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191 posts
January 3, 2025
In this episode, the team breaks down Metric sets in Power BI and why a shared, reusable catalog of KPIs can change how organizations define and trust their numbers. They cover where Metric sets fit in the experience today, what it means for business users, and the practical impact on model design and governance.
January 1, 2025
In this episode, Mike and Seth walk through what it really takes to migrate Excel-based reporting into Power BI without losing trust in the numbers. They share practical guidance on scoping, modeling, and rollout so your migration improves the experience instead of recreating spreadsheet chaos at scale.
December 27, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down the new Org Apps experience in Power BI and how it changes the way you package and ship content to your organization. They cover practical setup patterns, governance considerations, and what to watch for as the feature continues to evolve.
December 25, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth dig into the new Organizational Apps (Org Apps) experience in Microsoft Fabric and how it changes the way teams package and distribute content. They break down what’s different from classic workspace apps, where the feature helps, and the preview limitations you need to understand before rolling it out broadly.
December 20, 2024
The crew digs into OneLake data cataloging and governance: what it enables, where the current gaps are, and what to watch for as Fabric’s governance story evolves.
December 18, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth talk about the rise of the notebook engineer in Fabric: why notebooks are becoming the default interface for data work, and what good notebook practices look like in real teams.
December 13, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth talk through report commenting in Power BI: when it helps, how teams can use it effectively, and the gotchas to watch for in real collaboration workflows.
December 11, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack how much ‘knowing data’ matters versus knowing *the* data in your organization, and what that means for your career in analytics. They also dig into practical ways to add narrative context to KPI snapshots—without losing the thread over time.
December 6, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down filter context in DAX—what it is, how it’s created, and why it’s the root of so many ‘my measure is wrong’ moments. They walk through practical mental models for reading a visual’s filters and using CALCULATE intentionally, so you can predict results instead of trial-and-error debugging.
December 4, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down what’s new (and what’s changing) in Power BI’s core visuals, plus what those updates mean for report builders. They also share practical guidance for when to lean on built-in visuals versus custom visuals as the platform evolves.
November 27, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth dig into listener questions - focusing on datamarts, citizen developer workflows, and how teams should think about tooling and access constraints.
November 22, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth discuss why a clear meeting agenda matters, how it improves alignment and follow-through, and practical ways to run better recurring meetings.
November 15, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down the November 2024 Power BI updates and discuss the latest Power BI pricing changes—plus what to watch for next.
November 13, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth discuss why building an effective team matters for long-term success—and share practical ways to set roles, expectations, and collaboration rhythms that work.
November 8, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth explore how OneLake can accelerate adoption in Microsoft Fabric—covering practical ways to simplify data access, reduce duplication, and get teams moving faster.
November 6, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth discuss Mass-format reports in Power BI—with practical tips you can apply right away in Power BI.
November 1, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth discuss Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced - Ep.368 - Power BI tips—with practical tips you can apply right away in Power BI.
October 18, 2024
In Episode 364, the crew digs into Domains, Tags, and Workspaces and how they impact organization and governance in Fabric and Power BI.
October 16, 2024
In Episode 363, the crew talks through building more advanced visuals in Power BI and where custom visuals fit into real-world reporting.
October 11, 2024
In this episode, the team digs into the Default Semantic Model—what it is, why it matters, and how to use it in real-world Power BI projects.
August 30, 2024
Landing the right role in analytics isn’t just luck—it's a mix of clarity, positioning, and doing the unglamorous work consistently. In this episode, Mike, Tommy, and Seth talk through practical tactics for getting hired, standing out in interviews, and building a path to the job you actually want.
August 28, 2024
Clear naming conventions aren’t just about aesthetics — they reduce cognitive load, make models easier to maintain, and help your team move faster. In this episode, Mike, Tommy, and Seth talk through practical approaches to naming and the habits that make knowledge transfer stick.
August 23, 2024
Validation is where content lifecycle management turns from a plan into a repeatable, trustworthy process. In this episode, Mike, Tommy, and Seth walk through what to validate, who should validate it, and how to make validation part of your release rhythm.
August 21, 2024
Domains in Microsoft Fabric help you organize content, standardize ownership, and make discovery easier — but they also add a new layer to how teams think about governance. In this episode, Mike, Tommy, and Seth talk through when domains help, what to watch out for, and how to roll them out without creating chaos.
August 16, 2024
Sharing Power BI reports with free-license users can be confusing — in this episode, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down what works, what doesn’t, and the practical options for organizations.
August 14, 2024
Thinking about a new role or a career move? In this episode, Mike, Tommy, and Seth talk through what to evaluate before saying yes, and how to avoid the traps that look great on paper but hurt later.
August 9, 2024
In this mailbag episode, the crew talks through writeback scenarios in Microsoft Fabric and how to think about building practical, maintainable solutions.
