I don’t say it’s getting more ambiguous what personas are but I don’t I think we’re going to be losing more of the single powerbi developer who manages everything

7:41 powerbi developer who manages everything from a data model point of view and I think we’re beginning to Trend that way a little more I like I like your point there however I think I would take it a bit more of an optimistic route instead of losing that one power B developer that does everything I think we’re I’m not losing a son-in-law I’m not you your kids get married not losing someone I’m actually gaining an an individual into the family so I feel like we’re not losing anything I would I would portray it as we’re gaining additional skills or workflows that have

8:13 additional skills or workflows that have been traditionally held by it and so this is now ex again I’ve always said this from day one we’re seeing a huge movement for the capabilities of the business user have greatly increased because the technology gives them much more power much more horsepower this was the story that we were missing for a long time was this whole growup story of powerbi let’s build something in a data model very simply how does that grow up into an actual production workload that is for the organization and I think we’re starting to see some really great

8:43 we’re starting to see some really great tooling now that’s going to help us in that direction is this is this a customer compan issue or a challenge in how you have to refine your approach just because of the exponential capabilities offered to us oh that’s a really good question I I think it is I think it’s an issue I perceive but the person asking for training does not perceive yet well that should be I would

9:14 perceive yet well that should be I would argue that that’s somewhat should be expected right because in general AG consultants and especially you folks training other other individuals like the scope of potential training exploded this last year oh totally yes 100% agree with that which I can which I can 100% agree like or see why you’re yeah why we’re talking about it right which which is perfectly valid but like my initial gut reaction is that it

9:47 like my initial gut reaction is that it just means that there’s more to refine and explain upfront to to the customers that they aren’t going to be aware of right like fabric to them is still a word right the ecosystems and the things that that you can do can do potentially are are so much more but does that what like does is that what they really need they don’t even know so it it it almost I guess my my first thoughts go right into like

10:19 my first thoughts go right into like really defining roles Based training right like you’re you’re that if you can if you can cut that off and say yeah they’re not there we’re talking about business users this is the thing we’ll mention it but we’re just mentioning it right like that’s where I think the

10:34 right like that’s where I think the Spectrum to me starts to outline first which is it’s definitely worth the extra hour of hour of conversation upfront when people are asking for training but I also think Mike to your point you’re not getting rid of any of the people if anything you’re just expanding into potentially other teams yes or expanding A team’s capability exactly if they want to go down that route and and that’s where I think the person usually asking this question is just saying or or of the opinion of we think

11:06 saying or or of the opinion of we think they think powerbi is this nice little box where it’s just making report pages right and and when you ask me that right it’s it’s like walking up to a Ferrari and say can you take me to the grocery store right I feel like it’s like that analogy like yes I can but did you realize we have all this extra horsepower that you could do fun things with we go a track we can do have these fun exercise like there’s all these extra things that you can do with it above and beyond just I just need to go to point A to point B things anyways it’s just interesting conversation I thought it was a

11:37 conversation I thought it was a relevant intro topic before we get into our main topic for today all right well that let’s transition over to our 2023 year in review we’ll we we’ll talk about that now so Tommy has presented us a nice little list kind went through and kind little list kind went through and groomed out I don’t know Tommy did of groomed out I don’t know Tommy did you make a prompt is this did you prompt something this was completely manual so as oh man like all right let me think about this and then I’m like oh I I I was

12:07 this and then I’m like oh I I I was beginning to go down to Rabbit Hole oh then I’ll ask that large L model to provide me all the best high level how does it know which one’s important or not exactly yeah so like we’re just gonna manually do this and do a gold fash play so Tommy has presented us kind fash play so Tommy has presented us a list of features by of a list of features by month what what were being released throughout this year and so let’s just pick out some in general what I would say is if I if had I think about a year in review there has been a ton of excitement around

12:38 been a ton of excitement around Microsoft fabric that that has 2023 was to me has stapled the year of the year of Microsoft fabric the year data engineering came to powerbi that’s that’s what I see things the main theme of this year’s last of the story this this year but that being said there’s a lot of other features that came out with that more more power BCE specific one of the items on to on Tommy’s list here let’s talk about data Marts does everyone remember when that was like the big thing data Mars

13:08 that was like the big thing data Mars were coming out it was this this new you can do SQL you can write stuff together we don’t we didn’t quite understand what it all meant together I haven’t heard too much about dataart updates thoughts fabric right right yeah I it’s I agree right lot lot of Buzz right out of the beginning of the year a lot of updates changes to it because it was introducing new ways in which we could interact with powerbi right and

13:40 could interact with powerbi right and some of the backend things it’s not to say like I don’t think it was a bad feature I think it it it was even implemented from a licensing perspective to to meet a need yes I’d agree with that but as Years Gone on right like I I would just by the pure volume of updates of hearing about it dying off towards the end of the year my guess is fabric is the overall solution that

14:10 the overall solution that people are getting pushed into I feel like I’m just preaching of the choir here because yes we understand it’s redundant it’s a very beta version of what a lake out or what the semantic model was going to be a lake house was going to be in fabric now because what what did they what were the features or the things that the data Mart did better than anything else or that in a sense product pitch and I know like nothing but I’m saying what was the least the marketing pitch no yeah it

