Tactical Planning Objectives – Ep. 287

This episode is a walkthrough of Step 1: BI strategy + BI tactical planning from Microsoft’s implementation planning guidance. Mike, Tommy, and Seth focus on the practical part: how to translate big-picture strategy into a short list of actionable objectives, prioritize time-sensitive work, and choose quick wins that build momentum (instead of creating one-off chaos).

News & Announcements

• Power BI implementation planning: BI strategy and BI tactical planning (Step 1) — The exact section the team is reviewing: how to define tactical objectives and plan work that supports adoption.
• Submit a topic idea (Explicit Measures Podcast) — Send questions, scenarios, and episode ideas.
• PowerBI.tips Podcast — Subscribe to the show and catch past episodes.
• Power BI Theme Generator — Build and download Power BI themes fast.

Main Discussion

Tactical planning is where a BI program stops being a slide deck and becomes a plan you can execute. The team uses Microsoft’s guidance to talk through what to prioritize, how to define success, and what kinds of early work actually makes adoption easier (instead of creating technical debt).

Key takeaways:

• Keep goal/objective language consistent: if stakeholders can’t agree on what the terms mean, alignment and measurement fall apart fast.
• Start with time-sensitive constraints: migrations, licensing deadlines, tool retirements, and compliance windows often dictate the first wave of work.
• Quick wins should compound: pick wins that deliver immediate value and create reusable patterns, documentation, or data foundations for the next steps.
• Plan adoption, governance, and implementation separately: they’re related, but each requires explicit decisions and a cadence that matches your org’s culture.
• Invest in community early: a lightweight community of practice can connect “hidden experts,” reduce duplicated effort, and improve standards organically.
• Review licensing + sharing patterns: sanity-check licensing assumptions and use apps/workspaces intentionally so distribution doesn’t become an access mess.
• Avoid ‘BI by inbox’ as the default: subscriptions can help, but they can also reinforce passive consumption instead of a healthier data culture.

Looking Forward

Turn tactical planning into a repeatable habit: revisit objectives weekly, ship one compounding quick win at a time, and keep adoption/governance decisions moving in parallel.

Episode Transcript

0:30 good morning and welcome back to the explicit measures podcast with Tommy Seth and Seth and Mike and happy Tuesday gentlemen happy Tuesday hello you’re jumping into our Tuesdays where we’re doing a lot of implementation Tuesdays there’s a great article that’s come out from Microsoft around just implementing and planning your strategies around powerbi great article solid content here today we’re going to be talking about the section called VI tactical planning there’s actually a lot of

1:00 there’s actually a lot of content here the the links in the description below I’ll put the link over here also in the chat window that will be our topic for today but before we get into our main topic let’s talk about some news any news articles Tommy you want to oh yeah something fun that I think would be maybe for the three of us to do but this came out on the 10th and is hacked together the Microsoft fabric Global hackathon or AI hack but this also

1:31 hackathon or AI hack but this also known as hackathon so this is could actually be really interesting and anyone can join and basically what is just basically going together is globally running from the February 15th through March 4th get up to a team of three people how what a coincidence and basically just build a solution that’s AI themed and using Microsoft Microsoft fabric the the author of this article is a great author name’s Paul D Carlo

2:01 Carlo so oh my so close so close must be a genius by the way like the Mike De [Laughter] Carlo this would be fun this would be fun to carry on through the podcast I feel like we have to do it together I feel we should talk about it we can do it we could do it that’s not the problem it’s interesting they’re pushing for this direction here

2:31 they’re pushing for this direction here I think this is a I think what they’re Microsoft is trying to do here is they’re trying to put a push on look fabric is AI you can do AI in fabric let’s let’s do a hackathon to show that it can be I’ll be interested to see how many people jump into this one just because I’m interested to see will people jump into this and want to actually use the Microsoft a know AI experience inside powerbi it is

3:03 experience inside powerbi it is funny you say that too because if there’s all these other articles that Microsoft puts out on Tech Community or Tech blogs yep and I I subscribe to that and every single one about fabric is something to do with something generative AI there’s a lot of Solutions on GitHub but I’m like yeah this one I had lmm prompts to reports using co-pilot and get their models so this is something they’re absolutely ping is yeah we’re powerbi or

3:33 ping is yeah we’re powerbi or Microsoft’s in the AI game with data to it’s called fabric if I think about our user base still this is what this this is I like where they’re going with this one I think directionally it’s the right way to go organizations will pile up their data in lake houses and then they’ll need to do some more heavier analytical things on them AI predictive yes it’s coming but if you’re going from a business user who’s been used to building powerbi reports and now you drop them into let’s use

4:03 and now you drop them into let’s use spark notebooks and make AI happen it it’s not yeah but you’re not going to like not the audience here like because you’re trying to draw in the data scientist too to fabric this this is that’s a good point right but a hackathon is also something that business users are not ain’t got time for that a hacka what a hack no I struggle making Focus thing I’m not gonna go make a hackathon a hack of what yeah anyways it’ll be interesting to see how I’m looking forward to seeing any of the

4:33 looking forward to seeing any of the output of this and see what people kind output of this and see what people put together here for this one so of put together here for this one so I will be pleasantly surprised if something comes together here hey man grand prizes though free passes to the fabric Community Conference $500 per team member and swag that’s that’s that’s a good priz puty and blanket as long as it’s not that really yucky like fabric green circled thing sweater swag I don’t want

5:04 circled thing sweater swag I don’t want that that thing well you don’t have to worry about it because you’re not doing it I’m not doing it no problem here but it is cool I hackathons are a lot of fun get ready to work 24 hours a day seven days a week for three days 24 hours a day that makes a lot of a lot of [Laughter] sense oh lordy oh boy yeah good stuff what else we got