August 7, 2024
In this episode, the crew talks through atomic design concepts and how to apply them to building consistent, scalable Power BI reports.
August 2, 2024
In this episode, the crew walks through practical scenarios for using the OneLake File Explorer and where it fits into day-to-day Fabric and Power BI workflows.
July 31, 2024
In this episode, the team continues the Content Lifecycle Management (CLM) series with a practical look at developing Power BI content and managing changes. They also cover CI/CD updates in Fabric warehouses and share a quick take on the AI bubble question.
July 24, 2024
Mike, Tommy, and Seth continue the Content Lifecycle Management (CLM) series with a focus on planning and designing content in Microsoft Fabric and Power BI, plus a handful of links and updates from the community.
July 5, 2024
Mike, Seth, and Tommy dig into the return-to-office debate — what mandates get wrong, what leaders should consider, and how data can (and can’t) guide the decision. They also cover Semantic Link updates and community resources shared in the show notes.
June 5, 2024
Exploration creates ideas—but it can also derail delivery. The team talks about how to capture “parking lot” ideas, set boundaries, and turn the best spinoffs into real projects.
May 29, 2024
Task Flows provide a visual way to map end-to-end Fabric work in a workspace. The team discusses why it’s a game-changer for documentation and navigation—and what’s still missing in preview.
May 15, 2024
The team explores the future of data visualization—where AI, natural language, and better storytelling fit, and why fundamentals like modeling, performance, and accessibility still matter.
April 29, 2024
Welcome to today’s tutorial where we’ll explore an exciting feature implemented to streamline your background creation process in Power BI. If you’ve...
April 24, 2024
In this episode of Explicit Measures, we discuss the value of demos power bi tips.
April 19, 2024
In this episode of Explicit Measures, we discuss abnormal data documentation.
April 10, 2024
In this episode of Explicit Measures (Ep. 309), the team discusses Microsoft Fabric, AI, and what these changes mean for the future of consulting.
March 8, 2024
Episode 300 is a milestone conversation about what it takes to show up consistently and keep learning in public. Mike, Tommy, and Seth reflect on community, career growth, and the habits that make Power BI and Fabric work sustainable.
March 6, 2024
AI can accelerate analysis, but it can’t rescue a weak data culture. In this episode, the crew digs into where the real bottlenecks live—definitions, trust, and ownership—and how teams can use AI as an assistive tool without skipping the fundamentals.
March 1, 2024
TMDL is a promising step toward real source control for Power BI semantic models—human-readable files you can diff, review, and deploy. In Episode 298, Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack what’s changing in Desktop and how Copilot can speed up measure documentation.
February 28, 2024
A BI rollout isn’t finished when the report ships. The team wraps up Microsoft’s implementation planning series with practical guidance on training, support, feedback, and monitoring adoption.
February 27, 2024
## Introduction Welcome to today’s tutorial where we dive into the powerful capabilities of the Power BI Tips+ Theme Generator. In this post, we won’...
February 23, 2024
A listener asks how to help analysts find the unexpected “aha” insight inside a governed Power BI experience—without exporting everything to Excel. The team revisits Ep. 294 and outlines where exploratory analysis fits, what audiences need, and which Power BI/Fabric tools actually enable discovery.
February 21, 2024
A BI rollout succeeds or fails in the messy middle: deployment planning, proof-of-concept reality checks, and a repeatable validation loop with users. In Ep. 295, the team breaks down how to move from strategy to something people trust and adopt.
February 16, 2024
In Ep. 294, the team draws a clean line: analytics turns raw data into meaning; visualization turns meaning into a message. If your Power BI work feels like ‘just charts,’ this one helps you reset the goal—and includes a quick sidebar on why Copilot feels inconsistent across Microsoft 365 right now.
February 14, 2024
Requirements shouldn’t be a dead document—they should be the shared decisions that drive your semantic model, visuals, and rollout. In Ep. 293, the team breaks down solution planning requirements that prevent churn and keep a Power BI build aligned with real business outcomes.
February 9, 2024
Most teams don't need a unicorn - they need clear responsibilities. In Ep. 292, Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack why one person owning engineering, modeling, reporting, and governance becomes a bottleneck, and how to scale delivery without burnout.
February 7, 2024
In Ep. 291, the team translates Microsoft’s tactical planning guidance into a simple operating model: ship measurable BI solutions, run enablement initiatives in parallel, and revisit the plan every 1–3 months so priorities stay real.
February 2, 2024
It's mailbag time. In Ep. 290, Mike, Tommy, and Seth answer listener questions on adopting Power BI in a Google/BigQuery environment, surviving terminology changes like 'dataset' to 'semantic model', and balancing process vs. technology as tools evolve.