14:40 the least the marketing pitch no yeah it did some things I so some things that it did and there there are no not better but I would say that there are some data Mark features that I think you now see inside fabric right so to me this data Mark was this really weird mix of hey I’m going to build a SQL server and load a bunch of tables to it and then be able to create measures and relationships all at the same time so it was like this really weird blend of it’s a SQL Server that we

15:12 weird blend of it’s a SQL Server that we traditionally know it but it’s also part analysis Services as we know it which makes sense it’s on the same machine so there was and but that’s now what you get with the the lake houses you you now get that by default and I think where the difficulty was data marchs was intended to be a quick query of your data it was not supposed to be the end to end solution of you’re going to now start with data marks and that’s going to be the workflow have to rebuild everything so yeah this obviously just funny that that’s where we started January what do you think’s going to

15:42 January what do you think’s going to happen with data Marts moving forward then do you think it do you think it just goes by the wayside and everyone just uses fabric moving forward or do you think it actually stays around and and has a place inside the Pate ecosystem what are your thoughts I I’ve already heard stories or talked with customers of them this is for lack of a better story here right I have heard businesses using the data Mars as a full SQL Server loading data

16:12 Mars as a full SQL Server loading data into it just like you normally would with a a regular SQL server and just reading data from it from powerbi like it’s a server it’s literally a database that you just spin up and use and that’s where your data goes and that’s how that’s how you design something to work there too so doesn’t matter from a cost point to that’s true and it’s on you can get it on premium per user so it’s it’s there you might as well use it right yeah but the problem is I think a lot of our conversations too I was also looking at our top 2023 episodes is about data

16:42 at our top 2023 episodes is about data quality and data Ops yeah it is even though you can do that it’s going to always be now separate independent of any other workflow updates because again the data Mark dependencies are unique to that data Mark PPU based though right right yeah no and I agree I think where where I don’t know if it fits in anywhere there could be a use case right that we’re describing but the

17:13 case right that we’re describing but the like the thing that datamarts did was bring forward into the light of just powerbi users some of the data engineering aspect right a little bit access to the data and well fabric like fabric solves that from especially like on any level right if I’m going to train users how to do something I’m I’m going to do it in fabric right if I’m a heavy engineer of and I want to put my workloads in here I’m going to use fabric right because it’s now part of my visibility it it’s all part of the same

17:44 visibility it it’s all part of the same scope that I have exactly and if that was what data Mart solved for me right like I the the preponderance of time I’m going to like or the majority of the time I’m going to be using that ecosystem as opposed to a each oneoff use case like not saying companies don’t Mike to your point right can you leverage the whole thing yeah absolutely and I just know how many of those use cases there are yes I love it when you use big words

18:14 yes I love it when you use big words because I have to go Google preponderance the quality or factor being generated okay got it I got it preponderance got it never heard that word before awesome you can tell Seth reads a lot of books Michael does not not shallow andan awesome words so I know we played a little bit of time here with data Marts let’s move on to some other features so data Mars I think is an interesting thing a trend that we saw in 2023 less emphasis on data Marts more emphasis on fabric and I believe a fabric was announced around March time

18:44 fabric was announced around March time frame when May was it may end of May end of May wow it feels like it’s been yeah feels like I’ve been talking about fabric a lot not since May so what other features have come out that you guys have enjoyed or seen around parb that was that hit you this year yeah I think I think the February updates were interesting from like a couple perspectives one being that’s when they started validating report

19:14 report themes Imports there was a lot of people had problems with their themes after that moment right so so there was workaround themes and I think that was also that and another feature update was was a launch for were a lot of the things we did at tips which it allowed it well which was is a great lead in as well because that’s about one of the best things that happened in 2023 yeah I think one of the best things that happened in 2023 is tips plus was released in February I think that was when we kicked out our initial

19:46 when we kicked out our initial version of what does PBI tips plus look like and how can you save your theme files and come back to them and reedit them that was one of our major and uploading themes we never had a feature before then to upload your your theme into our tool and do a data check on it so that this was one of the most requested features that we had in our free tool was hey we’d like to upload our theme yeah but it costs us money to run a website that let you upload themes and stuff and save them for you so that’s what was the birth of RBI tips plus well if I’m not mistaken too

20:17 tips plus well if I’m not mistaken too the whole the schema that they released in February that allowed you to finally do continual updates to the theme generator because that’s always been the problem that’s the that’s so if you didn’t have the full schema or the spec of the theme file you could never check to see if it was right or not it was always oh I I went to this GitHub or this git repo and someone listed these features and did this thing and it was all Json and if you didn’t have the the wherewithal to figure out how to make it work it was it was a mystery to

20:47 make it work it was it was a mystery to you this is one of the areas that I’ve pushed very hard on against Microsoft in general has been Microsoft don’t try and build a closed vacuum in your tool instead instead build designed access points this is what I think about themes custom visuals right you can you can upload your own custom visuals they made

