PowerBI.tips

Does It Feel Like Too Much? – Ep. 310

April 12, 2024 By Mike Carlo
Podcast Power BI
Does It Feel Like Too Much? – Ep. 310

A fresh episode of Explicit Measures is here—let’s dig into the latest Power BI news and the team’s main discussion.

News & Announcements

Main Discussion

This episode tackles a feeling a lot of Power BI/Fabric practitioners share: the pace of change is overwhelming. The discussion centers on how to stay productive without chasing every new feature.

Key points from the conversation:

  • Signal vs. noise: how to identify which updates actually matter for your organization’s workloads.
  • Prioritization: when to adopt, when to wait, and when to intentionally say “no” so you can finish real projects.
  • Process over hype: building a repeatable evaluation routine (small pilots, success criteria, rollback plan).
  • Team enablement: updates don’t help if the team can’t learn and operationalize them—training and documentation are part of the work.
  • Long-term stability: focusing on fundamentals (modeling, governance, performance) keeps you resilient as features change.

Looking Forward

Create a small ‘feature review’ cadence (monthly/quarterly) so updates are evaluated intentionally, not reactively.

Episode Transcript

0:31 good morning everyone and welcome back to the explicit measures podcast with Tommy Seth and Mike good morning everybody good morning gentlemen how’s it hanging I’m tired I’ll just tell you right now if it’s been a week I feel like I would agree with those sentiments I just feel like things have been just moving super fast what energy we are going to bring to the show today that’s what you’re saying right exactly what energy are we bringing to the Mike’s not bringing much energy excited now to listen for the next

1:07 hour I I feel like March went very fast I feel like April is going incredibly fast oh yeah what the heck things are just busy right now which is good I’ll take it I’ll rather be busy busy we’re getting 80 degrees we have like it’s it’s springtime in the midwest man is that what the weather is down in Chicago it’s going to be today night right after the 80 degrees then [Laughter] I wouldn’t be surprised awesome so we got a main topic for today is kind

1:38 got a main topic for today is kind got a main topic for today is a question does it feel like of a question does it feel like too much is is there too much going on inside the Pari ecosystem so with our favorite blogger I guess we talk about this guy more than anyone else Kurt berer comes out with another great article does it feel like too much all the new things all the new shiny bells and whistles that comes out of fabric what why what’s going on are We overwhelmed so that’s going to be our main topic for today but before we jump into that we have a number of just kind

2:08 into that we have a number of just kind into that we have a number of just announcements there’s been a lot of announcements there’s been a lot going on a lot of announcements from Microsoft great things that I think are coming down the pipeline but let’s talk about some of those things the fabric day one conference keynote is now available live online I’ve been talking with clients about some features particularly actually we talked in the podcast around a couple features The metric’s Hub and the task is it task flow task flow task flows potentially but these are features that we’ve only seen in

2:38 features that we’ve only seen in demo in the main session we didn’t really we don’t have any there’s no like videos outside of this there’s no documentation yet there’s nothing out and around about these other features yet so and all we know is what Microsoft announced at the fabric conference so also pretty interesting anything that stood out to you in this April announcement that’s your cue to say something yeah no not not not an absolute ton but

3:08 not not not an absolute ton but I think that I still love seeing all the visual improvements that they’re continuing to make refine and and continued work going towards that because it’s just easier better refinement for for the tool as we go along some slight PowerPoint too and actually by PowerPoint three different PowerPoint updates yeah still not sure who’s using those features but okay I’ll let it slide oh Mike so Mike there’s a

3:39 slide oh Mike so Mike there’s a ton of update already in April and by the way I want to say kudos to the April team for the Microsoft team I’m going to do a slow clap because we’re getting really closer with the on object interaction oh what yeah like that’s quite a tone change Tommy we’re heading in the right direction again you got to know about any bi professional we’re all about efficiency I agree that cck how can I automate how can I make things more straightforward and I’m I’m finding

4:10 more straightforward and I’m I’m finding the workflow to be getting there a lot less frustration and I’m I’m I don’t want to use the word yet but I’m enjoying it well I will I will Echo that sentiment Tommy because for the first time I was in desktop doing some workaround stuff and well I always do work and stuff in desktop but I had for some reason turned off those features or turned off the the new on editing object experience and I missed a couple things there was like I

4:41 missed a couple things there was like I I can’t find again it’s it’s this concept of like I’ve been so when it when they turned on the feature I was like I’m going to learn how to use it I’m going to turn it on I’m going to get used to it and so I just decided that was what I was going to do and so I’m hitting the moment after I don’t know how many months it’s been out six months or so I think it’s been a year man maybe it’s a year I have I’ve gotten to the point where when I turned it off I felt like wait this doesn’t feel right I can’t find some I can’t find some features and I will say this of anything that I like to use or edit I do like

5:12 that I like to use or edit I do like double clicking the visual and changing the title and centering it all by using the visual itself that to me that feels really really natural well I just like that they have the pains we love pains we’re we’re a pain people we enjoy the pain that’s a shirt that’s a shirt I enjoy the pain and just have literally like a Non-Stop shirt I live for I live for the pain pain [Music] [Music] P on your

5:46 shirt folders anything else stood out to you folders okay in Mobile too yeah two things here around folders right one are folders so hard to implement that they need to be in preview I need to be in preview come mean come on however I did find a bug so apparently so it’s probably not a bug it’s probably as it’s been designed it just has a little bit of trick when you deploy things so my understanding is if you create like notebooks or reports and you put them

6:19 notebooks or reports and you put them in a folder when you deploy them in a deployment pipeline the deployment pipeline automatically puts them in the correct folder and keeps the folder as you deploy the pipeline however when a lake housee is deployed that is not deployed the same way as a report or semantic model in my understanding is a lake house is deployed by moving the lake house from one environment to the other and then the default semantic model and the default SQL endpoint or SQL analytics endpoint those are created after the

6:49 endpoint those are created after the fact so you can put lake houses into your development folders or in your Dev workspace and the the lake house will stay in there and the semantic model and the data set however when you deploy that to the next environment there is no like it it does the deploy but when it automatically creates the semantic model and the the default report the the SQL endpoint it creates them at the root level of the folder and not in the folder so it seems like a bug like there’s something there that’s like it doesn’t quite deploy correctly going