5:35 dude and an actual just powerbi no AI needed this one I am very curious you guys’ thoughts on the impact the feature sets cool but the use case we’ll see Dynamic subscriptions now are now available for powerbi reports so yeah it is a much more in-depth way of really scheduling it out for multiple people up until this point we all know the the use case one report here’s an email that’s just a report there’s a screenshot well

6:06 just a report there’s a screenshot well now with these Dynamic reports you can actually set up based on the model itself features say hey we’re gonna map these recipients to the only when these conditions are met in the model itself which is yeah hey there is there is nothing I like more than wasting system resources by generating hundreds thousands of reports and then dumping them into email inboxes where I don’t know 90% of them

6:38 inboxes where I don’t know 90% of them never get opened love it I love it you you you touched on my point exactly slash slash sarcasm insert sarcasm here but hey if you’re an organization and there are lots of them you all your reps this is it is fantastic that that this feature is now there I that does that answer your question Tommy but that’s what I thought that’s what I was F yeah I was not too far from like I supposed to hey

7:08 not too far from like I supposed to hey I need to go look at something click oh now now it’s even harder right I’m in teams already click on the icon and see the apps open and see the report yeah I’m I’m going to lean on I’m so I take your sentiment on the th one Seth I do think that having page reports I like the feature the fact that it’s so Dynamic I like the fact that I can add filters and I can add people and I can it’s very flexible on what I can

7:38 I can it’s very flexible on what I can do for sending information out yeah what I disagree with on this whole approach is the data is current as soon as the data set refreshes why do I need to be going around sending out emails to everyone on all this stuff and I don’t like clouding up all these other areas of your email system just because someone wants you to email them the report it just feels very traditional I guess I would say and yeah it it does serve a need but I would argue we’re

8:08 serve a need but I would argue we’re doing it wrong if you’re if you’re if this is a really required feature for your system you’re doing it wrong yeah my gripe is not with Microsoft I’m glad that it’s part of it it like longer we talked about subscriptions or dynamic subscriptions and paginated you dynamic subscriptions and paginated well before this it’s it’s good to know well before this it’s it’s good to have the feature obviously there’s a demand for it my gripe is with organizations that want to implement things that way yeah agree it just it just seems like we need let’s grow the data culture let’s make it different the

8:39 data culture let’s make it different the Microsoft loves it the more capacity you use the more you’re gonna need right and this is one of those very like let’s use all my resources for this I I would I would beg to differ it’ll be nice when we have we’ll have the the emails the emails or the messages hey our tenant is falling over we don’t know we don’t know what’s happening okay do you have monitoring no we don’t okay let’s put in some monitoring figure oh look at this there’s a massive emailing event happening every morning at like

9:11 event happening every morning at like right one person is sending out an email to the 10, 000 users of the organization and we’re whipping out hundreds of thousands of records of data for lots of users across the why are we doing this again jack kby in the chat hits hits my feelings on this perfectly because for some reason I I can’t get angry at it it feels okay but it’s not it’s wrong because he says it feels very 1990s which is nostalgic right I can’t

9:41 1990s which is nostalgic right I can’t yeah man I was there we were all there like you got you got reports and emails there’s all emails you create your own special folder for it and then that’s where all those emails go and then they just Auto go there and then it you’re like 3 weeks later why is there that no you have to go look at it finally and you’re like oh yeah go to my email folder to open up the report just going why I have 1500 unread messag that delete and then I keep it

10:12 messag that delete and then I keep it yeah what would be that’s what they need to do you want to make it really Dynamic I want to interact with

10:17 really Dynamic I want to interact with the report in Outlook why can’t we do that you can do that in one drive make it available here embed it somehow are are you are you proposing are you proposing a new strategy for Microsoft not not PowerPoint for reporting it’s reporting for email literally it’s even more I never locked the dang door thank you guys so but yeah so every time but yeah just

10:48 yeah so every time but yeah just make it a dynamic there so I think it’s a good feature I think there are organizations asking for it I I’m not sure I’m going to push it for people or organizations but it is there when people ask for it like yes it just ticks the box you can say it’s done this feature I think exists for people who need extracts of data who then have to go build other powerbi reports or other Excel sheets on top of the data that they’re then merging or blending data together and that’s I think where this is coming from it’s it’s just

11:18 where this is coming from it’s it’s just that there is not a culture of let’s ask the right questions and get the right data into the data sets instead here’s our Enterprise systems and we’ll just dump you this data here you go it’s up to you to figure out the rest of it so it it is what it is it’s a solid feature though any other intro any other intro pieces I think the last one is have you have you as a company yet Mike got co-pilot for office for Microsoft so

11:49 co-pilot for office for Microsoft so I’ve seen some co-pilot I don’t know if I have it or not because I haven’t really dug into it too deeply I was reading on the co-pilot for Microsoft Fabric and it said it was available worldwide globally now but only people who are paying for a paid subscription to an to an f64 or P1 or yes or P1 or P1 but I’m not pay I get I have the free subscription so therefore I don’t think I actually have have it I am about to get it

12:20 it I am about to get it hopefully yes we have we have well there’s copilot and fabric which I haven’t played with yet the new coop for M365 is on top of copilot Pro which is like the Bing chat thing and then but the the reason I’m extremely interested and Mike I’m surprised you haven’t like gone in on this one gang Buster is the co-pilot for M365 like they removed this you need 300 users like just to get in

12:53 you need 300 users like just to get in the door yeah and it’s it’s per user per month now and it’s another 30 bucks but but there are things in here where like I really want to test out where co-pilot apparently can generate a PowerPoint presentation for you yes word do now now now I’m assuming Tommy has has tested this out if I can use the co-pilots to give me a word dock in bulleted form and then I can take the word Dock and run it in and get a PowerPoint hey presentation