21:08 upload your own custom visuals they made a mechanism for people to create things and then upload them into powerbi and look at it now it’s got over what over 150 different custom visuals on a store you can now have build your own theme files and style things the external tools just continue to grow throughout 2023 as well I think we saw more external tools show up a lot more validation around reports and things coming out of those so I I think we saw some more improvements there around

21:38 some more improvements there around the report theme side of things okay any other items here that ened I got a good one before fabric was the biggest change in March was the introduction to unob interaction oh let’s talk about that one that was a feature that came out this year year year unfortunately well it’s definitely there it it did come out and there’s a lot of work that was put into and continual

22:08 work that was put into and continual work like if you look at the the when it was released and all the updates after the fact yes there’s typically always a lot of work posted in updating of that I’m very pleased they came out with that in preview let’s just say that because then I could turn it off and as a a general rule of thumb on this one this feature particularly Tommy did you embrace it from day one did you say I’m going to learn it this is going to change I remember I remember when it came out everyone said great all my

22:40 came out everyone said great all my documentation now is obsolete because everything looks different how you build things looks different all the all the UI the the buttons the clicking all of that just changed and the same thing around I guess was it around that time too where they did a whole update to the the format pane as well that changed as well and you got a whole bunch of like all the way the all the settings of a visual just changed like instantly and so anyone who had the the long list of features on or the settings on a visual

23:10 features on or the settings on a visual it was now broken into two panels and now we had all these extra like expandable windows that came out on the right hand side it fixed some things but it also I think made it a lot harder to find where properties were on a visual yeah to be fair we talked about this I think in one podcast almost exclusively right like the search functionality if you weren’t using search there like I I don’t think anybody’s arguing the list of properties was getting extremely long yes right yep and then you throw in this idea that has been out

23:41 you throw in this idea that has been out there for a very long time where you need to PowerPoint the things know you need to PowerPoint the things or office ay powerbi for for some reason sure because the business is generally the user to be frank I think all of us were like yep turn it on man and you got to get used to on object and within a month I turned it off I like and and the reason was did you even give it a whole month I think you I don’t think so I it was like two days the amount of the amount of clicks I had to do to perform the same things

24:11 I had to do to perform the same things yes on top of the changes of that we had recently seen with the format pain and where to find things and it was unusable to me being the old kodra I am from way back in the day and like I I think it’s worth another shot at it like to to enable it and get familiar with it now because they have but didn’t come out with flying colors in preview from my perspective I can remember distinct moments throughout 2023 where so I’m I’m one who likes to early adopt

24:42 so I’m I’m one who likes to early adopt things yeah and I figure out I figured out okay they’re going to do this feature anyways at some point in time they’re going to just turn it on and it’ll just be there and you’re not going to have any ways about it right so I wanted to give Microsoft good feedback so I just said look I’m going to try the the best I can I distinctly remember moments where I was like I’m so frustrated with this feature I cannot find the property I cannot find out where’s what’s going on I’m clicking on things it doesn’t make sense to me like I was very frustrated by that Improvement on that feature and I have

25:14 Improvement on that feature and I have now probably after months of using it now like I now it’s just how desktop works to me so it’s I’ve already absorbed it but for me and for people who were doing this previously very frustrating feature and most of the Community feedback that I heard was just saying the same thing it’s frustrating I can’t find what I need to find it’s too many clicks it’s it’s clunky right and so I understand the argument from Microsoft where they’re saying we’re trying to make this feature very accessible for new users we’re trying to make it easy for you to not have to go

25:45 make it easy for you to not have to go drag the different data fields to the different properties on the visual and just pick the right visual for you like cool get cool get it but my argument would be is if you don’t know where to put your data on the xaxis the Y AIS or as a legend if you can’t figure out what data field to drag to those different areas I would argue you probably shouldn’t be building powerbi visuals to begin with we should have a fundamental understanding of what we’re talking about for how to go from a table to a Visual and I don’t think you want to simplify that too much at some

26:15 want to simplify that too much at some point you just need to understand it so maybe some better tutorials or helping pieces inside powerbi would have been better than to just try and redesign all the UI at the same time so anyway I don’t I don’t what’s interesting to me so two points the first is I hope I hope in the future I’m I’m totally wrong right like an on everything in object is just okay I can totally understand why they would do this and like it worked

26:46 they would do this and like it worked seamlessly and I Chang everything on on what I do and to be fair on object is a lot better than it was agree First dove in and and gave it a whirl need to go back and do that yep so that that’s point one but point two is one of one of the things I was extremely happy to see over this past year was the the emphasis on visual improvements that Miguel Myers is now leading oh yeah that’s okay that’s a great transition on that one 100% agree with that one so what we saw

27:17 100% agree with that one so what we saw so far I think in in terms of release is like the card visual yeah multi- card so like that that alone huge Improvement to just Auto building something that was extremely difficult to do like all manual and like a lot of those efforts that they’re doing make the stuff look better make it much more visually Compact and remove all of the very tedious work that you had to do to create those types of experiences for an