7:20 doesn’t quite deploy correctly going down the pipeline but they work great when you’re in the context of a workspace so that I do love so and and this I what there’s a little more complication in your normal folders and I was because I was going to say Microsoft SAA Aon I think you’re the company who invented folders and if it wasn’t you it was your greatest competition so but yeah that makes sense I it’s in preview it’s in prev it’s mean it’s in preview it’s in prev it’s in preview folders and preview there may be some bugs with folder anyways I thought that was funny do

7:51 thought that was funny do really enjoy them already finding great value from organizing things using folders if you haven’t seen them check them out they are available when you use the drop down menu to add new things you can add folders and then you can right click on an object and move it around I wow it’s so helpful yeah and I think we’re seeing another good application of co-pilot something I’m I I think this this is where co-pilot’s really I think going to be helpful so we can enhance Q& A with co-pilot generated linguistic

8:21 co-pilot generated linguistic relationships and I think these are the types of things where I think bi professionals have never had a grasp on and I see CS face which to me is proven my point because this is not something I think any bi professional the only my gosh Mike the only thing that I’ve ever seen about linguistic relationships is lingo back in the day yeah and that’s why I’m making the face because I’m I’m fairly certain we did talk about this probably in probably in the teens of our episodes a long time

8:51 the teens of our episodes a long time ago so we’re we’re we the only ones that ever talked about it probably but that’s why that’s why the face right like so it gets heavy really quick right around essentially tagging parts of your model ensuring that the Q& A natural language Q& A can pick up the right things and this just dovetails into our conversation around like how AI really requires a lot of this so is co-pilot going to help build out something build

9:24 help build out something build out this schema I cool it’s it’s heavy testing to go in and see how like like if the value is there but it still requires you to go in and add all the aliases or what I forget the word is right off the bat but yeah it’s just it’s a lot of work and I don’t I don’t think I’ve ever seen somebody effectively using it so if this points us or puts us more towards the direction or is this just slapping co-pilot on I don’t know if it does work this

9:54 don’t know if it does work this is a perfect example of our conversation on Tuesday our previous conversation about Ai and the future of Consulting because these are the exact types of situations where the right steps forward sure right right if it works but at the same time same time like I’m not going to say I’m right but the the same parts that it helps with still require parts from humans and that’s the categorization or the point me in the right point the AI in the right direction because without that it

10:26 right direction because without that it doesn’t know what to do and I think ultimately that’s ultimately like how

10:32 ultimately that’s ultimately like how like collectively we are training AI to the point where yeah it’ll take over yeah but why because we’re telling it all of the important stuff right and but right now I don’t think it’s there and and I will agree with you because or I I’ll say you’re right because I agreed with you Tuesday so by Essence I’m right also so also so yes I I here’s what I’ll say if I think about like my workflows on where I using co-pilot any AI thing that I’m using right now where does it find

11:03 I’m using right now where does it find where do I find the most value from it I I find the most value when I’m writing code when it’s like very specific things there’s a there’s a potential right way to get some if it doesn’t work if the code doesn’t run it doesn’t work I also finding great value in so yesterday I demoed the pbip format and what went Deep dive on the PBP format for our class it was great and what I realized was I have C pilot in vs code and I can open up an entire powerbi file project

11:33 open up an entire powerbi file project inside vs code I can highlight the Dax syntax right inside the editor and say please explain this Dax to me and it will give me like a two paragraph thing that says here’s what the answer is so I would imagine if I did a little bit better job on prompting I could have a prompt that just says write a 10w 15w description on what this Dax does and I could have all the literally it’s it’s it’s copy paste stuff and documenting your model will be so much

12:03 documenting your model will be so much easier when you can just highlight bits of code and say explain this write write a write a business user definition for what this means that makes sense to me and I think that’s that’s where I find a lot of value I’ve also been using the teams I think there’s like a teams Plus or a teams AI generated thing too as well so I’ve piding for that one as well and it is interesting it does catch a lot of the context of a video call using the transcription and things however it does

12:33 transcription and things however it does catch some words that are funny so I was saying the word timle tmdl a lot and so it could it kept get it kept trying to make it like a word or a name like t i hm DL a l or something like that it was try it kept trying to spell the word timle and I was trying to say it accurately enough but it is funny it does get some words wrong and so if you blindly follow the AI and just say look here’s my meeting this is my summary note note I’m going to just use them verbatim as is it gets some stuff wrong it’s not

13:04 is it gets some stuff wrong it’s not 100% And so you do have to read it and say okay what of this is actually real and what you so even even when the AI does generate things I feel like right now I’m still having to do a little bit of interpretation because I was in the meeting and I could understand like what was going on there problem here maybe the problem here Mike is you should be saying tmdl I was about to say right maybe it’s tmdl well and I can’t blame C pilot you’re talking about Fabric and there probably thinks you’re saying thimble so it’s like oh well this makes perfect sense oh yeah

13:35 well this makes perfect sense oh yeah I’ve I’ve linked all the language model words for sewing so this is a sewing meeting yeah yeah it’s a sewing meeting I have I have been I have been impressed with a couple themes like some of the like if you ask it for the action items if you calls calls out people people by name in the meeting yes but what I haven’t done is a comparison of to to your point Mike and and what I need to is can I can I take a summary and those actions and give it to somebody who wasn’t in the meeting because it makes a ton of sense cuz I was in it but I don’t know if there’s enough there that it

14:07 know if there’s enough there that it would it would like shortcut me not having to pass along like the recording of the video or something yes and where I think the value comes from from so here’s where I think it should go in my opinion right this is for this is free advice for the video people building AI things your this one’s for free your million idea million dollar idea for free here I think it would be really nice for you to see the summary and then inside the summary you have like little excerpts or items inside the

14:37 little excerpts or items inside the summary where you click on them and it should like it should speed you to the portion of the video that has that topic or conversation around it right so if the words of the AI doesn’t quite make sense get me to where the information is quickly and then I can just listen to five minutes of the video get the contact oh they were talking about this that wasn’t clear words if it’s there’s two Services I actually subscribe to I’ve been testing and they do exactly what you said you say it’s

15:08 do exactly what you said you say it’s action you click yeah the best part I’m really enjoying with teams I’m a folder guy with Outlook the amount of automated rules I have for where people go and true organize see that and but the problem is usually a lot of Outlook things usually rely on things being in your inbox where you get the notification you can ask teams hey what were my what Happ Give me a summary of my emails yesterday it finds all the relevant folders and all those relevant emails now some of them were like wow hey subscribe to this service that you