January 31, 2024
Defining key results is where BI strategy turns into execution. In this episode, Mike, Tommy, and Seth continue their walk-through of Microsoft's Power BI strategy guidance and focus on tactical planning: how to write OKR-style key results that reduce ambiguity, align teams, and make progress measurable.
January 29, 2024
Welcome to today’s tutorial where we’ll explore the Power BI Tips+ Theme Generator and its incredible features designed to streamline your Power BI re...
January 26, 2024
Episode 288 is a practical checklist for gathering semantic model requirements: who the model is for, what definitions must be nailed down, and the constraints (grain, security, refresh) that drive design decisions.
January 24, 2024
Power BI implementation success is won in tactical planning. In Ep. 287, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down Microsoft’s Step 1 guidance: define actionable objectives, prioritize time-sensitive work, choose quick wins that compound, and lay the adoption/governance groundwork without stalling.
January 19, 2024
Creativity in Power BI isn’t decoration—it’s the discipline of making intentional choices (story, layout, emphasis, and interaction) so the report communicates fast and earns trust. Ep. 286 breaks down how to stay creative while still building something consistent and scalable.
January 18, 2024
In podcast #286 we take the time to review an older video of John Cleese giving a talk about the Creative Process in Management. We thought this would...
January 17, 2024
Strong BI goals turn Power BI from a queue of disconnected requests into an intentional program. In Ep. 285, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down how to define goals you can measure, prioritize what matters, and keep the team aligned as the work scales.
January 12, 2024
Data programs don’t break because DAX is hard—they break because ownership is fuzzy and incentives don’t line up. In Ep. 284, Mike, Tommy, and Seth dig into the politics of data and how to create decision-rights, trust, and accountability that actually scale.
January 10, 2024
Strategic workshops are where BI strategy becomes real: goals get named, tradeoffs get surfaced, and ownership becomes explicit. In Episode 283, the team shares a practical approach for planning workshops that produce a usable roadmap—not just notes.
January 5, 2024
2023 was the year Fabric became the headline and Power BI’s authoring experience kept evolving. In Ep. 282, Mike, Tommy, and Seth review the releases that actually changed how people build, what cooled off, and what they hope improves next.
January 3, 2024
Most BI teams fail by skipping discovery. In Ep. 281, Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack Microsoft’s guidance for planning workshops and doing strategic research so you can document business context, choose the right stakeholders, and prioritize the work that matters.
December 29, 2023
Customer 360 isn’t a dashboard—it’s an operating model for joining CRM, marketing, product, and support signals into one story. In Ep. 280, the team breaks down why Fabric’s shortcuts/mirroring + Direct Lake are promising for reducing data-copy chaos (while still forcing you to solve identity and definitions).
December 27, 2023
Ep. 279 is a holiday ‘Secret Santa for Fabric’: Mike, Tommy, and Seth swap feature wish-lists—better admin oversight, smarter lineage and monitoring, smoother migration into Fabric, and tooling that makes semantic models easier to build and trust.
December 22, 2023
Ep. 278 explains Fabric’s Semantic Link—how it connects Python to semantic models—and why that matters for repeatable data-quality checks with tools like Great Expectations (plus quick hits from the December Power BI Desktop release).
December 20, 2023
Ep. 277 breaks down BI strategic planning—how to align outcomes, define ownership and governance, and build an achievable roadmap so your Power BI program keeps momentum.
December 15, 2023
Ep. 276 unpacks Explore (public preview) in the Power BI service—how it helps users slice a semantic model fast, where it overlaps existing features, and what governance needs to be in place for it to scale.
December 13, 2023
Ep. 275 breaks down business alignment for Power BI and Microsoft Fabric—how to connect analytics work to real business outcomes, decision-makers, and priorities. The crew shares practical ways to translate strategy into an operating rhythm your data team can actually execute.
December 9, 2023
Introducing cutting-edge AI capabilities to simplify the Theme Building experience. We recognize the value of time in the fast-paced realm of analytics.
December 8, 2023
Ep. 274 explores Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Analytics—how event streams, KQL databases, and alerting fit together for streaming scenarios. The crew also highlights the practical gotchas: governance boundaries, storing history, and the cost surprises that show up when “easy to turn on” becomes “left running for weeks.”
December 6, 2023
Ep. 273 breaks down two power-user additions: DAX Query View in Power BI Desktop (plus Performance Analyzer integration) and Fabric’s new `DeltaLake.Table` M function—bringing Power Query closer to Delta tables.
December 1, 2023
Ep. 272 breaks down change management for Power BI/Fabric programs—how to make platform shifts stick through communication, enablement, and an adoption rhythm—plus a practical PSA on Direct Lake data-type gotchas in semantic models.