27:48 create those types of experiences for an end user and same thing with new slicer the like the new slicer the like just a very clean way I can add images I can it it’s very app like let me create this app experience imagine they would have spent all that time on a on object in in visual visual improvements how much further along we would have been right and and like honestly as a as a powerbi gung-ho guy it that that’s still the one

28:19 gung-ho guy it that that’s still the one area that that competitor people who like competitive tools yes still still poke on yep agree right so I don’t know like I I sit here going where is the time best spent as far as like trying to make a product more like a different office product versus here here’s how you do things here’s how it’s set up and oh by the way we just fixed half the visuals and now you have a much better presentation experience for your end user like if we were doing

28:50 end user like if we were doing a $100 I probably would have taken the $40 out of here and thrown it into the visual it’s hard development is hard honestly it’s it like what what do you what do you spend time on to make the best product you can and and there’s a there’s a thousand different needs pulling you all these different directions and powerbi desktop is a huge program you install it it’s like 450 megabytes to download now I’m GNA I’m going to mean I’m GNA I’m going to reminisce here just slightly so I just

29:20 reminisce here just slightly so I just just bear with I’m going to pull it up here on my computer I’m going to go to the early versions of powerbi designer that was out originally I have I have them stored on my computer and I’ll tell you the most recent December update version of desktop is 490 megabytes so almost half a gig if I scroll down again there a lot of features have been added since then my first version downloaded for powerbi designer is 50

29:50 for powerbi designer is 50 megabytes we’ve grown was that 100 is that is that 100x 400x no 500 50 to 500 megabytes megabytes anyways it’s big it’s gotten a lot bigger so there’s a lot more like to get from that level like there there must be a massive team now working on there’s a lot of code anytime you change something it always affects other teams there’s a lot going on there now I think there’s another Point here with obviously just going back from the visual side or what if they just

30:21 visual side or what if they just spend all their time the on these new visuals I think that’s a lot more than just product development because it this is is data visual Theory so you’re not only trying to change code but you’re really changing the philosophy of what the visual does and how it works that’s I think why they’ve been releasing one at a time very slowly this is not a hey here’s a private preview you can turn it on and some will work like there’s a there is a honestly a methological Phil philosophical difference a theory change that they’re

30:52 difference a theory change that they’re doing here on what shows up how does this show up from data visual best practices this is not just we’re just trying to code a bunch and we’re going to put those updates out there so I think that’s probably why it’s taking slower no I’ll I’ll tell you why it’s taking slower it’s taking slower they would love to have all the stuff done yesterday it’s a team size it’s it’s because it’s the dollars man it’s a dollar size said take it from over here and put it over here exactly but but again that’s it’s a Miguel has

31:24 but but again that’s it’s a Miguel has amazing vision for where these visuals go and if if Microsoft sticks to their guns and continues to push down and improve the visuals you’re going to see better things come out with visuals and already you’re seeing great things come out with them there’s better improvements everything new features that they’re going to give you to visuals is styliz you have the ability to customize it it can be driven by

31:43 to customize it it can be driven by measures you can do all these extra things to it there’s a lot more function based or conditional formatting on everything that’s the right way to go that because that really does provide flexibility again jack you you hit the nail on the head here new visuals more more capabilities all this new on object editing this goes back to training again what we talked earlier more training for you more training required because this is all net new stuff even for people who’ve been doing this for a while there’s a whole bunch of net like what are the we’re having as

32:14 of net like what are the we’re having as a community to figure out what is now our new best practice and how to use these things what what is a good way to use these new visuals and their features so anyways another good feature there anything else any other topical pieces want jump into any other things here maybe in the the March April time frame appointment pipelines updates with the schema changes and then that’s help yeah I think multiple audiences too that came out in March audience on in in

32:46 came out in March audience on in in apps that was a major change that yeah yeah I like I I got to be honest I really like audiences was a quiet feature I would say but it is now a staple when I communicate about how do you deploy things to teams I think would you guys agree or would you what are your thoughts on audiences yeah no this is a this is one of the essential part fabric of and I’m not using Microsoft fabric but fabric of deployment and sharing is app audiences

33:17 deployment and sharing is app audiences it’s a staple now like you would say that’s that’s a common pattern you will use now moving forward it’s the same way that should probit measures that that that feature on like some of the others we talked about was an instant full conversion I like it every everything for me went from sharing sharing reports to roll it all into Apps because it’s just so much easier and it was it was what we needed from the Geto right it wasn’t one to one with the workspace now you had you had actually two things by

33:49 you had you had actually two things by doing that one is now I can have multiple different audiences for the different sets of reports in the same work space and it also it also inadvertently or by plan right gives you gives you a test layer to a production layer because not all the changes that you deploy into the powerbi service they don’t automatically get updated in the app you have to manually publish the changes into the app so if you remove all of the access to that layer you

34:20 all of the access to that layer you actually get that reporting test verify that yep all the changes I made in the service they’re good from a visual perspective add to this page operating as expected now I’m going to publish to my audience in the app love it and this is this is a good feature this is exactly what happens the technology shifts a feature is added and you have to sit back and rethink how do I do stuff like is there a better way to learn how to deploy things now using