15:39 hey subscribe to this service that you hey subscribe to this service that Jim talked I don’t know Jim but know Jim talked I don’t know Jim but there’s a lot actually I’m I’m asking teams every morning like what occurred yesterday with all with all my emails so that’s actually that’s pretty nifty interesting I didn’t know you could do again but this is the stuff that’s that that’s frustrates me about like the AI so I’ll say one of my big frustration is I don’t know what I can do like you say this I’m like that seems useful where where is that prompting inside the teams or my Outlook or what like where’s where’s the prompts that

16:10 like where’s where’s the prompts that it’s saying hey did you like here’s people let say it this way the AI has has data right it it I know Microsoft’s trying to keep your data secure and but there’s got to be a way for them to generalize things like hey everyone’s using these prompts or this person’s using this prompt over and over again maybe this is something we should tell people about like this is a good way to prompt it without giving away specific company data and stuff so like in the morning maybe the AI should show up in teams and be like hey here’s some common

16:41 common what do they call them prompts here’s some common prompts people use in the morning and you just hit the prompt and boom it just you get the information out of it so and then you start finding things that you like and then I I feel like at some point you’re going to need like automated prompts right in the morning you’re like give me my summary and then it knows the context it’s morning it’s time I’ll through the emails did anything happen like what’s important and Microsoft if if you’re listening don’t say oh well there’s co-pilot Labs no no that that we need something a little better than that there is something they’re working on towards that it’s it’s to the direction

17:13 towards that it’s it’s to the direction that you want not there yet yeah it it I’m again I think I still think we’re early days here we’re still early days it’s going to get better over time all right let’s go back to any other announcements so we have the April powerbi blog so it’s the blog from powerbi. com the main keynote is there I would highly recommend watch the keynote it is quite long it’s like a 2hour keynote but it’s a lot of good stuff and a lot of things that are very new and coming directionally what’s going on so I would highly recommend listen to the the the fabric

17:43 listen to the the the fabric conference day one keynote which was really good anything else Tommy you you have continuous slideshows for powerbi reporting addin okay highlight mine mine whatever negative anything else we can talk about anything please anything anything did anyone Mo along yesterday anything I didn’t see anything else that was other the co-pilot pain in preview I guess that’s the other one that was out there co-pilot in

18:13 that was out there co-pilot in desktop co-pilot in desktop interesting thing interesting thing though when you use co-pilot in desktop you do have to attach a workspace that is linked to the appropriate subscription to get the fabric the the co-pilot inside Des toop so a workspace needs to have an f64 or higher in order for that to work inside your desktop and I’m assuming it has to be a workspace you have access to I don’t want to nerd out but I have the ability I’m running 27

18:45 but I have the ability I’m running 27 local language models on my computer at any time right and I can do it on my computer just give me the access to run olama or something and I can connect rather than we’re using my own capacity and I just want to try this I just there’s so much to try out that I want to connect to powerbi and that’s my nerd out thing and people may not know what I’m talking about but man I just it’s desktop make it run on desktop use my computer use my computer use my computer’s RAM and I run let me run co-pilot you you have a very odd machine

19:15 co-pilot you you have a very odd machine Tommy though like your your your machine is going to be very geared towards anything large language model anyways I don’t think everyone’s Microsoft Surface laptop is going to be able to handle these models that we’re going to need to have running on onside inside desktop if it’s run I I love I love Alex’s comment what was everyone’s favorite feature and why was it powerquery imp paginated report Builder you’re you’re right they did what big what big changes the well one of the

19:48 changes the well one of the things SE it’s just dying oh dying oh yeah the word Play There Is Awesome one of the oh did it did prompt something in my head though like they expanded the in pagent reports they expanded the number of emails that can go out through the automated subscription to a thousand whoa It’s like a thousand now okay so that was we were asking about that earlier like in

20:18 were asking about that earlier like in preview is it still in preview okay so it’s still in preview but they’re they’re SC scaling up that’s nice much more usable for sure much more usable I would agree with that one think we need to vote a power query page that’s going to be a whole topic that’s that’s actually pretty cool but good recovery that that should actually be our new our next episode why you love power query and patching report Builder why is that why you love that well let me change the agenda change the agenda it’s funny all right with that let’s get into our main topic of the day if you guys feel like that’s okay that sound

20:48 guys feel like that’s okay that sound like a let’s run good good enough to transition all right let’s jump into our main topic the day we’ll throw down the the article here RBI what’s new does does it feel like too much from Kurt ber

21:00 does it feel like too much from Kurt ber so we’ll put the article Link in the chat in just case you want to follow along this is the article we’re going to talk about Tommy just give us a kickoff here I know you’ve got a lot of questions here around the rapid Evolution bi and and things maybe just give us a quick summary of the article and where Kurt’s going with things and then we’ll we’ll take it from there I think the last 20 minutes are a perfect introduction to really what the article’s real true hard is we’ve been talking about updates for just the last week and it took 20 minutes this article was written in October by by Kurt and he’s already

21:33 October by by Kurt and he’s already saying with the eventful year that 2023 was fabric chat GPT co-pilots how in the world can one person feel like they’re on top of it or keeping on top of it so there’s an absolute feeling of if you’re in this space being overwhelmed with the pace the volume of announcements not just the announcements but and again in our space to be on top of it to feel skilled in it experienced that you can work and utilize the tools the platforms

22:05 work and utilize the tools the platforms the the services how do we do this and powerbi has always been overwhelming Kurt says that in the article completely agree but it’s like we already were trying to run a Sprint or run a race and then someone just invented the car and now we have to keep up with the car and that’s really I think to me the heart of the the kind think to me the heart of the the the conversation in Kurt’s content of the conversation in Kurt’s content in his in his article I agree with that I think that’s a good summary of where things are going there is a lot of changes and

22:36 are going there is a lot of changes and interesting I feel like maybe it’s so I hear your I hear your comments around there are a lot of changes coming and I and I’m one who runs towards technical things anyways so I’m less scared of it and I I’ve been very encouraged by the direction of things and I’ve been saying this for a long time now I feel like a lot of what we’ve been getting into is there is a ton of really valuable new technologies that are coming to the to the normal business user by default you’ll have access to a lot of extra things so to me