November 29, 2023
Can Tableau plug into Power BI/Fabric semantic models? Yes—but Ep. 271 explains the real tradeoffs: XMLA/SQL endpoints, licensing/capacity cost, and when a shared semantic layer is a migration bridge vs. an operational burden.
November 24, 2023
It’s a mailbag episode: the team breaks down how to ship Power BI content like a product (Apps + Teams), why external sharing is still messy without Embedded, and what to do as Data Marts/Charticulator/Access fade into a Fabric-first world.
November 22, 2023
Ep. 269 breaks down the difference between delivering BI as a one-off project versus operating it as a data product—clear ownership, continuous feedback, and a pragmatic hybrid approach to intake vs. big platform work.
November 17, 2023
Ep. 268 distills the Microsoft Ignite and November 2023 release wave into what BI teams actually need to know: the most meaningful Fabric + Power BI updates, where Copilot fits, and how to roll changes out without breaking governance or capacity.
November 15, 2023
Ep. 267 turns Microsoft’s System Oversight guidance into an actionable playbook: what to monitor, what to standardize, and how to avoid governance-by-surprise. You’ll get practical patterns for balancing tenant controls with empowerment, plus tips for using capacity signals and APIs to keep Power BI + Fabric healthy at scale.
November 10, 2023
Ep. 266 defines managed self-service in Power BI: shared semantic models with clear ownership + certification so business teams can build fast without breaking trust in the numbers.
November 8, 2023
A rapid-fire mailbag: incremental refresh vs full reloads, migrating off Report Server, pragmatic workspace governance, and how Fabric adds new compute choices without changing the core tables→model→report pattern.
November 3, 2023
Low adoption isn’t a mystery—it’s usually a measurement problem. Ep. 264 breaks down how to define adoption for analytics work and which signals (report usage, model reuse, enablement, and outcomes) actually correlate with impact.
November 1, 2023
A tour of Fabric’s underrated workflow accelerators—OneLake File Explorer, Data Wrangler, and Shortcuts—plus a pragmatic look at burstable capacity guardrails and why the Capacity Metrics app should be your first install.
October 27, 2023
Ep. 262 is a practical walkthrough of bringing Azure DevOps + Git into your Power BI / Fabric workflow—using PBIP as the source format—so deployments become repeatable, reviewable, and less fragile as your content moves from dev to prod.
October 25, 2023
Ep. 261 uses a hilarious ‘ordering data like food’ skit to unpack why BI requests derail—panic timelines, shifting requirements, and invisible validation work—and what teams can do to align expectations before the next board-meeting fire drill.
October 20, 2023
Ep. 260 breaks down Microsoft Fabric workspace roles (Admin/Member/Contributor/Viewer) and how to assign them with least-privilege in mind—so teams can build fast without turning every workspace into an admin free-for-all.
October 18, 2023
Ep. 259 asks the question every Fabric builder runs into: does a star schema still matter in a Direct Lake world? The answer: yes—especially if DAX is involved—but Fabric changes where the shaping work belongs (upstream) and raises the bar on governance.
October 15, 2023
## **The Power BI Tips Theme Generator: Your Ultimate Theming Tool** The Power BI Tips Theme Generator is the go-to resource for users aiming to crea...
October 13, 2023
Ep. 258 is a reality check for report builders: are your visuals helping people see the insight faster, or making them work harder just to decode the chart? The crew shares practical ways to keep creativity high while keeping cognitive load low.
October 11, 2023
Ep. 257 tackles a super-common reality: executives live in PowerPoint, while the truth lives in Power BI. The crew breaks down when to embed live report pages vs. ship static screenshots, and how to use slides as a bridge to better data culture (without creating KPI telephone).
October 6, 2023
Ep. 256 explores Power BI’s updated Q&A linguistic schema—how richer relationships and shareable synonyms can improve natural-language questions, and why governance is still the make-or-break factor.
October 4, 2023
Ep. 255 outlines a practical Power BI skills matrix you can use to measure team capability, spot gaps and single points of failure, and turn vague 'we need a Power BI person' conversations into a clear hiring and training plan.
October 4, 2023
The Power BI Tips Theme Generator tool already allows you to easily interact with, and adjust, all the visual properties, wireframes, etc… How could w...
September 29, 2023
Ep. 254 explores what ‘SQL in Fabric’ really means—from querying Delta tables in OneLake to the practical gotchas of building lakehouse-style pipelines. You’ll hear why the storage/compute split matters, what it changes compared to Synapse-era patterns, and where Excel-first teams still hit friction.
September 27, 2023
Ep. 253 answers a mailbag question every org is about to face: will Microsoft Fabric’s bigger toolbox overwhelm business users—or can you introduce it without killing self-service momentum? Mike, Tommy, and Seth share practical rollout language, guardrails, and adoption patterns that keep Power BI approachable.