34:51 learn how to deploy things now using this new Fe and I I like that I think that’s a really neat thing however I think from an admin perspective Ive on powerp this is why you want to have people that think about this stuff or people who talk with other people who are thinking about this for example leaders in your like make sure you’re talking to like the podcast that’s what we do right listen to us listen to us there’s other there’s other good people saying lots of great things about this too that’s not just this podcast but there’s a lot of great messaging guyne Cube and all the other YouTube channels that are doing great

35:22 YouTube channels that are doing great jobs B with teaching you how to use these different features like there’s a great number of channels that you can listen to I’d highly recommend it because how do how to best use audiences unless you’re spending time with people who are trying to use audiences like it Mak to be fair to be fair to Dan’s point it might have been before 23 and we just maybe we only it is that really true and someone Googled that for me I have seen that that there were some posts in mid 2022 about multiple app

35:54 about multiple app audiences we just really actually like it it major Updates this this is also one of those there’s got to be there’s got to be some psychological explanation right the older you get the faster time it there’s an actual study this or a name for it did did it go ga in March oh maybe I don’t know still important now generally available in March there you go maybe that’s what it was CU really we don’t talk about

36:25 was CU really we don’t talk about preview features on this like we’re so Dan sit down right like awesome that’s funny yet this my only gripe with apps is why cannot why do we still have the same color selections for the app that were there when apps came out it’s the same 15 colors I can change my entire tenant to look any way I want and you can’t you can’t pick a new color it’s still just it’s the same colors they have update

36:57 it’s the same colors they have update the the colors yeah well anyways again do you want do you want fancier visuals or do you want new color for apps that’s not if it’s in theed already copy paste man hey hey Tommy’s got a point because the color app like that is a display portion to the end user true so like having full customiz like at least having a better color palette would would be helpful for for presenting maybe not such

37:27 for presenting maybe not such an app using a theme file oh hey there you go there you go a little more that’s better but there gonna be a little more discussions speaking of all the things we can do with theme files or files or whatever I think one of the biggest things I was most excited about in 203 was the introduction of the peip yes peip and you’re not talking about the hat that we made that was all about peip totally peip

37:58 about peip totally peip the pbip format which I agree with you Seth 100% this was a very needed feature and this is one of those growup stories that I think really enhances powerbi is a bit more ready for prime time as as opposed to we have to manage these PBX files and since day one every company has struggled with well how do I control these where do I put them where do I store them oh my gosh my powerbi file is now a a couple hundred megabytes in size GitHub won’t accept it anymore

38:30 in size GitHub won’t accept it anymore because the file size is so large what are we going to do about this and I think this is a very elegant solution to controlling versions of your reports and we’re not done yet this is this is just a yeah a brand new feature that’s coming out that is I don’t know I I would I would highly argue this is going to fundamentally change how you powerbi this this is for sure a game changer but this this this dovet Tales into your earlier point where the push to have Microsoft open up

39:02 where the push to have Microsoft open up the file a bit more allow allow people to do different things within it the pbip pbip format is that it’s like it’s almost the architecture by which things are separated out to the point where you can start to automate or build things that get compiled within a pbip file and then just represent themselves as a open to PBX and start go go off and do your thing so extremely I think needed and something that solved a lot of problems not just

39:34 that solved a lot of problems not just in the interaction points but also the deployment right yep yeah I think this is another and and with with this I think in initially was the introduction of the PB format but with this is also gone get integration to workspaces I don’t I I would maybe call those features one and the same but man do I really it’s not quite refined yet it’s still getting worked out but get integration at the workspace level oh that’s really cool I see a lot of potential for that

40:05 cool I see a lot of potential for that as as well well do you find it more even if I create a pip or I if I publish to a power workspace with Git it doesn’t actually create a pbip from there it actually transform into a PB which so I’m actually you looked at the quantity of types of powerbi files like the PBR is the definition more than just the project file like they’re I don’t think they’re going away from Pips but in order for me to let try follow you can you maybe describe it a different way let’s say I published to a

40:35 different way let’s say I published to a powerbi workspace with a PBX that’s just what I okay yep and that workspace has get integration okay powerbi is then it gonna in a sense transform that model into not a pbip but into the two folders the data model or the data set and the report there’s no pbip it’s just the PB the report report definition well yeah the PB is just a t

41:05 definition well yeah the PB is just a t PB is just is meaningless honestly it’s it’s just a it’s a simple little Json file that points to where the model exists and what’s where the definition of the file exists in a different folder so it’s it’s just pointing to folders essentially right PBR opens up powerbi desktop not saying it doesn’t yeah but PB is just pointing to things that describe the files yes whether you have the PB or not the pbip is a project which includes definitions of what the model should do and what is happening in the report layer so I would say

41:36 the report layer so I would say the pbip is more more synops more analogous to the PBX oh yeah but for my understanding is the pbip format is what is used when you upload things to get what you don’t get from the git integration is you don’t get a pbip because there is no concept of a project inside the service yes and that’s why the pbir file appears and also if you’re working on your local machine right if you’re using the pbiip format on your local machine you’re