23:07 access to a lot of extra things so to me this has been really the growup story of powerbi look we have all these rich you powerbi look we have all these rich Azure based tooling things we can know Azure based tooling things we can now give you all those tools directly inside a UI or a single place you pay for one thing you get all these different things out of the box so I I really like this I do feel like from an Administration and governance standpoint it’s going to get a lot harder so that’s that’s just my perspective on that one but I’m very excited about it because I’ve been doing spark notebooks Lakehouse development medallion architectures for five six

23:37 medallion architectures for five six years now so to see this stuff now finally arrive in an easy to use way inside powerbi I’m extremely excited about about it but I think that’s only 30% of really what you think about the whole 2023 or the last four 16 months maybe I think everything with fabric is probably 40% of what’s going on man like yeah it’s great that we have everything integrated with fabric but our again our conversation on Tuesday was about it was going to be Ai and

24:07 was about it was going to be Ai and fabric the majority of the conversation was we naturally came to AI we’re dealing with AI you’re dealing with fabric and I agree with the administration side I’m taking this just from the role that we’ve been for the past nine years the bi professional right and how in the world do you in a sense and I don’t even say become skilled and experienced but just keep up with all of it and what is important I agree with this one I and I

24:37 important I agree with this one I and I think later on in the article Kurt does a good job of saying okay what can we do right so he has a couple steps step one there’s like a is it is it four steps before before we go what can we do can can I pose a can I pose a question let’s do that yeah because we all know the volume of changes are coming rapidly and and that is the problem like there there are challenges that we’re facing we talk about I I think some of them that that Kurt does as well here where like how do

25:08 Kurt does as well here where like how do we Implement them we can dive through the different things but the question I have have is if we think about how software products in the past pre powerbi at least in the Microsoft ecosystem were deployed it was much slower Cadence heavy Tech it like the there was a cycle of announcements in marketing do you feel that the the strategy and and it’s a it’s a real-time

25:39 strategy and and it’s a it’s a real-time thought so I don’t I I haven’t like analyzed it myself but has the strategy of of how these features and updates changed to be adapted to the speed at which these features and updates are being spewed like because it almost feels to me sometimes that the spigot is just on and information just pouring out in an inconsistent or hardto digest way for everybody that’s like ah like oh my gosh like 500 fabric features

26:09 like oh my gosh like 500 fabric features were all like loaded through this this week and yes they’re bucketed into their Technologies but is that enough for the the wide audience to grock it or maybe there that’s where the training site is is helping out I don’t know it’s like it it just it just seems seems it’s it’s a it’s a question that is may go nowhere well no I think I think it’s a very valid question let me give you some worth some things that I see Microsoft doing right now and maybe this tells you shows their cards a little bit

26:41 tells you shows their cards a little bit right they are now pushing the dp600 exam pretty heavily for people and you’ll also notice there’s a whole bunch of free vouchers being given away from fabric conference and other coupons across the internet around hey if you do these Microsoft learn elements you get a free coupon to go take the the test so because Microsoft is so incentivized to get people certified in the dp600 exam that is allowing people to spend time

27:11 that is allowing people to spend time that that does two things to encourage people one it gives you a a certified something from Microsoft that says look I got my stamp of approval from Microsoft here it is in addition to that it’s also pushing people towards learning materials to go okay well if I’m going to go study for this exam because that’s what I want to achieve I need to go learn the different tool pieces so if Microsoft themselves are trying to incentivize people to go get exams and cover the the knowledge Gap that they are themselves are producing right to me that already speaks to your point Seth like it affirms to me yes

27:43 point Seth like it affirms to me yes there is a lot going out there yes people don’t know what to do with things and they need help getting through this new pattern like this whole concept of like Get integration and using it with workspaces and what are the patterns there I’ve heard many times people talking through and saying yeah this is this is not that clear but it wouldn’t be for a business user because we’re not used to doing things that way we always I me we we build and prod right that’s what we do and it’s all inside a a knowledge skill set of Excel and maybe

28:13 knowledge skill set of Excel and maybe some powerbi models that hang around so what we’re doing is we’re really opening up the world to a lot of new tooling that has traditionally been gated by it and I think this is I think it’s natural that they’re going to want to be overwhelmed and have to educate I’m G take that a little a different direction I I may disagree with you I think you got to start with the organization because the organizations usually with an FTE that dictates the skill that someone in this role is going to use right if if you’re not using powerbi you’re probably not

28:44 not using powerbi you’re probably not going to be a powerbi expert or if you’re not using certain tooling I think with this spigot of information which I really do like that analogy there’s a lot less direction for organizations on where they’re devoting their money and where they’re devote what they’re buying what services they’re doing to your point when there’s this conference hey the box is coming in 3 months okay well we’re going to begin to go in this direction well this spigot of information coming from multiple areas the users only going to know right like

29:15 the users only going to know right like we can learn individually on our own on weekends this stuff but usually this stuff is coming from actual projects that we’re doing now we’re all maybe in different situations myself as the individual company or consultant I can learn whatever I want and it’s my time but when I was FTE I’m learning and I’m doing what the projects dictate right and I can learn stuff on the side but I’m only going to be using the tooling that really is

29:45 be using the tooling that really is going to be essential to accomplishing the project or the goal I think we’re finding there’s too much information and the last point I say is organizations are already behind before 20203 they’re always behind the technology I think you’re just we’re seeing this larger Gap now which is going to make it much much harder for someone who’s FTE who’s not aware of these changes to stay even close to be on top of it I don’t know if that answers the question but no and so

30:16 that answers the question but no and so yeah it does I I think it’s to to to your point Mike I I agree that but Microsoft’s done the certification learning paths before the problem with it is now that even we’re done none of it has what what has been feature dumped in the last what 6 months or 3 months or what what I’m saying so it’s like I don’t know how that evolves but it it probably has the same problem that everybody else does in that like oh my God this bigot is just never stops and

30:46 God this bigot is just never stops and it’s a good thing but also a challenging thing I think for not only those of us who try to keep up with it all versus periodically right right trying and that’s maybe maybe the bigger problem it’s probably easier to keep up with it the way we do where we’re talking about all the stuff every two days a week every week because imagine we take a couple months off how do you grock that much information you don’t

31:16 grock that much information you don’t and and that’s where it’s just like man like hey it’s fun to be alive but it’s a lot of information and a lot of details that impact how organizations can implement Solutions so anyway I