September 22, 2023
Ep. 252 clarifies the analytics job-title soup—data engineer, analyst, BI developer, analytics engineer, and data scientist—by mapping each role to the real deliverables your Power BI workflow needs. The crew shares how to set ownership boundaries so modeling, security, and reporting don’t fall into the cracks.
September 20, 2023
Ep. 251 focuses on where AI genuinely helps (and where it doesn’t) in a BI workflow—turning vague questions into clear requirements, accelerating DAX and documentation, and improving communication—while staying realistic about security, governance, and hallucinations.
September 15, 2023
Ep. 250 tackles the practical question every Fabric team hits fast: what belongs in OneLake, and how do you decide the right boundaries for lakehouses, workspaces, and semantic models. Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down the OneLake vs. lakehouse naming confusion, then land on governance-first patterns that keep shared dimensions, security, and reuse from turning into a data swamp.
September 13, 2023
Ep. 249 uses Jevons Paradox to explain a familiar analytics reality: when BI gets easier, demand for “just one more metric” accelerates. Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack what that means for self-service, governance, and strategy—so your organization gets more clarity, not just more dashboards.
September 6, 2023
Working in data is hard for reasons most org charts ignore: shifting requirements, fuzzy definitions, and the constant translation between business goals and measurable outcomes. In Ep. 247, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down where the friction comes from—and the small process changes that make delivery calmer and faster.
September 1, 2023
Ep. 246 is a practical guide to spotting the difference between Power BI trivia and real capability: knowledge, understanding, and wisdom—and how to hire for (and build) the kind of judgment that survives messy, real-world projects.
August 30, 2023
Moving a Power BI solution from your laptop to the cloud isn’t just ‘Publish’—it’s gateways, credentials, refresh, and ownership. In Ep. 245, Mike, Tommy, and Seth map the operational checklist that keeps a dataset reliable once it leaves Power BI Desktop.
August 25, 2023
Most orgs aren’t short on data—they’re short on agreement and follow-through. In Ep. 244, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down what ‘data-driven’ really looks like: decisions tied to metrics, shared definitions, and a feedback loop that turns insight into action.
August 23, 2023
If you could spend $100 improving Microsoft Fabric, what would you buy? In Ep. 243, Mike, Tommy, and Seth build a no-nonsense wish list centered on cost clarity, stronger lineage, and admin tooling that scales beyond a single team.
August 18, 2023
In Ep. 242, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down a sneaky performance lesson: you can cut render time dramatically without rewriting DAX by rethinking the visual and using constant lines from the Analytics pane.
August 16, 2023
Ep. 241 covers a practical Dataflows Gen2 approach to build history over time—and a bigger lesson: solving data problems means addressing technical, business, and adoption realities (not just shipping a clever automation).
August 14, 2023
### **Introducing the New PowerBI.Tips WireFrames Feature** In the dynamic landscape of data visualization, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. Th...
August 11, 2023
Ep. 240 is a reminder that ‘the art of the possible’ isn’t just flashy dashboards—real Power BI/Fabric value comes from automation, clarity on the business outcome, and designing for adoption.
August 9, 2023
Ep. 239 breaks down six practical ways to add context to metrics—comparisons, history, scale, and confirmation—so your Power BI visuals actually drive decisions.
August 4, 2023
Episode 238 is a practical walkthrough of Power BI tooltips—why they matter, where they go wrong, and how to design them so users get answers without leaving the visual. Mike, Tommy, and Seth share patterns for tooltip pages, context-preserving visuals, and performance-friendly designs you can reuse across reports.
August 2, 2023
Episode 237 digs into chartjunk and visual clutter—how it erodes trust, hides the point of a chart, and slows down decision-making. You’ll get practical Power BI design tactics (tooltips, emphasis, and consistency) to add context without turning your report into noise.
July 28, 2023
Ep. 236 breaks down the Fabric ‘SQL vs OneLake’ decision: what’s just different interfaces over the same Delta storage, where governance and permissions still matter, and how to keep architectures understandable as the platform converges.
July 26, 2023
Ep. 235 is a practical episode for anyone stuck in ‘fix the dashboard’ mode: it shows how to trace undesirable effects back to real root causes using a systems mindset. You’ll also learn what Chris Webb’s Fabric tests reveal about Direct Lake ‘data hotness’, capacity limits, and why some queries can quietly fall back to DirectQuery.
July 21, 2023
Ep. 234 breaks down what makes a ‘perfect’ data analyst: not just technical ability, but the communication and business context needed to turn messy questions into decisions. The team also uses Fabric’s data-integration options (pipelines, Dataflow Gen2, notebooks) to talk through tradeoffs, missing ‘table stakes’ features, and what lock-in really means while the platform is still maturing.