42:06 format on your local machine you’re getting the pbip format file with all the folders that go with it but that’s stored locally and when you upload a you can open a pbip project locally and then

42:19 can open a pbip project locally and then when you save and send it to power. com my understanding is it just Zips everything into a PBX and then sends the PBX up and then it and then it it rips apart the PBX in the service and then builds all these other the same things essentially so it’s it’s like a little bit extra redundant right now because the only medium to go from desktop to service is only the PBX file format that I’m aware of right now maybe that will change in the future but I think maybe my my main point here on

42:50 think maybe my my main point here on around this topic is it maybe makes more sense to think about this pbip format because I could very much see in the future instead of going to powerbi. com and downloading things I might just go to the git repo and synchronize that with my local machine and I may not deal or I may not be trying to get a storage of PBX files anymore I may link my workspace get everything in it and I will exclusively work from the git repo to make my

43:20 to make my changes so I I I I I like that pattern how refined it gets to be determined yeah we’ll see where they take it and I think they’re working too on the best pro the workflow there and we then move on because like you said there’s the PVP which I have to create manually which is a project and then if I just upload I don’t have the same exact workflow so it’s very I think they’re working still on the best is that is that like the

43:50 on the best is that is that like the the cane saying kind time ago but someone scan the QR code cool there’s two different workflows right now I think they’re still working on how does this best work with data Ops and bi correct and I don’t I think the jury’s still out I I I this I don’t know if I agree or understand what you’re saying like because because the I I agree from the standpoint that there are things to work out in that flow from I want to work in this space

44:21 flow from I want to work in this space and auto deploy into something in the powerbi service but implementation of what they’re showing so far are from my perspective are predicated on a lot of a long Legacy of the dev Cycles like I have a project file I have multiple different types of things within that project file the PB the model the whatever create create whatever you want those are the components that have to live within that project and could be deployed individually or collectively as as a whatever right the

44:54 collectively as as a whatever right the flow into the powerbi service I agree with but how they’re going about implementing that is very in from my perspective very familiar to me in older ways we used to do things that that have been Dev cycles for a very long time or Dev Dev patterns and I think I think that’s what I’m most excited about is the idea that the the parbi ecosystem is becoming more developer friendly this this seems like they’re they’re finally opening

45:24 like they’re they’re finally opening things up and standardizing on things so so what’s really unique about a lot of this right is there there are two different things that we’ve seen or been pushing for for a long time as powerbi came out right it took it took business intelligence developers into a realm that was much more in the business side right like you have this tool it doesn’t do any of the engineering level things that we were used to so you have this push for Enterprise I need to Enterprise these things I need to like

45:54 Enterprise these things I need to like automate my pipelines and workflows Etc but at the same time you’re now introducing a business tool that’s competing with other business side tools and you have this push for better visualization easier methods to do things like make it easier make it easier automations yeah exactly so because I can’t I can’t manage a 100 models or I can’t manage 100 reports without some level of automation on top of it right yeah so so as we’ve grown I think in the first couple years yeah Administration understanding the

46:24 Administration understanding the Enterprise side like that took a back seat while a lot of the business forward front like making powerbi easier for the business to to consume was pushed and I think we’re in this really great place though where we have a pbu like there’s Enterprise ways in which to interact with this with this ecosystem and the level of improvements to not just powerbi but also which we hadn’t foreseen at all is trying to like

46:56 hadn’t foreseen at all is trying to like what is what is unifying that to some degree across these teams look like or at least push it into the realm where these teams could potentially be working together because that’s been the biggest friction point for business intelligence in an organization so like we’re in a really cool time I think and I’m excited about 24 because it brings to to light a lot of lot of potential big changes to how people work

47:26 potential big changes to how people work within an organization and to your M to your point Mike we’ve seen this repetitively that there are certain features that all the sudden they drop and you’re like okay I will I’m GNA stop the way I used to do this because it’s so worth it to do this other like do it this way now and yep and like man like I could it happen at any time with fabric I think so I I I absolutely think so and I want to I want to duvail on your comment there things that are things

47:58 comment there things that are things that are fundamentally changing how we powerbi timle format now I think it was a originally announced in April it came out in squel bits SQL bits was announced and it was the first presentation by Matias amazing job he came up with the idea Microsoft adopted it and you now see so to get at the timle format you have to do a whole bunch of work with external tools and and unpacking files things and timle makes it much easier for this whole git

48:29 it much easier for this whole git integration to work and it’s very simplified it’s very nice format and what we’ve seen over the this last year is the Tindle format has gotten better Microsoft has released an S an app or what do they call it an inside vs code Tommy what do they call them the an extension an extension there’s now an extension in vs code that lets you pretty format it you can then have it auto prompt you for when you have additional syntax changes so over this year this year that has gotten much better as well so now managing your model not using a Bim