31:30 can implement Solutions so anyway I I’ll I’ll digress off that but one thing I will add to your point there Seth I think I think you’re right if you Tom me to your point right if you’re in a in a company where you’re focused and your heads down like a majority of your time is maintaining building what is currently there where I think organizations are starting to get their head around this is like okay well we we have I think there’s actually a question around what other things does fabric offer me that is that that can solve other pain points from across my company right hey I’ve got a whole bunch of Json

32:01 right hey I’ve got a whole bunch of Json files that are just coming in from random API calls what should we do with them right we have a maybe we do maybe we build some process that works in store procedures today okay well what what can we do tomorrow where does fabric provide some less where where does fabric provide less friction around working with those files and those types so it takes someone to say it it takes two parts of this right someone has to sit down and say I need to ask the question and then you need to go find the answer right so if you don’t know fabric can solve that with

32:32 know fabric can solve that with notebooks or The Lakehouse or what’s going on there you may have a conceptually what’s going on but you’re not actually saying okay I can see the paino and the problem in my organization and then I can see the visibility to solve that problem inside fabric people will get there but you actually do to do some research to get to that pattern so I think maybe the MVP Community Tom Seth and Tommy to your points right is the MVP Community should be saying here are common patterns that you will find in your organization if you’re doing this

33:02 your organization if you’re doing this here’s a good solution that would solve that and maybe this is where the fabric oh shoot it’s called the task flows maybe task flows can be part of that solution as we think about it right hey the hey the API table creation process whatever that thing is right here here you’ve got an API use this pipeline to to connect to the API here’s this storage account where you’re going to put the raw Json files oh and here’s another storage account or here’s another lake house where you’re going to

33:32 another lake house where you’re going to take those files and turn them into tables right so it simple examples around that I think would be extremely helpful because then people in organization say look I’ve already got they know their problems they know what’s hard they know what part of the data that they’re trying to get access to ah shoot this is using like a a soap API okay how do I get it out of I don’t care where it comes from everyone just wants the data in a lake house in a table that’s literally everyone wants that you said that’s the question yeah

34:02 that you said that’s the question yeah just give me the data and I’ll figure it out from there and and real quick on your point and because I I have a pretty I feel like I have a pretty good question but I I think for the adoption is not going to be very natural progression I think it’s going to start with use cases right like because if your organization’s not using fabric odds are you’re not using fabric but to your point Seth there’s probably rather than this endtoend solution that we’re going to start with it’s probably going to be more situations like you just said where we have all these Json files or these raw files and we’ve never what do

34:33 these raw files and we’ve never what do we do with this oh you can do this in Fabric in this minor hyper situation probably makes a lot of sense and I think that’s where we’re going to see I think yeah it’s probably on the MVPs and consultants and and I think the leaders in this community to show the use cases rather than hey you’re gonna start with everything yes here’s how you implement everything no it’s going to start with these task flows it’s going to start with little projects yes and I think I think my my point here is it’s going to

35:04 think my my point here is it’s going to take time for people to absorb the technology figure out yeah oh I see how the technology works and I’m going to interpret between the Technology Solutions to what problems we actually have and saying okay with everything and especially now there’s like six ways to do the same thing right hey I want to load data to the lake well I could go through a pipeline I could go through a data flow I could go through a notebook like that’s just three is right there to get lat data into the lake which one’s the best one and Tommy I was doing exactly this Tommy and I were trying to

35:35 exactly this Tommy and I were trying to collect YouTube analytics for the podcast and things because we’re just trying to like get our head around like what’s our what’s our impact on the podcast because that’s we have to do as an MVP and so Tommy wrote this really great literally the M code is like a thousand lines long on how to go talk to the the the API and get the data and parse it and then page through all the information data flows couldn’t quite do it now I wrote three cells inside notebooks and it was going through paging the data making the data

36:05 through paging the data making the data frame and then right to the lake so I could I could do the same activity in a different pattern it again it was more about like okay are we getting the right numbers is it coming to back out right so it’s just very interesting to me that you can now solve the problem many different ways and so it it now becomes more of a what skill set do you have and what can you use to to solve the problems so I think that that’s actually a great segue to my question and and I’m going to preface this with I’m going to say yes to this and when we think about everything here the

36:36 when we think about everything here the last nine years let’s take the last nine years as a bi professional part of what we do and I think part of the real skill the experience is keeping on top of things and being experienced and talented with the new updates in the past nine years the bi professional is this the most difficult time in the last years to be a bi professional I think well if you’re using Microsoft tooling like we’re in

37:07 using Microsoft tooling like we’re in that context because there was a comment otherwise like we don’t know what other company are doing but yeah I think so just because the the volume of information right and we talked about the spigot and the the the push down but there’s a there’s a part in here that further down that I I I agree with in Kurt Kurt shocker I agree with something Kurt says is is I’m I’m on the the I I agree it’s hard only because I believe it’s extremely important for people to

37:39 it’s extremely important for people to at least be aware of the changes to expect everybody and then but the secondary point though is to expect everybody to take it to the levels that Tommy you do and Mike do and where you’re building videos and like you’re already deep deep in the tool of fabric and learn and and learning it all is everybody going to be there no right because and this came into our conversation what are the FTE responsibilities well they’ve got the

38:10 responsibilities well they’ve got the stuff they’ve already built plus development plus all these things a lot of the extra like things to be aware of fall into what what Kurt also aligns which is fantastic for organizations to always do is keep a percentage of time allocated for R& D or enhancing your Solutions yes and I and and while we’re talking about the challenges of all these these features the the mass benefit to

38:41 features the the mass benefit to organizations that leverage tools or this ecosystem like powerbi in an embedded scenario for customer facing like I have my own Dev team that’s constantly building enhancements to my reporter tool right I don’t have to the custom Dev to everything the only problem with it is I don’t control the dev so I don’t know it’s coming up coming far as enhancements go but at the same time like that’s one of the huge benefits of

39:11 like that’s one of the huge benefits of using an ecosystem yes with all these features coming is if at least you’re plugged into understanding what features are coming out you may not know them all but holy cow do those come up in conversations like when you’re trying to solve the next problem for an organization somebody’s having a challenge with the current line chart you’re like because it’s smoothing you you’re like because it’s smoothing oh my gosh like I’ve got a new one know oh my gosh like I’ve got a new one for you it like it just goes up and down and looks like a column chart to some