July 19, 2023
In Ep. 233, the crew answers a mailbag question on how much detail belongs in a Power BI report—covering model grain, drillthrough patterns, and ways to keep users in flow without turning VertiPaq into a row-level warehouse.
July 14, 2023
In Ep. 232, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down the symbiotic relationship between data governance and data storytelling—why trust, ownership, and clear lineage are what turn dashboards into decisions.
July 12, 2023
In Ep. 231, Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack what a “data model” actually is and why it matters—from conceptual diagrams to logical fields and finally the physical star schema you build in Power BI. You’ll learn how clearer modeling conversations reduce DAX complexity, improve trust, and set teams up for scalable, reusable reporting.
July 7, 2023
In Ep. 230, Mike, Tommy, and Seth continue their domain roles series and map out how responsibilities shift as you move from Power BI into Microsoft Fabric. You'll learn practical ways to define ownership, reduce duplication, and build trust using clear governance and promotion/certification patterns.
July 5, 2023
In Ep. 229, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down Fabric domains and why they’re only useful when paired with clear ownership and process. They debate central BI vs. business-led models, workspace roles, and the promotion/certification path needed to keep Fabric enablement from turning into chaos.
June 30, 2023
In Ep. 228, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down PBIP (the Power BI Project format) and what it unlocks for real Git workflows: diffs, pull requests, and repeatable CI/CD. They also discuss Fabric Git integration and why preview features still demand cost and governance discipline.
June 28, 2023
In Ep. 227, Mike, Tommy, and Seth explore what Fabric adoption really requires: governance, ownership, and cost visibility—not just new tech. They debate OneLake discoverability and the ‘lakehouse per dataset’ question, then land on a practical distinction: data quality is the condition of your data, while data governance is the operating model that keeps it trustworthy.
June 23, 2023
In Ep. 226, Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack Microsoft Fabric capacities with a cost-first lens: how to read CU consumption, what ‘hidden’ background artifacts can imply for spend, and which controls (like pausing a capacity) help you experiment without getting surprised.
June 21, 2023
In Ep. 225, Mike, Tommy, and Seth unpack why ‘workspaces’ are getting noisier in the Fabric era: new item types that appear automatically, what should be hidden vs. governed, and the simple standards that keep teams productive while the platform shifts under your feet.
June 16, 2023
In Ep. 224, Mike, Tommy, and Seth use Microsoft’s Fabric Decision Guide to clarify when a warehouse-first approach makes sense versus a lakehouse-first approach—and how to pick a default pattern your team can govern consistently.
June 14, 2023
In Ep. 223, Mike, Tommy, and Seth continue the data ingestion series with a pragmatic Fabric lens: when to use pipelines vs. dataflows vs. Spark, what tradeoffs actually matter, and how to standardize ingestion so it’s scalable, governable, and maintainable.
June 9, 2023
In Ep. 222, Mike, Tommy, and Seth use Microsoft’s Fabric Decision Guides to pick practical defaults for ingestion and storage—and explain how to govern those choices so teams stop reinventing the platform on every project.
June 7, 2023
In Ep. 221, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down OneLake and Direct Lake in Microsoft Fabric—what they are, how they work together, and where the sharp edges still are. If you’re trying to pick a durable lakehouse pattern, this episode gives you the mental model for shortcuts, security, and performance before you bet your architecture on the new stack.
June 7, 2023
At Power BI Tips, we’re committed to providing you with the best tools and resources to enhance your report building experience. That’s why we’re thri...
June 2, 2023
In Ep. 220, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down Git integration for Power BI in Microsoft Fabric—what version control changes for BI teams, how branches and pull requests map to report development, and the simplest way to start adopting source control without slowing delivery.
May 31, 2023
Ep. 219 is all about Power BI’s evolving button experience—especially navigators and slicer apply/clear patterns—and how a few small UX choices can make reports easier to understand, faster to use, and harder to break by accident.
May 26, 2023
Ep. 218 is a high-energy breakdown of Microsoft Fabric—why it feels like the next evolution of the Power BI platform, and the governance, capacity, and admin decisions you should consider before enabling it broadly.
May 24, 2023
Ep. 217 is a practical conversation about Power Query functions—how to build a small library of repeatable helpers, where reuse breaks down inside PBIX files, and when it’s time to move transformations into shared dataflows or upstream pipelines.
May 19, 2023
Ep. 216 explores where Python fits in the modern Power BI skill stack—why notebooks are creeping into BI workflows, when SQL and DAX still matter more, and practical ways to start learning without derailing your day job.
May 17, 2023
Ep. 215 dives into the March 2023 visual container upgrades—subtitle, divider, and padding—and how they unlock cleaner report layouts. The team also explores viewing PBIX reports directly from SharePoint/OneDrive and what it means for versioning and governance.