49:01 now managing your model not using a Bim format instead of using the timle format is going to be I think a lot easier too so I think even from a this is another major Game Changer feature that I think I see coming out this year is this whole timle format and making that easier to use so if you don’t know what timle is here is the announcement for that one from ruy I’ll put that in the chat window as well this is another really interesting thing that came out that I think will be very fun other other features that we should probably talk

49:37 about obviously some power updates but the the last one that that struck me was just the most recent one the the new Dax query view I think that’s another H fantastic feature Improvement and just opens the door to allow people to make like verify data verify measures are accurate right and and gives a yep an in application way to interact in new ways that they may not have before with with Dax and just verifi

50:08 with with Dax and just verifi building Dax functions and implementing those within a report I I think simplifies that experience without somebody who is a new user having to understand like wait like you you you you just got me learning powerbi now I have to go download this other third party thing called deck Studio like how do how does that work like what it so so I think that’s one of the the benefits of having inapp tools sometimes or at least a light version of things so that you’re you’re doing two things one is

50:38 you’re you’re doing two things one is it’s part of the tool already you’re obviously adding an enhanced experience but you’re also opening the door for them to easily understand the third party tool where basically the same thing comes from so it’s a it all of the sudden you’re creating unique or similar experiences across the different applications that have been built around powerbi I I really like that observation as well I I yeah I I feel the very similar sentiment to you there on that

51:08 similar sentiment to you there on that feed it’s it’s going to it really AIDS our development tool set and to be able to store these things I think those those files those scripts that you use are being stored now where this is this is where where you want to go with it okay so it’s a very awesome feature I really love it it it it definitely feels like it’s bringing a lot of what I would say it’s bringing DAC Studio features right into desktop which is awesome from from a pro

51:39 desktop which is awesome from from a pro developer standpoint you need to have these these are things that just need to be part of the tool which is awesome my challenge for this is what are those common scripts I should be running like you have in order so the self-discovery like let me let me say let me give you one example here an example is if you run a visual and you see how it renders the data in the performance analyzer you can go into performance analyzer you can hit record you can get the query for a single

52:10 you can get the query for a single Visual and you can say okay here’s the timings of every visual on this page oh wow look this table takes almost 3 seconds to render Let Me Go performance analyze it and you can then drop that code to render that visual it immediately drops it over to the Dack query editor awesome love it so it’s autogenerating Dax for you and letting you discover and explore it I think this is where true learning comes in this is will really help people learn things however there was just a release of 50

52:41 however there was just a release of 50 new 50 new Dax features that are all about the information of of the model which are awesome very helpful however

52:51 which are awesome very helpful however where can I save a common pattern of of this is a like I’m going to write something about measures I’m already seeing blogs around people are writing like 20 30 line Dack statements that they’re going to use to go analyze all the columns all the measures all the things in a model basically per building some lightweight documentation that’s in the model love it great idea my downside of this is how do I get access to those things faster and easier every single time I use desktop and so my opinion

53:23 time I use desktop and so my opinion here is with everything Microsoft does I love that you built this new feature but give me an easy way to integrate it with other tools or at least load in the things that I care about so I can have a library of these really helpful features with easy access and I know Microsoft doesn’t love doing that but gosh darn it like you’ve already done it for themes and everything else like figure it out like like make how Community will help make this easy for people yeah you’re

53:54 make this easy for people yeah you’re does that make sense I it it does and but the the the complexity behind that that I I guess pipes sprad away is like a library of what right like and I think you can because everything’s dependent on the model right how things are built well so things like list me all measures yeah with these columns right wouldn’t you want to run that on every single data model you have here’s a single place I don’t want to have to go hunting for measures you’re not using the actual data model structure you’re you’re you’re that you upload you’re using the

54:25 you’re that you upload you’re using the core core backend things you’re going to want to have in every like I’m going to want to build a power like this is probably part of my template at some point right I I may want to have like here’s my powerbi template and by the way I’ve already built four or five standard queries that live what I think we can add this to theme generator I might just do it I’m saying like I was thinking pbip like there’s got to be a way we can just stick a we just so so maybe

54:55 just so so maybe take this offline let’s put Park M we’re Park on this topic for now but that’s that is my that is one area where here it would be really nice to have again when you start from something here’s a bunch of things you just get out of the box boom it’s ready to go and I think to me that’s when when Microsoft introduces a lot of code-based things I love it but think of a way how can you it you will drive adoption that the community can easily improve the feature or add the leg work that

55:25 feature or add the leg work that provides value to the feature and that’s just my general feeling but I’m I’m huge I’m very Pro on like the community love the community powerbi that’s been awesome awesome sorry let’s anything we’re almost at time we’ve got about five minutes left so maybe we should do either last thoughts or one more feature what do you guys think I like last thoughts because if we’re tring g to try to pick one let’s just wrap up for final thoughts for what is your your main

55:55 for what is your your main takeaways or your your final thoughts around last year 2023 where do you think you you land Tommy let’s go with you first well obviously we focus today on just the powerbi blog but we know what 2023 is the year of fabric and it was the year the year of there this is no greater change to what we do I know they initially said that was Data March which is funny that was goingon to be the biggest update they had in years but we’ve literally transformed I think our roles