39:41 and looks like a column chart to some degree man like all of these things if you’re aware of you you can plug into and and Implement instantly just because you knew about them then you can learn the actual implementation Parts Mike what do you think do you think this is the most difficult time to be a bi professional in the past nine years no I wouldn’t say that I would say again if you’re looking at things from like an IT perspective right so you could you could land figure out where this lands what I think is happening is there is a

40:11 what I think is happening is there is a bi professional in the business and there’s a bi professional inside it and I would I I use this data engineer term loosely because I really do feel like a lot of business users understand their data they know how to merge it they’ve built incredible things inside Excel albeit I don’t want to maintain them them but they’re incredible they do a lot of really rich things there’s there’s huge things that are being built in the business because those are the only tools they were given so I feel like the ven diagram of what used to be business intelligence for the business side and business intelligence

40:41 business side and business intelligence from the it side those two bubbles in the last couple years have just overlapped more and more and more and more and so I had an aha moment when I saw powerquery and said oh look our business users can go create power query things and then Hand That Power query directly over to an IT group and say look what I built I built these tables and this is the step I did to transform the raw data into curated data now whether that stays in power query it goes into SQL a pipeline something else

41:13 goes into SQL a pipeline something else maybe it’s a notebook I don’t know but to go back to another part of the team and say look this is what I built I documented it very clearly in these steps this is what is adding value to me I can go from raw data to value for what I need and there was tooling that was easy enough that could click buttons and figure it out the same thing goes for new users to power query right you’re giving them this power query tool they don’t realize all the the buttons and the bells and the whistles and the and the cleaning you can really do a lot with it to clean data so to me like I

41:44 with it to clean data so to me like I think it’s actually not the hardest time I think it’s actually a very good time what I really appreciate about this article it gives you like very tangible points around how can you start

41:58 tangible points around how can you start small and continue to grow your knowledge so to me I like looking at the glasses half empty or full what’s the optimistic optimistic half glass is half full half full half full I like to think the glass is half full because I think wow I’m in a place where if anything I want to learn or if I want to dive deeper into any particular thing all the knowledge that I’m gaining to myself is just making me more valuable right if I had to choose a person that did everything in in power query versus I had a person who do power query and

42:28 had a person who do power query and pipelines and notebooks I’m probably going to ask the person that person is going I think going to add more value to the organization because they know a little bit more of about all the things so it’s surprising to me though that you’re so I I wouldn’t say if I’m going to say is it the the hardest time for bi I I think it’s the most challenging for all of the things that you just said Mike yeah and and and especially around in in an arena where the tech Technologies were in a place

42:58 the tech Technologies were in a place where you had individual technologists right trying to solve Solutions curate data to provide to the business it was very technology focused which is also one of the problems with it right you you weren’t without the right Frameworks you had to wait a long time the business still had to operate and there were challenges there but those two areas that you just talked about with that overlap create some of the largest problems to solve within organization which is why we talk every every Tuesday and Thursday right like a ton of that is

43:30 and Thursday right like a ton of that is now it’s merging the technology like not merging yeah to some degree there are now new technologies on the business side and then you’re solving and rapidly growing in big data and and Cloud systems and all this stuff and they’re coming together h i it’s surprising that you’re not saying like it is the most challenging plus you’re throwing in a ton of process and people conversation which was never part of that before in terms of a clean delivery I think

44:01 terms of a clean delivery I think because you’re you’re trying to push citizen developers like your whole Mantra here is I’m going to train business users I’m G to pull more people into the technology realm it’s like well great yes these tool sets allow allow us to do that but we haven’t even begun to solve like what does that look like in an organization how do you implement that successfully what is the business intelligence like what are we driving for like that is that is so relevant in the conversations that we have that it

44:31 the conversations that we have that it is a challenge anyway I think I don’t think the challenge was any different opportunity maybe that’s what you’re saying so it’s just an opportunity that’s maybe that’s how I’m looking at it right I’m looking at it going like this is the this to me this is the proper grow up story for parbi this is where we need to be going there whether you call I’m not arguing that I’m not suggesting that I think I agree with you individ the professional and I and I think I think to me I’m looking atad it going I’m I’m a very like this is a great opportunity like anyone who wants to really take the initiative you have and like I think

45:03 initiative you have and like I think substantially if you get good at what you’re doing in fabric you could literally make that your entire career of just doing that for people and if that’s and that if that’s what makes your your your gears move your your your heart tick whatever that I think this is a great opportunity for you so in in that respect I look at it but I will I will not I won’t disagree with you it’s I don’t want to tr I agree with your statement set around there’s a lot there there is a there is a whole lot more there at your fingertips and I do think Microsoft is trying to make a lot of

45:34 Microsoft is trying to make a lot of this experience particularly around everything that’s inside fabric it’s it’s trying to be more of that goey or that user interface that’s easy to use clicking things it’s it’s less it’s low code or no code solutions that they’re trying to produce and I think that’s very wise if you if you look at just some of the numbers right the volumes of data are ever increasing it’s getting larger and larger and larger every year and it’s like exponentially growing with video bigger pieces of content more Json files everything’s just getting more of

46:05 files everything’s just getting more of those data pieces so we’re going to need better tools to handle more volumes of data it’s just going to be how it goes so if you if you like this stuff lean into it get good at it see I I feel like you’re missing a few words it is a great opportunity for the Enterprise for the organization but Mike we know we’re still teaching people power quaran some people are still struggling again I want think about the bi professional we’re one of what 180 MVPs who have to devote

46:36 one of what 180 MVPs who have to devote our time and love to devote our time to every nook and cre we’re very weird we’re very weird but how many people are bi professionals it’s a lot and there’s no expectation or there should be no expectation that you’re going to be a master in data engineering a master in powerbi and data visualization and then also AI that not an expectation to me the hardest point of point of this is for the normal for the average bi professional or for someone who wants to be a solid one let me put it that way

47:07 be a solid one let me put it that way just to be a a a quality bi professional where do you devote your time extra outside and your skill set because it cannot be in all of this you may dabble in all of this and again this is only if your resources are available some organizations don’t allow even what’s avail able in powerbi so that’s a different question I think I think there’s there’s two parts of your question one of them is does it make sense for me to do I become a mile wide and an inch deep right if I if I try to