13:25 in and get a PowerPoint hey presentation Done Right presentation done there could be some Savings in there that that’s the one that caught my eye and then Tommy’s going to rain on My Parade but that’s so some of it like so I was testing us you have t yeah so it’s a pain in a butt to try to get the licensing especially when you’re company one but I basically like had some of my slides open because it’s now in like every product like Outlook one note Microsoft whiteboards which is

13:55 Microsoft whiteboards which is cool actually too and I asked it as something very simple I said hey can you keep the same design as the template they said they’re like well I have no idea what you mean like I basically had no idea that was related to PowerPoint at all like that should I know that’s very capable in a lot of tools of the context what they’re in but it was like it the the response back was like I don’t know what a template is or what a design is that seems ticky tacky to me if you can if you can lay

14:27 to me if you can if you can lay out a bunch of slides in a presentable format from a word doc I I will handle throwing the design on top plus the vast majority of organizations already have a master slide template come on Tommy you don’t it’s fine like it it reorganized all my slides and added these dumb pictures to them awesome pictures you mean no noing images yeah it’s there you say to gain focus of the audience it’s a a they look like they

14:58 audience it’s a a they look like they look like what were those picture icons the shapes in like Microsoft like 98 remember the like like the drawings whatever they would call like win objects or something that’s what this looks like I’m like that’s a image from 2003 maybe that’s all they have licensed to use at this point yeah maybe so where do I see co-pilot helping out a lot I think co-pilot helps out things where you’re doing code samples so any anything like a notebook or where you’re

15:29 anything like a notebook or where you’re writing sequel code or you need help like that those seem like really great places to use co-pilot co-pilot doing creative things like generating images or artwork based on some text I think it’s actually pretty Dar gone good we’re using that a lot more on our thumbnails even for our podcast I feel like that’s another great place to use co-pilot I think co-pilot does a good job around getting you started on some things so you can use it for give me some ideas around a document give me

15:59 some ideas around a document give me some ideas around these things but when it gets down to specifics when it gets down to like I need these bullet points I need these things talk to these bullet points and then give me some tech it doesn’t seem to be able to follow the structure quite yet I think it will get there and again co-pilot’s very new in all the Office Products I I have to imagine it’s been like a scramble at Microsoft to make sure co-pilot just shows up on every product as fast as possible so it’s going to I think it’s it’s very this is like a first pass at co-pilot I’m guessing it’s going to get better over time as they figure out

16:31 better over time as they figure out better prompting and I think for me right now is I don’t know how to prompt the best way I think I don’t it’s the same thing when I it’s the same thing when I started learning how to Google things when you remember when you started Googling things Google came out oh gosh we’re dating ourselves now but Google came out and you were like how do I search for this stuff and you started getting better at searching and then years later you’re like okay Googling things are so easy now I know exactly what to type and I can usually get with my response to what I need in a couple

17:02 my response to what I need in a couple questions or even just a phrases now it’s the same thing for AI and co-pilot I don’t know how to prompt it correctly to get out what I want you need to study how to prompt correctly so that it produces a better result for you so I have to do some learning to get it to be better for me yeah and I think they’re going to come out with a lot more because the prompting thing is probably going to be the make or break they have this thing called co-pilot lab and you can view all the prompts and save them it’s like cool well you can’t edit them and they’re all like write me

17:32 edit them and they’re all like write me a word document about our marketing campaign so there’s a lot more customization that I think need to get done but again we’re not dealing with some open- Source GitHub thing this is a major Enterprise company and I can’t imagine the infrastructure there anyways Microsoft Microsoft doing a lot of like they’re all in on this like this is going to happen like Microsoft is building their own chips they’re building their own AI server racks inside their data centers like Microsoft is doubling down that AI is here to stay

18:02 is doubling down that AI is here to stay and it’s going to change how everything works so like I’m convinced that we’ll get get better one last thing for the non aai or generative things there was an announcement by Kim Manis there is a new fabric certification and career Hub oh yeah which is extremely valuable for those those business users who want to learn all the engineering things but how to navigate the fabric ecosystem like this is a much thing glad to see this is rolling rolling out that is good I like that

18:33 out that is good I like that too all right with that I think we’ve exhausted all of our other intros or topics any other news articles nope all right let’s move right on in today’s main topic talking about the Tactical planning let’s go through some of that Tommy kick us off what’s what’s tactical planning all about so we are shifting gears while we focused on actually the last four parts of the series have been on the strategic planning then just really

19:03 strategic planning then just really beginning to understand your organization beginning to understand the assessment tactical is really putting that into action now where this is how we’re going to carry it out this is what we’re going to focus on here are the objectives and the methodology that we’re going to approach here’s are the actual Technical and real hurdles to get there so it’s all about the way and actually we’re going to acheve aieve implementation I love the article again a lot of things that we talked

19:33 again a lot of things that we talked about in our last one about goals and we’re like man we we we wish that they wrote about this I got it covered in the first section here where it’s really talking about how do identify a goal for the that we’re going to accomplish and really categorize it understand obstacles and understand how does it actually fit within the general scheme of things that need to get done yeah up to this point right like with the strategic planning we have a we had a working team we’ve gone through an

20:04 had a working team we’ve gone through an assessment at the organization level as well as the business level and I think this is where we get into the nuts and bolts of that evaluation of based on the needs the assessments how do we go about attacking those things I I was debating but I’m going to lose this mental battle I’m I’m going to create some issues probably in the conversation but I I refuse to keep

20:34 conversation but I I refuse to keep doing this the structure of this article and the ones prior are introducing I think just massive confusion that I really hope Microsoft goes and goes and fixes and what I’m speaking of specifically are the ReUse of goals and objectives it is asinine to me that we