56:25 literally transformed I think our roles and we’re just like I think we had a conversation on our podcast when we first started about like hey what’s bi going to be in the future well that’s obvious needs to be Revisited there if you look back on where you were doing powerbi at the beginning of 2023 and now looking ahead it’s that constant having to learn what technology works in the best time and obviously this was a update like that on with avengeance so to speak but look at all the updates go oh I remember that

56:55 at all the updates go oh I remember that and where where you gotten where your organization’s going this is why I love what I do because my job is to keep updated with this and learning this stuff and trying it out and seeing what it best works and it h it updates constantly and I love that so I’m intriguing to see where 2024 is gonna go Seth any final thoughts for you I agree with Tommy from a data perspective like big big things fabric obviously it ALS it not only brings

57:26 obviously it ALS it not only brings to light the data engineering aspects to you business folks is right but it it might it has the possibility of bringing those groups closer together and I think that’s the value behind it how that integrates and how that potentially changes how businesses work I’m very excited about I am powerbi specifically [Music] [Music] still Feature Feature Rich they’re adding new things I think there

57:57 they’re adding new things I think there there’s a good mix of Enterprise or backend improvements versus front end I I I would push for more in the visual improvements area I I would fund that a lot more than some of the other stuff like on object right and and like I said Microsoft knows the use cases of powerbi and maybe the biggest pain Point they’ve had from business users is we don’t know where to find things from properties and that’s why it’s worthwhile to go down there route on on the flip side I

58:27 there route on on the flip side I know that some of the challenges that still exist from a competitive standpoint all live in the visualization area so the more work that I think especially when everything being put out from that team right now is being received with like big big parades and harras invest more there and the other the other reason for that is one of the the fault or challenge points that Barbi has still is in the embedded space right and if

58:58 is in the embedded space right and if you’re going to break into that or have powerbi be part of applications you need that customization you need the ability to make things look different than they do today without all of the extra effort and the capabilities so I think there’s there’s a 2024 could I hope just keep keep building on the visual improvements but over all pretty pretty happy with what they put out in 2023 I think there there

59:29 they put out in 2023 I think there there were a lot of things that the community could leverage we leveraged with theme generator and and our our ability to to push that out I think that’s one of the honestly one of the biggest coolest things in in powerbi as far as implementation in 2023 but overall pretty pretty happy with the year awesome I think for this last year I think the the biggest impact for me has been the Tim and the pbip format I think those have been huge improvements I

59:59 those have been huge improvements I think those are the the the standout Shining Moments that we’ve had for 2023 one other I I’d say easily most impactful feature here is and and we didn’t really talk about a ton which was the adoption of the Delta format for everything POI so this is more of a data engineering perspective on on fabric right but fabric is cool I get it but all those tools existed before they just weren’t in they just weren’t in powerbi so like to me fabric is not that much of a revolutionary moment because I

60:30 much of a revolutionary moment because I already used all these tools I just was in Azure not com yeah just a combination so I like that they’ve made the accessibility of that easier but to me the the real fundamental change for me was the Delta format and now we have so many more I’m going to call compute engines that can read this new formatted documentation previously we could do it with SQL serverless and we could do it with spark that was the only two things we have we now have power query which is another compute engine we now have the vertac engine that can do it and now you

61:00 vertac engine that can do it and now you can use desktop functions to directly re read those tables inside Delta formats to me this is Microsoft keeping up with Snowflake and other big data tools in the ecosystem by adopting this format and making this thing really shine and Speedy so direct Lake it’s not I haven’t done extensive amounts on testing but my initial impr questions it’s awesome and it’s a fabric level feature so I love direct Lake I think it’s going to be

61:30 direct Lake I think it’s going to be awesome it’s going to be really a feature to watch out for because I think it will actually really increase the size of your models without doing a lot of extra requirements or effort on your part to manage the models themselves so anyways we really appreciate your time today thank you so much for joining us for another conversation around our last year 2023 we’re looking forward to the next year 2024 hopefully good things happen maybe we’ll get some great improvements to tables because that are they has never changed since day one of of PB desktop so maybe maybe we’ll get a good Improvement around tables for 2024

62:00 good Improvement around tables for 2024 one can hope and dream so with that we really appreciate your listenership if you found some value from this if we talked about some features today that you haven’t looked at I highly recommend go Google them go ask co-pilot go ask chat GPT about these features and where you can find more information about these key features because I think as experts in this space and who are very closely watching this these are the kind closely watching this these are the things that stood out to us for this of things that stood out to us for this last year Tommy where where else can you find the podcast you can find the podcast on Apple Spotify wherever get

62:32 podcast on Apple Spotify wherever get your podcast make sure to subscribe and leave a rating it helps us out a ton do you have a question idea or topic that you want us to talk about in a future episode head over to power. tisp podcast leave your name and a great question finally join us live every Tuesday and Thursday A. M Central and join the conversation all power tips social media channels awesome thank you all very much we appreciate appreciate your time and we’ll catch you next

63:25 time oh

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