47:38 and an inch deep right if I if I try to learn all the things and be an expert in all it which you can’t you can’t really hone in on an area and go deep on a particular topic however what I would argue though is yes I agree with you there but as you as you increase the surface area of the tool there’s there’s not enough you can’t assume one person at your organization is going to do all the things they already at some point well they do now but we’ve been very we’ve been very clear and communicating

48:08 been very clear and communicating there’s definitely distinct roles around I’m the report developer I’m a data modeler I’m the data engineer like yeah I definitely think there’s more hats and you can have someone who wears a lot of those hats you better be ready to pay top dollar for someone who wears all the hats but I think you should as an organization start thinking about Distributing that across two or three or thinking about and this is where I think your point Seth earlier was we need to have more of the conversations around as an organization what do we value how we’re getting things done the people in

48:39 we’re getting things done the people in the process this tooling is accelerating those conversations faster I think and so you can’t expect one person to know everything what I do feel like is interesting here is a lot of this stuff is valuable and if you find yourself gravitating towards notebooks learn those get good at that because that is a valued skill set across your team you’re going to need someone who’s really good at that stuff or if you’re really good at using power query that’s great too dive deep there and to me there’s like a

49:09 dive deep there and to me there’s like a lot of opportunities of what is your thing that you really en I love making reports I’m building great visuals I’m I’m thinking about the UI The ux Experience if that’s your thing dive and push into those things because you’re part of a a team that all do different things or you should be thinking that way at least well it I I think the the way I think about this is there are there are more opportunities that are being presented to people that normally would

49:41 presented to people that normally would not have them because the ecosystem for the entirety of this stack is now available to business users so if you started even to to my to your point right if someone is starting in power query and Excel and they’re learning about powerbi and then they’re open to the fabric ecosystem can they learn all these other things yes be never before I think has any system been so available for people to learn that’s exciting people people

50:12 to learn that’s exciting people people should look at that and go I I can me personally increase my value as a technologist as a business intelligence professional as an analyst as a whatever to get to the next level I can learn these things if I want to because those doors are open that is different than saying there’s an expectation for someone who has learned powerbi in the last two years to understand what that

50:42 last two years to understand what that system even looks like right I think we’re we’re uniquely positioned because we bring a lot of all of those business intelligence aspects and building all these Frameworks in small medium large large organizations that fabric makes a ton of sense to us because these are all components of services we’ve been using for a really long time and our grape is I can use this service I don’t have that feature yet right like so so I re I recognize that a lot of those conversations I think it’s also easy for

51:13 conversations I think it’s also easy for us to fall into a trap where because it’s a natural conversation we are familiar with these platforms that a lot of the audience is not and they don’t know right so I guess that’s the distinction I I there are opportunities we’ve proven and Microsoft has shown many times that there are paths to elevate your career if you want to choose them correct does it mean that you have to learn it all and I think that is absolutely not i’ agree does does does

51:46 absolutely not i’ agree does does does understanding the capabilities like I know I can do this thing so keep up to date around the features and things like that I think that is important I think it is that becomes part of the conversation and it also stretches your imagination right our our creativity episode when I get into these creative states where I’m going to build the next new thing I know I have all these net new like features that I can implement or talk about as an

52:17 implement or talk about as an FTE where where this separates slightly is in the Consulting Realms where it’s more relevant for both of you

52:29 where it’s more relevant for both of you to not only understand the feature but know how to implement it because your next customer might be right around the corner and they need like that is their start of their implementation or they are going to revamp things and that’s why they’re reaching out to you so your chances of implementing a new feature faster I think are are much more possible than where an organization is going to say oh yeah just whip the new feature because because it’s cool you

52:59 feature because because it’s cool it’s like no what’s the business know it’s like no what’s the business value why am I investing so much time not necessarily on a new build but on a refactor yeah of something right that’s the probably the most diff it’s the application of all of this constant stream in those directions that I I think is relevant I think that’s the most difficult thing right where the last 12 months the amount of time in research and practices and applications I’ve done around Fabric and also like prompted engineering and AI there’s probably times I’ve come up to the office and asking my son how old are

53:30 the office and asking my son how old are you now like okay like your birthday yet and then go back downstairs to me I think the hardest question that we’re all going to be asking and I think organizations are going to be asking a people I think kind to your point is if I were to say I’m a powerbi expert or Champion right there’s already the Assumption of the skills that I have power query semantic models being able to share visualization dacks but if I’m saying I’m a fabric expert right like what’s the expectation and I think that’s that’s

54:02 expectation and I think that’s that’s very gray right now my my Edge that I’ve always really prided myself on is my War chest of any situation going oh we could take a little of this this technology and this process with fabric now it’s becoming like a Mary Poppins bag where you’re like hold on let me let me search through here and it it’s a much much deeper this war chest right and I think that’s to me where when I say this is the hardest time to be a bi professional is for an FTE it’s okay I

54:33 professional is for an FTE it’s okay I couldn’t own notebooks but that’s not going to be Universal around every organization like power query is with powerbi and as a consultant right it’s like well I’m gonna I have I have to to your point like I I have no choice but to become an expert and skilled and willing to pay myself for each of these services and I think those are the the two splits that I see now now I I personally enjoy this but I think organizations I hope really Define those

55:03 organizations I hope really Define those roles but I don’t know that that goes to your point but I I really like in terms terms of just like where from an from an fte’s point of view from the bi professionals point of view like what’s the universal crossover skill and where do you devote that that time that that’s the same as like some of the conversation we had in the matrixes right and we’re touching a little bit on like like Mike Mike said a mile wide an inch deep versus very deep I think that’s a that’s a it’s a choice

55:33 I think that’s a that’s a it’s a choice you can be very successful in both right like it does it interest you to understand the Dynamics of like a full picture I’m much more of a full picture thinking guy periodically there are like the yeah I really want to dive deep but when I dive deep how deep do you go right like there are you can compare yourselves to people like the Italians who like deep Dax modeling itic model like that’s the abyss right like how do I want to go down 100 feet or 200 feet

56:03 I want to go down 100 feet or 200 feet like and I think that’s driven by like interest areas I guess we’re running out of time so my my final thoughts would be this I I do think it’s very important to keep up toate on the features does it mean you have to understand them fully no but you’re cataloging or maybe taking cataloging the actual feature in a location where you can search for things as you’re going to go on I think you’re going to naturally as an FTE learn new new features as you’re working on different projects right so all of a sudden I can