May 12, 2023
Ep. 214 breaks down how to collaborate during data exploration—when to pull others in, how to split the work, and how to keep findings reproducible and reviewable. You’ll leave with practical ways to share half-finished work without derailing the project.
May 11, 2023
Ep. 213 is a deep dive into Power BI’s new ability to edit semantic models in the Service—when web-based changes make sense, how they interact with Desktop workflows, and what teams should do now to keep governance and version history intact.
May 10, 2023
Low-code is less about ‘no programming’ and more about accelerating real work with guided UI, defaults, and reusable patterns. In Ep. 212, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down how Power BI, Power Query, Power Apps, and automation fit on that spectrum—and what guardrails and ‘wizard’ experiences would make teams faster without sacrificing fundamentals.
May 5, 2023
Ep. 211 is about treating your report as a communication tool—designed for a specific audience, not a dumping ground for every chart you can build. Mike, Tommy, and Seth walk through a simple way to improve impact: start with the questions you need to answer, define what ‘good vs. bad’ looks like, and lead users from a headline KPI to the details that drive action.
May 3, 2023
In Ep. 210, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down a repeatable way to dissect someone else’s Power BI report—where to look first (selection, bookmarks, and filters), how to spot hidden UX logic, and when it’s smarter to refactor versus rebuild.
April 28, 2023
In Ep. 209, Mike, Tommy, and Seth explore Power BI conditional formatting end-to-end—choosing gradients vs. rules vs. icons, building measure-driven formatting with measures, and avoiding designs that confuse more than they clarify.
April 26, 2023
In Ep. 208, Mike, Tommy, and Seth debate whether the analytics “supply chain” is dying—why a shared metrics trunk and edge-driven feedback loops matter, and what AI changes (and doesn’t change) about BI.
April 21, 2023
In Ep. 207, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down story framing and story forming—how to define audience, intent, and the “so what” before you build visuals, so your Power BI report drives a decision instead of just displaying data.
April 19, 2023
In Ep. 206, Mike, Tommy, and Seth explain why the one-way “analytics supply chain” is breaking down, what defined the second age of analytics, and how AI is accelerating the shift toward product-minded, feedback-driven BI.
April 14, 2023
In Ep. 205, Mike, Tommy, and Seth lay out a simple ‘raise the bar’ framework for business metrics: start with a small set of master metrics, add movement context, and use tiered supporting metrics (rates + drivers) so every KPI leads to a decision.
April 12, 2023
They break down what source control actually buys you in Power BI—safe releases, clear diffs, and parallel work—then map today’s workarounds to what’s coming next. Along the way, they highlight new announcements like TMDL and deployment pipeline change review that push Power BI closer to real CI/CD.
April 7, 2023
In Ep. 203, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down why ‘it depends’ is a sign of expertise (not dodging): you’re balancing tradeoffs. They draw a clean line between universal best practices and situation-specific optimizations, and share a simple approach for testing performance changes and asking better requirements questions.
April 5, 2023
Ep. 202 defines what success looks like for Power BI admins—balancing governance and enablement, setting the right tenant guardrails, and measuring adoption with signals that actually matter.
March 31, 2023
Ep. 201 explores where AI actually helps in BI (and where it doesn't): it can accelerate drafts of visuals, text, and analysis—but context, audience, and judgment still drive good data storytelling.
February 28, 2023
Power BI is a powerful business intelligence tool that helps organizations to gain insights into their data. With its ability to create stunning visua...
October 12, 2022
When the moon hits your eye… If Dean Martin were still alive and loved Power BI as much as we do… Do you think he might change up the lyrics of his so...
February 10, 2022
Power BI continues to grow and strengthen its position in the enterprise space. A feature that you may not be aware of, but can be extremely valuable,...
January 9, 2022
In the day to day operations of businesses speed of delivery, cost effectiveness, and satisfaction of outcome is a trifecta of challenges we run again...
December 22, 2021
Themes are the bedrock of consistency. As report authors it is important to create a consistent experience in a single, series or multitude of reports...
December 15, 2021
First of all, go read this amazing blog put out by Alberto Ferrari over at SQLBI that he posted awhile ago. It is the context for the conversation we...
December 9, 2021
This topic was gleaned from the absolute wealth of knowledge put down in the MSFT [Power BI Adoption Roadmap](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-b...
December 2, 2021
Trolling… we should clear up the definition of this right off the bat. We aren’t talking about the type of trolling where we spend a bunch of time fin...
November 27, 2021
We’ve been having an amazing amount of fun having conversations on our podcast “[Explicit Measures](https://powerbi.tips/explicit-measures-power-bi-po...
May 11, 2021
This is part 3 of 3 in a series designed to help Power BI users and enthusiasts. This post focuses on representing your skills when the time comes.