21:06 objectives it is asinine to me that we are moving away from structures that are well-known ogms okrs that are solid Frameworks and so relevant to how you structure and plan for success in organizations and to rejigger them and say objectives are goals and goals are OB Ives and like confuse everything and everyone makes absolutely no sense go fix it it makes no sense like if you’re

21:38 fix it it makes no sense like if you’re throwing some bone to Viva goals which still doesn’t cognitively pull together for me because that entire application is okrs it’s based on okrs this is so confusing to me in the articles that it’s like the goal is this highlevel thing and then I’m going to talk about objective like it throws my mind into a tizzy every time I go down here and then I swear it switches back and forth once

22:08 I swear it switches back and forth once in a while that that we actually are talking about objectives and dude I it’s irritating I’m sorry it’s just irritating to me to read through here because it like you can’t fabricate stuff like this you can’t just bring in your own thing when what we’re trying to do is Implement these things in organizations and I can’t align them cognitively to the Frameworks that every that we push for that everybody wants and and knows I’m gonna get off my soap box I’m

22:38 knows I’m gonna get off my soap box I’m gonna take a breath somebody else take over get a little heated there a bit I did dude because it’s like the more I read into it it like every single time it’s like a bad visual on a page right cognitive dissonance every single time I’m I’m looking at it I have to stop and I’m like wait a minute what am I in here yeah okay yeah this is what I okay I’m here I’m at the key results phase I’m trying to build a measurable thing that aligns to an objective but I keep

23:09 aligns to an objective but I keep reading objective right like it it’s just so hard for me I’m sorry well and I think I think it resonated I think the thing that is interesting here is because when you were looking at goals or metrics inside powerbi everything got a everything got adopted on around the okr framework that was where we started from and I think that works well for organizations and having that similar language at least permeating the rest of the documentation makes

23:40 rest of the documentation makes sense it’s it’s a similar theme well and and think about the opportunities right hey today we’re talking about objectives link to Viva engage documentation right like right now we’re going to talk about goals linked to key results like cross-pollinate with your own stuff man yeah anyway I’m I’m sorry it does it this should not detract from the value of of what we’re talking about and but it’s just I I can’t it’s hard it’s very difficult especially when

24:10 it’s very difficult especially when you’re interjecting new ideas of all of this and where it belongs to end users I think you’re doing a disservice to yourselves by introducing this this sort of definition anyway let’s talk about tactical planning so so just to be clear then in your mind as you’re reading this article there’s going to be portions in the article where it feels like it’s going to Interchange objectives and goals in

24:40 to Interchange objectives and goals in in various places and and you have to sift through those and we’ll and I think Seth as we go through the article it would be worthwhile for you to point out okay we’re saying the word objective here what we really mean is goals or we’re saying the word goals here we’re objectives that is what the giant purple note says right like goals are the high level descriptions and then objectives are the specific actionable thing which is the exact opposite yes correct so but I like like I’m saying so yes we need to read the article in those

25:10 yes we need to read the article in those terms what confuses me is there are points in time where I think it’s back to the other way but I could be wrong and that’s why I’m saying there just there’s a dissonance here that is distracting me from ingesting the information related to the the Frameworks of all of the stuff a hammer in your head that you do when you’re like what is an objective I’m going to create this thing what is a key result how do you like there’s a whole lot of

25:40 how do you like there’s a whole lot of questions and answers and specifics and this whole smart Theory and how do you want to make this an actionable result and all of that that you you hardwire into your brain and that’s my difficulty is like I’m hardwired to like think about things in this way and then I’m being challenged to thinking about in a completely different way for little to no value that I see I’m I’m going to point on your your note here very quickly Seth so in the purple note here at the very beginning it talks about in this series we Define goals as high level descriptions of what you want to

26:11 level descriptions of what you want to to achieve in contrast objectives are specific actionable targets you’re saying from the okr framework it’s actually the opposite way around the objectives GSM same thing yeah and then because when you click on the so in the first section here it talks about step one and then describe your actionable objectives and your goals and priorities and when you click on the goals and priorities it takes you back over to the prbi prbi implementation and it is using another link on your goals and priorities there which decide on

26:42 priorities there which decide on your your goals and priorities as part of the strategic planning piece so it’s started in strategic planning yeah right it’s all throughout here an objective is your highest level a goal and strategy from ogsm are the same as a key result and how you measure that ogsm are are equivalent to key results right they’re actionable they’re things that compile and put up and and move the big needle which is the objective that’s the thing in all of these Frameworks and we’re

27:13 in all of these Frameworks and we’re switching that here we’re saying the goal is the highest thing and and that’s what I just like I said I couldn’t I was choosing on whether or not to go down this path and I couldn’t help myself so I apologize I think it’s to point out because regardless to your point there regardless on what you’re using the terms here we are talking about the same stuff right it’s making sure you use what are the objectives of the company what are we trying to get to from those you you you Dole out goals

27:45 from those you you you Dole out goals which in this example here they’re talking about step one identify your actionable goals should be priorities and then from there then you’re looking at okay how how does my strategy use that and then what how do we measure it what measures can we do to to make action on top of this which is good yeah so so one of the things like right off the bat right or we’re in this working session we’re defining the things that are going to make move the needle for the

28:15 make move the needle for the organization right like and one of the first things that they bring up that I agree with is time sensitive the time sensitive things what what are you guys thoughts around like the focus on time sensitive and their description of what what work is engaged in time time sensitive well there’s always there’s always moments in time where there are are applied how to say it’s it’s

28:47 applied how to say it’s it’s applied rules or it’s it’s applied boundaries you need to play by for example I’ve had projects where we are we are deleting Tableau from a system it’s going away we’re not going to pay for we’re not paying for licensing anymore like literally literally there’s a cost savings that’s coming with this they’re like hey we’re not paying for this thing again you’ve got one year to do the migration so th this makes sense this is this happens we’re going to we bought a company we have two tools now