56:34 projects right so all of a sudden I can apply this thing I heard about in my next project I would also encourage people to learn or dive a little bit deeper on those features that interest you right because ultimately those interest things should align with where you want to head with your career and I’m a huge proponent of having an idea or consistent learning to advance yourself above and beyond where you’re at right I think I think if I look in

57:04 at right I think I think if I look in totality at my career it’s when I stopped looking at it like the I owed the company something to this is a relationship between me and a company I’m providing the services and the more I know and the more effective I can become the more valuable I am it’s not a job hopping thing it’s correct am I increasing in value as an individual in this industry and when you invest that

57:35 this industry and when you invest that time and it hopefully it’s in the things you enjoy doing there you reap the benefits always so like Dory just keep swimming right like this doesn’t have to be a Monumental thing keep the Feature Feature updates bare minimum just keep them in be cognizant of things learn things as they come we’re all busy we all have crazy things going on and there’s going to be a pattern sometimes you learn more sometimes you learn less just just keep up to date though

58:06 less just just keep up to date though I’d agree with that one Tommy any final thoughts as we wrap here yeah wrote A Few notes I think just taking our whole conversation by the way really enjoyed this conversation I think time management is never going to be more important and I think they’re actually more than that the probably the most important thing is the core skills they probably they’re not going to change and really implementing that maybe it expands a bit but core training core skills has never been more important and then I’m gonna introduce an acronym lag

58:37 then I’m gonna introduce an acronym lag learn as you go there’s probably GNA be a lot of stuff that I think is gonna be depend on the project you’re introduced but I think stay solid in the core skills you you have to that’s not going to change semantic models still GNA be here and and yeah and just take the different situations what you take the different situations what it’s like hey can we do notebooks know it’s like hey can we do notebooks that would be really helpful great do it not yet and go run with it I’m going to wrap my final thoughts here I like the end of what Kurt was talking about and he again he

59:08 Kurt was talking about and he again he talks a lot about the beginning of the article like here’s a bunch of things that are potentially overwhelming and the the key bullet points here I really I like it reframe your context good good thoughts around that one make small and prioritized learning exercises what do you need to learn next I had I had someone at the back the Microsoft fabric conference said look our data flows were were getting slow and falling over and we went over to notebooks and it started running faster and we were able to do more things with more data and he’s like when do I know I need to move from data flows to notebooks I was

59:39 move from data flows to notebooks I was like you already figured it out like when it falls over and it doesn’t do what you want and you’re running out of capacity that’s the time to think about another solution so like it’s yeah what Alex we all know there are things in data flows that don’t quite do as well as we can in notebooks those are fighting words those are fighting words however there are moments in time where you like you do a solution in something and you start hitting what you feel like are the edges or the boundaries of that thing and then it to your point SE earlier it’s very good to make sure you

60:11 earlier it’s very good to make sure you have understanding of where do you go next what should be the next thing to you need to have a little bit of general knowledge about things and then you can push in a little bit harder there I like the idea of getting dedicated time for your organization if you can spend some time on that if your organization doesn’t do that I’m going to say it maybe it’s time for a new organization or you you have to spend time in the evenings to get to get that in your experience I will agree with this one attending conferences we we haven’t had good

60:42 conferences we we haven’t had good conferences for a while especially around the powerbi thing I felt like the fabric conference was a very technical conference lots of good details lots of sessions around very technologically sound things that’s a great place to go learn and usually there’s a bunch of like use cases how we built it other experts in the community showing you what is possible so I think that’s another thing that’s really important here is to get into a community a user group something online follow a podcast that might be named explicit measures

61:13 that might be named explicit measures that talks about hard things that you may want to get involved with like those those are areas where you need other people that are working on hard things around you because you don’t know what you don’t know but working other people are figuring things out learn from them I think I think that’s one of the things I really love about our community is there’s a lot of people trying to figure out how to make this work and work well so listen to the community find people or experts in the community that you like to follow listen to what they’re saying but evaluate what their

61:44 saying but evaluate what their evaluate their thoughts against what you think and what you find is real in your organization because that will likely determine hey I can trust these people they actually do know what they’re talking about they’re they’re saying good things that resonate with me they’re solve they’re saying things that solve my problems therefore I can probably trust them so it’s it’s getting yourself in in knit communities that help out with that as well anyways I will say that thank you all very much we appreciate everyone’s time here today thank you so much for listening to us great conversation wonderful in the chat even if Alex thinks I or even if

62:16 even if Alex thinks I or even if Alex thinks I limit powerbi and powerquery a little bit by m we’ll have to we’ll have to talk about that one offline that being said we all we really appreciate your listenership here if you wouldn’t mind please share this with somebody else we really like to have this out to the community we think this is valuable if you found value from it someone else might what might find Value as well so please share it if you don’t mind Tommy where else can you find the podcast F Alex real quick for the record the YouTube API power query four and a half minute refresh so Alex good so you can find us

62:46 refresh so Alex good so you can find us in apple Spotify wherever get your podcast make sure to subscribe and leave a rating it helps us out a ton you have a question an idea or topic that you want us to talk about a future episode head over to powerbi. com

Thank You

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it helps others find the show.

#Explicit Measures #Podcast #Power BI #Does #Feel #Like

Previous

Fabric, AI & The Future of Consulting – Ep. 309

Next

Power Query Paginated & Folders – Ep. 311

More Posts

Mar 4, 2026

AI-Assisted TMDL Workflow & Hot Reload – Ep. 507

Mike and Tommy explore AI-assisted TMDL workflows and the hot reload experience for faster Power BI development. They also cover the new programmatic Power Query API and the GA release of the input slicer.

Feb 27, 2026

Filter Overload – Ep. 506

Mike and Tommy dive into the February 2026 feature updates for Power BI and Fabric, with a deep focus on the new input slicer going GA and what it means for report filtering. The conversation gets into filter overload — when too many slicers and options hurt more than they help.

Feb 25, 2026

Excel vs. Field Parameters – Ep. 505

Mike and Tommy debate the implications of AI on app development and data platforms, then tackle a mailbag question on whether field parameters hinder Excel compatibility in semantic models. They explore building AI-ready models and the future of report design beyond Power BI-specific features.