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24 posts
March 27, 2026
Mike and Tommy break down what CI/CD actually means for Power BI and Fabric teams, including where deployment pipelines help and where Git-based workflows offer more control. If you're trying to move from manual publishing to a repeatable release process, this episode gives you the tradeoffs that matter.
February 12, 2026
Is being late to the data game actually an advantage? We explore AI readiness, the power of coding agents like OpenClaw, and why the conductor's era is here.
January 29, 2026
Mike and Tommy tackle a mailbag question about defining problems before choosing tools — and why goal setting matters more than ever in a world where AI lets you build anything. Plus, the January 2026 Fabric feature updates drop with 17 noteworthy items.
January 23, 2026
Mike and Tommy tackle a listener mailbag question: is the word 'experience' being overused in the Fabric and Power BI world? Plus, a surprise January Power BI Desktop release and Mike gushes about deployment pipeline improvements nobody announced.
December 5, 2025
Mike and Tommy recap Microsoft Ignite and the November 2025 updates across Fabric, OneLake, and Power BI—highlighting Fabric IQ, data integration improvements, and platform tooling. They also share practical ways they’re using AI for productivity, from meeting facilitation to developer workflows with Claude Code.
December 3, 2025
Mike and Tommy reflect on rebuilding data environments using lessons learned—why semantic models and shared definitions matter more than ever as teams scale. They connect the dots between metric stores, governance, and the push toward a unified semantic layer in Fabric and Power BI.
July 25, 2025
Mike and Tommy tackle a mailbag question about the optimal Power BI architecture in the Fabric era versus the pre-Fabric world of dataflows and shared datasets. They explore how the lakehouse, notebooks, and AI agents are reshaping what 'better' really means for data teams.
July 21, 2025
Tommy and Mike discuss the state of Data Science as it relates to Fabric. Learn from MVPs where you should invest your time with Fabric and Data Science.
July 18, 2025
Mike and Tommy refocus on DAX after weeks of Fabric talk. They cover the Power BI July 2025 feature summary, discuss what companies are actually doing about Fabric adoption, and dive deep into the current state and future of DAX.
July 16, 2025
Mike and Tommy explore the concept of numeracy — how well does your team actually understand analytics? They discuss skills matrices for Fabric adoption and whether we can (and should) test for data literacy on our teams.
June 20, 2025
Mike, Tommy, and guest Matias discuss the top-down and bottom-up approaches to adopting DevOps in Power BI and Fabric teams. From convincing leadership to grassroots adoption with Git integration, they unpack practical strategies for building a DevOps culture in BI organizations.
June 13, 2025
Mike and Tommy tackle a common frustration: how to give report viewers a simple experience without exposing them to the full complexity of Fabric. They explore SharePoint embedding, org apps, dedicated embedding solutions, and the importance of identifying user personas.
January 29, 2025
Mike and Tommy break down what Copilot Capacity is and how to think about sizing and governance so your organization can safely roll out Copilot features in Power BI. They share practical guidance for planning adoption, controlling cost, and setting expectations as teams move from experimentation to production.
October 9, 2024
Mike and Tommy compare Gen 1 vs Gen 2 dataflows, why the Gen 2 experience still falls short in key areas, and when Gen 1 remains the practical choice for Power BI and Fabric teams. They also call out what improvements would make Gen 2 a true replacement.
July 26, 2024
Mike and Tommy break down how the Power BI Skills Matrix concept translates to the Fabric era and why skills clarity matters when teams ramp up. They also cover the July 2024 updates for Fabric and Power BI, plus a practical beat-from-the-street on PBIP, GitHub, and publishing.
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.
June 14, 2024
In this episode of Explicit Measures, we discuss Microsoft Fabric is a Team Sport and what it means for Power BI practitioners.
June 12, 2024
In this episode of Explicit Measures (Ep. 327), the team discusses key Power BI updates, practical techniques, and what to watch next.
June 7, 2024
Microsoft’s Fabric/Power BI security whitepaper consolidates the knobs and patterns admins need. The team discusses why it matters, what to skim first, and how it helps in “hard conversations” with IT.
May 24, 2024
Mike reports from Microsoft Build with a rundown of what stood out—Copilot in more experiences, DAX Query View, and Fabric updates like task flows and real-time analytics.
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.
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.