29:18 bought a company we have two tools now we’re going to have one tool moving forward yeah there there are forced money savings events that are occurring that are going to make sure you have to hit these deadlines so this takes total sense to sense to me Tommy your experience with time sensitive objectives those are honestly when when you think we’ve talked about quick wins from the it’s you have to start there and I I I feel like I want to go more on the goal thing because because that’s such a obviously if you can’t get

29:48 that’s such a obviously if you can’t get that right you don’t get a lot of other things right but you have to we have to realize too when we’re in a crunch or it may not just be us there are things that are pressing that are way more than I think what we may say as the most important things and just because it’s not urgent to us doesn’t mean someone else is struggling or another team struggling if there’s systems that are wrong or the data is that the data that’s coming in is poor

30:18 that the data that’s coming in is poor and we know that bad data in bad data out there are it’s like the prerequisites like it’s very hard to make a pizza if you don’t have the right ingredients and the Very way the time sensitive things are like let’s just build a base let’s just make sure we at least have somewhat of a foundation it may not be perfect but we at least have some of the prerequisites because usually the time sensitive items those more urgent items are things like if it’s more than just inuring technical

30:49 it’s more than just inuring technical debt it’s going to be a stumbling block every step of the way until we address it I’m not sure you I’m not sure I’m following what you’re saying because I think I think of time sensitive things as there are known business timelines or are known Milestones inside the business that have to get completed right we like some some other systems not working correctly or there’s and I like this other example they had here which

31:19 this other example they had here which I’ve I’ve observed as well is you have to if you’re going to make a transition end fiscal end of year needs to occur at this time so in order to have reporting you need to have said system up and running by a certain period of time or you’re buying some new thirdparty software that needs to be integrated into your data set we have financial reporting that needs to use that by this period of time so I think it’s important if you don’t mean I think it’s important if you don’t identify those time sensitive things you find yourself working on stuff that is

31:49 find yourself working on stuff that is not time sensitive and yes you may be adding a lot of value but you drop the ball when there are critical data points that need to be delivered to the business so like I I don’t see how your point relates to like that part of the time sensitivity well it’s absolutely part of it the some of the items here like known flaws or risk that are inherent to existing Solutions just because it may not have a deadline to Something’s ending or that a Project’s launching doesn’t mean it’s not time sensitive it’s really to me it

32:19 not time sensitive it’s really to me it becomes part of that critical part once we again if it is a stumbling block for until we address it but I think of this is this is a you can work on any number of things in your powerbi buildout of the solution this is just saying identify the things that have known deadlines that that the business is saying these are deadlines that you need to think about because if you don’t if you don’t identify them and say okay we need to have 10 Financial reports done by end of December because that’s when

32:49 by end of December because that’s when our financial reporting is done or end of November because we have to use them for December I think it’s important just to at least note these down now how you prioritize your work and what gets worked on first this will play a factor into where do you start doing your work so this this back and forth I think feeds into the the point that came came out of this for me which was when when there’s this hypothetical

33:22 when when there’s this hypothetical question right in this in this section that says like what do we focus on mhm and what is time sensitive mean it there’s this in quotes like well it depends right typically right these don’t currently it says currently impact the business oh great okay so these are these are actions that are time sensitive where we need to put them into the queue y but they do have a deadline correct versus right after that alternatively in quotes

33:52 right after that alternatively in quotes they could be tied to deadlines will impact if left un addressed which which means these are real needs right now correct and and the the warning Bell that goes off in my head is careful with these because this could this could derail a lot of the larger object objectives depending on how many resources you have engaged in this whole thing because one of the things we’ve talked about at nauseum is everybody

34:25 talked about at nauseum is everybody who knows that you start to solve problems with reports and data will come your way right not and then we’re posed with this question that does every problem that we have with reporting data have to be solved by this team Y and the answer is typically no but the modus operandi of a lot of organizations is well somebody asked me so I’m going to do it somebody asked me so I’m going to do it and then that cue starts filling up and they have no time

34:56 starts filling up and they have no time for or anything else because they’re not thinking about the other buckets so while yes I 100% agree times sensitive things absolutely need to be done business typically runs at this cusp of fire drill all the time and that will that has the potential of derailing a lot of your efforts that you’re were trying to strategically and now tactically plan out and the the caution

35:26 tactically plan out and the the caution that here is don’t become the easy button for business units or other people because they have to learn how to fish swim fish themselves etc etc like there are bigger things there’s a bucket of time for this stuff even if there’s a ramp up where 100% of the time is these quick wins it should ramp down into a bucket of work like okay 25% of my time is going to be like the stuff that’s always time sensitive so that I can move on to the

35:57 sensitive so that I can move on to the next levels and actually like get things done related to the key results and higher objectives that are going to come out of this tactical planning I like that statement there Seth because I feel like this there’s a lot of initial blocking and tackling there is a lot of initial quick wins to get people on board and understanding the direction and then I think there is a point in time where you can start slowing down some of those quick wins and and you need to start spending more of your time again you can’t ever get away from Quick wins and delivering

36:28 away from Quick wins and delivering things but I think you you relegate less of your time towards those quick wins and the team focuses more on focusing on bigger Longer more strategic getting bigger data sources doing more data engineering fixing things in the back end like that has to be part of the process and those things are not easy or quick to do so you have to do them but it that may be like a multi-month process that you’re to be building there would you would you classify these items as quick

36:58 classify these items as quick wins the ones that they have listed in the article the first well I I think I liked I liked the fact that there was a delineation between time sensitive things versus quick win or high impact because to me it resonates that those are are separate like quick like time time sensitive to me are fire drills right like I would classify those as like somebody needs some they’re going to give you a two-day time frame or we need