April 25, 2021
**One of the biggest improvements you can make to your life and career is embracing a learning mentality.** If you are here, I assume one of your inte...
February 11, 2021
Power BI took the BI world by storm 5 years ago, there has been a release of the Power BI Desktop almost every single month. The infant that was Power...
September 30, 2020
We were excited to welcome a good friend of PowerBI.Tips Alex Powers to speak with us at this months PUG meet...
September 29, 2020
What does it take to design and create a great looking report in Power BI? Do you have a clear understanding of what tools and techniques you should u...
September 8, 2020
This tip outlines an easy deployment method for data tables that have been manually added to a model via “Enter data” in Power BI Desktop. This is a v...
August 13, 2020
We are excited to announce a new tool from PowerBI.tips — The Business Ops tool. One tool to install them all!
June 16, 2020
I am working on a project that uses Power BI embedded to display reports to external users via an application. I’ve used the progression of A sku’s (e...
June 3, 2020
Understand more about your model then you thought possible! This is part two in our series on DAX Studio. If you missed part one be sure to check out...
May 14, 2020
Darren Gosbell & Marco Russo join PowerBI.Tips in a 4 part series on how and why to use DAX Studio! They show us why **DAX Studio is the ultimate tool...
May 8, 2020
The Milwaukee Brew City PUG for April kicks off with some quick updates and highlights of upcoming events. We spend a quick minute on why we’re so exc...
March 4, 2020
I was recently working on some new ideas for a Scrim when I stumbled upon something interesting. A scrim is pretty specific in its layout, and this on...
February 17, 2020
As a report author it is important that you build the necessary context for your end users. The main areas most often needing context either relate to...
January 14, 2020
KPIs are a key visualization type used to convey high level metrics to the end users. They provide an at-a-glance metric that allows business users to...
December 23, 2019
PowerBI.tips is excited to announce our new tool to help you build the best looking reports, Scrims. We’ve...
November 27, 2019
Over the course of time Power BI has come to encompass a wide variety of technologies and tools. One such product that has been integrated into the su...
November 12, 2019
We do a ton of Layouts here at powerbi.tips and with the introduction of the new visual grouping feature I wa...
October 29, 2019
Power BI requires a gateway for refreshing on premises data sources. There are a myriad of different data sources that you can create and two differen...
October 15, 2019
As a user that builds Power BI reports, did you know the different technologies that come into play when you interact with the tool? This is one of th...
October 2, 2019
As report authors we sometimes get caught up in how easy it is to create a report and provide value to the business. Each report is an opportunity to...
September 17, 2019
I recently encountered a really frustrating experience related to a set of reports seeming to not update after some data source changes. I’d done this...
September 3, 2019
There are different ways you can connect to a multitude of different data sources. I’ve written about the different connection types before and you ca...
August 30, 2019
This layout continues to deliver fantastic visual guides to make your reports look top notch. This layout utilizes buttons for navigation without lock...
July 11, 2019
Time and time again when I begin talking with Excel users and ask to see what current reports they are using, they usually show me a table with a mixe...
June 20, 2019
This year the Microsoft Business Application Summit (MBAS) was held in Atlanta Georgia. Despite some travel snafu’s (3 rebooking’s and 9 delays), we m...
May 1, 2019
“Square One” utilizes the color theme as a background component that adds a pop of accent color only. This gives you the end user the maximum flexibil...
March 21, 2019
Hey everyone! We're excited to release our latest layout 'Smooth Operator'. Download it now and give your reports a fresh look.
December 4, 2018
If you are like me and you like making your reports look extra good with different visual elements you’ve probably come across the issue before where...
November 26, 2018
If you haven’t had your mind melted over the past few games that Phil Seamark has developed here is one more, aMAZEing DAX. This month’s game is a Ga...
November 13, 2018
I have been holding on to a copy of Satya Nadella’s book “Hit Refresh” for quite some time. With all the Power BI goodness, the job, etc.… I just hadn...
July 9, 2018
Sometimes when your working on a line chart you want the x-axis to stay centered on a chart. This tutorial will walk you through how to create an X-Ax...
April 23, 2018
There are often questions surrounding Publish to Web. What is it? How can I use it to share my reports? This video walks through the proper usage f...
February 26, 2018
Of all the connection types, I’ve always gravitated towards this one. I imagine it is because I come from the database developer side of things. I’m a...
December 29, 2017
Now that we've covered the basics of connection types, let's dive into Direct Query and when to use it for your Power BI reports.
November 16, 2017
Power BI’s default connection type is Import. In fact, if you have never dealt with a data source that handles multiple loading methods, you may never...
October 16, 2017
Get Data – Power BI Connection Types: An Introduction to understanding Import, Direct Query, and Live connections.