37:29 give you a two-day time frame or we need to deliver something to the customer by the end of the week and you you have a a gun to your head to get something done that to me is different than the the a quick win which I would classify as there is a need for a report in an Ideal World this is part of a larger initiative where we’re engaging with the business unit to ingest a bunch of data right like build things things that will last so that we build an

37:59 that will last so that we build an infrastructure and then reporting becomes very quick a quick win to me is I I have to do some leg work right I could be connecting to multiple different sources I’m building a report that is specific for this purpose but I can’t really scale on it and to me that’s different but at least like how would you think of that how do you classify quickin like do you think of it the same way or is it slightly different in your mind no I’m with you with the the quick wins are we talked about the low hanging

38:29 wins are we talked about the low hanging fruit in our previous episode these are things that we know that we can tackle in parallel with obviously what’s the the most critical but it’s it’s simply that it’s like yeah we can either move something over very quickly something usually that the bi team can do in a very quick way those big Wows like yeah we can connect to your Excel file and visualize that for you and rather than you having to do those formulas that take a day those easy wins that

38:59 take a day those easy wins that usually don’t need a lot of other collaboration or approvals from other teams or sources are to me sometimes one of the best cases of showing what powerbi can do it’s a lot of almost they become proof of Concepts compared to the again the U time sensitive or more pressing where it’s going to involve a lot of people it’s maybe licensing or it’s going to be different departments and everyone’s got to get in line so

39:29 and everyone’s got to get in line so there’s a lot of moving Parts with the things that are going to be more critical the time sensitive things to get everyone align low hanging fruit quick winds that’s something that we can churn out in in a few days Oregon without having a lot of approvals there I think I like that that part of your talk you’re talking about there there’s not a lot of approvals required I’m looking at these items that are done here that are quick wins like setting up training initiatives for key users I think I think that’s a key I think that’s a quick win right that’s

40:00 think that’s a quick win right that’s something where you can immediately without a lot of effort turn that on and start pushing people towards getting their own training here’s a whole bunch of learn microsoft. com stuff go do this it at least starts the exercise of people educating I think starting a centralized portal where you consolidate all your guidelines your community practice that’s huge honestly I think that is a that is a high impact good quick win so I agree with that one very much creating sh shared Central

40:30 much creating sh shared Central themes templates and design guidelines I think it depends on what organization you are if you are a central team that’s doing all the reporting for organization that would be a good quick win but if you’re a more distributed team and it’s you’re just letting people build powerb reports across the organization I think it’s going to be harder to control that so I think I think that one might not be a big a good quick win if you’re allowing business units to have their own authority around how they build reports anything you can do around I

41:02 reports anything you can do around I I think another high impact quick win here that’s not on this list is building

41:06 here that’s not on this list is building Community around and this is maybe something that goes with a Central Community of practice but building Community around PBI finding other like-minded powerbi people in your organization I think is a major quick win because there’s already experts out there that potentially are doing things that are very awesome in powerbi but they don’t talk to each other so just getting those people connected is very much helpful as well too it’s interesting it’s interesting that you would throw that in the

41:37 bucket and I think I don’t disagree with it it’s just making me think about that aspect of things related to organizational adoption especially in organizations that are very young right there might be a few users and you I I’ve always aired on the side of caution where when you start interacting with the business holistically like you you have one shot if you’re going to be solving problems for the business but

42:09 solving problems for the business but I I like your quick win idea because it challenges that related to the community just like hey open up hey if you powerbi users quick win there are some centralized folks here with a lot of experience so if if no guarantees right yeah here’s here’s here’s a an area where we can start talking about these things but nobody’s making promises to me I that that is what’s tickling my brain as far as like huh okay I like I

42:40 brain as far as like huh okay I like I like that another one I think was another quick one that I’ve seen work well is when you take a look at or review of the licensing options inside a company sometimes companies are trying to jump in with like we should go with a P1 we should do all these things we should d d d and I’m I’m looking at it going it going do you really need that level of skew performance how about we just start with a whole bunch of PE premium per users right and or who’s really using the reports another one that I think is quick wins is looking at app using

43:12 quick wins is looking at app using apps to to deploy content I think a lot of organizations are not using that and I think I think many organizations think about hey we’re going to make workspaces and we’ll just add people to the workspace and then they get what they want there so I think there’s also this this maturing of deciding how we’re going to share content and using that pattern over and over again across multiple teams I think that’s also another big quick win here for those pieces and I and I guarantee you there’s also other areas of this where you can go

43:42 go into quick wins for me are you’re identifying these time sensitive things or time sensitive Excel sheets that people are using all the time going to those teams and helping them build a more robust data model using more data picking apart their business process and then incorporating into okay I hear what you’re doing let me teach me what you’re doing and then I’ll show you an equivalent way of doing the same thing with less effort but do it so in inside the power ecosystem so I feel

44:12 inside the power ecosystem so I feel like there’s a lot of workload migration or at least lightweight workload migrations that can happen from a team I’m thinking primarily around Finance because they they stay and Excel all the time but talking to them they’re already having lots of pain points around moving so much data around giving them better models giving them cubes that help them with that I think it’s a quick win yeah and I would agree with that I think the engagement of the business unit and one of the things it calls out is like a quick win is something that

44:42 is like a quick win is something that doesn’t involve significant design or processes right correct yes I agree with that too and I think it’s an interesting one because the the value proposition could be a couple days but in in your case Mike if there are really large manual processes and you’ll typically find these in finance where people are manually doing a lot of stuff yeah and then that is happening every day every month yeah and an investment of a week

45:14 month yeah and an investment of a week or two to go automate that process is hugely valuable right and still would fall under the quick win category I think and and there’s this and in finance particularly you’re saying there Seth I love that you’re bringing that up hereis because Finance needs to have the numbers right every single time and doing it constantly inside Excel you lose potentially there’s there’s always a potential chance of you screwing up the Excel file formulas and making a

45:44 the Excel file formulas and making a mistake and by automating it you now getting are getting I think a more consistent output every single time yeah I would agree with that the other thing that the way I viewed view most of this article is from a central Central bi team perspective so so Adrian’s comment really resonates with me in the chat he says quick winds are activities that on the short term will bring a certain targeted benefit right the value to the business that on the long term can facilitate the overall progress and I

46:15 facilitate the overall progress and I think this is I I agree with that 100% the the point I was going to make here is a if you can like especially in the central Ed like you have a long-term objective to democratize data like it it starts with centralizing data or getting to a position where you can share data with people in the organization and some organizations have this really easy all of their data is in structured tables and databases and

46:47 structured tables and databases and it’s very easy to access and like there there’s not a problem in others especially in the world that we live in with applications unstructured Json format is a big use case where there are you can build highly efficient programs that are just amazing on unstructured data however if we need to use it for analytics purposes and this is why fabric data data

47:17 this is why fabric data data bricks like Delta tables like big data right all come into play is because we’re not sucking structured data in there typically it’s usually unstructured all sorts of formats from all over the place and then Consolidated down into Delta tables where we can actually interact with them like if you’re thinking about those long-term objectives and architectures quick wins are are very like especially the data sources and the things you learn

47:47 data sources and the things you learn from them can help you build that age they can be those stop gaps or those little Stepping Stones toward solutions that you would love to build but may may not have the resources and time to do and that’s what’s that I think is what is really important to do in here is still have those architecture still have those goals that come out of these conversations right especially with the key stakeholders right like you understand the business

48:17 right like you understand the business problems that an area may have and especially if you’re not plugged into the data or even if you are there’s going to be a bunch of business logic a different ways to reshape it Etc that could be the long-term strategy but these quick wins could be incremental steps as opposed to just being thought of as independent things that we have to get out of the way like you can document things as you go we’ve got this it’s here all we need to do is plug this into that and blah blah blah blah blah I agree with that I think a lot the the

48:48 agree with that I think a lot the the the quick wins should not be throwaway work they should deliver value but I think with that those quick wins also deliver a lot of learning that you should incorporate to the bigger strategic strategic decisions I like that as well you want to go you want to move on from Quick wins and or you want to keep going no I was gonna say I think this leads to as something Mike that I think is near and dear to you and that’s going to be really the the Readiness are you actually ready for this and yeah once

49:18 actually ready for this and yeah once obviously all that items that we want to accomplish and the next part of the documentation is really defining writing and the and the capabilities it’s odd to me the the order of this because we’re what part of this is going through is okay what are the obstacles in our way from Systems Technology people involved Mike for you the big thing is assessing the necessary skills that we have I think I

49:49 necessary skills that we have I think I think that’s one of the major weaknesses in organizations people over assess how smart they are in parbi and they their teams don’t understand best practices I think that’s a that’s a big you got to focus on that first that’s I think next Tuesday right like we have there’s several aspects I don’t want to jump into that one just because it I think it’s going to take up a lot of a lot of conversation and there’s several sections in here between adoption governance that I don’t want to gloss

50:20 governance that I don’t want to gloss over over either sorry Tomy I didn’t mean to cut you off there I just trying to point yeah no I I know how near dear to your heart that is yeah so let’s go on to identifying other goals or other objectives so jumping into after you’ve identified your time sensitive tasks high priority and your quick Wings it says next you should start working on objectives for how you going to adopt

50:51 objectives for how you going to adopt what your governance is going to look like and then how you’re going to implement implement this is I think another good planning piece I think these are these will very much will vary between your organizations depending on the culture of your organization if you have a lot of data independent people that are doing a lot of their own work in whatever tool it is Excel access other things your adoption pattern will look very different from a very centralized team where every report comes out from one team I think it’s

51:23 comes out from one team I think it’s important to to talk through these points and look at these in the lens of how does adoption work well in your organization what has done what has been successful in the past I really I really like the important point they make here which is in in this process of defining I’m going to say objectives and key results right is this is an it’s an evolution it’s not a revolution right like you’re you’re not you’re not teeing

51:54 like you’re you’re not you’re not teeing all this stuff up to just like go hammer it right it’s it’s there’s going to be varying degrees of the things that you need to plug into and having the holistic view of things is going to help you reach those long-term objectives but you do need to do the the dayto day you do need to like the short mid and long term and this is what’s gearing this up is this is an evolution of how you get there there may be a whole bunch of fire drills I. E like very near deadline

52:26 drills I. E like very near deadline things that you can not only build but show the business right and that’s one of the things that that I didn’t mention in there is it may be that you have to do everything first but there are usually cases in the future where if there’s a monotonous request or repeated aest that comes in all the time you can show somebody how to do that or build a report and they can go access that permanently right there are different ways you can skin that cat I don’t know why I use that term solve that

52:57 solve that problem but but ultimately like looking for opportunities to get the load off so you can move into the other areas and this is the this is the reason why okrs are so or ogsm are so important for organizations is you’re you’re setting these time bound things within a quarter that you want to move the needle on and it forces you to get out of the day-to-day right and those those fire

53:28 day-to-day right and those those fire drills and even to some extent quick winds could potentially be stying you from making those moves towards solving those big quarterly Milestones that you want to attack and do so I think that’s that’s the important here but it’s an evolution in not only our work streams but our way of thinking and and executing on deliverables that move a move an organization or our department in in the right direction the last statement in this

53:58 direction the last statement in this important note here and this is what you’re talking about Seth small but consistent sustained progress is better than abundance of change that risks the disruption disruption of ongoing activities this has a reminisce feeling to me of this sounds like the agile process steady regular progress re-evaluating what’s most important taking stock and realigning your your direction because what you think is important today may not be what’s

54:29 important today may not be what’s important a week or two weeks or a month or a quarter from now those priorities May slightly shift and I think that’s I think the idea here is that’s okay this is a this is a focus on a longer term steady change or a like a growth mindset we’re going we’re going to grow we’re going to challenge some areas we’re going to sand off some rough edges and we’re going to keep going I like this I think this is I think this is actually sustainable and will work well for organizations because they’re like big boats they don’t turn easily

54:59 like big boats they don’t turn easily you’re not going to throw a whole bunch of new things in and get everyone like okay let’s take a 90 degree turn and go a different direction if you did that you’re going to disrupt your fundamental business stuff it there has to be it’s going to be slower than think about a progression so I like this yeah you better you better hope you have these little those little speed boats you can drop off the side right yeah Zoom around grabb some stuff and come back to the mother y exactly right those are those are your quick

55:30 right those are those are your quick wins the speeds on the side of the mother are the quick wins you’re you’re harvesting a couple quick WIS here to get people on board and then and then okay now we’re on the right direction now we can start steering the right the right place so I like that one a lot I think I think this is a good stopping stopping point you think it’s it’s it would probably we would probably talk a lot more about adoption governance this is going to be implementation pieces I think there’s a lot more to talk about about here on these other tactical pieces yeah I think you’re right wow it’s already been an hour I

56:01 right wow it’s already been an hour I can’t even believe it’s been an hour already this went fast you’re like you’re like Seth really you’re gonna stop it and oh oh yeah oh yeah it’s a full hour let’s keep it let’s keep it into time bounds exactly right so so good good note on that one Tommy what are your final thoughts on this first half of the article what stood out to you any fin of final thoughts as you look at this I don’t want to harp back on the goal and objective things but I’ve dealt with them enough in the past where if you cannot Define your goals in organization clearly and what you’re

56:32 organization clearly and what you’re trying to do everything is hinged on that so get that right even if you have to reread this a few times on what the objective is and what a goal is but to me there’s a lot of moving Parts it’s one thing to have all the ideas and saying we’re going to do all these great things but this is when you begin to realize how many moving pieces are going to have to be managed and responsibilities and from a Time point of view to people getting on

57:03 Time point of view to people getting on board at the right time all of a sudden there’s a lot of more pieces that the Tactical planning begins to discover it’s one thing to dream big but it’s a whole other thing to actually put this into a order of operations Seth any final thoughts for you as you wrap here yeah this is this is fun part and I think if if we board people with strategy this is where things hopefully people are leaning in a little bit more here because this is where we start talking about the

57:33 where we start talking about the actionable measurable time bound activities and this is this is how we tackle the work and it it’s it’s probably more in the realm of what people are engaging in on a daily basis and but but keeping in mind right like the the high level where do we want to go where do we What what is the what is the ship we’re pushing the block we’re pushing down the road and how our work impacts the organization like that’s the whole point of of okrs and and

58:06 whole point of of okrs and and this framework going through all these strategies to figure out where we can create efficiencies or generate Revenue right yeah within an organization and this is this is right in the mix you this is this is right in the mix and it’s it’s there’s a lot of fun know and it’s it’s there’s a lot of fun stuff to talk about here yeah I think I think this one the one thing that stands out to me in this article whether you’re not you agree with the way they’re La labeling objectives and goals I think in general it’s it’s more of a don’t shock the system what I would

58:36 a don’t shock the system what I would say my final thought here make sure you’re thinking about your organization and realize that there are there are people in the organization that are willing to adopt quickly and will move fast with you there are people in the organization who will move slowly and not adopt and they’ll make excuses and it’ll be I’m too busy I don’t have time to learn something new I think that’s a phrase I hear a lot in organizations and so I think taking the time to think about what are the main objectives we care about and what are our Stepping Stones to get there I think is very helpful

59:07 is very helpful because telling people why like giving them like the output we’re going to do this because it’s more efficient here we’re going to do this because helping people understand a bit more of that story I think this is this strategic planning this tactical planning helps you produce more of that story and you can get people’s Buy in I think they’ll they’ll join you in that Adventure when they know this is going to produce better results long term and and you need to allocate time for this I think this is something where if you do

59:38 think this is something where if you do all these quick wins if you if you plan all these things out if you are trying to get move the organization forward leadership needs to give ample time for this to work and you may have to change your tactics a couple times because a couple quick wins may not be as big big as you thought you only know what so you might have to t a couple of them there might be a couple quick wins that have to happen before things start really picking up speed so anyways good article like where the Tactical planning is going

60:09 where the Tactical planning is going we’ll probably have another Tuesday session with some more tactical planning pieces coming up here in the future with that we appreciate your listenership thank you very much for jumping in and listening to the podcast we know your time is valuable we appreciate you’re spending your valuable time with us if you don’t mind because we’re making the investment you are as well please let somebody else know that you like this episode if this was interesting to you if this is something you’re working through in your company right now go read the Tactical planning article go through and figure out how does this work for your organization I

60:39 does this work for your organization I think you’ll find a lot of value from it Tommy where else can you find the podcast you can find the podcast anywhere it’s available Apple Spotify wherever get your podcast make sure to subcribe leave rating it helps a ton do you have a question an idea or a topic that you want us to talk about in a future episode head over to powerbi tips podcast leave your name and a great question join us live every Tuesday and Thursday A. M Central and join the conversation on powerbi tips social media channels awesome and we’ll see you

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